Session Information
33 SES 09 A, Understanding Gender Stereotypes, Students Self Perceptions and Well Being.
Paper Session
Contribution
Schools exert pressure to conform with heterosexual and heteronormative understandings of gender by reinforcing and sustaining categories of gender identity that marginalise students who do not fit into the heterosexual matrix (Allard, 2004; Cushman, 2012; Kjaran, 2017; Pascoe, 2007; Sveinbjörnsdóttir et al., 2010; Woolley, 2017). Schools as regulative institutions thus contribute to the construction of gender and sexuality, often limiting the practices and performances of gender and/or sexuality available to subjects. By performing gender and/or sexuality outside of the intelligible norms, subjects risk becoming unintelligible to the codes of their social system, which then can reduce their expectations of living a liveable life (Butler, 2004). As Butler (1990) has argued, intelligibility is connected to the concept of liveability, which is assigned to those who adopt dominant gender norms and pursue life within the frame of the heterosexual matrix. Excluding the possibility of different sexualities and gender performativities and upholding heteronormative institutional values can lay the foundation for homophobic attitudes and marginalises students who do not align with the gender script.
Schools as highly gendered institutions where the ideology of gender as a binary category is strong and persistent (Bragg et al. 2018), reflect and recreate the gender binary in societies (Jones et al., 2020). Most schools practice binary gender segregation reflected in official documents, gendered school uniforms, and gender-segregated facilities such as toilets and changing rooms (Davies et al., 2019). Students are divided into gendered study groups, spaces are gender divided and various school practices (Kjaran, 2017; Mayeza, 2015; Menzies & Santoro, 2017; Paechter 2007). Non-binary students tend to become invisible beings as they are non-existent in the binary institutions. At the same time, they are visible due to their un-categorisability (Paechter et al., 2021). The binary understanding of gender has been persistent but is being resisted with reference to multiple gender performativities, sexual orientations, gender expressions, and more.
While Nordic countries have been recognized as progressive in promoting legislation and welfare to improve LGBTQI+ rights, there has been some regression with increasing hate speech, prejudice and violence in the school environment.
In Iceland increased discussion about the wellbeing of LGBTQI+ students followed findings of a national survey conducted among teenagers, based on GLSEN national school climate survey. Findings suggested that queer youth’s well-being was significantly worse than their non-queer peers (Samtökin 78, 2020). In the spring of 2022, news about trans and non-binary teenagers being cruelly bullied appeared on national television. The teenagers spoke to reporters about their insecurities and how difficult it is to be different in the compulsory school environment (Ragnarsdóttir, 2022). The survey and the experience of teenagers repeatedly under attacks surely calls for schools to be responsible for questioning and troubling the understanding of gender as binary and interfering in prejudice discourses when they appear in schools. Research has shown that a gender binary environment at school results in anxiety among non-binary students, affecting their school attendance and quality of life (Jones et al., 2019). Students should be aided in standing against or questioning the understanding of gender as binary in school regimes, giving them discursive space and insurance to contribute to and transform their environments for the better for all students. In addition, compulsory schools should provide students with gender and sexuality education and thus comply with their duties according to the Icelandic Gender Equality Act.
In this paper I ask how teachers experience their school environment regarding the safety and well-being of LGBTQI+ students and how the school environment, school practices and social relations can promote or add to their well-ness and safety.
Method
Following a small survey sent to 19 compulsory schools (6-16y) in rural areas in Iceland interviews were conducted with 12 teachers working in some of these schools. The survey consisted of 30 multiple choice questions with the possibility to write short answers. Questions were about teachers´ school environment, school practices, study material and students´ relations during recess in connection to LGBTQI+ students and issues. The purpose of the interviews was to deepen the knowledge provided by the findings of the survey and ask teachers to reflect on school practices in relation to LGBTQI+ students and discuss possible practices that would promote their well-ness and security. The interviews took place on Teams and in spaces that the teachers preferred to meet with the researcher. Each interview lasted from 50–70 minutes. The interview transcripts were read several times. Notations were written, and texts were coded using an inductive approach. The first coding was open and focused on getting to know the participants’ ideas and experiences. The codes were assembled to identify repeated patterns of meaning across the data (Braun & Clarke, 2013). The teachers’ narratives were continually compared to attain conformation of their accounts and reduce possible limitations of the study in line with social construction of validity (Kvale, 1994). In the presentation, gender is seen as a social construction, as humans are actively performing gender and at the same time schools are seen as vibrant spaces and agents constructed in social relations, space and time and thus always in the process of being made (Massey, 2005).
Expected Outcomes
Main findings from the interview data indicate that schools support heteronormative understanding of sex and gender without applying the recent counter-actions in society in terms of the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals. This results in certain gender roles applied to students within a traditional gender hierarchy and lack of transformative school practices that would increase security and the well-ness of LGBTQI+ children and teenagers. The schools react positively to instances where LGBTQI+ students begin in school and information is provided from NGOs but further specialist guidance to students and their families is lacking in the schools . The findings further indicate that schools are powerful spaces when it comes to supporting gender inequalities and the necessity to prepare teachers and urge schools to provide gender and queer education.
References
Allard, Andrea C. (2004). Speaking of gender: Teachers’ metaphorical constructs of male and female students. Gender and Education, 16(3), 347–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250042000251489 Braun, Virginia, & Clarke, Victoria. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage. Butler, Judith. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminisms and the subversion of identity. Routledge. Butler, Judith. (2004). Undoing gender. Routledge. Bragg, Sara, Renold, Emma, Ringrose, Jessica, & Jackson, Carolyn (2018). ‘More than boy, girl, male, female’: exploring young people’s views on gender diversity within and beyond school contexts. Sex Education, 18(4), 420–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2018.1439373 Cushman, Penni. (2012). “You’re not a teacher, you’re a man”: The need for a greater focus on gender studies in teacher education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(8), 775–790. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2010.516774 Jones, Bethany, A., Bauman, Walter Pierre, Haycraft, Emma, & Arcelus, Jon. (2019). Mental health and quality of life in non-binary transgender adults: A case control study. International Journal of Transgenderism 20(2–3), 251–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2019.1630346 Kjaran, Jón Ingvar. (2017). Constructing sexualities and gendered bodies in school spaces: Nordic insights on queer and transgender students. Palgrave Macmillan. Kvale, Steinar. (1994). Validation as communication and action: On the social construction of validity. Paper presented at meeting of the AERA in New- Orleans Massey, Doreen. 2005. For Space. London: Sage. Mayeza, Emmanuel. (2015). Exclusionary violence and bullying in the playground: Football and gender ‘policing’ at school. Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, 13(1), 49–70. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC178542 Menzies, Fiona G., & Santoro, Ninetta. (2017). “Doing” gender in a rural Scottish secondary school: An ethnographic study of classroom interactions. Ethnography and Education, 13(4), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2017.1351386 Paechter, Carrie, Toft, Alex, & Carlile, Anna. (2021). Non-binary young people and schools: Pedagogical insights from a small-scale interview study. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 29(5), 695–713. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2021.1912160 Pascoe, Cheri Jo. (2007). “Dude, you’re a fag”: Masculinity and sexuality in high school. University of California Press. Ragnarsdóttir, Sólveig Klara. (2022, 25. May). „Segja okkur að hengja okkur og drepa okkur“ [“Tell us to hang us and kill us”]. RÚV. https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2022-05-25-segja-okkur-ad-hengja-okkur-og- drepa-okkur Samtökin 78 [The National Queer Organisation of Iceland]. (2020). The 2017 Iceland National School Climate Survey Report. The Author. https://k3r6k4a9.rocketcdn.me/wp- content/uploads/2020/08/Skolakonnun_GLSEN_FINAL.pdf Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Sigrún, Bjarnason, Þóroddur, Arnarsson, Ársæll M., & Hjálmsdóttir, Andrea. (2010). The happiness of queer teenagers in 10th grade. The Icelandic Psychological Association Journal 15, 23–36. Woolley, Susan, W. (2017). Contesting silence, claiming space: Gender and sexuality in the neo-liberal public high school. Gender and Education, 29(1), 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1197384
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.