2015-2016 Conference Presentations

American Educational Research Association

Washington, D.C.

April, 2016

Payne, E. & Smith, M.J. Safe Space Stickers and the Risks of LGBTQ Ally Work in U.S. Secondary Schools. (Teacher Work SIG)

Abstract: This paper explores educators’ experiences negotiating school leaders’ resistance to recognizing LGBTQ students and families. Research participants were educators who attended school district-sponsored professional development about supporting LGBTQ students. After PD, educators who posted the Safe Space stickers they received at the training were ordered to remove them by the superintendent. Conflict between participants and leaders was rooted in starkly different interpretations of professional responsibilities to LGBTQ students, and participants’ decisions about resistance were influenced by fear of personal and professional consequences. We argue that this case study illustrates the difficulty of highly-stigmatized social justice work, and it is indicative of risks that can arise when educators subvert status quo in order to advance the interests of marginalized students.

Session Title: Gender Equity and LGBTQ Students: Policy, Practice, and Possibility. (Queer SIG)

Abstract: While anti-bullying laws, policies, and programs are reliant on beliefs that reduce peer-to-peer aggression to anti-social behavior and the victimization of individual students, the utilization of Title IX to support transgender and gender non-conforming students potentially offers a different policy approach to improving school climate for LGBTQ students as it makes gender equality — a systemic issue— rather than intervention in individual acts of harassment a primary focus. Through a look at recent applications of Title IX, educator practice in support of LGBTQ students, and a critique of dominant bullying discourses, we explore the possibilities in shifting understanding of LGBTQ “bullying” to gender policing and the potential in a policy re-focus on gender equity for creating more LGBTQ affirming school environments.

Faiella, M. Federal Education Law and Policy: Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Students

Smith, M.J. “I accept all students”: The Tolerance Discourse and Ally work in U.S. Public Schools

Payne, E. Gender Policing: Shifting the Bullying Discourse