As part of my MSc in Counselling Children and Young People, I conducted research into the experiences of trans and non-binary students at single-sex schools. Participants were living in the UK at the time of the research, and all but one had attended a single-sex school in the UK. One participant had been educated in Iran until the age of 16, when they moved to the UK. I carried out this research as a cisgender, heterosexual, white, non-disabled woman. Hugely conscious of my privileged positioning, I followed trans-sensitive research principles, including a two-phase research approach. In phase one, I worked with three trans participants to decide on the format of data collection (they suggested offering participants a choice between an online individual interview and an online focus group) and the questions that should be asked. In phase two, six trans and non-binary participants aged 18-25 shared their experiences through online individual interviews and an online focus group. Two trans men and two non-binary individuals reflected on their experiences at all-girls schools, and two trans women reflected on their experiences at all-boys schools. Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis (Thompson et al., 2018) was used to explore the structures of power and constructs of normativity that existed in the participants’ single-sex schools, and understand how they related to these in both positive and negative ways.
Previous research (Bower-Brown et al., 2021; Davy & Cordoba, 2020; Frohard-Dourlent, 2018; Jones et al., 2016; Mackie et al., 2023a; Mackie et al., 2023b; Schmitt, 2022) had found that trans and non-binary students are amongst the most marginalised and vulnerable in schools, yet within this research, the voices of trans and non-binary students in single-sex schools specifically had rarely been heard. The research highlighted a need for a greater understanding of the lived experiences of trans and non-binary students and for more supportive environments in schools. I therefore hoped my research would contribute to a deeper understanding and help counsellors facilitate more supportive environments for trans and non-binary students in the single-sex schools that they work in.
The experiences shared by the participants in my research revealed how non-normative gender identities can be both regulated by and challenge the curricula, teaching staff and other students in single-sex schools, which all act to silence nonconformity and construct an acceptable truth of cisheteronormativity. Teachers hold the power to determine who belongs and how one expresses one’s gender identity, yet the power to educate others or enact change tends to be held by the trans and non-binary students themselves, all at a cost to their mental health. There were particular discursive realms that these participants had to navigate as trans and non-binary students at single-sex schools; Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education structured around biological essentialism, being held to normative standards of gender expression, and a sense of not belonging and feeling invalidated. For the participants who had attended all-boys schools, navigating cisheteronormativity was particularly limiting and risky, reflective of wider societal problems of transmisogyny.
My research was always so much more than just a part of
my degree. I felt deeply indebted to the trans and non-binary young adults who
had allowed a cisgender researcher into their lives and I want their voices
heard as widely as possible. I was therefore delighted to win the Feminism
& Psychology and BPS POWES Postgraduate Award for a paper I had written
based on my dissertation, and to present the paper at the POWES 2024 Conference
in July. Underlain by feminist principles, my research aimed to explore power
relations, empower marginalised voices and use these stories to enact change. Feminist
Relational Discourse Analysis, including through the use of I poems, played a
key role on this.
I conducted the interviews
and focus groups for my research as the UK’s Conservative Government was
preparing guidance for schools in England on “gender questioning children” in
2023. Elements of this guidance had been leaked and participants reflected on
it during the individual interviews and focus group. In December 2023, the draft
non-statutory guidance was published and a public
consultation was opened for three months. I contributed to this consultation,
sharing the experiences of my participants, anonymised and with their
permission, in my response. In May 2024, the Conservative government published draft
statutory guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education,
which was open for consultation for two months. Again, I contributed to this consultation, sharing the experiences of my
participants, anonymised and with their permission, in my response.
The outcomes of these
consultations have yet to be shared by the new Labour government. However, Keeping Children Safe in Education
2024,
the government’s statutory guidance on safeguarding children and safer
recruitment, which is updated each academic year, leans heavily on the
Conservative’s draft ‘Guidance for Schools and Colleges: Gender Questioning
Children’. Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 also references the Cass Review Report, which has been criticised
by many LGBT+ experts, support groups and organisations and in July, the British
Medical Association even “call[ed] for a pause to the implementation of the
Cass Review’s recommendations whilst the task and finish group carries out its
work” (British Medical Association, 2024). Trans and Non-Binary Education has written to the DfE regarding these concerns but have yet
to receive a response.
Coming from a central place of power in the UK, each one of these pieces of guidance can be viewed as discursive practices aiming to sustain the ability of educational institutions, including single-sex schools, to maintain a unilateral development trajectory for their students. Any agency that children and young people have around self-determination and gender identity is removed. Through the use of language such as “gender questioning children”, “gender identity ideology” and “contested belief”, each piece of guidance furthers the discursive erasure of transgender children and upholds a cisgenderist discourse.
Counter to this, my research called for trans and non-binary students in single-sex schools to be accepted, have their feelings validated, and be proactively supported through inclusive policies. I suggested that counsellors working in single-sex schools are well positioned to facilitate this. I concluded my research with the words of an 18-year old trans man who had attended an all-girls school since he was 11. He said, “having someone to just listen to you and validate you is just so important”. I would urge anyone reading this blog to listen to the voices of trans and non-binary youth and join them in their advocacy. To learn from a group of young trans people fighting for the rights of young trans people, please visit https://transkidsdeservebetter.org/.
References
Bower-Brown,
S., Zadeh, S., & Jadva, V. (2021). Binary-trans, nonbinary and
gender-questioning adolescents’ experiences in UK schools. Journal of LGBT
Youth, https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2021.1873215
British Medical
Association. (2024, July 31). BMA to undertake an
evaluation of the Cass Review on gender identity services for children and
young people.
https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/bma-to-undertake-an-evaluation-of-the-cass-review-on-gender-identity-services-for-children-and-young-people
Davy, Z., &
Cordoba, S. (2020). School Cultures and Trans and Gender-diverse Children:
Parents' Perspectives. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 16(4), 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/1550428X.2019.1647810
Frohard-Dourlent,
H. (2018). “The student drives the car, right?”: trans students and narratives
of decision-making in schools. Sex Education, 18(4), 328–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2017.1393745
Jones, T.,
Smith, E., Ward, R., Dixon, J., Hillier,
L., & Mitchell A. (2016). School experiences of transgender and gender
diverse students in Australia. Sex Education, 16(2), 156-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2015.1080678
Mackie, G.,
Lambert, K., & Patlamazoglou, L. (2023a). The experiences of psychologists
working with transgender young people in school counselling: an Australian
sample. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 36(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2021.2001313
Mackie, G.,
Patlamazoglou, L., & Lambert, K. (2023b). The experiences of Australian
transgender young people in school counseling: An interpretative
phenomenological analysis. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender
Diversity, 10(2), 337–349. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000544
Schmitt, I.
(2022). Transgressing purity: Intersectional negotiations of gender identity in
Swedish schools. Journal of LGBT Youth. https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2022.2103609
Thompson, L. Rickett, B., & Day, K. (2018).
Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis: putting the personal in the political
in feminist research. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 15(1), 93–115.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2017.1393586
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