This book addresses an emerging and vital field of scholarship, which deals with transgender- and gender-expansive-informed education, policy, and practice. The collection provides a framework for thinking about the relevance of Transgender Studies for the field of education and specifically for K-12 schooling contexts. It argues for the need to engage transgender-informed epistemologies and provides insight into trans-affirmative education research, policy contexts, and practices with the view to generating knowledge about how the experiences of transgender and non-binary youth, gender non-conformity, and gender-creative expression are being addressed in the education system. Topics addressed range from trans-informed policy analysis and enactment across various contexts to addressing central concerns and polemics related to the policing and regulation of students’ gender identities and expression, with respect to washroom space in schools and the use of gender-neutral pronouns. The book is timely and pertinent, especially given that transphobia and addressing gender justice in the education system have been identified as significant human rights issues which require urgent intervention. Overall, this collection points to both the productive potentialities of this emerging body of research, and the limitations and challenges that need to continue to be addressed in the realization of a commitment to enacting a critical trans politics in education. This book was originally published as a special issue of Gender and Education.

What is feminist transdisciplinary research? Why is it important? How do we do it? Through 19 contributions from leading international feminist scholars, this book provides new insights into activating transdisciplinary feminist theories, methods and practices in original, creative and exciting ways – ways that make a difference both to what research is and does, and to what counts as knowledge. The contributors draw on their own original research and engage an impressive array of contemporary theorising – including new materialism, decolonialism, critical disability studies, historical analyses, Black, Indigenous and Latina Feminisms, queer feminisms, Womanist Methodologies, trans studies, arts-based research, philosophy, spirituality, science studies and sports studies – to trouble traditional conceptions of research, method and praxis. The authors show how working beyond disciplinary boundaries, and integrating insights from different disciplines to produce new knowledge, can prompt important new transdisciplinarity thinking and activism in relation to ongoing feminist concerns about knowledge, power and gender. In doing so, the book attends to the multiple lineages of feminist theory and practice and seeks to bring these historical differences and intersections into play with current changes, challenges and opportunities in feminism. The book’s practically-grounded examples and wide-ranging theoretical orbit are likely to make it an invaluable resource for established scholars and emerging researchers in the social sciences, arts, humanities, education and beyond.

Trans and gender-expansive (TGE) youth deserve a safe and empowering space to engage in high quality school music experiences. Supportive music teachers ensure that all students have access to ethically and pedagogically sound music education. In this practical resource, authors Matthew L. Garrett (he/him) and Joshua Palkki (he/him) encourage music educators to honor gender diversity through ethically and pedagogically sound practices across choral, instrumental, and general music classroom environments by highlighting the narratives and experiences of TGE musicians.

From its origins in the University of Birmingham’s then Institute of Education in 1948, Educational Review has emerged as a leading international journal for generic educational research. Seventy-five years on, Mapping the Field presents a detailed account of education theory and research, policy, and practice through the lens of key articles published in the journal over this timespan. Volume II opens with Part I, a collection of articles examining teachers’ job (dis/) satisfaction and stress, and the gendered composition of the teaching workforce. Articles in Part II trace a shift in academic focus from schools seen as families/communities, to the parent-school relationship. The concepts of inclusion and equality—and strategies for their fulfilment in education—are interrogated in Part III. The volume concludes with Part IV, in which diverse identities in the education field are represented. Curated and introduced by the editors, the articles included in both volumes of Mapping the Field represent a careful selection from the work of scholars whose ideas have been, and continue to be, influential in the field of education. Overall, this major text covers a wide range of topics and offers original insights into educational policy, provision, processes, and practice from around the world.

The book provides a comprehensive theoretical exploration of LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools drawing on critical insights from across the disciplines of sociology, psychology, history, and queer theory to present a robust theoretical foundation for school-wide approaches to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Examining key concepts such as minority stress and ‘post-gay’ identities, it offers a nuanced understanding of the historical attitudes and systemic oppression faced by the LGBTQ+ community. The chapters construct an ecological framework that highlights the unique challenges encountered by LGBTQ+ students and teachers in educational settings. This framework serves as the basis for a model that advocates for proactive measures in fostering an inclusive environment in schools. This includes the development of inclusive policies, practices, culture, and curricula. The book concludes by contemplating the potential applications of this model in Higher Education, extending its relevance beyond K-12 schools to also include universities and colleges. This volume will be valuable resource for researchers, scholars, educators, and policymakers interested in promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion in educational institutions, and with interests in gender and education, whole-school approaches, LGBTQ+, and diversity and inclusion more broadly.

This book focuses on queering texts with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) themes in collaboration with students - young to young adult – and their teachers - both pre- and in- service. It strives to generate knowledge and deeper understandings of the pedagogical implications for working with LGBT-themed texts in classrooms across grade levels. The contributions in this book offer explicit implications for pedagogical practice, considering literature for children and young adults, and work in elementary school, high school, and university classrooms and schools. They give insights on exploring how queer and trans theories might inform the teaching and learning of English language arts with great respect to people who live their lives beyond hegemonic heternormativity and cisnormativity. They provide wisdom on how to provoke, foster, and navigate complicated conversations about sexuality, queer desire, gender creativity, gender independence, and trans inclusivity. In addition, they show how all of these are informed by an epistemological and ontological understanding of gender embodiment as a process of becoming. They offer insights into how queer and trans theories, as informed and driven by trans, non-binary and gender diverse scholars themselves, can move all of us beyond LGBTQ-inclusivity and inform reading, discussing, teaching, and learning in all of the classrooms and school contexts where we live and work. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

The purpose of this text is to elicit discussion, reflection, and action specific to pedagogy within education, especially higher education, and circles of experiential learning, community organizing, conflict resolution and youth empowerment work. Vulnerability itself is not a new term within education; however the pedagogical imperatives of vulnerability are both undertheorized in educational discourse and underexplored in practice. This work builds on that of Edward Brantmeier in Re-Envisioning Higher Education: Embodied Pathways to Wisdom and Transformation (Lin, Oxford, & Brantmeier, 2013). In his chapter, “Pedagogy of vulnerability: Definitions, assumptions, and application,” he outlines a set of assumptions about the term, clarifying for his readers the complicated, risky, reciprocal, and purposeful nature of vulnerability, particularly within educational settings. Creating spaces of risk taking, and consistent mutual, critical engagement are challenging at a moment in history where neoliberal forces impact so many realms of formal teaching and learning. Within this context, the divide between what educators, be they in a classroom or a community, imagine as possible and their ability to implement these kinds of pedagogical possibilities is an urgent conundrum worth exploring. We must consider how to address these disconnects; advocating and envisioning a more holistic, healthy, forward thinking model of teaching and learning. How do we create cultures of engaged inquiry, framed in vulnerability, where educators and students are compelled to ask questions just beyond their grasp? How can we all be better equipped to ask and answer big, beautiful, bold, even uncomfortable questions that fuel the heart of inquiry and perhaps, just maybe, lead to a more peaceful and just world? A collection of reflections, case studies, and research focused on the pedagogy of vulnerability is a starting point for this work. The book itself is meant to be an example of pedagogical vulnerability, wherein the authors work to explicate the most intimate and delicate aspects of the varied pedagogical journeys, understandings rooted in vulnerability, and those of their students, colleagues, clients, even adversaries. It is a work that “holds space.”

This book reports findings of a qualitative study intended to disrupt notions of heteronormativity amongst preservice elementary teachers by engaging them in multimodal writing and text production around issues facing LGBTQIA+ youth. Against the backdrop of increasing anti-transgender sentiment in the United States, the text highlights the necessity of integrating queered pedagogy in teacher education to facilitate candidates’ movement through the continuum and leave them prepared, equipped, and willing to support children identifying as LGBTQIA+. Through analysis of picture books, infographics, and multimodal texts produced by teacher candidates, this cutting-edge volume develops a continuum of engagement, from apathy through to active allyship, with LGBTQIA+ youth. This timely volume will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in gender and sexuality studies, primary and elementary education, as well as teacher education more specifically. Those involved with queer theory and the sociology of education will also benefit from this volume.

A vital inquiry into trans issues in education, this compelling work argues for the design of education research, policies, and environments that honor all gender experiences and identities. Edited by two prominent figures in trans studies, Mario I. Suárez and Melinda M. Mangin, Trans Studies in K–12 Education brings together scholars and professionals representing a range of academic traditions, research methodologies, and career backgrounds to explore why and how schools should affirm gender diversity and challenge gender-based inequities. The collection offers a comprehensive examination of how gender is manifested in the educational context. Gathering a wealth of evidence, the book’s contributors expose the prevailing norm of gendered environments, which are entrenched in the very design and execution of educational research. The collection also lays out a critical overview of US laws and policies related to gender equity, gender identity, and gender expression and how these frameworks impact educational environments. These findings draw attention to deficit-oriented, pathologizing ideologies that surround nonconforming gender identities and the detrimental, often traumatizing effects on transgender students and educators. Throughout, the contributors recommend methods for establishing gender-affirming research, policy, and practice. They outline the sociopolitical and legal pathways that trans and nonbinary students and school employees may use to secure education and workplace rights. They discuss the positive gains made by professional development for teachers, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and community programs that successfully support transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. Ultimately, the volume highlights the promise of creating K–12 education spaces that are liberating rather than constraining.