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School experiences of transgender and gender diverse students in Australia

journal contribution
posted on 2025-03-21, 01:30 authored by Tiffany Jones, Elizabeth SmithElizabeth Smith, Roz Ward, Jennifer Dixon, Lynne HillierLynne Hillier, Anne MitchellAnne Mitchell
Over the last decade, there has been an increase in global and local policy protections on the basis of gender identity and expression in education and a recent spate of coverage of transgender students on Australian television and news media. This paper explores the school experiences of Australian transgender and gender diverse students', with particular consideration of recognition of their gender identity in documentation, experiences of puberty and sexuality education, treatment by staff and students, and other forms of provision. It reports on the findings of a 2013 study which combined a survey of 189 transgender and gender diverse Australian students aged 14–25 years, with 16 online interviews with members of this group. The study was informed by a community advisory group which included a range of transgender, gender diverse and intersex people. Findings include both quantitative and qualitative data, detailing a trend towards more disruptive, fluid and inconsistent identifications by members of this student group, and a diversification of their needs at school. Student advocacy on topics including sexuality and puberty education was shown to be common and also useful in improving individual well-being and social outcomes. We offer some reflections towards more useful school practices and future research.

Funding

This research was funded by a beyondblue National Research Priorities Grant (2012 round).

History

Publication Date

2016-04-01

Journal

Sex Education: sexuality, society and learning

Volume

16

Issue

2

Pagination

16p. (p. 156-171)

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

ISSN

1468-1811

Rights Statement

© 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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