Jacqueline Ullman

Bureaucratic constructions of sexual diversity: ‘sensitive’, ‘controversial’ and silencing

National research illustrates the high degree of discrimination that prevails against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students resulting in diminished educational outcomes, both academic and social. This phenomenon is influenced by the prevalence of whole-school silences around LGBTQ topics in many Australian schools. This paper presents an analysis of the New South Wales (NSW) homophobia in schools policy, as well as both NSW state and Australian federal curriculum and syllabus documents in the health and physical education key learning area. This analysis illustrates how contradictory framing and messages; silences and omission; and various discursive constructions of the LGBTQ subject together produce silencing technologies that have critical implications for the implementation of education, both in this key learning area and across the schooling sector.

Teacher positivity towards gender diversity: exploring relationships and school outcomes for transgender and gender-diverse students

Abstract Transgender and gender diverse secondary students report routine social and curricular marginalisation at school, factors which have been linked to negative social and academic outcomes. This paper examines data from the Free2Be? project, which surveyed 704 same-sex attracted and gender-diverse Australian teenagers (aged 14–18), to examine school gender climate as a potential stressor for the 51 (7%) students who identified as gender diverse. The paper focuses on these students’ reports of their teachers’ positivity regarding diverse gender expression, as a critical element of school gender climate. Multiple regression analyses revealed the significant predictive impact of teachers’ positivity on gender diverse students’ sense of connection to their school environment, highlighting the need for educators to be knowledgeable and affirming of gender diversity.

Ladylike/butch, sporty/dapper: exploring ‘gender climate’ with Australian LGBTQ students using stage–environment fit theory

Research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning (LGBTQ) and genderqueer (GQ) students has highlighted the links between school-based marginalisation and decreased school outcomes. This paper applies stage–environment fit theory to an investigation of school ‘gender climate’, the official and unofficial policing of gender expression by school staff and students, to explore what role gender climate plays in the above relationship. Three school life components associated with stage–environment fit theory – (1) the organisational, (2) the instructional and (3) the interpersonal – were used to scaffold interview data on school gender climate from five LGBTQ Australian young people. Results implicate school staff in the maintenance of gender climate and highlight the deleterious impact of school silences on related subject matter.

Intentional learning with technological proxies: Goal orientations and efficacy beliefs

Digital technologies serve as an important educational resource for tertiary students. A key feature of many current digital technologies available to students is that they can function as proxies in the learning process; that is, technology can be used to carry out some academic-related tasks on behalf of the user. For tertiary educators, the widespread availability of technological proxies raises a number of important pedagogical issues. In this article, we discuss technological proxy in the context of intentional learning. Drawing from the literature on learner motivation, we identify three key variables – learners’ achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy beliefs, and proxy efficacy beliefs – and advance a set of propositions about how relationships between these variables may shape students’ use of technology as intentional learners. A key goal of this article is to expand current thinking around the ways in which tertiary learners’ efficacy beliefs relate to working with digital technology and, ultimately, their learning and performance outcomes.

Gender and sexuality diversity and schooling: progressive mothers speak out

Abstract Although social acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity is growing in Australian society, in schools, visibility and inclusion of knowledge pertaining to those who are gender- and/or sexuality-diverse, such as lesbians, gay men and transgender people, remain marginalised. This may be due, in part, to a belief that parents are opposed to such content inclusions in their children’s education; yet, virtually no Australian research supports this belief nor have parental perspectives on gender and sexuality diversity inclusion been specifically examined. This paper draws on a broader research study that examined New South Wales parents’ perceptions about the visibility of gender and sexuality diversity and the inclusion or exclusion of related content in school curriculum. It focuses on one particular focus group comprised of only mothers who lived in a specific enclave of Sydney known for its gender and sexuality diversity. The discussion highlights their awareness of gender and sexuality diversity and the dynamics surrounding it; and their perceptions of local school approaches to, and limitations around, gender and sexuality diversity in school curricula, policy and practices, despite potential support for it.

Gender and sexuality in education and health: voices advocating for equity and social justice

In Australia, sexual health and sexuality education in relation to young people are not well integrated and education and health systems appear to function, in the main, independently of each other. This is perplexing, considering the known benefits of cooperative work for young people’s sexual health and relationship knowledge, critical understandings and practices. Despite the apparent disjuncture, pockets of innovative, inspirational and integrated perspectives and programmes that pursue equity and justice in relation to these areas do exist across public, private and community spheres.1 This themed issue of Sex Education, entitled Gender and Sexuality in Education and Health: Advocating for Equity and Social Justice, derives from the Australia Forum for Sexuality, Education and Health2’s inaugural conference, Equity and Justice – in Gender, Sexuality, Education and Health, held in Sydney, Australia in 2015. The conference sought to stimulate greater national and local connections between the education and sexual health sectors and to provide a rallying point for the formation of strategic alliances for positive sexual health outcomes among young people. The peer-reviewed papers arising from the conference and available in this special issue have been developed and published at a time of mounting conservatism globally, when broader issues of equity and justice around sexuality and gender in education and health have come under attack. Archaic patriarchal and conservative discourses position thinking and approaches that advocate for equity and rights, as radical, leftist, and a threat to traditional family values and ‘the way things should be’. As researchers and tertiary educators with a combined 30 years of experience in the fields of equity and diversity in relation to gender and sexuality, it is alarming to witness how understandings about sexuality, sexuality and gender diversities, and sexual health and relationships, have been at the very least stalled and, in many cases, regressed at the national level in many nations. Internationally, for example, this is demonstrated by the recent decision of the Russian parliament to decriminalise domestic violence (Stanglin 2017); by US President Donald Trump’s recent revocation of guidelines on transgender toilets in schools that permitted ‘students to use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity’ which had been enabled by the previous administration (ABC 2017); and by the same president’s reinstatement of a ‘global gag rule that bans US-funded groups around the world from discussing abortion’ (ABC 2017), impacting women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights across many nations that rely on international funding to survive. Such retrograde measures not only undermine the rights, education and sexual health of individuals who are already highly vulnerable, they constitute discourses that convey regressive messages about sex, gender and sexuality impacting young people’s

Exploring ‘Thing-Power’ and the ‘Spectre of Fear’ on Schooling Subjectivities: A Critical Posthuman Analysis of LGBT Silencing

This chapter experiments with critical posthumanist theory to explore the silencing and invisibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) diversities in school education. Drawing on the work of Barad, Bennett, and Braidotti, we deploy concepts such as ‘intra-action’, ‘thing-power’, and ‘dark matter’ to tentatively delve into the ways in which both the tangible and intangible entangle and enjoin human subjectivities in the classroom and in the education milieu more broadly. We explore how these theorisations can be used to explicate, what we coin, the ‘spectre of fear’ surrounding LGBT-inclusivity in the K-12 classroom. We endeavour to demonstrate the interplays, interconnections and collisions between the human and nonhuman and to understand the ways in which these entanglements have material effect. Importantly, we consider that the recognition of these relational and intertwined subjectivities that transcend the human subject can produce understandings and knowledges that advocate for a more equitable, harmonious, and socially sustainable planet.

Critical thinking skills in the International Baccalaureate’s “Theory of Knowledge” subject: Findings from an Australian study

There is considerable debate both in Australia and internationally about the best way for schools to deliver the thinking skills required for university study and professional work life – skills that are often referred to by the term “critical thinking”. This article reviews the literature on the effective teaching of critical thinking and looks at one example of a secondary school subject aimed at developing critical thinking skills in its graduates, namely the Theory of Knowledge (ToK) subject in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (DP). ToK, a core element of the DP, has no set curriculum. Instead, ToK requires students to think deeply about knowledge problems and to formulate coherent views on the nature of knowledge. This article reports on an Australian study into the teaching and learning of ToK and presents associated outcomes in cohorts of both secondary and tertiary students.

Breaking out of the (anti)bullying ‘box’: NYC educators discuss trans/gender diversity-inclusive policies and curriculum

Abstract New York City (NYC) is considered to be one of the world’s most progressive cities and gender and sexuality diversity (GSD)-inclusive education departmental policies appear to reflect these values. However, even within such a context, NYC educators report challenges in their work to meet the needs of trans/gender-diverse students and the visibility of trans/gender diversity more generally within their pre-K – 12 school communities. This paper reports on interview data from 31 school staff members from nine public and independent schools located in the NYC metro region, with a specific focus on their framing of inclusivity and bullying, and reported support of trans/gender-diverse students. Based on educators’ representations of their schools, the nine schooling environments fell into two broad clusters: (1) those framing trans/gender inclusivity as an anti-bullying initiative and working at the minimum policy requirements, and (2) those working beyond bullying discourses and policy frameworks to conceptualise trans/gender inclusivity as integral to the school’s mission and as offering clear whole-community benefit. Findings support the constraints of bullying discourse on even supportive educators’ curricular ‘translation’ of GSD-inclusive policies, reinforcing the need for relevant policy reframing and targeted of professional development opportunities, particularly for school leaders.

Bolstering graduates’ success through working as student ambassadors in university widening participation programs

ABSTRACT Since 2010, the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) has provided funding for Australian universities to ‘raise aspiration’ among under-represented groups. Underpinned by utilitarian discourses of human capital and individual capacitation, these resources have transformed the ways that universities seek to engage prospective students. This paper turns to an overlooked cohort that is integral to widening participation initiatives, but has rarely been the focus of research. These are the student ambassadors – university students who work within HEPPP programs. This paper reports findings from the alumni component of a mixed-method study which examines how widening participation programs, which are ostensibly directed at future university enrolments, might also help university students who work as student ambassadors to become successful professionals and citizens once they graduate from university. Alumni accounts of their experiences and self-reported impact of their ambassador work advocate a more holistic view of graduate success and how activities beyond mandatory coursework can contribute to success beyond university graduation. Evidence from student ambassador alumni suggests that these positive impacts are broad and long-lasting, contributing to students’ professional successes and personal lives.