Transgender people and education

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Abstract

Transgender People and Education by Clare Bartholomaeus and Damien W. Riggs is a comprehensive publication that both informs and educates readers about the lives of transgender people engaging in school systems. Well-articulated, very accessible and on many levels, highly practical, the book is an invaluable resource for anyone researching or teaching about gender diversities. Although focused mainly on research from Australia, the authors also draw on findings from further afield, enhancing the relevance of the content to an international audience. The introduction highlights upfront, the current socio-cultural context that is often fraught for gender and sexuality diverse communities. Using examples from Australia and other English-speaking countries such as the United States, Bartholomaeus and Riggs point out the conflicting nature of dominant discourses vying for ascendancy. These, on the one hand, demonstrate growing support and understanding through legislative improvements and social change for transgender people; but on the other, highlight the palpable hostilities towards gender and sexuality diverse subjects. Growing international political conservatism fuels these inconsistencies and contradictions, illustrating for transgender people – as well as those who are gender and sexuality diverse more generally – the precarious nature of the hard-won victories for equity and social justice. In terms of school education in Australia, such negativity was recently witnessed through the withdrawal of the Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA) program from schools in most states in the nation. The SSCA program aimed to build safe and inclusive primary and high school environments for gender and sexuality diverse students, staff and families. However, relentless, vocal and damaging criticism by conservatives, Christian lobby groups and right-wing politicians at the highest levels of office who were enabled by the media (Law, 2017), resulted in the project being defunded by the conservative Liberal government and disbanded. Thus, set against such a socio-political landscape, this book is timely and much-needed; it has been published at a point when many teachers and schools, have had support for, and education about, transgender identities institutionally withdrawn. Bartholomaeus and Riggs approach to Transgender People and Education is wideranging. The introduction illustrates how the social construction of childhood intersects with and is utilized by, conservative social, religious and political discourses perpetuated by a global move to the right. The authors establish the theoretical framing applied to their analysis of the issues faced by a range of transgender identities in the chapters to follow, focusing on the notion of cisgenderism and how it “has a negative impact not only on transgender people but all people involved in school