'Act more normal': What happens now to gender diverse kids at school

By Tania Ferfolja, Emily Gray, Victoria Rawlings and Jacqueline Ullman
Community contribution / December 3, 2021

From GSCS SIG Symposium: Exploring sexuality and gender diversity throughout school communities: Students, parents and educators

Where schools do a good job at celebrating diverse students, they create a better experience for everyone. However, the confluence ...

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By Tania Ferfolja, Emily Gray, Victoria Rawlings and Jacqueline Ullman

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Tania Ferfolja is associate professor in the School of Education at Western Sydney University, Australia, a member of the Centre for Educational Research and a member of the NSW arm of the national Australia Forum for Sexuality, Education and Health. Her research centres on equity in education with a focus on gender and sexuality diversities in curricula, policy, pedagogy, schooling and employment practices in Australia and internationally. Emily Gray is a lecturer in Education Studies at RMIT’s School of Education. Her interests within both research and teaching are interdisciplinary and include sociology, cultural studies and education. She is particularly interested in questions of gender and sexuality and with how understandings these identity categories are lived by individuals and experienced within social institutions. Victoria Rawlings is a lecturer at the University of Sydney and her research focuses on the intersections between gender, sexuality, youth and social structures. Her PhD investigated the connections between gender, social structures and 'bullying' in two high schools in NSW. . in 2021, sge was awarded an Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship to conduct research in partnership with school communities around cultures of gender and sexuality. This research aims to understand how schools can positively and proactively include all students. Jacqueline Ullman is an associate professor of Adolescent Development, Behaviour and Wellbeing at Western Sydney University, where she teaches in the areas of educational psychology, sociology of education, research design and research methods for preservice secondary teachers and educators looking to pursue continued education. Her primary research focus is in the area of diversity of genders and sexualities and associated inclusive educational practices. She is the AARE 2021 winner of the Raewyn Connell award.

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We neurodivergents have always been here; it's just that it is now realised.

— Peter Langdale on Teachers ‘On The Front Line’ Amid Rising Number Of Students With Disability Adjustments

'Act more normal': What happens now to gender diverse kids at school

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