1. POLICY & Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex students
Dr. Tiffany Jones
AUSTRALIA
Policy
Background
Methodology
Results
Currently there are more policies on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) issues in educational institutions globally than ever before. The United Nations and UNESCO now promote the protection of GLBTIQ people education institutions. Previously researchers, activists and individual students pushed for education policies presuming they would benefit GLBTIQ youth however there was no research to support this, since there were few or no policies to evaluate.
Education is state-run in Australia, and within each of the eight states and territories there are both government and independent schooling systems. There are a wide variety of policies which impact GLBTIQ youth. This diverse policy environment offers an unprecedented opportunity to investigate actual as opposed to assumed policy impacts.
Policy and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Students aimed to redress the absence of research on the impacts for education policies in Australia for GLBTIQ students. The book details and explores the position of GLBTIQ students within Australian education policies, focusing on the three largest states and educational sectors in Australia. Published by Springer in 2015 in New York and other cities around the world, this text was written for government policymakers, non-government organisations, activists, teachers and other school stakeholders.
This study critically analysed (described, interpreted and explained) how educational policies addressed GLBTIQ students. Three data sources, including both qualitative and quantitative data, were used: policy documents, key informants and survey data. Over 80 Australian education policies were analysed regarding how they address sexuality education and GLBTIQ students. Ten key informants were interviewed confidentially about the policies and quantitative data was utilized from the third national survey of Australian GLBTIQ young people, collected for the Writing Themselves In 3 project (Hillier et al. 2010).
The latter was a anonymous survey of 3,134 Australian GLBTIQ students, aged years about their school experiences % were female, 40.36% male, and 2.90% ‘gender questioning’ (genderqueer, transgender or ‘other’ categories2). Over one-third of all participants identified their sexual identity before puberty.
The book details the policies’ constructions of GLBTIQ students and their history, the way the policies were applied and the impacts that GLBTIQ students experienced.
Direct, distinct education policies at the state level that explicitly dealt with GLBTIQ issues were most useful in contributing towards school level policy protection for GLBTIQ students.
These policies were also associated with the promotion of more directly affirming messages on GLBTIQ identities in classrooms.
Direct policy guidance on the provision of structural and social support features was associated with more structural supports in schools including diversity affirming posters and links to services/groups; and a more supportive social environment.
School level policy protection was correlated with GLBTIQ students experiencing lower rates of (and better management of) violence and abuse; and significantly decreased self-harm and suicide risk. The rate of suicide was found to be halved when school level policy protection was in place.
Broader inclusion or anti-bullying/ harassment/ bias policies, that did not explicitly mention GLBTIQ issues or homophobia, were not enough to combat systemic anti-GLBTIQ bias in schools.
Conclusion
A lack of education policy protections for GLBTIQ students contributes to contexts in which GLBTIQ students face increased risk of bullying, self-harm and suicide.
Education providers should develop direct policies protecting their GLBTIQ students; combining Safe and Supportive Schools and anti-discrimination frameworks, and nuances from contextually specific approaches.
Relationships between GLBTIQ students' perceived school policy protection and homophobic abuse.
Contact
Other recent publications
Dr. Tiffany Jones
University of New England
Jones, T., Gray, E. and Harris, A GLBTIQ teachers in Australian education policy: protections, suspicions, and restrictions. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning. Vol 14, No. 3.
Jones, T., and Hillier, L The Erasure of Bisexual Students in Australian Education Policy and Practice. Journal of Bisexuality. 14 (1). Jones, T Comparing rural and urban education contexts for GLBTIQ students. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education. Accepted 12 March 2014.
Jones, T. (2013). Understanding Education Policy. Dordrecht: Springer.
Jones, T. and Hillier L Comparing Trans-Spectrum and Same-sex-Attracted Youth in Australia: Increased Risks, Increased Activisms. Journal of LGBT Youth, Vol. 10, No. 4.
Jones, T How sex education research methodologies frame GLBTIQ students. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, Vol 13, No. 6.
Jones, T. and Hillier L Sexuality education school policy for GLBTIQ students. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, Vol. 12, No. 4.
Hillier, L., Jones, T., Monagle, M. et al Writing themselves in 3: the third national study on the sexual health and wellbeing of same sex attracted and gender questioning young people. Melbourne, La Trobe University.
Jones, T. (2015). Policy and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Students. Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht and London, Springer.