City Research Online

Abstract

A growing number of adolescents are using a number of different identities to describe their gender. Schools have been noted for their uninclusive environments and high levels of discrimination for LGBTQ + individuals, yet research has neglected the school experiences of UK gender-diverse adolescents. This article explores the school experiences and navigation strategies of gender-diverse adolescents in the UK, examining the experiences of binary-trans, non-binary and gender-questioning adolescents separately. The data presented in this article come from a large survey of LGBTQ + young people’s social experiences; a subsample of 74 adolescents’ (25 binary-trans, 25 non-binary, and 24 gender-questioning) open-ended responses were selected for qualitative thematic analysis. Findings highlight that gender-diverse adolescents experience discrimination within the school environment from the curriculum, space, peers and teachers, and a number of strategies, including disclosure negotiation, cognitive restructuring and proactive protection, are used to navigate this environment. Findings shed light on the school experiences of gender-diverse adolescents, and suggest that the British school system is fundamentally unsuitable for non-binary and gender-questioning identities.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC 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.
Publisher Keywords:	Transgender, non-binary, gender-questioning, school, adolescence
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences > Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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