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In recent years, debate about the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity has been frequently featured in the media. Many mainstream media outlets reported that most parents didn’t want their children taught about sexuality and gender diversity in the classroom. But results from research by Western Sydney University academics reveal this to be a major misperception.
"Previously, studies had indicated that parents overwhelmingly feel there should be some education around these issues in schools," says Associate Professor Tania Ferfolja, from the Centre for Educational Research in the University’s School of Education. She explains, however, that those studies — including some she carried out with her colleague, Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman — were small and limited.
To address this, Ferfolja and Ullman embarked on the country’s largest and most detailed exploration of sexuality and gender diversity education, to clarify exactly what parents would like to see their children taught in schools and when.
Need to know
- Western researchers conducted a nationwide parental survey on education about sexuality and gender diversity in schools.
- 82% of parents were in favour of such an inclusion in the curriculum.
- Parents supported inclusion of sexuality and gender diversity education, to facilitate the creation of more equitable environments, support student wellbeing, and counter histories of oppression.
PARENTAL SUPPORT
Funded by the Australian Research Council, the team conducted a nationwide survey of 2,093 parents, whose children attended public school in Australia from kindergarten through to the final year of high school. Participants were recruited through Facebook and Instagram ads as well as paid market research panels. The online survey responses were weighted to ensure the estimates were nationally representative.
The responses indicated that 82% of parents supported the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive relationships and sexual health education topics in the curricula at some point between kindergarten and year 12. The majority believed that this information should be introduced to students by the end of Years 7 and 8. "I think that this topic has been set up in many ways, including by the media, as being controversial, taboo, a no-go zone — so even amongst ourselves we were surprised by how high that figure of support was," says Ullman.
The team probed a bit deeper into why parents were in support and found that there was a sense that including such information would promote equity in education, counter histories of oppression and support the wellbeing of all kids – not just those who identified as gender and sexuality diverse.
"There was also the feeling that it would bring us up to speed with where our society is at right now," adds Ullman.
TALKING TO PARENTS
Research shows that young sexuality diverse, transgender, and gender diverse people are extremely vulnerable to mental health concerns resulting from unwelcoming or unsupportive environments, including schools. Their rate of depression and anxiety is considerably higher than for adolescents in the general population and they experience extraordinarily high levels of self-harm and suicide attempts.
"Part of the reason we wanted to do this work is that from existing research we are aware that a number of gender diverse or same-sex attracted students have quite a hard time, for a variety of reasons, but primarily to do with their experiences at school," Ullman confirms.
So, for the second phase of the research, the team contacted a subset of parents from the survey whose children are gender and sexuality diverse. They also ran an online forum for this cohort and conducted in-depth individual interviews with these parents to ask about their experiences of navigating the school system for their children.
Interviewees and forum participants described the discrimination and abuse their children faced from other kids in all sorts of places including school hallways, bathrooms, and on the way home from school. "There was one parent who actually had to sell their house to try and get their child relocated to another school, where they thought they would be safe," says Ferfolja.
Parents also found they had to spend a significant amount of time navigating the school system and sometimes provided schools with resources to educate principals and teachers about the correct language to use to avoid misgendering their children. They also described how some schools, in trying to support gender and sexuality diverse children, were instead further isolating them.
"The parents that came and spoke to us were hugely generous, they were amazing advocates for their child, but not every child has that kind of advocate," says Ullman. "For those kids, school really is the primary source of access to an adult who’s going to care for them and make them feel like it’s a safe space." This reinforces the importance of teachers understanding gender and sexuality diverse students and their families and being equipped to actively support their wellbeing.
"If a young person is not comfortable in a classroom, they’re not going to learn," says Ferfolja. "They can’t engage if they’re worrying about other issues that are of more immediate concern to them or their families."
"If a young person is not comfortable in a classroom, they’re not going to learn. They can’t engage if they’re worrying about other issues that are of more immediate concern to them or their families."
EMPOWERING TEACHERS
The third major component of the research project by Ferfolja and Ullman is the development of a "performed ethnography". This involved collating the voices of research participants from phase 2 and creating a play for the purposes of instruction and education.
From this verbatim theatre piece, the team developed a short film featuring parents' stories and a suite of associated professional learning resources that can be used to help schools and teachers engage in professional development around these topics.
The resources, which are now freely available online, will help teachers better navigate what is, for many of them, a potential minefield. "Teachers are very uncertain about what they can actually say in the classroom — such as what might or might not get them into 'trouble'," Ferfolja says. "They’re under a lot of pressure, but that’s all the more reason to give them support around these kinds of issues."
"If some teachers feel less fearful or maybe more empowered after engaging with this material, hopefully it will translate into practical action in schools because teachers will have more of an understanding about the experiences of these young people and their families," adds Ullman.
WIDER IMPACT
Now that Ferfolja and Ullman have published journal articles detailing their findings, they are working on further disseminating their work in the academic, public, and policy spheres.
In 2021, the pair were invited to present their findings to the New South Wales Legislative Council, providing expert witness testimony opposing proposed amendments to the Education Act 1990, known more widely as the Parental Rights Bill (2020). The proposed amendment would have made teachers' classroom discussions about sexuality and gender diversity punishable, leading to the potential removal of teachers' formal teaching accreditation. The proposed legislation was later rejected by the NSW Parliament.
The researchers are planning to make further recommendations for practice and policy to help guide and streamline curriculum development, possibly nationwide. "We will be working with an advisory committee to feed results back into every state and territory," Ullman says.
One of the major stakeholders in the advisory committee has been the Australian Council of State School Organisations. Chief executive Dianne Giblin says the main reason for the Council’s keen interest and support is to ensure that school curricula are able to properly represent and reflect diversity across the Australian community.
"Not only do we need to give a window into sexuality and gender issues for all young people but particularly for young people who are gender diverse," she says. "The diversity of sexuality in our community needs to be mirrored in our curriculum, so all young people have that broader perspective."
There’s also a need to support "the mental health and wellbeing of our young people who may be transgender or same sex attracted. That needs to be reflected so that they feel comfortable about who they are," Giblin adds.
Ferfolja agrees: "It’s been used as a political hotcake for such a long time; it’s time to stop that and to just get on with it and support these kids."
"It’s been used as a political hotcake for such a long time; it’s time to stop that and to just get on with it and support these kids."
Meet the Academic | Associate Professor Tania Ferfolja
Tania Ferfolja is Associate Professor in the School of Education and a senior researcher in the Centre for Educational Research. Her research centres on equity in education with a focus on gender and sexuality diversities in curricula, policy, pedagogy, schooling and employment experiences in Australia and internationally. Tania is lead author/editor on a number of books including, "Understanding Parents' Perceptions of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in the Classroom: Allied, Opposed or Unsure" (forthcoming, Routledge), "Understanding Sociological Theory for Educational Practices" – 3rd edition (2024, Cambridge University Press), "Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation: Student and Teacher Experiences in Schools" (2020, Routledge), and "Crossing Borders: African Refugees, Teachers and Schools" (2011 ACSA/Common Ground) among others. She has published in a range of highly regarded, peer- review journals, has presented at both national and international conferences and has been on the editorial board of numerous journals.
Tania is currently finalising research with Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman and Professor Tara Goldstein an ARC-funded project entitled, "Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Schools: Parental Experiences and Schooling Responses". This important research has resulted in the development of a performed ethnography and subsequent film called, “What Parents Want: Talking about Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Schools” which forms a central focus of a related teacher professional learning module. For more information about this project outcomes see: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/gsds
Meet the Academic | Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman
Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman is a researcher and pre-service teacher educator in the School of Education and a senior researcher in the Centre for Educational Research. Her research centres on marginalisation, visibility and school/workplace cultures, with a focus on the experiences of gender and sexuality diverse individuals. Accordingly, she works with students and their families; educators and educator stakeholders; non-government organisations and other community groups in support of better understanding the links between environmental stressors, structural inequities and associated outcomes for individuals and groups.
She is a Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project grants: one recently completed project exploring parents’ perceptions of gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive curriculum and another investigating ‘everyday sexisms’ in higher education. Jacqueline is one of the forthcoming editors-in-chief for the journal Gender in Education, commencing September 2023, and has published in a range of high-quality journals and with top book publishers in the field. Her 2020 book, “Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation: Student and Teacher Experiences in Schools” (Routledge, with A/Prof. Tania Ferfolja) has been cited widely and made freely and publicly available as an eBook, due to its global relevance. One of Jacqueline’s forthcoming books, “Understanding Parents’ Perceptions of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in the Classroom: Allied, Opposed or Unsure” (Routledge, 2024, with A/Prof. Tania Ferfolja), draws from the ARC-funded project on which the above article is based.
Jacqueline strives for real-world practical impact from her research. This is evidenced most recently by a package of freely available professional learning resources developed to support educators' inclusion of gender and sexuality diverse students in K-12 schools. To access these, and for more information on the empirical work informing these resources, see: https://westernsydney.edu.au/gsds/educator_resources
Credit
Future-Makers is published for Western Sydney University by Nature Research Custom Media, part of Springer Nature.
This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council.
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