Considering Transgender People in Education: A Gender-Complex Approach

Overview & Synopsis

Schools serve as a setting in which students come to understand gender, but transgender students (those who transgress societal gender norms) are largely left out of discussions of education. The high level of harassment that transgender students face poses sizable obstacles to school success. If the field of education is committed to equity and social justice, then teacher education programs must prepare educators to teach gender in more complex ways that take into consideration the existence and needs of transgender people. This article is intended to begin the discussion of transgender issues in teacher education by providing a rationale for why teacher educators need to care about transgender issues, presenting definitions of basic terms and concepts related to gender and transgender, offering a new framework for understanding gender privilege and oppression, and examining three previously proposed or existing types of gender education and proposing gender-complex education as an alternative, and exploring possibilities for gender-complex teacher education. (Contains 3 notes.)