Education

Op-Ed: How LGBT+ students can thrive at school

Bullying, and the stress it produces, is linked to the overall higher rates of mental health issues

<div class&equals;"text section">&NewLine;<p>The majority of Lesbian&comma; Gay&comma; Bisexual and Transgender and other gender and sexual minority &lpar;LGBT&plus;&rpar; secondary school students in New Zealand are well&comma; achieve at school&comma; and are more likely to volunteer to support their community than other secondary school students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; persistent&comma; and unfair inequalities for LGBT&plus; secondary school students have been well documented&period; Since the turn of this century&comma; studies have demonstrated that LGBT&plus; students were significantly more likely to be bullied&comma; and fear for their safety at school&comma; when compared to other students&period; This bullying&comma; and the stress it produces&comma; is linked to the overall higher rates of mental health issues reported by these students&period; Distressingly&comma; recent evidence shows such inequalities have remained intractably high&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Academic achievement is important for wellbeing&period; Higher secondary school achievement is associated with significantly improved adult health and economic wellbeing&period; The importance placed on education as an inalienable human right reflects the significance of supporting children and young people to develop their personality and sense of self&comma; as well as their vocational <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;developing-opportunities-at-school-with-a-view&sol;" title&equals;"opportunities" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">opportunities<&sol;a>&period; Given the inequalities facing LGBT&plus; students at school from bullying&comma; how might schools ensure that such barriers do not also affect their right to education and achievement&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our study&comma; using a nationally representative sample of more than 7000 students&comma; is the first nationally to demonstrate the positive impact of LGBT&plus; supportive schools on student achievement&period; Just over one in ten of the students in the study said they were same- or both-sex attracted and&sol;or transgender&comma; or questioning their gender and sexual identity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We found that bullying reduced the chances of achievement on average by half for the LGBT&plus; students&period; However&comma; when those students who were bullied also reported that they felt as though they belonged at their school&comma; and had teachers with high expectations of them&comma; bullying no longer had any negative impact on their chances of achieving&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Schools have powerful tools at their disposal that will help give LGBT&plus; students equal opportunities to achieve&period; Unlike peer-based bullying&comma; cultivating belonging at school is something teachers&comma; staff&comma; and principals have more direct power over&period; For instance&comma; with appropriate support teachers can ensure that LGBT&plus; topics and themes are appropriately acknowledged and positively represented in all subjects that they teach&comma; including sexuality education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Subject matter inclusion demonstrates to all students&comma; especially LGBT&plus; ones&comma; that they are recognised and belong both at school and in society&period; Teachers and school staff who are well trained to intervene in homophobic&comma; biphobic&comma; and transphobic bullying and slurs in the classroom can also demonstrate that the school has an inclusive attitude to all forms of diversity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"pullquotecomponent section">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"pull-quote">&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The results from our study on the impact of teacher expectation on achievement for LGBT&plus; students&comma; and LGB students in particular&comma; were staggering&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"quote-author"><span class&equals;"quote-author&lowbar;&lowbar;name">Dr John Fenaughty<&sol;span><span class&equals;"quote-author&lowbar;&lowbar;title">Faculty of Education and Social Work<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"text section">&NewLine;<p>School leaders&comma; including principals&comma; have a very powerful role in producing a sense of belonging for LGBT&plus; students&period; A key way to do so is to strongly support and resource the development of student diversity groups&comma; including gender and sexuality alliance groups that can be powerhouses of inclusion and transformation if the senior leadership team is able to work productively with them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>School leaders also play a key role in ensuring that anti-bias bullying policies are developed and enforced in the school&comma; including registers of bias-related bullying&period; Belonging can also be enhanced when other supportive policies are supported&comma; including that LGBT&plus; students can take same or different gendered partners to social events&comma; and have equivalent rules around displays of romantic attraction at school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The results from our study on the impact of teacher expectation on achievement for LGBT&plus; students&comma; and LGB students in particular&comma; were staggering&period; LGB students who said that people at school had high expectations of them had 14 times greater odds of achieving compared to LGB students who did not have supportive teachers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ensuring that all teachers have access to professional learning and development to support them to cultivate and communicate high expectations to LGBT&plus; students is a vital priority for the senior leadership team&period; School leaders can also ensure that school pastoral care staff&comma; like school nurses and counsellors&comma; have adequate professional development about supporting LGBT&plus; students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our findings also indicate that just providing supportive structures for LGB students is insufficient to support transgender and gender minority student achievement&period; In fact&comma; while the provision of LG supportive structures increased LGB student chances of achievement three-fold&comma; it made no difference for transgender and gender minority students’ achievement&period; This reflects how transgender and gender minority young people have additional needs to lesbian&comma; gay and bisexual students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Teachers and all staff in the school have a particularly powerful role in supporting transgender and gender minority student belonging&period; Using the correct names and pronouns &lpar;e&period;g&period;&comma; he&comma; him&comma; they&comma; them&comma; she&comma; her&comma; etc&period;&rpar; demonstrates acceptance&comma; and in so doing fosters belonging&period; Physical education teachers and sport staff play a key role in ensuring that such students can participate in appropriate gendered and&sol;or nongendered sports teams and events&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The school’s leadership team can support these students’ sense of belonging by ensuring that they can access and use appropriate bathrooms and changing rooms easily and safely&period; Inclusive uniform policies can help these students use clothing options that are appropriate to their gender identity&period; While&comma; administrators and pastoral care staff can ensure that correct names and pronouns are used in academic records and formal communication&comma; as well as retaining privacy over who is aware of their gender transition status&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The research shows that schools have a range of options at their disposal&comma; and that fostering belonging provides opportunities for all staff in schools to support and improve LGBT&plus; student achievement&period; Every person at school&comma; no matter what their role&comma; has the opportunity&comma; and duty&comma; right now&comma; to foster belonging for LGBT&plus; students&comma; who deserve equal opportunities to learn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"text section">&NewLine;<div class&equals;"highlight">&NewLine;<h6>John Fenaughty is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work&period; This article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the view of the University of Auckland&period; It is published here with permission from University of Auckland&period; It was first published on Newsroom <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;newsroom&period;co&period;nz&sol;&commat;ideasroom&sol;2019&sol;11&sol;29&sol;924292&sol;some-advice-for-schools-on-lgbt-bullying" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Some advice for school on LGBGT bullying<&sol;a>&comma; 29 November 2019<&sol;h6>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;

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