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Understanding Gender Variance and Transgender

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Understanding Gender Variance and Transgender Understanding gender variance and transgender Lesson plan 3 4 © Crown copyright 2016 Digital ISBN 978 1 4764 5176 6 WG26425 Contents Introduction 2 Overview 3 Preparation 4 Classroom activities 6 Resources 9 Introduction This is the third lesson in a series of five lessons on gender and transgender-based bullying. 1. Understanding gender stereotyping. 2. Social norms relating to gender. 3. Understanding gender variance and transgender. 4. What does gender and transgender-based bullying look like and what protections are there? 5. What can we do about gender and transgender-based bullying? 2 Overview This is the third lesson plan in a series of five. Through two whole group discussions, one reading activity and one small group activity this lesson will explore issues relating to gender variance and transgender. At appropriate points, links should be made back to the learning from Lesson plans 1 and 2 in the series It is important to explore and understand all of the pre-reading before delivering this lesson, or any of the lessons in the series, as it sets the context and some baseline knowledge and understanding, as well as providing ideas for how to facilitate discussion of these potentially sensitive topics. Key stage This lesson plan is suitable for use at either Key Stage 3 or 4. The depth and complexity of the discussion is likely to be greater if used at Key Stage 4. Links to the curriculum for Key Stages 3 and 4 Personal and social education (PSE) contributes to thinking and communication skills as well as to the content for Active citizenship; Health and emotional well-being; and Moral and spiritual development. Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship contributes to the content for Identity and culture; and Choices and decisions. 3 Preparation Time 60 minutes (if you have less time you can give the reading to do in advance and/or remove Discussion 1 and just present the information on numbers). Learning objectives By the end of the lesson learners will: understand what is meant by the various terms related to gender variance and transgender have become more familiar with using the terms in their correct context be able to consider the experiences of transgender people. Background and pre-reading Respecting others: anti-bullying guidance Before delivering any of the lessons in this series, teachers should access and become familiar with the Welsh Government guidance document, Respecting others: Sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying (Welsh Government, 2011). This can be accessed from: learning.wales.gov.uk/docs/learningwales/publications/121128absexisten.pdf Before delivering this lesson teachers should also refer back to the pre-reading provided with Lesson plan 1 in this series. Pre-reading For many people this will be an unfamiliar topic to deliver. Consequently, before delivering this lesson it is important to have looked at and understood the key messages from Transphobic Bullying – Could you deal with it in your school?. This document, produced for the Home Office by GIRES (Gender Identity Research and Education Society), provides a comprehensive understanding of transgender issues and will support teachers to deliver this lesson in a sensitive, appropriate and well informed manner. Sections 1 to 3 provide a good introduction. The document can be accessed from: www.gires.org.uk/assets/Schools/TransphobicBullying-print.pdf 4 The GIRES website also provides access to e-learning which may support delivery of this lesson. This can be accessed from: www.gires.org.uk/index.php/education Having delivered this lesson, it is possible that young people experiencing issues related to gender identity may choose to speak to you. Chapter 6 of the Transphobic Bullying document gives guidance on providing support and protection for learners dealing with transgender issues. Your understanding might also be aided by reading an article written by a teacher in America and recommended by GIRES which can be accessed from: www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-bollow-tempel/teaching-gender-variant- children_b_1163459.html Resources Print copies of ‘Handout: Gender development – the inside story’ (for the reading activity and the group activity). Have the means to play the audio clips from the BBC for Discussion 2. 5 Classroom activities Introduction (2 minutes) At the root of much bullying is a fear of things that we do not understand. This lesson focuses on helping us to understand the nature of gender variance and transgender and the words used to describe it. Reading activity and small group activity: Understanding the terminology (28 minutes) Provide learners with access to a printed copy of ‘Handout: Gender development – the inside story’ and ask them to read the text on pages 9 to 12 individually. This is provided in the ‘Resources’ section of this lesson plan. Put learners into six groups and ask each group to prepare a short presentation (no more than a minute each) that they will give to the rest of the class. Allocate one word to each group. Their presentation should explain, in their own words, what the following terms mean to them. Gender identity. Gender role. Gender variance. Transgender. Transsexual. Trans man. – Trans woman. After each group have completed their short presentations you can share with them the following definitions. – Gender identity: a person’s perception of having a particular gender, which may or may not correspond with their birth sex. – Gender role: the role or behaviour learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. – Gender variance: a behaviour or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine and feminine gender norms. – Transgender: denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. – Transsexual: a person who emotionally and psychologically feels that they belong to the opposite sex. – Trans man: a female-to-male transsexual. – Trans woman: a male-to-female transsexual. 6 Discussion 1: How many people are we talking about? (10 minutes) Ask learners how many people out of every 1,000 in the UK they think might: feel uncomfortable about their gender? seek medical treatment for their gender variance? undergo transition and live full time in a gender opposite to that assigned at birth? Also ask them to consider what percentage they think: – were initially raised male? – were initially raised female? Discuss their answers and ask what they think informed their answers. Was it the media? Their own experiences? Just guess work? Provide them with the figures for the UK which are in the box below. Point out that the number of transgender people within the UK population is relatively small but significant. Discuss how similar the answers are to the figures they gave. Why do they think they vary? You may choose to ask if they think it is not an issue we need to discuss because the numbers are relatively small. Perhaps compare this to other issues that affect minority groups. Make links back to Lesson plan 1 which explored the importance of treating everyone equally and with respect for diversity. Ask them why it is important to use the words they discussed earlier correctly? How might it feel if you questioned your own gender identity or were transgender if people used the words as a form of insult, e.g. ‘tranny’? Point out that this would be a form of transphobic bullying and more examples of bullying will be looked at in Lesson plan 4 ‘What does gender and transgender-based bullying look like and what protections are there?’. Figures for the UK Experiencing some degree of gender discomfort: This may affect 6 in 1,000 people, amounting to about 300,000 people. In the main, they do not seek medical treatment for their discomfort and remain largely invisible to clinicians. Many deal with their feelings by occasional cross-dressing. Experiencing a sufficient degree of gender discomfort to seek medical treatment: The number of people who have sought treatment may be about 10,500 people, possibly 1 in 5,000. About 80% of these people were initially raised as male and the remainder as female. 7 Living full-time in a gender opposite to that assigned at birth: The number of people, within that 10,500, who have already undergone transition to live full-time in a different gender role may be about 6,200. Reproduced from Transphobic Bullying – Could you deal with it in your school? (GIRES, 2008, p.5) Discussion 2: Real lives – audio clips (15 minutes) Explain that having discussed the words used to describe transgender people it is now important to make sure that we see them as people – just like any other people – with lives and jobs and families and friends. Play one or both of the audio clips from the BBC which are in the resources. After each clip discuss what they have heard using the suggested questions as well as any of your own. Summing up and ending (5 minutes) Ask each learner to note down two things they have learnt in the lesson or two ways in which their thinking has been changed following the reading and discussion. If there is time, ask a few learners to share one of their points. 8 Resources Handout: Gender development – the inside story (for reading activity and group activity) Atypical gender development may give rise to a psychological experience of oneself as a man or as a woman, that is, a gender identity, which is incongruent with the phenotype (the sex differentiated characteristics of the body). ‘M’ or ‘F’ is entered on the birth certificate in accordance with genital appearance at birth so individuals experiencing this condition will have been raised, from birth, in the gender role (the social category of boy or girl) which is consistent with their phenotypic appearance.
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