Trans Action and Poetic Justice: Retrospective Trans Narratives of High School
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Long Island University Digital Commons @ LIU Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011- LIU Post 2020 Trans Action and Poetic Justice: Retrospective Trans Narratives of High School Mary Waring Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liu.edu/post_fultext_dis Part of the Gender Equity in Education Commons Running head: TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE Trans Action and Poetic Justice: Retrospective Trans Narratives of High School by Mary Waring A Dissertation Proposal Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education 2020 Jeong-eun Rhee, Ph.D., Chairperson, Dissertation Committee David Casamento, Ed.D., Committee Member Shaireen Rasheed, Ph.D., Committee Member Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Educational Studies College of Education, Information, and Technology Long Island University LIU Post Campus TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE ii DEDICATION To my students Queer, trans, non-binary, and cis Those that I have taught Those I have yet to meet You are an inspiration Hold my feet to the fire I would not have it any other way To my children Madison and AJ Thank you for your love Thank you for sharing me Knowing that there is enough love for everyone TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was possible because of the five participants who were gracious enough to share their stories. Their voices are a beacon of strength and hope. It was an honor and privilege to have their life stories cross over and become a part of my story. I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Dr. Jeong-eun Rhee, whose support, and advice exceeded the bounds of my expectations. I once read a book where the sage advisor explains that our questions possess a power that does not lie in the answer. Your questions helped me question what I thought I knew and what I wanted to know. Thank you for encouraging me to go down those rabbit holes; they led me into the most beautifully messy and intricate spaces of awareness, tension, contradiction, and connection. I never knew how much I wanted and needed to go there. My committee members, Dr. Shaireen Rasheed and Dr. David Casamento provided invaluable feedback. You were instrumental in the process of completing this dissertation. I want to also express gratitude to the cohort members and professors whose academic camaraderie will always be treasured. Thank you to my family and friends for your interest. Thank you for giving me spaces where I could test and talk about my ideas. Thank you for understanding every time I said I had work to do. Thank you for all the little celebrations along the way. You believed in me and walked alongside me whenever I questioned myself. I will forever be grateful to you. This dissertation is a shared accomplishment. PopPop, even though you could not see me finish, I know you have been with me in spirit. Your unwavering belief that I should and would do it sustained me. Sometimes in the wee hours of a late-night writing session, I felt your presence, and I knew you were there telling me to keep going, so I did. TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE iv Abstract Trans students are part of a heteronormative culture of shared spaces within secondary education. Spaces that are complicated by external and internal factors that simultaneously contradict and complement each other. Functioning within a Queer Theory framework, this qualitative study explores the complex relationships between student agency, student identity, and school function, as expressed in the retrospective accounts of five trans participants who all attended suburban high schools in New York. Poetic transcription challenges the extant research of trans students. Studies that predominately consolidate the transgender experience under the umbrella of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and questioning (LGBTQ), a conflation that creates confused understandings of gender identity. In addition to this, trans enumerated research primarily reports predictive factors that identify trans students as a higher risk marginalized population. Cumulatively, these research strands serve to perpetuate troubling discourses that influence educational practices on both the institutional and pedagogical levels. This study disrupts this discourse, sharing the retrospective narrative of trans student voices and exposing educational policy and methods that, at the very best, are well-intentioned, and at their worst, are oppressive or exclusionary. Participant trans actions serve as a call for poetic justice, empowerment, and positive representation of trans students. Keywords: Queer, trans, retrospective, high school, poetic transcription TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE v List of Figures Figure 1: The Transgender Umbrella ............................................................................................24 Figure 2: Contributing Factors of the Trans High School Experience ..........................................27 Figure 3: Nuňez’s Multilevel Model of Intersectionality .............................................................31 Figure 4: Mapping the Organization of the Literature Review .....................................................37 Figure 5: LGBTQ Student Protections by State ...........................................................................40 Figure 6: Coding Category Stages .................................................................................................82 Figure 7: Validating Qualitative Research .....................................................................................88 Figure 8: Trans Navigations of Heteronormative Spaces ............................................................130 TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE vi List of Tables Table 1: Federal Protections of LGBTQ Populations .......................................................38 Table 2: Heteronormative Scavenger Hunt Examples ......................................................49 Table 3: LGBTQ Training Vignettes .................................................................................50 Table 4: Summary of General Coding Methods ...............................................................80 Table 5: Participant Demographics ...................................................................................91 TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE vii Table of Contents Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................v List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 11 Diversity and Representation .............................................................................................14 Trans, Transgender, Transgender Theory ...........................................................................15 Statement of the Problem ...............................................................................................................16 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................17 The Complexities of Queer ................................................................................................18 Trans Youth: Demographics and Background Factors .......................................................22 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................................28 Deconstructing Researcher Positionality ...........................................................................28 Queering Education at the Intersections ............................................................................29 Operationalization of Constructs: Defining Fluid Vocabularies ....................................................33 Plan of this Dissertation .................................................................................................................35 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................35 Civil Rights for LGBTQ Students .................................................................................................37 Legislation and Laws: An Impetus for Change .................................................................38 Federal and Local Mandates: Policy Changes and Conversations ...................................39 TRANS ACTION AND POETIC JUSTICE viii The Umbrella of LGBTQ: School Reforms for a Collective Identity ...........................................42 LGBTQ: The At-Risk Discourse .......................................................................................42 School Climate ...................................................................................................................44 Curriculum and the Teacher...............................................................................................45