Policy and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Students

by Tiffany Jones

Overview

This book addresses policy research on homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. It covers quantitative and qualitative research into policy impacts for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex students. It draws on a large-scale Australian study of the impacts of different kinds of policy at the national, state, sector and school level. The study covers over 80 policies, interviews with key policy informants and survey data from 3,134 GLBTIQ students. Since new guidelines were released by UNESCO, homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools has become a key area of interest around the world. There has been much pressure on educational leadership to engage with these issues since the UN released international human rights legislation on sexual orientation and gender identity that have implications for student rights. The book presents statistically significant correlations between specific types of state and school level education policies that explicitly named homophobia/ GLBTIQ student issues, and lowered incidence of homophobic bullying, lowered risk of suicide and self-harm for these students. It includes stories from policy makers on how the policies came to be (through lawsuits, ministerial inquiries and political activism), right through to the stories of students themselves and how they individually felt the impacts of policies or policy lacks. International contexts of homophobic and transphobic bullying are discussed, as well as recent transnational work in this field. The book considers the different types of collaborations that can lead to further policy development, the transferability of the research and some of the benefits and problems with transnational policy adoptions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319119915
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	10/21/2014
Series:	Policy Implications of Research in Education , #6
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	158
File size:	862 KB

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements.- Glossary.- Symbols & Abbreviations.- Chapter One: Why is Policy Presumed Powerful?- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Why a Policy Book?- 1.2.1 A policy push.-1.2.2 Presuppositions around policy’s power.- 1.3 What this Book Covers.- 1.3.1 How the ‘GLBTIQ’ acronym is used.- 1.3.2 How ‘sexuality’ and ‘sexuality education’ are used.- 1.3.3 Why secondary schooling?- 1.4 What is Policy, Anyway?- 1.4.1 Policy and power.- 1.4.2 Policy as discursive.- 1.4.3 Discourse and power.- 1.5 Conclusion.- Chapter Two: GLBTIQ Students; What’s the Problem?- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.11 Research on GLBTIQ students.- 2.12 Research gaps.- 2.2 ‘GLBTIQ Student’ Constructions are Discursive.- 2.3 Discourse Exemplars.- 2.4 Orientation-based Sexuality Education Discourse Exemplar.- 2.4.1 Conservative.- 2.4.2 Liberal.- 2.4.3 Critical.- 2.4.4 Post-modern.- 2.5 Conclusion.- Chapter Three: Studying Policy Impacts.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Methodology: Critical Discourse Analysis.- 3.1.1 Adaptation of CDA.- 3.1.2 Post-modern approach to description stage.- 3.1.3 Both core and innovative techniques.- 3.3 Research procedures.- 3.3.1 Data sources and collection methods.- 3.3.2 Source One: policies – textual analysis.- 3.3.3 Source Two: key informant interviews.- 3.3.4 Source Three: survey data – quantitative and qualitative analysis.- 3.4 Data analysis.- 3.4.1 Leximancer analysis of policy documents.- 3.4.2 Fairclough’s 10 CDA questions.- 3.4.3 Visual CDA techniques.- 3.4.4 Fairclough’s analysis of discursive practices.- 3.5 Ethical considerations.- 3.6 Conclusion.- Chapter Four:  How do Australian Policies Treat GLBTIQ Students?- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Mapping the policy terrain – overview of the corpus.- 4.2.1 National policies: inclusion in principle.- 4.2.2 The policy states of the nation.- 4.2.3 Conclusions about policydiscourses.- 4.3 Constructions of GLBTIQ students in key policies.- 4.3.1 National: part of the general diversity.- 4.3.2 NSW: Protected victims, potential complainants.- 4.3.3 QLD: Interpretively included, or not needy enough.- 4.3.4 Victoria: DEECD: Protected needy ‘at risk’ victims.- 4.3.5 Conclusions about how constructions function.- 4.4 Conclusion.- Chapter Five: Which Policies Are Useful?- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Australian GLBTIQ students.- 5.3 Usefulness of policies in enhancing school level policy protection.- 5.3.1 National.- 5.3.2 State level.- 5.4 Usefulness of policies in increasing the purchase of affirming discourses.- 5.4.1 National.- 5.4.2 State level.- 5.4.3 School level.- 5.5 Usefulness of policies in encouraging support features.- 5.5.1 National.- 5.5.2 State level.- 5.5.3 School level.- 5.6 Usefulness of policies in encouraging supportive school climates.- 5.6.1 National.- 5.6.2 State level.- 5.6.3 School level.- 5.7 Conclusion.- Chapter Six: Conclusions & Outcomes.- 6.1 Discussion of findings.- 6.1.1 Policy positions: paucity AND polyvalence.- 6.1.2 Policy’s uses and usefulness.- 6.1.3 Policy’s presumed powers.- 6.2 Conclusions.- 6.2.1 Preferable policy positions.- 6.2.2 Useful policies.- 6.2.3 Policies with enhanced powers.- 6.2.4 Limitations.- 6.3 Implications.- 6.3.1 For education bodies and policy makers.- 6.3.2 For policy advocates and activists.- 6.3.3 For school staff.- 6.3.4 For teacher educators.- 6.3.5 For students.- 6.3.6 For academics.- 6.4 Outcomes.- 6.4.1 Brief overview of dissemination.- 6.4.2 International and national outcomes.- 6.4.3 State-specific outcomes.- 6.5 Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

From her work with UNESCO, Dr Tiffany Jones is qualified to write with authority about GLBTIQ policy. The book’s promise to problematize the power of policy provides a much needed perspective on international and Australian GLBTIQ policy, interrogating the assumption that GLBTIQ policy is an unquestioned good. The topic is clearly timely and the international focus is important given the contemporary and widely varying discourses and actions surrounding the rights of GLBTIQ individuals and groups across the globe. The use of Australian as a particular case study is also wise as moving between the general to the particular can be daunting without some sort of specific grounding in geographical context. Australia provides that grounding so that Dr. Jones can move her examination of policy across the international through Australia to particular schools and individuals. In contested social issues and conditions, such as those surrounding issues of GLBTIQ rights and sexuality education, the chance to hear the voices of those for whom policy is intended is the most powerful. This book will appeal to both policymakers and academics.”

Professor Kathleen M. Brown
Professor of Educational Leadership, UNC School of Education

“This book is a very exciting and important project that examines extensively the policy issues surrounding GLBTIQ policy issues, and a very thorough study of policy efficacy. It will appeal to university professors, researchers who study policy or GLBTIQ issues, policy analysts, international scholars, law-makers. I’m very impressed. I look forward to buying thebook!”

Professor Charol Shakeshaft
Professor and Chair of the Department of Education Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University

From the Publisher