School Leadership for Transgender Youth: A Case Study
Date
2019-09
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Abstract
The purpose of this case study is to determine which school leadership practices positively impact transgender youth. Understanding the lived experience of an identified marginalized, vulnerable group in school, who have been impacted by school administrators’ actions and inactions, acts as a window into the relationship between the practice of school leadership and its impact upon a targeted marginalized group in public schools: the transgender student community. The study used qualitative case-study methodology and involved six participants in semi-structured interviews. The study participants attended one large urban high school and identified as members of the transgender community. The findings of this inquiry revealed that the transgender student community faces consistent and pervasive bullying, harassment and violence as aspects of their school experiences. In this study, all student participants described their experiences with current principal leadership practice as running along the continuum of offering minimal support and influence on behalf of the transgender student community to behaviours that contributed to further harm. Study participants indicated that their voices were rarely accessed to inform policy development in efforts to provide safety and support for the transgender student community. School experiences shared by study participants lead to an increased in anxiety and depression, contributed to their absenteeism from school and other social activity, and impacted their academic success in school. The study findings support that principal leaders’ professional learning must incorporate the development of the knowledge and attitudes reflective of a social justice perspective that allows them to understand and support all students, especially those most marginalized and vulnerable.
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Keywords
transgender students, social justice leadership, marginalized student populations
Citation
Barbor, B. D. (2019). School Leadership for Transgender Youth: A Case Study (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.