What’s involved in ‘the work’? Understanding administrators’ roles in bringing trans-affirming policies into practice

ABSTRACT

Researchers have concluded that policy implementation is a process of mutual adaptation between policies and implementers. Our study draws attention to that relationship, especially with respect to policies that challenge assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. We focus on how six administrators in one United States school district understood ‘the work’ of bringing the district’s Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students into practice. Our analysis of interview data focused these questions: How do administrators describe their motivation and commitment to engage in the work? What puzzles of practice do participants name? How do they talk about the work of implementation? What does that work mean/involve in everyday practice? What were their roles? We found that implementation was locally defined and enacted; participants’ sense-making, their roles in enacting the Guidelines, and the puzzles they negotiated were influenced by their unique contexts. We share examples of diverse cases in an effort to create policy knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender
• educational policy
• policy implementation
• administrators

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the educators in this study for their on-going commitments to creating safe and affirming school cultures for all students, and for working in partnership with us to develop knowledge toward that end.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Bethy Leonardi is a Research Associate and Affiliate Faculty in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a cofounder and codirector of A Queer Endeavor, an initiative that aims to support educators and school communities in organizing safer, more affirming learning environments for LGBTQ and gender-expansive youth.

Sara Staley is a Research Associate and Affiliate Faculty in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a cofounder and codirector of A Queer Endeavor, an initiative that aims to support educators and school communities in organizing safer, more affirming learning environments for LGBTQ and gender-expansive youth.

Notes

1. All names, including the names of the district, schools, university organization, and mascots, are pseudonyms.

2. We use language consistent with the District Q’s Guidelines themselves, though in our local context students also use, for example, gender expansive, non-binary, and gender creative to self-identify.