Supporting gender-inclusive schools: educators’ beliefs about gender diversity training and implementation plans

ABSTRACT

Transgender and gender-expansive students are disproportionately at risk for a host of negative academic and health outcomes; yet, few educators receive training on gender-inclusive school practices. This descriptive study used evaluation survey data from employees (N = 1,425) across 80 schools participating in gender-inclusivity professional development sessions. Using a mixed-methods approach, we assessed educators’ beliefs about the need and relevance of the training, capacity to improve learning environments, intended implementation of strategies, and suggestions for future trainings. We examined outcomes using descriptive statistics and assessed the educators’ roles using regression analyses with- and without school fixed-effects. Our results showed educators wanted even more training on gender diversity and believed the professional development provided was useful and relevant. They reported having increased capacity to create a safe educational environment and discuss gender issues with others in their school environment. We found differences by educators’ roles in schools and across schools in how capable educators felt in engaging parents, relevance to self, and usefulness. Future trainings and research should address these differences. The findings from this study provide a description of educators’ responses to gender-diversity trainings from 80 schools, highlighting the broad relevance of and need for educator gender-diversity professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender identity
• transgender
• educator professional development
• educators’ beliefs
• gender diversity training
• gender-affirming

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago’s Gender & Sex Development Program, the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, and the Sexualities Project at Northwestern University. We are grateful to Drs. Lisa Kuhns, Robert Garofalo, James Spillane, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach for providing comments and additional insights contributing to this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago’s Gender & Sex Development Program; Northwestern University Institute of Policy Research; Sexualities Project at Northwestern University; National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship.