Gender-Inclusive Schools

How to Affirm and Support Gender-Expansive Students

Dave Edwards

• Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9798885543989
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Help gender-expansive students feel safe, included, and affirmed at school. Gender-expansive youth need school policies and practices that focus on their happiness, health, safety, and privacy. Schools and teachers need concrete, accessible strategies and tools for supporting them. This book empowers every educator with those tools and strategies. Whether educators are brand new to or already familiar with gender diversity topics, they'll find opportunities to learn and practice in a judgment-free, low-stakes way. This must-have resource: Helps educators understand, advocate for, and implement research-based best practices for gender-expansive youth., Includes discussion prompts and reflection activities at the end of each chapter., Shares strategies for affirming students through social transitions at school., Supports educators by offering model language to address challenging questions related to gender in school communities., Provides concrete actions educators can take to adopt gender-inclusive language and create learning environments that welcome students of all genders., Offers perspectives from gender-expansive youth in their own words., Written by educator and advocate Dave Edwards, founder of the Gender Inclusive Schools organization, this book grew from the resources and education-specific trainings he has developed working with school districts, independent schools, and educators throughout the United States and in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Digital content includes reproducible forms from the book.

Table of contents

• A
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Contents Cont.
• Contents Cont
• Foreword by Kade Goepferd, M.D. xi
• Introduction 1
• Why I Wrote This Book 2
• About This Book 3
• Gathering Information 7
• Gender-Inclusive Practices Assessment 9
• Chapter 1: Guiding Principles 13
• Guiding Principle 1: Support Happy and Healthy Kids 14
• Guiding Principle 2: Protect Privacy and Confidentiality 17
• Review and Reflection 18
• Mission/Vision Reflection 19
• Guiding Principles Reflection 20
• Chapter 2: Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 21
• Acknowledging Controversy 21
• Responding in the Moment 23
• Practice Builds Confidence 23
• Guiding Principles Check-In 27
• Review and Reflection 27
• Standardizing Responses 29
• Chapter 3: Social Transitions 31
• A Significant Moment 32
• A Process of Exploration 33
• Informing a Student’s Peers 34
• Guiding Principles Check-In 36
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 37
• Review and Reflection 37
• Chapter 4: Medical Transitions 39
• Bodies Are Private 39
• What Is a Medical Transition? 40
• Essential Health Care for Transgender and Gender-Diverse (TGD) Youth: Separating Fact from Fiction 40
• Guiding Principles Check-In 46
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 46
• Review and Reflection 47
• Chapter 5: Facilities Access 49
• Access to Facilities That Match Gender Identity 49
• Acknowledging Cis/Heteronormativity 50
• Enhanced Privacy Options 51
• Schools Located under Hostile Laws and Restrictions 53
• Guiding Principles Check-In 54
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 54
• Review and Reflection 55
• What Is “Normal” at Your School? 57
• Behavioral Problem Areas at Your School 58
• Chapter 6: Sports and Activities 59
• Sports 59
• Activities 61
• Following Students into the Future 62
• Guiding Principles Check-In 63
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 63
• Review and Reflection 64
• Sports and Gender 66
• Chapter 7: Names and Pronouns 67
• Names 68
• Pronouns 68
• Exploring Fit 69
• Doing Better Every Day 71
• Guiding Principles Check-In 72
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 73
• Review and Reflection 74
• Student Information Sheet 75
• Name and Pronouns Educator Affirmation 76
• Name and Pronouns Family Affirmation 77
• Pronoun Practice: Family Story 78
• Pronoun Practice: Educator Story 80
• Pronoun Practice: Family Discussion Prompts 82
• Chapter 8: Visible Support 83
• Visibility in Physical Spaces 83
• Equitable Visibility 85
• Guiding Principles Check-In 86
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 87
• Review and Reflection 88
• Identity Visibility Reflection 89
• Chapter 9: Daily Gender-Inclusive Practices 91
• Gender-Inclusive School Communications 91
• Gender-Neutral Instructional Groupings 93
• Gender-Inclusive Classroom Language 94
• Guiding Principles Check-In 95
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 95
• Review and Reflection 96
• Gender-Neutral Words for Addressing Groups of Students 97
• Gender-Inclusive Language Practice 98
• Chapter 10: Gender-Inclusion Policies 99
• Developing a Policy 100
• Policy versus Implementation Guidance 101
• Guiding Principles Check-In 102
• Responding to Challenging Questions and Comments 103
• Review and Reflection 103
• Model Gender-Inclusion Policy 105
• Conclusion: Words of Hope and Optimism 113
• Acknowledgments 115
• Recommended Resources 117
• References 121
• Index 125
• Digital Resources 129
• About the Author 131
• B