Hannah Swanson: MA in Art Education Thesis

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Art Educators and the Creation of Gender Variant Inclusion Practices in the Art Classroom: A Close Look at Inclusion through Pedagogy

A Master’s Degree Thesis

By Hannah Swanson submitted to Moore College of Art & Design in full fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Art Education with an Emphasis in Special Populations

Philadelphia, PA

August 2020

Accepted: ______________________________________________________________ Lauren Stichter – Director of Art Education

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Abstract

I identify as nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. while growing up, I did not have a language for my gender identity. My art classrooms there was no room for me to explore my identity. In fact, art classes showed a lack of understanding toward this identity.

Curriculum had no representation of LGBTQ artists, let alone gender variant artists.

Never seeing myself represented in art, I felt like I was alone in my gender identity. The lack of inclusion for gender variant students was still apparent during my preservice education and student teaching. Existing research on this topic contains noticeable gaps regarding what inclusive pedagogy looks like for gender variant students specifically in art education. This autoethnographic thesis addresses those gaps. The purpose of this thesis was to better understand the current dialogue surrounding gender variance in the art classroom. What have educators done or not done, and why? What support and resources did art educators need to feel more prepared to support gender variant students?

This thesis identified the gaps in knowledge concerning gender variant students in the art room. The findings have the potential to start a dialogue about what resources art educators need to be able to create gender variant inclusive classrooms.

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AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people for their endless support throughout this thesis.

To my parents, Mike and Theresa Swanson, who despite my wild idea to move across the country to attend grad school, encouraged me to chase what was important to me. Your support and love for me will always fuel my drive to become better.

To Jas Bourgeois who held my hand throughout this process, who listened to me when I was stressed, who’d tell me weekly how smart I am and graciously edited my entire thesis.

You are an incredible partner.

To Cheddar, my cat, who literally sat by my side the entire time I wrote this thesis. I couldn’t ask for a better cat.

To my cohort members, despite not being able to spend our last summer together in person, your constant support and motivation got me through this.

To Lauren Stichter and Amanda Newman-Godfrey seamlessly guided me through two years of attending Moore College of Art and Design, and despite my nervousness to pursue my thesis topic, told me over and over again how important my research was.

To Sam Varian, my thesis mentor, for her amazing and thoughtful feedback.

To my participants, without you, this research would not have been possible.

And finally, to my best friend Nick, to say that you’re the best advocate in the world is an understatement. Thank you for your constant praise and validation of me and my research.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page…………………………………………………………………………………. i Abstract……...…………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements………… …………………………………………………………...iii Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………… iv – vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Background to the Problem………………………….……………………………1 Problem Statement………………………………………………………………...3 Research Question………………………………………………………………...6 Theoretical Framework.……………………………………………….…….......6-8 Significance of the Study.……………………………………………….………8-9 Limitations of the Study.……………………………………………….……...9-10 Definitions of Terms.……………………………………………….………...10-14 Assumptions to be Debated…………………………………………….……......14 Assumptions not to be Debated………………………………………………14-15 Summary………………………….……………………….…….…….…………15

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction…………………………………………………………………..16-17 Literature Concept Map………………………………………………………….17

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Understanding the Lexicon of Gender Variant Students…….…………….…18-21 What it Looks Like to be Ally to Gender Variant Students …………………21-23 Learning About Gender Variant Student Through Experience………………23-26 The Effects of Literature that Victimizes Gender Variant Students…………26-29 The Support Gender Variant Students Need ………………………………...29-31 Disrupting Heteronormativity………………………………………………..31-33 Inclusion……………………………………………………………………..33-40 Representation……………………………………………………………….40-43 Pedagogic Frameworks for Gender Variance……………… ………………43-47 Olivia Gude’s Post Modern Principles………………………………43-44 Olivia Gude’s Principles of Possibility………………………………44-45 SJ Miller’s Queer Literacy Framework………………………………45-47 Summary……………………………………………………………………...47-48

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY Setting……………………………………………………………………………49 Participants…………………………………………………………………...49-50 Researcher Role………………………………………………………………….50 Ethical Considerations………………………………………………………..50-51 Research Methods…………………………………………………………….51-53 Context…………………………………………………………………….….52-53 Literature Sources…………………………………………………………….53-54 Data Collection Methods……………………………………………………..54-56

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Interviews………………………………………………………………...54 Artifacts…………………………………………………………………..54 Journals…………………………………………………………………..55 Limitations……………………………………………………………….55 Data Analysis……………………………………………………...….55-56

CHAPTER 4: DATA COLLECTION & FINDINGS Introduction to Data Collection Process…………………………………………57 Process of how Data was Collected and Organized……………………………..57 Changes in the field…………………………………………………………..57-59 How I entered the Field as a Researcher……………………………………..59-60 Presentation of data………………………………………………………………60 Uncoded Data………………………………………………………...61-69 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………70-91 Coding Strategies……………………………………………………..70-71 Coded Interviews……………………………………………………..71-80 Data Organized into Matrices………………………………………...81-97 Summary of Findings…………………………………………………………….98

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS Introduction to Findings………………………………………………………….99 Presentation of Findings……………………………………………….……99-130

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In Context of Research Question……………………………..……..99-109 Representation……………………………………………..101-102 Current Teacher Practices …………………………………102-109 Using Books……………………………………….102-104 Projects on Identity……………………………………..104 How Gender Variant Students Can be Seen……….105-107 Benefits for Everyone in the Room………………..107-108 Implicit Teaching…………………………………..108-109 In Context of Literature Sources…………………………………..109-114 Addressing the Gaps in Literature…………………………109-110 Queering Art History and Disrupting Heteronormativity…110-112 Biases………………………………………………………112-114 In Context of Research Environment……………………………..114--119 School Climate…………………………………………….114-116 Does School Climate Affect Inclusion?..............................116- 119 In the Context as Self as Practitioner………………………………119-122 Implications for the Field………………………………………….122-128 What Findings Mean for a Larger Audience…………………...122 The Privilege that Educators Have………………………...123-124 Lack of Preparations in Preservice Programs……………...124-125 What Participants Want to Know More of……………...…125-126 Final Findings…………………………………………..….127-128 Implications for Further Research: Next Questions…………….…128-130

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Conclusion……………………………………………………………...131

REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………..132-134 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………….135

APPENDICES APPENDIX A: Research Timeline……………………………………………..…137-138 APPENDIX B: Letters of Consent, Participant Rights, Interview Protocol, ……..139-147 APPENDIX C: Researcher Reflective and Visual Journal Prompts ……………...148-149 APPENDIX D: Participant Demographics……………………………………………..150 APPENDIX E: Coded Full Interviews ……………………………………………151-262 APPENDIX F: Gender Variant Resources for Art Educators ……………………263-274

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FIGURES: Figure 1: Literature Review Concept Map…………………………………………...…17 Figure 2: Genderbread Person………………………………………………………..…18 Figure 3: Check Yourself: Understanding your own beliefs …………………………...23 Figure 4: Matrix Showing participants Gender Identity………………………………...81 Figure 5: Matrix of Participants Experiences Working with Students………………….82 Figure 6: Matrix Showing Participants Definition of Gender Variance………………...83 Figure 7: Matrix showing participants exposure to gender variant identities in their preservice program………………………………………………………………………84 Figure 8: Matrix Showing Participants Preparedness to Support Gender Variant Students from their Preservice Program…………………………………………………………...85 Figure 9: Matrix Showing why Participants Think that Inclusion of Gender Variance is Important in the Art Classroom………………………………………………………….86 Figure 10: Matrix Showing Participants Climates Concerning Gender Variance………87 Figure 11: Matrix Showing Participants Biases Concerning Gender Variance…………88 Figure 12: Matrix Showing how Participants Address Gender Variance Within Their Pedagogy…………………………………………………………………………………89 Figure 13: Matrix Showing how Participants use Gender Neutral Language in the Art Classroom………………………………………………………………………………..90 Figure 14: Matrix Showing how Cisgender Students can Benefit from a Gender Variant Inclusive Pedagogy………………………………………………………………………91 Figure 15: Matrix Showing Importance of Representation of Gender Variant Artists…92 Figure 16: Matrix Showing Participations use of Gender Variant Inclusive Imagery….93

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Figure 17: Matrix Showing what Visuals Would be Helpful for Participants to have in Classroom………………………………………………………………………………..94 Figure 18: Matrix Showing Importance of Art for Gender Variant Students…………..95 Figure 19: Matrix Showing what Participants want to Know more of Concerning Gender Variance in the Art Classroom…………………………………………………………...96 Figure 20: Matrix Showing Participants Define Gender Variance in their Classroom…97

1 Chapter I: INTRODUCTION Background to the Problem I am a queer non-binary person. While I have always been queer and non-binary, I didn’t know that until I was almost out of college. I never had a language for what I was until after high school, and even then it took me years to understand myself and my relation to LGBTQ identities and come to terms with both. As a result, I did not come out about my gender identity until I was 23 years old. LGBTQ issues — especially transgender ones — were never talked about in an equitable and in-depth way when I was growing up. There was not a space carved out for such students; no representation for them to see. There was no community for these students nor inclusion for them within art teachers’ pedagogy. Having been an adult when I realized that I am not only queer, but a trans non-binary person, I had to relearn how to navigate every situation that includes meeting new people, especially when it comes to working in schools.

When I returned to working in schools, I have found, unsurprisingly, a continuing lack of inclusion for transgender students: gendered language is still used in classrooms; people assume that I’m a girl and don’t think to ask; and the lexicon of gender variant students is not understood. This lack of representation results in gender variant students being underrepresented, being misgendered, feeling excluded, and constantly having to choose whether to stand up for their identity or be uncomfortably complacent. Even as a trans non-binary adult, almost every day I still must ask myself, “do I want to explain to this person that I use they/them pronouns?”

I think the most harm a teacher can do is say, “I don’t have any transgender students.” How can we really know that? If a student does not feel safe, they will stay

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closeted, as I did for 23 years. What would happen if we created a more equitably inclusive space for gender variant students in the art room?

The purpose of this study was to find out what art educators have done, or not done, to include their transgender and gender variant students, and why or why not. Was there any common language that these educators used? How did they make their pedagogies more inclusive? What types of artists are did they show? In what types of projects are their students engaged that support their gender variant and transgender students? Did these teachers work with administrations that do not agree with them?

What resources did teachers feel like they need? How did they inform their cisgender students about transgender and gender variant identities? Alternatively, why did art educators not include this population in their art classrooms? Was it because they do not have the language, the support through administration, or the resources to educate themselves? With these questions in mind, I aimed to learn how to better support transgender and gender variant students in a safe, inclusive, and equitable way.

My experiences shaped my decision to research this topic, which still directly affects me and is severely underrepresented, as well as needed, in art classrooms. Gender variant students deserve a space that feels safe and that celebrates their existence while supporting their creative endeavors. These students deserve to be exposed to a language that could help them further understand their feelings about their gender. They deserve to have a teacher stand up for them. Gender variant children deserve a space where they will be accepted and included in a way that does not other them. Gender variant students deserve to have a teacher who is willing to teach the whole class about gender variant identities. This space is what I still want as an adult. Almost more important, cisgender

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students deserve to learn about this population in a way that is supportive and that teaches tolerance and acceptance.

I approached this research with my study focused on art educators. I suspected that some art educators had already created ways to support gender variant students; however, that work had yet to be documented. By talking to teachers, I wanted to see the commonalities and differences in how they supported and represented their gender variant students. At the same time, I also wanted to know what they did not do and why.

This supporting of gender variant students starts with educating the teachers, which requires understanding what they already know and need to learn. Though slowly, I believe the discourse on supporting and representing gender variant students has begun in art education, although these practices have not been documented. In talking about my thesis with people I get a lot of “yes that’s such a needed topic. I don’t know what to do.”

There’s support around this topic.

Problem Statement Art making has the potential to support students with stress or trauma and is customizable to easily adapt to students’ diverse needs in safe ways (Rhoades, 2018). The art classroom is a unique space that holds the potential to disrupt problematic outlooks on gender variant students through inclusion for gender variant students (Miller, 2015).

However, art educators face large gaps in existing knowledge regarding support for gender variant students. There is a lack of written literature on inclusion within the art classroom for gender variant students. Due to this large gap in knowledge, this thesis pulled from art methodologies, general education curriculum, LGBTQ inclusion,

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disability studies, gender variant student experiences, teacher experiences, my own experiences, reality pedagogy, and art education.

Theoretically, art is the place to be expressive and to explore concepts of gender safely; but without knowledge or a basic understanding of gender variant youth, is this exploration possible? How have art educators made their rooms and pedagogies more inclusive? In the context of Disability Studies, Alice Wexler explains that the word inclusion becomes problematic because it immediately creates an us versus them binary, disabled versus able-bodied. Due to this dynamic, art educators have to be extraordinarily careful to not unintentionally exclude students in attempts to be inclusive (Wexler, 2016).

For example, having one pride flag posted in an art room is not enough to create a safe space; it is just one step in making that classroom inclusive and safe for gender variant students. Inclusion is not just a standalone conversation, or an image posted on the classroom wall; inclusion has to happen every day (Sadowski, 2017). Art teachers must remember that the way they represent, misrepresent, or underrepresent students affects the ways in which students identify, or feel safe enough to identify, with their gender in a social setting (Miller, 2015).

While working in many education settings over the last five years, I noticed that inclusion for gender variant students was non-existent within teachers’ pedagogies.

Administrators did not feel adequately prepared to include gender variance in the curriculum (Sadowski, 2017), and deciding where to start was daunting. Few policies on inclusion of gender variant students have been established at the district level, resulting in students not being supported or feeling safe (Koswic, 2017). Schools still struggle to normalize gender variance acceptance in positive ways (Miller, 2015). On top of this

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struggle, gender identity remains a controversial topic within the school system (Sadowski, 2017). Nonetheless, art educators owe it to their students to educate them about the world, and about being tolerant and understanding of students who are different from themselves, while supporting gender variant students (Bollow Temple, 2016).

I was always queer and always non-binary, but I did not know that I was until I was almost out of college. LGBTQ issues, especially transgender ones, were never discussed in an equitable and in-depth way when I was growing up. There was no space carved out for these students, no representation of themselves for them to see. Being an adult when I realized that I was not only queer but a trans non-binary person, I had to learn how to navigate every situation that included meeting new people. When I returned to working in schools, I found that there was still a lack of inclusion for transgender students. Gendered language is still used rampantly. For example, people assume that I am a girl and do not think to ask my pronouns. Language surrounding transgender and gender variant students is not in practice. This results in underrepresentation of transgender students, students being misgendered, not feeling included, and constantly having to choose whether or not to stand up for their identity. I must make that choice even as an adult, asking myself almost every day, “do I want to explain to this person that I use they/them pronouns?” Or, in similar instances, I’m told that my identity and pronouns is a topic that is too vulnerable to share with students. I think the most harm a teacher can do is say “I don’t have any transgender students.” How can we really know that? If a student doesn’t feel safe, they will stay closeted, as I did for 23 years. What would happen if we created a more equitably inclusive space for gender variant students in the art room?

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Given that inclusion can often unintentionally exclude students (Wexler, 2016), that inclusion is an act practiced every day (Sadowski, 2017), and that schools are still continuing to normalize gender variance (Miller, 2015), K-12 art educators needed a more encompassing framework to envision an art pedagogy that is inclusive for gender variant students. I investigated how art educators have made their pedagogies more inclusive within the K-12 system. My study included three different types of art educators: ally art educators using inclusion methods for their gender variant students, gender variant art educators, and art educators who don’t know where to start to support these students.

Research Question Given that only 10.6% of LGBTQ students reported that their school or district had official policies or guidelines to support transgender or gender nonconforming students in 2017 (2017 GLSEN), and that Sadowski (2017) suggested that transgender students face the biggest challenges physically, psychologically, and academically at school, what resources and education about gender variance do art educators need in order to support their transgender and gender variant students, creating a more ethically inclusive pedagogy for this population? Furthermore, in how did art educator’s preservice experiences prepare them to work with a gender variant population?

Theoretical Framework I looked at three pedagogies that I believed would be beneficial for this thesis: culturally responsive teaching, Olivia Gude’s Postmodern Principles, and Olivia Gude’s

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Principles of Possibility. Since these theories and pedagogies are student centered and based around their interests, I believed they would apply to teaching a gender variant inclusive practice.

According to Adeyemi Stembridge: I think of Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) as a mental model that is useful for identifying themes and tools of practice for closing opportunity gaps. The CRE mental model gives conceptual context for policies and practices that focus on equity without marginalizing some students relative to others. It actively enlists the awareness of culture, race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and other social identity markers that shape the perceptions of educational opportunities. (2019) Culturally Responsive Education called for art educators to be aware of their students and their identities, specifically minority groups. With majority populations (white, heteronormative) represented within curriculum, educators have to be more attentive to the populations who are not represented. Gender variance is one such population.

Gude’s Postmodern Principles were a shift from the elements and principles traditionally taught within the art classroom. Gude took those elements and principles and made them more applicable to a postmodern art student. These principles are based in aesthetics and content, giving students more room to express themselves. Having principles that encourage expression benefits a gender variant population.

Similar to Gude’s postmodern principles, her principles of possibility (2007) are: ‌ The essential contribution that arts education can make to our students and to our communities is to teach skills and concepts while creating

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opportunities to investigate and represent one's own experiences— generating personal and shared meaning. (p. 6) The idea of investigating one’s own experiences can be beneficial for many populations, especially the gender variant population. This thesis specifically looked at how these principles can support gender variant students.

Significance of the Study I interviewed three types of people: art educators who had implemented some sort of gender variant inclusive pedagogy, gender variant art educators, and art educators who had no knowledge on this population and do not know where to start in their classroom.

With this grouping of participants, my research will reach a lot of people. This study can help art educators who need resources to support gender variant students in their classroom. It can also reassure art educators who are already implementing this type of inclusivity in the classroom. It gives a potential to publish some methods that are working for art educators (which there not a lot to begin with). It can help pre-service teachers who may not be exposed to teaching gender variant students in their classes. It can help parents who are looking for ways to support their children. It could help administrators in knowing what types of professional development they need to provide for their teachers.

It could be helpful for districts who are looking to adopt a policy for keeping their gender variant students safe.

While student teaching, I found it difficult to start conversations about gender. I’ve started and found that it is difficult to break a structure that is already in place. This was also not my classroom, which was a factor as well. I noticed that the school climate

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surrounding my topic is almost nonexistent; in fact, the climate almost perpetuated homophobia and transphobia. Students saw gender variant and non-heteronormative identities as bad and use them as insults towards one another. I heard these insults daily.

It was also hard for me to feel confident in presenting these ideas through art and feel totally supported, especially with the support staff in my classes. I can see how implementing gender variant inclusion in a classroom when you are not supported by your school could be exhausting. That being said, I intended for this study to help identify where those supports are needed. I’ll be able to find out where the gaps are so that teacher can feel confident leading this type of inclusion in the classroom even if you don’t have support from administration and staff. This thesis does not answer this question completely; it identified the gaps in knowledge and found out what teachers feel like they need in order to competently support gender variant students. This thesis is a jumping off point for other research, which will eventually lead to a more inclusive pedagogy.

Limitations of the Study My study had some limitations being that I did an ethnographic study and that I did not study a group of students. I did not have a natural setting to study because I did not necessarily have a site. Instead, whomever I interviewed was a teacher in their own art classroom. However, some participants worked in higher education and had to pull from their past experiences in the art classroom. I interviewed people who had teaching experience in varied settings, including k-12 public or private schools, early childhood education, and museum education. I was limited to interviewing and relying on people’s experiences rather than conducting research myself on a group of students. I mostly

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collected data from interviews and journaling, my own experiences while student teaching. Since I had three different types of participants (gender variant art educators, ally educators, and educators who do not know where to start) I had to make sure I represented all of them, but I also had to find common themes between all of them and see if my participants who were more confident with this population can fill in some of the gaps for the participants who were not as confident.

My research has shown many gaps in knowledge around my topic. Initially I had my research pool as just K-12 school teachers. I quickly changed that when I realized that I would get a much wider pool of participants. I extended the participant pool to early childhood educators and museum educators. To take a holistic approach, I had to analyze different groups of people, which is why I had three different types participants. They helped with the scope of the research. I needed to know why people were not including the gender variant population in their pedagogy, while also better understanding how other teachers were including this population in their pedagogy.

Definition of Terms Cisgender – “A person who by nature or by choice conforms to gender-based expectations of society (also referred to as gender straight or ‘gender normative’). Prefix of Latin origin, meaning on the same side (as.). A cisgender individual has a gender identity that is aligned with their sex at birth, and, therefore, has a self-perception and gender expression that matches the behaviors and roles that are considered appropriate for their birth sex: for example, a person who is femininely identified that was born female. In short, cisgender is the opposite of transgender” (Miller, 2016, p. 301).

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Gender – “Socially constructed roles, behaviors, and attributes considered by the general public to be ‘appropriate’ for one’s sex as assigned at birth. Gender roles vary among cultures and time continuums” (Miller, 2016, p. 201).

Gender variant inclusion – For the purpose of this thesis, inclusion for gender variant students will look a little different from other models of inclusion. As productive as inclusion sounds, it has the potential to be harmful, since it could exclude or point out these individuals (Wexler, 2016, p. 33). Inclusion is an everyday practice (Sadowski, 2016, p. 34) that lives visually within classroom, and is embedded in the curriculum and within the language used with students. Gender variant inclusion supports these students while also teaching cisgender students about this topic (Bollow Temple, 2016, p. 58).

Gender variance – “Gender variance confronts widely help assumptions that children born as males will act like ‘boys’ and children born as females will act like ‘girls.’ This imposed binary has the effect of perpetuating negativity towards people who express themselves with gendered variations in attire, [behavior], or preferences. Gender variance (non-conforming gender behavior or presentation) is an inclusive term that captures those whose non-conforming gender [behavior] or presentation is observable and causes a level of consternation in those that care for them” (Clemson, et. al., 2013). In this thesis, gender variance was used as an umbrella term for students who are gender creative, gender nonconforming, transgender, nonbinary, agender, and genderqueer. Gender variant students may use a the pronoun than assigned to them at birth but may dress outside of their assigned gender. Gender variant students may also not realize that they identify as so until later in life or may choose to hide that part of themselves.

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Inclusion – “1: the act of including; the state of being included 3: the act or practice of including students with disabilities with the general student population. Inclusion refers to a variety of integration approaches, but the goal is to blend special education students into the traditional classroom.

4: the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability)… [e.g.] academic libraries have traditionally struggled to address problems of equity, diversity, and inclusion (Merriam Webster Dictionary).

Gender creative – “Expressing gender in a way that demonstrates individual freedom of expression and that does not conform to any gender” (Miller, 2016, p. 303).

Transgender – “The experiences of having a gender that is different from one’s biological sex. A transgender person may identify with the opposite biological gender and want to be a person of that gender. This has become an umbrella term for nonconforming identity and expression” (Miller, 2016, p. 308).

Non-binary – “Non-binary refers to (a)gender as broader, less defined, more fluid, and more imaginative and expressive matric of ideas. It challenges power differentials by deconstructing and reconstructing ideas, reflecting on disjunctures, unpacking gender, gender identities, and gender expressions, and providing opportunities for new knowledges to emerge” (Miller, 2016, p. 306).

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Agender – “Rejecting gender as a biological or social construct altogether as refusing to identify with gender” (Miller, 2016, p. 299).

Genderqueer – “Those rejecting binary roles and language for gender. A general term for non-binary gender identities. Those who identify as genderqueer may identify as neither woman nor man; may see themselves as outside of the binary gender boxes; may fall somewhere between the binary genders; or reject the use of gender labels. Genderqueer identities fall under the ‘trans’ umbrella” (Miller, 2016, p. 303).

Inclusive Language— The use of non-identity specific language to avoid imposing limitations or assumptions on others. For example, saying “you all” instead of “you guys” in order to not impose assumptions regarding a person’s gender identity (Miller, 2016, p.

305).

Heteronormativity— A culture or belief system that assumes that people fall into distinct and complementary sexes and genders and that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation. A heteronormative view is one that involves alignment of biological sex, sexuality, gender identity, and gender roles (Miller, 2016, p.304).

Culturally Responsive Education— Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) is a mental model that is useful for identifying themes and tools of practice for closing opportunity gaps. The CRE mental model gives conceptual context for policies and practices that focus on equity without marginalizing some students relative to others. It actively enlists the awareness of culture, race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and other social identity markers that shape the perceptions of educational opportunities (Stembridge, 2019).

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Assumptions to Be Debated Given that little written literature exists about gender variance inclusion in the art classroom, it could be debated that aspects of reality pedagogy, culturally responsive education, Gude’s principles of possibility, and Gude’s post-modern principles could assist in creating a gender variant inclusive pedagogy for the art classroom.

Given that art teachers have biases that could influence the way they interact with students, it could be debated whether art... educators create biases, either positive or negative, toward their gender variant students.

Given that many art teachers do not feel prepared to support their gender variant students, it could be debated that preservice art teachers frequently do not receive education about gender variant students and they are less prepared to support these students in the art classroom.

Assumptions Not to Be Debated Given that gender variant students exist, they are present within the art room whether or not they are out as gender variant.

Given that there is a lack of research and resources about gender variant students’ inclusion within the art room, there is still much more to learn about how to support these students.

Given that gender variant students are more likely to not feel supported by staff (GLSEN, 2017), art educators have an opportunity to provide more inclusive practices for gender variant students.

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Given that gender variant students are the least supported and represented group within the LGBTQ community within schools (Sadowski, 2016 p. 35) art educators have an opportunity to provide a pedagogy that is more representative of that population.

Summary Being that there is such an underrepresentation of literature to educate art educators about gender variant inclusion practices, the starting point for creating understanding practices was interviewing art educators. Art is beneficial for every student, but only if they are able to access it. If a child does not feel safe or represented in the pedagogy, will they thrive in that creative environment? This thesis helped to better understand how, despite the lack of literature to support gender variant students in the art classroom, educators have nonetheless implemented ways to make their classrooms more inclusive for this population. Art educators shared how, through language and curriculum development, they have created gender variant inclusive practices. Art educators also shared why they have not started using these inclusive practices and why. This thesis also started to understand what art educators’ preservice experiences, and whether or not these experiences prepared them to work with gender variant population.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction There has been a substantial amount research done on transgender students within the school system. Organizations such as GLSEN and the Human Rights Campaign frequently publish climate surveys that address the state of LGBTQ students within k-12 school systems. Within the data collected throughout past research and climate surveys there is evidence documenting that there is a need for further research in the field, as transgender students face multiple challenges in their day to day life. There’s an amount of research and written literature on how to make curriculum more inclusive for transgender students. Some school districts such as Los Angeles Unified School Districts implemented policies to protect Transgender students. This district even provides public resources on their website to support teachers in making their curriculum more inclusive.

While there have been some changes enacted, there are still massive gaps, particularly within the art classroom. Being that art frequently becomes a place that is safe for so many students this information and further research is needed. What does inclusion look like for transgender children in the art room? What supports do they need? What representation do they need to see in the curriculum? What language do they need to hear?

In this chapter different aspects of art education and transgender inclusion will be explored to begin defining what inclusion looks like for gender variant students in the art classroom. First, I will examine literature to define the meaning of gender variance, an umbrella term that will be used throughout the rest of this thesis. Then I will debate the effect of literature that continues to victimize gender variant students. Following this I

ART EDUCATORS AND GENDER VARIANT INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

will discuss art education practices, including Olivia Gude’s Principles of Possibility (DATE). Next, I will look at inclusion through multiple perspectives such as disability studies and LGBTQ inclusion in the humanities. Finally, I will also explore classroom culture and norms through reality pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching.

Literature Concept Map

Figure 1. Literature Review Concept Map. By Hannah Swanson

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Understanding the Lexicon of Gender Variant Students

Gender is a spectrum. Due to gender being a spectrum, the lexicon of gender identity is quite extensive. Unless you identify somewhere on that spectrum, it can be difficult to fully understand.

However, starting to understand this lexicon is vital in supporting gender variant students. This thesis used the term gender variant as overarching term that refers to this complex spectrum; this section will define that term.

To understand this umbrella term, there are key words that must be defined. Figure 1 is an image of The Gender Bread Person (Killermann, 2017). It is important to remember that gender identity, gender expression,

Figure 2 The Genderbread Person by itspronouncedmetrosexual.com

anatomical sex, and attraction are four separate things, which this image helps visualize.

Gender identity referrers to what our innermost self aligns with; one could feel male, female, both or neither (Kahn, 2016). Gender expression is the physical manifestation in which someone presents themselves; this could be clothes, hair and makeup. Gender expression can also fall under identifying as femme or masculine (Miller, 2019).

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Anatomical sex refers to what someone was assigned at birth, otherwise known as coercively assigned female/male at birth; no one has a choice in the assignment (Miller, 2019). Gender itself is a socially constructed idea that assigns roles and behaviors to binary genders: male and female (Miller, 2019).

Gender variance defies binaries. It confronts the idea that infants assigned male at birth will act like boys and that infants assigned female at birth will act like girls (Riley, 2013). In reality, this is not the case for every child growing up. A child can potentially have an experience where their gender identity or expression doesn’t align with their assigned gender at birth. This misalignment could exhibit itself in many ways. It is pertinent to note that every child who falls under this umbrella term, gender variant, will have different experiences.

Ellen Kahn’s article The School Transgender Students Need (2016) is essential to remember as an educator: “Being transgender does not mean the same thing or feel the same way to all people. Among teens in particular, the experience of gender identity is expanding. Those identities include genderqueer, gender fluid, agender, non-binary, and androgynous, to name a few… The important take away is that young people are challenging the gender binary notion that one must be male or female – and it’s up to us to allow space for students to tell us and show us who they are, rather than making assumptions on the basis of a name, clothing, voice, or other attributes we typically associate with gender. In other words, follow your students lead of how they self-identify and respond by affirming and respecting that identity. (P. 71)

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Gender variance looks different for every child. Gender variance could be a cisgender girl that prefers to wear boy pants, or a cisgender boy that prefers to have his nails painted.

Gender variance could be a transwoman that prefers to dress more masculine. Gender variance could be a child that is still in the closet about their gender identity. Gender variance could be a child that identifies as having no gender but presents themselves as femme. As Kahn (2016) says, “follow your students lead” (P. 72). Stay educated and up to date on this lexicon that is continuously changing.

“Gender is a slippery illusion. Like the flat outline of a cube, you can perceive its shape as either concave or convex, extruding or withdrawn.

If you’re especially adept, you can see both sides simultaneously, or perhaps, even for a moment, neither at all. Upon deeper inspection, you might deduce the truth at the heart of it all: there is no one “correct” form.

Yet all of them are real.” (Duane and Rajunov, 2019, p. xvi) This is the first paragraph of the introduction in Micah Rajunov and Scott Duane’s edited book of short memoirs called Nonbinary Memoirs of Gender and Identity (2019). I challenge you to think about this excerpt while you read the rest of this thesis. Youth are challenging the way we’ve traditionally thought about gender (find reference). With internet access providing avenues for gender variant people to have discussions, this reality has become more prevalent. However, this dialogue will keep going, as it only opens up more questions to what gender is and can be (Duane and Rajunov, 2019, p. xvi).

As students attempt to figure out what gender means for them, art educators must be allies. Remind yourself there is no one correct form, no correct performance of gender

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(Duane and Rajunov, 2019, p. xvi). Celebrate gender’s potential fluidity through the art classroom via language, visuals, and representation through curriculum.

What it Looks Like to be Ally to Gender Variant Students In the article The Importance of LGBT Allies, Camille Baker (2004) describes the different types of allies and how those allies can support LGBT students and what that looked like at the college she was attending. According to GLSEN an ally is: “... an individual who speaks out and stands up for a person or group that is targeted and discriminated against. An ally works to end oppression by supporting and advocating for people who are stigmatized, discriminated against or treated unfairly.” (2009) In this essay, Baker (2004) talks about allies being on a continuum with “potential ally” on one side and “active ally” on the other. The potential ally is hard to spot, because they are often quiet and it is possible that they keep their thoughts on LGBTQ issues quiet (Baker, 2004). You may only see the potential ally speak if there are active allies around.

Similarly, these people are only vocal if they feel like they are safe enough to voice this opinion (Baker, 2004). People who are on this end of the continuum often display their allyship in “safe space” stickered areas, if it comes up in conversation, or if someone says something homophobic or transphobic (Baker, 2004). On the other side of the continuum is the active ally. Though there are not as many active allies as there are potential allies, active allies play a large role in supporting the LGBTQ community. These people actively fight for the rights of the LGBTQ community, fight against discriminations

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against them, show up to events, and use their privilege to support this population (Baker, 2004).

It is important to know where one stands as an art educator on this spectrum. One has to decide what type of ally they are. From there, it will be very clear how inclusive one’s art classroom will be for gender variant students. Every classroom has LGBTQ student as well as their allies and they need help from their teachers to create an inclusive and diverse community within the classroom that is supportive (Baker, 2004). Baker says, When Professors and teaching assistants work as allies to know more about LGBT issues on campus, they can then create classroom environments that allow for a richer discussion of diversity. If professors conceptualize sexuality and gender as an integral part of recognizing the diversity in their curriculum and classroom space, SU could create a more inclusive educational environment that benefits all students. The main course of action a professor is to show they are allies to the LGBT community by allowing students to engage with these dialogues. (2004, p. 69) Inclusion for gender variant students starts with a with an educator who is an ally.

Baker’s conversation about the LGBT community has the potential to be adapted to gender variant students. Educators must create the space to be to have discussions, to recognize the diversity within the class, and to celebrate that diversity. The more that educators implement this type of allyship, the more it helps students gain a better awareness of the gender variant students. It advocates

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for productive dialogue (Baker, 2004). This visible support is what makes a difference in your classroom.

In 2009 GLSEN published Safe Space Kit: A guide to Being an Ally to LGBT Students.

Though written in 2009, this kit can be easily adaptable to a gender variant population. This 47-page printable document has six sections on how to educate yourself on being ally. An important part of being an ally is checking your biases and assumptions. This safe space kit provides easily digestible ways to check your understanding and beliefs. For Figure 3 Check Yourself: Understanding Your Own Beliefs Retrieved from http://www.iniciativacomunitaria.weebly.com

the purpose of this thesis LGBT will be interchangeable with gender variant.

Every time one reads LGBT replace it with gender variant students. In order to be an ally one must entertain and confront their biases. Figure 2 asks a series of questions that challenges the reader to critically examine their history with this population. These questions help point out biases that were maybe unknown to the reader. However, knowing this, one could use their answers to help construct how to be an ally and how-to model being an ally in their classroom.

Learning about Gender Variant Students Through Experience Art educators are asked to do a lot. With such diverse learners it’s easy to miss the needs of a student that is not on your radar. If an educator is not aware of gender variant

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identities, they will never know how to make their classrooms more inclusive for those students. With such a lack of information on gender variant students within the school system, many teachers become aware and learn how to support these students simply by having an out gender variant child in their classroom. That experience changed the way they teach their classes. It wasn’t until Melissa Bollow Tempel had a masculine presenting girl named Allie in her class that she addressed gender within her elementary classroom. In fact, in this essay Bollow Tempel (2016) recalls being critical herself, even laughing at a kindergarten teacher in her school for teaching gender related curriculum: It wasn’t until I had a child dealing with gender variance in my classroom that I realized how important it is to teach about gender stereotypes. (p.

59) Bollow Tempel watched how students were treating this gender variant child, specifically, misgendering this child, questioning what she was wearing, and why.

Although this student had sparked Bollow Tempel’s thinking about gender variance, she realized that this curriculum was not just for Allie. In fact, creating a curriculum about gender stereotypes and gender nonconformity had become more about teaching everyone else in her class (Bollow Tempel, 2016, p. 59). Including curriculum about gender stereotypes is not just about supporting gender variant students; it’s equally, if not more, important for cisgender students to think critically about gender stereotypes. Providing an environment where discussions about this topic take place helps to normalize students who are gender variant.

It is important to note that Bollow Temele had to experience having a gender variant child in her class in order to make her realize that creating a pedagogy that

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addresses gender variance was vital. When there is not an “out” gender variant child in the classroom, it is easy to miss the importance of having a more gender variant inclusive classroom for every student.

In this article, Bollow Tempel discusses how she has shifted the visuals in her classroom to be more inclusive. For example, a poster that says, “It’s OK to Be Different” (Bollow Tempel, 2016, p. 62). Verbiage such as “It’s OK to Be Different” can also act as a wonderful concept for a unit or lesson in the art classroom. The phrase “It’s OK to Be Different” could be a great introduction conversation to a project related to this idea. A theme of “It’s OK to Be Different” could result in your students taking risks in their art making or to visually share an experience where they felt different. If the teacher is fostering an environment where students are encouraged to share vulnerable parts about themselves in a safe way, gender variant students will feel safe to do the same.

Ultimately, inclusion like this teaches empathy and understanding of people who are different from ourselves.

Similar Bollow Tempel’s experiences, Abigail talks about her experience raising her agender teen in a book of memoirs about nonbinary identities. Abigail recounts her experience of raising a child who came out as agender in middle school. Her raw honesty about her lack of knowledge of agender identities and coming to terms with her child’s gender identity is refreshingly relatable. Her experience is a reminder of how little is known about the nonbinary experience as well as how relatively unknown the non-binary existence is to cisgender people. Despite her in depth research on nonbinary teens, she was only met with frustration with the lack of information (Abigail, 2019, p. 124,).

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What I have gained most from Abigail’s article is how jarring it can be to check your biases. As art educators, we provide a safe place to make art, regardless of our biases. Abigail (2019) had to unlearn everything she knew about gender in order to support her child: Of course, just as Bailey has had to adapt to living in a binary society and being communicative and open about being agender, so have we had to adjust to new situations as a family. (p. 128) Knowing that our gender variant students must learn how to live and adjust themselves in a binary world, how might we modfify pedagogies in art rooms to accommodate that shift?

The Effects of Literature that Victimizes Gender Variant Students Through this research, I found a shared trend among the literature involving a victim narrative for gender variant students. What was known about gender variant students’ experiences was very negative, falling into a victim narrative that perpetuates their struggles and offers no solutions to support them. Resources such as GLSEN provide public access to school climate surveys that give a real glimpse into what it is like to grow up as a gender variant student within unites state schools. According to GLSEN’s 2017 School Climate Survey, “transgender students reported more hostile school experiences than LGBQ cisgender students, genderqueer students, and students with other nonbinary identities” (Koswick, 2017, pg. xxvi). While the statistics about the discrimination that these students face can be overwhelming, it is important to recognize that educators need to move past these victim narratives of gender variant youth and start

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understanding how to directly support such students in art classrooms.

Eli Burke’s piece Turning the Tide: Reframing How We Acknowledge and Support Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Learners in Educational Spaces depicts a victim narrative (2019). In this piece, Burke recounts their experience after learning about a leaked memo about the Trump administration’s intention to define gender by the genitals with which you are born; essentially, trans and non-binary people would be legally erased and more easily discriminated against. Burke then reflects on what it was like growing up and not fitting in with the gender binary. They recalled feeling alone in their experiences often and having no one to talk to about what they were going through when they heard this news about Trumps memo. Burke said: When you look around the world and everyone’s responses and reactions to you are the same, the problem, the aberration, the misfit must be you… At a certain point, I no longer needed outside responses. I had mastered others’ critiques of me and began to critique myself. In my need to survive, I found there were spaces where my body did not trouble. In my bedroom, I could be whatever I wanted. (2019, pg. 38) This feeling resulted in Burke feeling the need to hide as a child, which can be common in gender variant youth for several reasons.

Reading personal accounts like Burke’s helps art educators to understand what gender variant students’ lives are like. It is valuable to read these about vulnerable experiences and to begin to have empathy. However, these narratives cannot continue to be the majority of literature that exists for the gender variant population. Instead, teachers need action-based results and tactics that they can use in their classroom immediately.

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Teachers who are mostly cisgender, cannot be expected to read victim narratives and then know how to support their students. They need to know the next steps of what to do after national events that harm and invalidate gender variant students. They need to know how to support them.

There are many points in this article where the author could have expanded these experiences into more teachable moments. What if Burke spent time discussing what would have been helpful from their educators in these moments? This article was published in the Art Education Journal, yet rarely references art or how art could address how the Trump administration is politicizing and in validated gender variant bodies.

Later in the article Burke discusses their return to the classroom through a graduate level course in which they were enrolled. This class, which was full of art educators, remained silent in regards to the Trump Administration memo. Observing this silence, Burke says: In art and visual culture education, a field that strives to create spaces where all voices have agency and all identities are respected, what does such silence mean? What is art for at this historical moment when so many contemporary artists are overtly tackling issues of social justice identity and politics [‌] However, we, who are in art education, have a certain responsibility to address the art of now. (2019, p. 50) Burke’s point is valid, but this dialogue should not end here. What should their professor have done in this situation? How could the art educators learn from this moment to inform potential moments like this in their classroom in the future? Burke presents many interesting statements throughout the article, but offers no guidance in how those situations could have been better for them as a trans student. What did they need to feel

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more supported? How could art play a role in talking about the realities of gender variant students? What would have made Burke feel more included while growing up as well as in their graduate classes? The article ends on a heavy note with Burke talking about how difficult it was for them to continue with their life after the Trump administration memo, specifically how it was hard to focus and find the motivation to keep going. These feelings are the reality for so many gender variant students, but it is important to reflect upon how this narrative help art educators help their students.

As previously stated, hearing people’s experiences as gender variant students is vital because it helps educators have empathy for this population. Yet, if we do not ask questions and pose potential ways to improve those experiences, how will we learn to be more inclusive as art educators? Burke had many opportunities to offer tips for inclusion in their article. Sticking to the victim narrative instead is a common thread in literature on gender variant students, and only perpetuates the unfortunate negative jargon surrounding gender variant youth. How can we ever escape the victimized view of this population if we do not start providing teachers with more options for inclusion?

The Support that Gender Variant Students Need Gender variant students’ needs often get grouped in with the members of the LGBTQ community. However, being that gender variant people have different experiences that LGBQ people relating to their gender, the support they need is different.

Before educators can begin to include gender variant student within pedagogies, they must have an understanding of what support looks like for these students. Ellen Kahn talks about these supports in her essay “The Schools Transgender Students Need.”

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Despite school districts’ moves to adopt policies that support gender variant students, many students still experience harassment, bullying, verbal or physical assault, and teachers using incorrect pronouns or birth names (Kahn, 2016). Incidents like these could seriously affect a child’s school experiences. However, an adult in such situations has the potential to make school a place that can be supportive.

Kahn organizes this essay into six sections: “Understanding What Transgender Means,” “First and Lasting Impressions,” “How to Foster a Culture of Inclusion,” “Creating Safe Space, Whole-School Approach,” and “Moving Forward.” The organization of this essay is important to note because the knowledge gained in each section builds off the previous sections. First a teacher must have some sort of understanding of transgender students, including the language. By being aware of the experiences that gender variant children can potentially have, a teacher can be empathetic to those experiences. Teachers need to understand, however, that not all gender variant children’s experiences are the same (Kahn, 2016). Consequently, it is important to follow students’ leads on how they identify and to affirm that identity.

First impressions for a gender variant student can mean a lot. Kahn (2016) says that: ... many educators are unaware of the unconscious ways in which we reinforce gender expectations and stereotypes that unintentionally marginalize transgender students and those who are not rigidly genderconforming. Of course, missteps will happen - we are only human - and a swift step to correct and improve future interactions is the best remedy. (p. 72)

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Avoid gendered language when addressing students. Give students an opportunity to identify themselves. First impressions are the start of cultivating a culture of inclusion, because the teacher is showing their students that they are an ally.

The rest of Kahn’s article provides teachers with tips to create a successful culture of inclusion and describes what a safe space looks like for these students.

The article points out how teachers may not always know that a child is gender variant; because of that, Kahn shows ways to structure the classroom to foster an environment that normalizes and supports gender variant students.

Disrupting Heteronormativity Heteronormativity is the norm and has become the norm when teaching in schools. However, there are some are educators and students who are pushing that narrative in attempt to make education spaces more inclusive for the LGBTQ community.

As a term, heteronormativity, describes the processes through which social institutions and social policies reinforce the belief that human beings fall into two distinct sex/gender categories: male/man and female/woman.

This belief (or ideology) produces a correlative belief that those two sexes/genders exist in order to fulfill complementary processes through which individuals who do not appear to “fit” or individuals who refuse to “fit” these norms are made invisible and silenced. (Queen, Farell & Gupta, 2005, p.3)

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Addressing the role that heteronormativity plays within school systems is incredibly important because they are inherently exclusive spaces for anyone within the LGBTQ community, particularly gender variant students. In his essay “Disrupting Heteronormativity: The Inclusion and Representation of Children Who Are LGBTQ and the Families,” Thomas Crisp discussed the lived experiences of these students in schools that perpetuate heteronormativity. Educators often do not even realize that they are participating in and perpetuating a school climate that is overwhelmingly heteronormative (Crisp, 2011, p. 155).

Often, the omission of LGBTQ issues is couched in a belief that teachers and administrators must provide a neutral environment by “checking their personal beliefs at the door.” However, proponents of this position fail to recognize that schools, teaching, and curriculum are always politically and socially situated… There is no such thing as neutral teaching or a neutral school environment. (Crisp, 2011, p. 158) Crisp makes an important point here. How is a child supposed to feel supported and valid if they’re not represented in their environment? In the art room, are they represented with visuals throughout the room, artists being shown or in the curriculum? Are students hearing gender neutral language from their teacher? Do students have a chance to tell their teachers and peers their names and pronouns? These changes shift the norm of heteronormativity in schools to a more inclusive environment.

Alongside his discussion of heteronormativity in schools, Crisp discusses checking our own biases as teachers. “Educators must examine their own presuppositions in order to begin to influence those around them. They must make explicit -- and then

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critically examine -- the theoretical positions and ideas that shape how they view the world� (Crisp, 2011, p. 159-160). This self-reflection on biases is something that all educators should think about, especially when it comes to gender variance. The lexicon of gender has changed drastically since I was in grade school from 1999-2011. The world socializes kids in a binary way. Having been raised to live in a heteronormative binary, that socialization is hard to break. However, being aware of how the binary and how it affects students, especially those who are gender variant, will shift the way one teaches.

Inclusion Inclusion is a practice that is vital to creating a safe learning environment for students.

Inclusion is vital to making education accessible for diverse learners. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, inclusion is 3: the act or practice of including students with disabilities with the general student population Inclusion refers to a variety of integration approaches, but the goal is to blend special education students into the traditional classroom.

4: the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability)‌ academic libraries have traditionally struggled to address problems of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Whereas much research has been conducted on inclusion in art education regarding other student populations, there remains a large deficit in inclusion practices for gender variant students. This section examines inclusion methods for other student

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populations within art education and inclusion methods for gender variant students from other subjects. A deficit in inclusion practices for gender variant students is a concern within art education.

In her essay “Re-imagining Inclusion / Exclusion: Unpacking Assumptions and Contradictions in Arts and Special Education from a Critical Disability Studies Perspective,” Alice Wexler talks about the role that language plays in the conversation on inclusion for students with disabilities. Often, in an attempt to be inclusive of a diverse classroom, our good intentions turn into another way of othering a minority. Wexler (2016) challenges the way we use language to describe students with disabilities, saying about inclusion: This term, although seemingly benign and even beneficial, is nevertheless the outcome of polarized and divided terminologies. As a result, inclusion within the public school system can suggest not belonging. (p. 33) Wexler argues that the word inclusion can turn into not belonging or, in other words, that because this population has to be thoughtfully included in space, they do not belong. The idea of not belonging is inherent in the language surrounding inclusion. Consequently, it is crucial to be critical of the way one navigated inclusion in their classroom. In the context of disability studies, Wexler suggests that we “collectively wonder about how we arrived at the practice of determining who is in and who is out” (2016, p.33 ). Given that are teachers determine who is being ‘included’ in their classrooms, they need think of how a person is experiencing the world, or our classes, to infer how one might make a space more inclusive for them (Wexler, 2016).

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Staying aware of this potential exclusion while teaching gender variant students may help teachers to navigate including those students in an intentional and ethical way.

Art has the potential to be a social space, as it encourages diversity, has the ability to reimagine identities, and “denaturalized what appears to be natural” (Wexler, 2016). As a result, it is important to think thoroughly about how one will include gender variant students within their pedagogy without allowing it to become exclusive. The next two essays that I discuss offer examples of what ethical inclusion for gender variant students might look like.

In the 2014-2015 school year Amherst High School Sarah Barbara-Just created a class called LGBTQ literature. This course explored LGBTQ authors chronologically.

Alongside reading the literature, students completed a project that asked them to analyze portrayals of LGBTQ people in media from the 20th century versus portrayals now (Sadowski, 2016, p. 23). Barbara-Just had her students analyze the evolution of these texts, from merely having homosexual undertones to featuring LGBTQ characters. The class looked at this literature through an intersectional lens that included talking about race and class. Barbara-Just supplemented these texts with other articles that used the same intersectional framework.

Most telling of this curriculum is what former students said about the courses.

One LGBTQ student said: It’s much more empowering [for LGBTQ students] to see their straight cisgender friends grow so much and be so supportive. (Sadowski, 2016, p.

25)

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“There was no pressure for us students to come out to our classmates or share personal stories about LGBT experience, and I don’t remember this being a big or important part of the class. We didn’t want to talk about ourselves because we were already reading, discussing, and learning from other people’s experiences every day. The insides of books and articles were safe, while also stimulating subjects of debate and objects of analysis. (Sadowski, 2016, p. 26) She taught me that gender and sexuality exist on a spectrum. (Sadowski, 2016, p. 26) This LGBTQ Literature class is a model of successful gender variant inclusion.

There was no pressure for students to talk about their experiences being LGBTQ. Barbara-Just had an understanding that LGBTQ students were in her class and did not shine a spotlight on them. Instead, she provided literature about LGBTQ experiences that brought forth dialogue about these identities. This model could be easily adapted for an art classroom. Teachers can substitute literature for gender variant artists, current and in the past. For younger ages, teachers can substitute illustrated books about gender.

Showing these visuals opens up a dialogue about gender without singling out any gender variant students. By doing this, art teachers are simultaneously being allies to these students by representing them while also normalizing gender variant identities for cisgender students.

Kim Cosier also presented a successful model of gender variant inclusion in a workshop she created about looking at photographers that challenge her students’ ideas of

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identity. In the beginning of her essay, “Reframing Identity: Using Photographs to Rethink Sexism, Gender and Sexuality,” Cosier talks about the important role that art plays in helping us understand and make inquiries about the world (2016, p. 397).

Consequently, art teachers can harness that inherent aspect of art and use it to create an active dialogue that addresses important questions (Cosier, 2016, p. 397). Cosier (2016) says: ... discussions about sexism, gender, and sexuality can be expanded and deepened through classroom experiences that take advantage of looking and talking about the work of contemporary artists. With its power to literally frame identity, photography can create pedagogical spaces in which teachers and their students engage in careful looking and deep discussion about identity, representation, and diversity. (p. 398) Cosier’s workshop provides many avenues for talking about each of these topics. Her section on gender is particularly relevant to this thesis. For her discussion of gender, Cosier uses images by the photographer Lois Bielefeld, who photographs gender variant people. Cosier makes the objectives of this workshop clear for her students. These objectives are: •

Acquire relevant vocabulary to talk about gender identity and stereotypes.

•

Grapple with the notion of realness as it relates to gender.

•

Look at images of Dugan’s and Bielefeld’s work and related them to the big idea of identity.

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Understand how stereotypes can result in unfair or even harmful situations.

•

Devise a plan for art-based projects that expand our understanding of gender. (Cosier, 2016, p. 402)

These objectives could be broken down into more digestible lessons for students. An art teacher could turn the first four objectives into two precursor lessons that lead to the last objective as a project that the students or the art teacher devises. For the two precursor lessons, one lesson could show Jess T. Dugan’s work and the other lesson could show Lois Bielefeld’s work.

Thinking about those objectives, Cosier then wrote out guided questions for their dialogues: •

What do you see in this picture?

•

Who do you think this person is?

•

Tell me a story about the person/people in this photograph.

•

What is Gender?

•

How can we know a person’s gender identity?

•

What makes someone a girl? A Boy? Can someone be a little of both?

•

What are some ideas about how people of different genders “should” be or act?

•

Have you ever heard someone say “real mean / real women do ___? Let’s talk about that.

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Have you heard the word transgender? What do you think it means? Do any of these pictures give you more understanding?

•

Let’s talk about what gender variant means.

•

What is a stereotype? How do stereotypes affect people as they grow and live their lives.

•

What are ways you can think of to make our community and school welcoming to someone who does not fit rigid gender expectations?

•

Did the work of artist Jess Dugan and / or Lois Bielefeld make you think differently about gender and stereotypes? Let’s talk about that (2016, p.

403-405).

Again, many guiding questions are available, too many to cover in one class period. Just as the objectives were broken up into multiple lessons, a teacher could similarly break up these questions. I suggest looking at Dugan’s and Bielefeld’s imagery and assigning Cosier’s questions for each photographer. Alternatively, a teacher could assign these questions to other artists of their choice.

Finally, Cosier has her students move on to possible art projects that would further their understanding about this topic to engage them.

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A photography project in which students are challenged to show complexity in their own and other’s identities.

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Visual journaling activities about ways a student’s own identity is being formed.

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Design badges or trophies for aspects of gender that are not typically celebrated in schools.

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A social practice art project like the Bathroom installation (see Bielefeld’s website): Develop questions you might ask community members, recording their responses. Propose an installation plan to accompany the audio.

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A public service announcement video that addresses an aspect of gender people should know more about.

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An exhibition that visually compares and contrasts representations of gender. For example, juxtapose images from advertising to some made of real people in your school.

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Comics of superheroes that ben gender rules to make the world a safer, more inclusive space for all. (Cosier, 2016, p. 405).

This workshop becomes a dialogue that benefits everyone in the classroom. Creating an art project out of the discussion students had extends what they learned from inside the classroom to outside the classroom. This workshop challenges students’ ideas of gender and creates tolerance and understanding for gender variant students. It makes gender variance relatable by talking about the unfairness of gender roles. What is really important about this workshop is how public the artwork becomes. Though this is not necessary, by making artwork that is seen outside of the classroom, your students are teaching others about gender identity through their art. That extension beyond your classroom is essential because your students get to be the teachers.

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Representation Representation of gender variant artists in art curriculum is important for both the cisgender and gender variant students in the classroom. Cosier’s workshop represents gender variant artists in an explicit way by directly talking about Dugan’s and Bielefeld’s artwork. This workshop could be translated to many other works of art and many other gender variant artists. Representation of these identities teaches cisgender students about other gender identities that exist in the world while also validating those in the room who are gender variant.

In the book Supporting Queer and Trans Students in Art and Design Education (2018), editors Anthea Black and Shamina Chherawala critically examined how trans and queer students were supported at Ontario College of Art and Design. After interviewing students, the editors compiled a book of resources and experiences for teachers. The section of the book titled “Discussing Gender Identities in the Classroom” says: There are many ways to incorporate gender discussions into a lesson while still speaking from an art or design perspective. For example, you could start a discussion using an example of a piece, asking “Is this piece reinforcing gender norms?’ It is possible to work within industry demands and standards and also have an awareness of why some of these standards may be harmful or questioned. This will educate your students both as designers and as responsible, forward-thinking members of the broader art and design community. (Black & Chherawala, 2018, p. 37) This suggestion is a good example of how simple it is to talk about gender in a classroom without discussing a gender variant artist in particular. This example is also adaptable for

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any age group. What this example does is set up an opportunity for a discussion concerning the binary. It offers students the opportunity to challenge the binary. Also of note, Black and Chherawala talk about demands and standards of the industry, which are similar to state standards as well as an unsupportive school climate. Though introducing gender variant identities can be discouraging, it helps every single one of your students, no matter what their gender is. Providing those simple moments to critique an image or entertain those conversations when they come up means a lot since, as said in the excerpt, those moments add up. We are teaching the whole child, and challenging gender norms through art extends beyond the art room. Regardless of how students react to these conversations, a seed is planted, and gender variant students are validated.

In their section on representation, Black and Chherawala (2018) talk about how harmful the lack of representation can be: Not being exposed to queer artists or artists of colour is harmful to student of these groups because it erases them, makes it hard to imagine where their work fits into the discussion, does not provide examples representative of themselves, and therefore makes it difficult to grow as artists. It also compromises the education of all students, because they are only going to learn about a narrow selection of artists. It shapes students’ opinions on what voices are present or important and so contributes to discrimination against marginalized groups on a larger scale. (p. 76)

To combat this marginalization, they offer tips to include more representation in curriculum.

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Recognize the importance of including a diverse range of artists in the curriculum, and addressing the limitations of the curriculum.

o

Conduct a representation audit of your syllabus, lectures, readings, and resources. Count the number of queer, transgender, BIPOC artists and designers you present.

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Share information on resources with colleagues.

o

Work with your institution’s library and AV Centre to bring more diverse materials into the system, and let your colleagues know when the materials arrives.

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Participate in curriculum development and academic policy sessions to make sure queer, transgender, BIPOC and disability perspectives are included.

(Black and Chherawala, 2018, p. 77)

Potential Pedagogical Frameworks for Gender Variant Inclusion There are already existing pedagogical frameworks that could potentially inform a more gender variant inclusive pedagogy. A few that we’ll be looking at are culturally responsive pedagogy, Olivia Gude’s principles of possibility as well as her postmodern principles, and finally S.J. Miller’s Queer Literacy Framework.

Olivia Gude’s Postmodern Principles After visiting many K-12 schools Gude realized that many students of art weren’t making meaningful connections with the formal elements and principles of design (Gude, 2004, p. 1). In 1995 gude started

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creating the Spiral Workshop which were Saturday art classes for teens. Gude began to create her own principles for art making that would hopefully evoke more meaning from her students, she called them postmodern principles. She wanted students to feel motivated to create work.

Gude’s principles are appropriation, recontextualization, juxtaposition, layering, hybridity, interaction of text and image, gazing, and representin’. These came from Gude’s three criteria for the spiral workshop: •

Curriculum based on generative themes that relate to the lives of students and their communities;

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Studio art projects based on diverse practices of contemporary artmaking and related traditional arts;

•

Art as investigation - understanding the art of others and seeing their own artmaking, not as exercises, but as research that produces new visual and conceptual insights.” (Gude, 2004, p.8, emphasis added)

These criteria ask the art educator to use postmodern art tactics because they are more relevant to students. They also ask the art educator to keep the student at the center. Gude explains that the principles are meant to overlap and refer to each other. What’s great about Gude’s principles is that they are adaptable for whatever your population is because they are student centered. Because of this, I encourage art educators to look at these principles in relation to their gender variant and potentially gender variant population. Generate curriculum that could relate to their community, show contemporary artists that are relatable and offer exploratory investigations that challenge a traditional gender binary.

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Gude’s Principles of Possibility. The Principles of possibility are an extension of the postmodern principles. They are a response to the lack of excitement and investigative nature of the national standards. Gude (2007) said: The essential contribution that arts education can make to our students and to our communities is to teach skills and concepts while creating opportunities to investigate and represent one’s own experience generating person and shared meaning. (p. 6) Gude goes on to explain that it can be hard to create this curriculum with modernism elements and principles still being the norm and postmodern practices in the art classroom still being written about. As a result, the Principles of Possibility are intended to support the art educator in creating that curriculum. The principles are playing, forming self, investigating community themes, encountering difference, attentive living, empowered experiencing, empowered making, deconstructing culture, reconstructing social spaces, not knowing and believing (Gude, 2007, pp. 7-14). Similar to the postmodern principles, the principles of possibility are meant to bend in order to fit the demographic and needs of any art classroom. Many of these principles are based around the classroom culture as well as the student as an investigative learning of themselves.

Because of this, particular principles lend themselves well to supporting gender variant populations such as, forming self, investigating community themes, encountering difference, empowered experiencing and making, deconstructing culture and reconstructing social spaces.

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SJ Miller’s Queer Literacy Framework Though I am critical of the highly elevated verbiage that SJ Miller uses in this text, I believe that the sentiment and root of the Queer Literacy Framework is forward thinking and can be easily adapted for the art room. SJ Miller’s Queer Literacy Framework (QLF) talk specifically about principles based on gender variance. The framework is presented in a table (see Figure 4). The left side states the principles and the right are the commitments from educators of how they will include this in their classroom. Referring to the purpose of QLF, SJ Miller (2016) says: “The QLF is intended to be modified for different grade levels, and teachers should discern how to adapt the language that is suitable for their students. This adaptation can be done in collaboration with peers, mentors, community members, parents, and even asking students if they understand certain concepts and terminology.” (p. 35)

Figure 4 sample from SJ Miller’s Queer Literacy framework.

As Miller said, The QLF is intended to be modified. Even though it is meant for a literary standpoint, these principles can be adapted for the art classroom. Each principle is an

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expectation that the art educator is holding themselves to, including biases they have to address. The commitment is how these expectations will play a role within their curriculum. I think that Miller points out the importance of using this framework because it challenges social norms while supporting and legitimizing gender variant identities (Miller, 2016, pp. 35-36). In their section Why Not Using a QLF Matters, Miller (2016) states: If we ascribe to a recurrence of gender sameness, it creates a flattening and unidimensional perspective of gender, while it continues to delegitimize those who do not ascribe to gender norms by relegating them to ongoing inferior status… the absence of QLF reinscribes gender norms in school practices. (p 32) When we don’t place these expectations to combat gender normativity then schools remain complacent and potentially unaware of the work that needs to be done to create a more gender variant inclusive setting.

What’s important to note about these four pedagogical frameworks is that they have a lot in common. These pedagogies are student centered and they ask the educator to do research to understand what their students need. They are based on the students’ best interest. What will make these students want to learn. What will support their learning.

Summary The aforementioned literature shows the lack of resources for art teachers who are looking to apply a gender variant inclusive pedagogy. This literature review is a compilation of resources that could help art educators build a gender variant inclusive

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pedagogy, if they adjust what literature already exists. It is important to note that I expanded on some of these topics throughout my research as a continuation of my literature review. For example, research on art educator methodologies, reality pedagogy, and culturally responsive education were further researched and discussed. As I conducted my research and interviewed art educators, I learned more about their methods and practices for supporting their gender variant student population. From that knowledge learned how teachers are taking small steps to create these practices, that these practices are created from experience and personal research. Along with that, I learned where and why art educators are still struggling to include this in their pedagogies.

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CHAPTER III: Research Methodology Setting The setting for these interviews will be in private. I will be asking interviewees to be doing this on their own time. Due to the nature of the topic and the fact that I may not know many of my participants I need to create a space that is comfortable for them.

Ideally if the participant is live relatively close to me, I’ll ask them to choose a place for us to meet that is comfortable for them. This could be their house a café or a library.

Preferably, wherever we meet will have a table for use to sit at. For people who I’m interviewing via FaceTime or Skype I’ll ask for them to sit in a place that’s comfortable for them.

Participants The range of my participants will be large. I need it to be a wide selection because I’m trying to understand what art educators are and are not doing within their pedagogy for gender variant inclusion, as well as where the gaps in their education were. I plan to interview new art teachers, art teachers who have been teaching anywhere between 3-20 years. I want to make sure a have a good sample of teachers who are teaching k-12 as well as early childhood educators and museum educators. I’m curious how the questions that I’ll ask will vary between how long educators have been teaching, but also across grade level as well. Some of these educators I know through teaching or through the art education graduate program at Moore College of Art and Design. However, some will be complete strangers to me, some will even live outside of this state. The criteria I have for my participants will also be a bit expansive. I want to interview teachers who have

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developed gender variance inclusion within their pedagogy because I want to know how the developed that. I want to interview teachers who aren’t including any gender variance inclusion and why. I’ll be interviewing teachers who are gender variant themselves.

Researcher My role as the researcher is to understand the gaps in knowledge that educators have about gender variant students. My role as a researcher is to also understand how educators are making their art classroom more gender variant inclusive pedagogy. My study be a multi-site. As I will be interviewing many educators there will be many sites. I imagine that each of my participants will currently work at a school or has worked at a school in the past. Although I have a feeling that I will be interviewing them outside of the classroom, what they are doing inside their classroom is really important for this study. I’m related to the site of an art classroom because my research topic has affected me. It’s affected me through my own experiences teaching, but also my own k-5 experiences in an art classroom.

Ethical Considerations I will have my participants sign a contract that discloses what I’ll be using the interview for. The contract will also state the anonymity of their identity throughout the use of their interview. I will be using pseudonyms for each of my participants. This contract will also state that I will not be providing any monetary compensation for the interview. This contract will also clearly state that at any point they can drop out of my research and data collected on them will be destroyed and not used in my thesis. My questions will remain as unbiased as I am interviewing an array of art educators. I will be

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journaling about my biases to keep them in check. I will also have my questions reviewed to ensure that I have not insert any of my own biases. Lastly, I will disclose how I’ll be keeping the interviews so that no one has access to them. When my thesis is complete, I’ll be destroying the recording interviews along with the translations.

Research Methods I view this problem as a past, present and future perspective. But for the sake of this thesis my perspective will be in the present. My perspective on the problem meaning is that there is a clear gap in knowledge about this population. In my intention for this thesis is to start to understand where art educators are at with this. I want to understand how educators are implementing this in their pedagogy in their rhetoric, and visually in their room. Research methods that I will be using are Autoethnographic, interviews, a researcher reflective journal and observations.

I’ve embarked on this thesis without having a consistent classroom to do research on, because of that I have chosen to do an autoethnographic thesis. This was the most appropriate for my thesis interests because I identify as part of the population that I’m researching. I use my experiences as someone who is gender variance to guide what I’m research. I am able to look at my K-12 art classes I took and pull out what was missing for me to thrive as a gender variant student. This guided my research for my lit review and the reasoning behind interviewing K-12 art educators in different facets.

As I am doing an autoethnographic conducting interviews has proved to be the most helpful in gathering data. I will be interviewing three different types of educators to help me understand what art educators are and are not doing to make their art classroom more

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gender variant inclusive. In my thorough search for literature on this topic I have found massive gaps in literature that prepare art teachers for this population. By interviewing-12 art educators I will hopefully learn if these gaps are holding them back from creating a more inclusive practice in their class. Alternatively, I will learn how educators are helping themselves learn about this population despite these gaps. Finally, these interviews will tell me what their preservice experience was regarding gender variant student.

For this research I believe it’s pertinent that I observe how this inclusion works in their classroom. Observations will take place after I interview my participants. I will be observing my participants who are practicing gender variant inclusion within their pedagogy. This will help actualize what educators are saying in their interviews.

A researcher reflective journal will be very important for this research. As I said above, I am researching myself. This journal will track my recent experience student teacher in a K-8 school, my experiences teaching preschool and community arts as well as my own K-12 art experiences. This journaling will relate these experiences to the interviews that I’m conducting. I will be using it as data that will eventually be coded thematically along with my interviews. This journal will also hold notes that I take throughout my interview and observation process.

Context Many of my potential participants will be people who I do not know. Because of this I will be very clear about my intentions of this thesis. These interviews are meant for me to understand what art educators are and are not doing in terms of gender variant

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inclusion. In order to make my participants more comfortable I’ll inform them that in order to gather my research I’ll be interviewing three types of educators; allies who are teaching gender variant inclusion, gender variant art educators, and teachers who are practicing any gender variant inclusion. I’m curious about the each of these educator’s preservice experiences, how they’re educating themselves on the gender variance population and how they are including or not including this population and why. It’s important that my participants know that even though I identify within this community my biases will not influence the way I’m collecting data. They will also be informed that each participant will be answering the same questions.

Literature Resources Due to the lack of research done on this topic I have only found study that is similar to the research I’m collecting. Elizabeth A Riley, Gomanth Sitharthan, Lindy Clemson, and Milton Diamond conducted a qualitative study called Recognising the Needs of Gender-Variant Children and their Parents. To collect this information, they sent out three surveys to parents who have gender-variant children, gender variant adults and professionals who works with gender variants youth. They had 170 participants. The questions asked were a mix of open ended and closed. The three types of adults that they chose to research really stood out to me and heavily influenced my decision in choose three types of art educators who work with gender variant youth. This group chose to have different questions for each group. They were differentiated to gather specific data about each participant’s experience with gender variant youth. For my thesis however, I what is most beneficial for my research is to have every participant answer the same

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questions. This will help with coding and understanding each participant experiences under predetermined circumstances. Their questions all did revolve around support and access to information. Reading through this study helped me formulate some of my questions about similar topics.

Data Collection Methods Interviews As I’m doing an autoethnographic thesis, interviews are the entire basis of my research. Interviews with certified art educators will be give me access to the information that I’m searching for. I will be conducting 1 interview per participant that I anticipate will last between 1 hour and an hour and a half. I will record the interviews with audio along with handwritten notes. There will be an interview protocol I will follow for these interviews.

Artifacts The transcripts from my interviews will be used as artifacts. I will include some of my own personal artwork as artifacts. I created prompts based off my experiences during my student teaching regarding my research question for my personal artwork.

Once interviews were completed, I created visual resources based off what participants said they would like to have in their classroom. I also created a document with resources concerning gender variance. Resources on this document include children’s books, teacher resources, books for teachers and artists.

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Journals I will be keeping two types of journals. A researcher reflective journal will act as a reflection for myself. If I see myself creating biases throughout my interviewing process, I will journal about them instead of putting them into my writing. If I observe educators, I will record my experiences in their classroom with this journal. This journal will also be used to take notes during interviews. I will also create a visual journal that will include prompts for myself. These prompts will bridge the research that I’m doing on myself of my own experiences, my own personal artwork and the research that I’m doing on current educators.

Limitations Limitations that I’m setting for this thesis are; interviews being one hour to an hour and a half long, I will only interview them once, I will observe them only once, I will travel to them unless they live outside of Philadelphia then I will FaceTime or Skype with them, I will only be interviewing certified educators.

Data Analysis To organize the data that I’ll be collecting, I’ll be using a few different methods. I will be using a transcribing service to transcribe the audio from my interviews. Once transcripts are written I will start to code my data. Themes that I’m looking for are common misunderstandings about gender variant populations, educators preservice experience, positive and safe language that is inclusive, problematic language, what does positive and negative language sound like and look like, what does gender variant

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inclusion look like in their pedagogy. Within these main categories I suspect that subcategories will comes up My observations will follow a similar protocol that will look for these same themes. I will be using a color-coded method to track these themes. This coding system will help me keep my data related to my question. I will be asking my thesis mentor to look over my coding as well as other people who have written thesis before.

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CHAPTER IV: Data Collection and Findings

Introduction to Data Collection Process Being that there has been evidence to show that Transgender students have very little policies or guidelines to support transgender students and that these students are frequently face challenge at school to their safety both emotionally, physically and academically; what do art teacher need to know in order to create a more ethically inclusive curriculum and space for this population? Did educators preservice service prepare them to support this population? Do teachers think that gender variant inclusion in the art classroom could benefit cisgender students?

Process of how data was collected and organized Data for this research was collected purely through interviews with art educators who had various experiences and competencies working with gender variant populations.

All interviews were recorded then later transcribed. Once transcribed, separate documents were creating for each question in the interview. Every participant’s question for each question were copied and pasted into those documents to keep the organization for coding easier. Participants recorded interviews and transcribed interviews were safely kept in a locked computer throughout the duration of collecting and analyzing data.

Changes in the Field In the fall I was doing my student teaching. These experiences informed a lot of my thinking in my lit review. I spent a lot of time writing about these experiences in my own researcher journal in relation to my research. In later December I had an opportunity

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to interview for an art teach position at a K-12 approved private school hosted 2 schools; one for students with severe emotional behavior needs and another for students with autism, intellectual disabilities and specific learning disorders. Fortunately, I got this job and started in January right before I started my study. `This changed how I looked at my research because I was able to use my own classroom as another source. I was able pay attention to how I address this population, as well as my own identity as a gender variant person in real time. I was also able to relate to my participants in more ways than I had before. The school that I am at has not addresses gender variant identities whatsoever. In fact, I’ve chosen to not formally come out to my students for dear of not having support from my co-workers. I wear a pin on my apron that has my pronouns hoping that those students who need to see it will see it. `That being said, I absolutely have gender variant kids that I work with and am slowly working on bringing their identities into my classroom. Being a first-time teacher, having the climate at the school that I have and being a gender variant person, I feel like I can relate to each of my participants. I inherently add things because of my identity in my classroom while also being unsure of how to address gender variance through art.

On March 12th, 2020 the staff at my school were called into the cafeteria and were told that we’d be shutting down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to this meeting my administration showed no inkling of shutting the school down. I hadn’t fully prepared myself for this. The week before I had started making moved to include more gender variant inclusive visuals in my classroom. I had also started a new lesson based on the book Julian is a Mermaid for my younger students.

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I couldn’t help but feel that part of my experiences that I was bring to my thesis being at this new school came to a screeching halt. Along with that any opportunities to observe teachers in their classroom dissolved. I had to adjust knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see the reactions from my kids when they saw gender variant inclusive visuals on my walls. Or see how my predominately assigned male at birth 1st-3rd grade population would take in the story of Julian is a Mermaid and relate it to what was important to them. Or see firsthand how art educators are addressing this population in their art room or see where they struggle. That none of these things would exists in my thesis. However, with my newfound time, I was able to spend more time thinking. Thinking about exactly what visual teacher needed. Thinking about how I could adjust my own practices.

Compare my participants experiences to my own. I had the space to problem solves.

How I entered the field as a researcher I entered the field as a learner. I’m aware that I have a very biased experience being gender variant but also being very early in my career as an art educator. Because of this, I wanted to learn from the art educators around me especially because this population has next to nothing written about with art education. I wanted to understand where teachers were at with creating some sort of inclusion in their classroom. What are art educators doing in their classrooms? How have art educators navigated a climate that is not supportive? What are gender variant art educators’ experiences like? Why aren’t art educators including this population in their curriculum? Is it for lack of resources, not knowing where to start, or for a lack of confidence? I wanted to understand both sides of the spectrum on this. How are art educators supposed to know how to support this population when there’s very little examples out there. What do art educators need to feel

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confident to include this population? This was how I functioned during my time researching.

In the next section data will be presented in the form of raw data from interview protocols. My data is purely from interviews conducted with art educators. Below, each matrix represents a question from the interview followed by each participant’s answer.

Presentation of Data

My data is solely data that I received from interviews conducted with participants with a previously written interview protocol. Below is a sampling and abridged version raw uncoded data. Each participant was asked questions in the same order they are present below. I put each participant’s answer to each question in a table to help me easily code them thematically.

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Did your preservice experience leave you feeling prepared to support gender variant students? Explain.

Parsley

Marjoram

Dill

Coriander

Tarragon

Honestly not really yeah, I feel like my own personal experience as like being a member of the LGBTQ+ community and doing my own Community projects and working with other people and the community especially gender variance people I think that has helped me a lot but none of it has really come from any of my classes or any of the experiences of getting through school. And I don't think that I'm prepared to use those tools as a teacher. More is like a human being I understand how this works and how to support people, but I don't think as a teacher.

I do, but I don't know that I would credit it so much to my program. Um as much as like my own personal experience. Um but yeah I don't think if I would have had that internal motivation to really be thinking about it. like being inclusive to that population I don't know that there would have been a time that would have made me feel like I was really equipped with knowing you know like vocabulary and background knowledge and important concepts and like key ways to engage or include that population in my teaching. so no I don't really feel like probably for most cis het people coming out of my program I don't think they're coming out of this with like this great new understanding of like what it's like to treat queer and gender nonconforming people.

Um well, yes again I hate to say again yes and no. because of who I am as a person an LGBT gender fluid person It strengthened my own awareness. if I was not the person that I am I honestly don't feel that it did.

Yes, I mean there is a lot of navigating that I had to do with myself as a gender variant individual in the system. And I don't feel like my education program prepared me to do that.

No, um, I think you know it's one thing to be in a classroom in college and hear about all these ways that you can be awesome. And, it's like I've joked with friends in the past that it's kind of like the freedom writers disorder of like “I'm going to make a difference, I'm going to do the right thing� and then you walk into a classroom with all sorts of students um and you find yourself trying to put them into categories based on what you've been taught. um and really that just kind of narrowed my mindset initially because I was trying to identify markers of maybe the student is this and this student is that. So that was almost a whole another level of complication um, sort of added a barrier to understanding students that made me think a little bit harder ultimately.

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Do you think it is important to include gender variant students in art curriculum?

Why or why not?

Oregano

Well yes because you know even if I am teaching a class that doesn’t have anyone that isn't transgender, I’m still at the end of the day teaching them how to support people who are. I’m still at the end of the day teaching them you know about artists that are as well or aren't. you know and I’m still exposing them so they're not always hearing the same exact things all the time. which isn't broad enough to fit the bill.

Tarragon

I definitely do. Yes, I definitely do. I think I will be transparent and say that I don't think I ever figured out how to do that affectively. I think that you should be creating a curriculum that is reflective of all of your students in an ideal world.

Basil

Yes, yes of course. representation is really important. if as a kid you don't see adults or like in the art room specifically if you don't see artists, kids will just be like okay I guess they don't exist I'm just invisible. Or, there's no one else like me I'm just lost.

Marjoram

Yeah you know I think that for a lot of reasons. but I think for folks who that is or will be part of their experience I think that it is uhm a site of identity that's not always visible. So I think that always coming from - so like when I'm teaching teachers um you know on creating inclusive learning environments I always say very things that maybe aren't as visible as maybe something like race or thanks for outing physical or developmental disabilities that maybe are more evident. So other sites of identities maybe around like class or you know like mental health and chronic illness and also gender and sexuality like may not be apparent to you. So, like I always just advise that folks start from a baseline assumption that that person is in your room whether or not you know it.

You know because - you know they [the student] may have some awareness of that or you know they might not and they do later so creating like that um like that space of inclusion is really important for just helping them feel like they can show up in authenticity in the classroom space.

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Have you addressed your biases concerning gender variant students? Why or why not?

Rosemary

I honestly don't know if I have because in the in the past say year and a half. I have been really coming to, coming to understand how much more important this is in the classroom that I thought of…

So, I'm like I don't even know where I'm at personally, so I don't really know how that translates or if that translates into the classroom. So, I feel like I'm just kind of realizing what's going on and I don't really know how to jump into it yet. I feel like I know that something needs to be done and it's very clear based on like on my curriculum that it needs to be addressed because it's not currently but I don't really know how to start that.

Thyme

My biases concerning gender variant students… I want to say yes but it probably and truth I'm only just beginning because it's new and there are still so many barriers within not just a culture of my building but also the culture of the country? Just culture in general about how do you talk about that with kids and there's so much debate about do kids even need to know about that yet especially in elementary school.

Parsley

I think I'm starting to I think it's really hard to get to the point where you have to acknowledge that you have them ‘cause a lot of that gets internalized and a lot of that is just kind of how things are you don't really question.

Bay

I think I'm starting to I think it's really hard to get to the point where you have to acknowledge that you have them ‘cause a lot of that gets internalized and a lot of that is just kind of how things are you don't really question.

Marjoram

Yeah for sure I mean obviously I exist within systems of supremacy.

So, you know I still have my experience of like socialization. I think a lot in terms of like the first thought second thought stuff. As far as like whatever the automatic thing is - is an indication of my socialization. and then developing like a, an awareness of those things and then noticing them and then engage critically like with those things that come up. So, say like okay is this actually in alignment with my beliefs in values and if not then I did a second thought thing of like wait let me rephrase that let me correct that. but like I for sure still do of course like experience internalized transphobia internalize misogyny like I have like all of those things in me.

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What is the climate of your school regarding gender variant students? Are they Supportive? If not, how do you navigate that? If not does that discourage you from including it in your classroom?

Tarragon

Rosemary

Bay

Sage

I guess I would call it moderate to conservative, politically. and it was this sort of moderate setting where outright support um and advocacy for marginalized groups of people was not seen. So, it was kind of like the if we don't talk about it then we’re not behaving poorly, or we are not being racist or sexist or whatever. um so it was clear to me that the students in my building who identified as gender variance where are there not talked about or they were talked about in very uncertain terms. So, there are moments when other educators would express things that made clear their lack of understanding about an identity that was different from their own. and because they didn't understand it, they would say very little and then stop. or there are more active “I just don't understand it, it doesn't make any sense” sort of statements made. um and if the students, excuse me, if the teacher is are doing that you can only imagine how it trickles down into the student body.

I don't get the sense that there is really any knowledge around it. I am still asked to line up my students in a girls line and boys line. we have a girls bathroom in a boys bathroom and there hasn't been any talk about having a gender neutral bathroom or no one introduces themselves with their pronouns. Um there really isn't any it doesn't seem I haven't run into talking with either a student or a staff member that is really aware that that is something to consider.

There is no, no discussion of it. the school follows the guidelines set by the district where you can't separate girls and boys. so that's followed but in terms of embracing anything there's never any talk of it at all. there's still a lot my middle schoolers are still saying that's gay you know even kids that you know are gay are saying it. there's just nothing there is nothing. except for maybe me saying hey let's not lose that word that way.

A lot of my co-workers are a little old school as well and really rely on teacher student power dynamics and hierarchies. So, when I asked for the kids to just call me Hannah or Teacher Hannah it created some tension. I haven’t fully come out at work because I know that it will

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take a lot of me explaining my identity over and over again. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that. I’m not sure if my school is ready for it. So it makes me very nervous to teach about gender variance. Not because of how my students will react, I can handle that. It’s more about not feeling supported through my staff. Or fear of having my co-workers challenge me while I’m teaching about gender variance.

It’s a bit discouraging. So, I’m trying to figure out little ways to incorporate it.

Marjoram

Yeah, I think that …. I think that there is good faith and good intention you know I definitely um I'm happy that my school has you know my diversity and equity statement that I - I feel is strong and was developed with input from like a variety of constituents... you know I think that it's I think that we've taken small steps but I do think that there's a mindfulness about about these messages that are inherent in the spaces.... I think that in the practical sense I don't know that, I don't think that every space or every teacher or every student in the school really does have a really strong foundational knowledge of gender variants if you wanna use like that as a catchall. that said like I know that I have done I've done a lot in house trainings so that's one of the things that I do in my external teacher training consulting and stuff like that.

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Do cisgender students benefit from a gender variant inclusive art classroom?

Explain

Thyme

Parsley

Bay

Sage

Yeah! I mean they benefit from experience. Like being around that ES kids in the life skills kids. It is another facet of life. and if they're exposed at a younger age, they’ll be better adults… later in life.

I think that inclusion is a useful thing to have in a classroom regardless of what kind of specific inclusion you're practicing at that time because there may be cisgender students of color and when they see you practicing inclusion you know creates a safe place for them and it also teaches cisgender students to be inclusive in their own practices. But, I think it also teaches them to be inclusive and their own life and their own practices and it teaches them that it's something that should be normalized is that it's something that is okay.

I think everybody would. You know I think that because it's up it's here we have to understand other people. And that is not one group that needs it more than others, and everyone needs to know how to communicate. And that's just another topic about things to work on.

They may even benefit more from it. Gender variant’s biggest issue is cis people invalidating their existence all of the time.

But the art room is kind of the perfect place to introduce these identities. We kind of have an obligation to students to teach them how to be people you know? If we’re showing, teaching and normalizing these identities in the classroom I’d imagine that they’d take that with them beyond the classroom. It’s a trickle affect right?

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Why is the art room an important place for gender variant student?

Dill

The art room is a crucial place for gender variant students because the very subject of arts just quite naturally opens itself up to the diverse community of the world. I mean if you are aware you have with a little research if you're not that aware you can easily become aware. the art world in general is a wonderful place to find all kinds of people. So, I think it's easy to find artists that either are gender variance or creates classroom appropriate work that you can show in a classroom and teach your students.

Tarragon

I think that visual art and all the arts for that matter allow for openended interpretation. They allow for independent response. Um they allow for an acknowledgment of all identities. I think that there is this line with that my students walked between like or it should be a free for all and um I can do so many things with my art like there is this kind of harnessing that had to happen um where we talked about how these expectations for grades are and you still have to do these things. um but also once you learn the basics you can do essentially whatever you want. And I think that kind of freedom is empowering for all students especially when it's freedom by way of their own hard work and preparation.

Basil

In art the way that you are solving problems is deeply personal most of the time. so first of all, you need to be able to feel comfortable in doing something that is deeply personal. So it needs to be a space where you feel that and it's cyclical you now once you have that space then you can go there and you can use that space to feel comfortable and explore yourself even further.

Oregano

You know when you're making art you - you reach inside of yourself to pull things out. And these kids learn so, much about themselves and they feel like the only person they can talk to you about it is a person that is standing there helping them do it. and that's usually the art teacher. and so making those places safe, making those places where the student knows going in that they are not just welcome but encouraged and celebrated is important because if they don't feel safe then that takes away yet one more space that they should be able to lean into. So, making sure the things that I do, and provide are open ended and accessible are really important.

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What do you want to know more of to make your art room more inclusive to the gender variant?

Thyme

Bay

Rosemary

Basil

Tarragon

I feel like in general I like hearing about other people's experience as an elementary school student and what they wish their teacher would have been able to provide. Um‌ and I guess like good more discussions or like almost like a key card to go tom to like to help you to walk yourself through a conversation about gender variance what gender is. and I guess in Elementary it's just like I don't know like what, what they would need an up in the room other than just exposure to people that are different.

I wanna know more about the vocabulary and just like the whole, I don't even know what to call it but what's already out there was existing in the world to know about. whatever has been defined and what isn't okay anymore what is okay. I definitely feel like I'm in the loop and I’m not like and a community that keeps me completely you know up today on that stuff.

I think having a list of artists that would be relevant to this kind of content would be really helpful. Um I think seeing how at other art teachers who are including all of this in their rooms how - what that looks like in their rooms. I think that could be really helpful because also just I I've been in a lot of art rooms like I visited a lot of art rooms but I really can't recall anything that pertains to gender variance just even on the walls in the classrooms. So, to see a classroom that is doing this, that is doing this well and what that looks like I think that would be really helpful. If there is any like art educator, educator groups that are providing resources of, I don't know, any resources books anything that I could pull from 'cause I really am at a point where I just need to start I don't know where to start.

Mostly I think artists that are gender variant who my k-8 population could relate to. I think that visuals for sure, and language. I think that those are the big three.

I think there is a great need for information about scenario specific responses. um because I think when teachers are given a baseline to work with like a basic script to work with then they

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have an understanding of how they can change or tweak responses to their setting. I think there is definitely a need for, if not lessons aren't working themes that's feature gender variant subjects or that are created by gender variant artists. and a clear illustration of how you don't just have to talk about gender variance because there's so many overlapping things that should be talked about in relation to gender variance. so I think people get stuck on the like I don't I don't know how to lead a lesson about this one thing and they forget that there are so many other things that can be brought in. yeah I think so i said scripting or scenario based stuff, more artwork I think lessons that are broader or units that are broader and inclusive or like identity as a construct and breaking down all the ways that identity touch people inclusive of gender variance people would be super helpful. these are like the monster lessons or units That people see at national conferences and they are all over and they don't know how to take it and make it work in their setting. so I think that would be super helpful. I also just think that there should be, I would love to see a broader network available for teachers to talk through some of these things in real time. like I know the NAEA has a LGBTQ interest group that does great work talking through a lot of this stuff. But it also seems to me um perhaps a majority of their members are from the LGBTQ+ community. So it can be intimidating for um someone who is not part of that community too seek help because they don't want to come across as being ignorant or ill informed. so opportunities to bridge that gap appropriately would be really useful. And I think that's an opportunity to for people to learn a lesson that one person doesn't speak for an entire community.

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Data Analysis Coding Strategies My coding started before I conducted interviews. I started with deductive coding while creating my interview protocols. In my literature review, I found significant gaps in knowledge that I knew I wanted to address with my participants. I wrote my interview protocol with the intention of looking at the art room in relation to gender variant students as holistically as I could. This included what makes an inclusive classroom for other identities successful along with the gaps in knowledge I found in my research. I thought about what makes an art room safe, ultimately that all lies in the hands of the teachers, their philosophies, the content of their curriculum, representation through artists, etc. Through this thought process of creating this I kept these main things in mind.

The themes from deductive coding that went into my interviews were, representation, language, dialogues, checking biases, visuals, support, etc, all in the realm of gender variant inclusion in the art classroom.

Because of the deductive coding I did prior to my interview protocol I realized that the coding I would do after my interviews would be per question. Each question from the interview protocol was put into a separate document and each participants answer were inserting. From there I was able to conduct memo writing. Memo writing helped me understand my participants answers to my interview protocol. This also brought forth common themes that I could later turn into a thematic code. Each question has its own set of thematic codes that are derived from the initial deductive coding. I chose to do color coding to code the themes for each interview protocol question. This helped me visualize

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and organize my coding my efficiently. I continued to keep this color coding consistent in my matrices to make the data more organized and easier for the viewer to read.

Coded Interviews The data below is a sampling of coded interviews. The data is coded thematically by color. This helped me visualize the data and be able to organize it into matrices. These interviews are the abridged versions, the versions of these coded interviews can be found in Appendix E.

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Participants Define Gender Variance Key Outside of traditional binary Related to sexuality Umbrella of gender expression/identity Not conforming to gender norms Unsure of how to define Participant

Answer

Chive

Gender variant means to me that there is a spectrum of ways that people could choose to see themselves. um and that you could be and feel the gender that you are born with. um you could maybe feel like those pronouns are necessarily ones that you feel like describe you. I think sometimes it, especially in middle school it ties into sexuality and attraction a little bit Where kids are like wait that's not who I'm attracted to does that mean that my gender is different so there's some things like that that i got. … I would say that gender is more about the way that you identify how you want to feel as… and sometimes in tandem with - with sexuality but really more about how the world and how you want to be known.

Dill

It could be a gender identity that is not following strictly within um traditional definitions … chooses to communicate or express gender I'm a very umbrella like manner. where it is aware of the sort of very large gender umbrella and it's not trying to um impose a strict gender identity or gender expression and it is one that is aware of the bigger umbrella of gender expression.

Tarragon

yes um, gender variant to me means that a person may not identify as one gender specifically. they may not recognize um gender at all. they may identify as a gender that differs from their assigned sex at birth.

Yeah.

Rosemary

Not identifying specifically as, I don't wanna say traditional, But male or female.

Thyme

Someone who does not identify with society’s supposed standard of two genders. A person who identifies outside of the either-or model?

Oregano

I don't want to say you are understanding the concept of being non binary. You um, you do you understand that there are more things going on than the traditionally taught genders

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Parsley

So gender variant means not conforming to like the societal standards of gender it's different from‌. not conforming to society standards of gender is existing outside of what Society expects of you according to see what gender your side up birth.

Basil

Gender variant to me means that you don't specifically identify with your birth gender. There are a lot of different genders in it could mean male or female or it could mean non binary or it could mean something completely different.

Bay I have to say for me I don't have a good definition of it an I'm trying to understand it. it's a newer concept to me. it makes total sense to me but I don't know if i really even know how to define it. is that fair?

Sage

Gender variant to me is a umbrella term for Someone who is gender variant doesn’t fit within the binary of girl/boy. So, this could be a trans person, and non-binary person, a tom boy, a boy who paints his nails. Basically, anything that strays away from societies expectations of binary gender performances.

Marjoram

define my gender variant means‌ I think that I would, I would think of gender variance as anything that is outside of the scope of a traditional um gender binary internal experience or outward expression of gender. Say like anything that doesn't adhere to typical gender norms. which is funny because When i put it that way I think everyone is gender variant to some degree.

Coriander

right so you like have the - your gender non conforming folks to in some way will be Identity or gender expression or whatever don't quite conform to gender norms. and then you can have someone who is both and someone who's just one and not the other. So, you can have a super gender conforming transfer sin or you could have a gender non-conforming trans or nonbinary person. or I can have someone who's gender-nonconforming that still is cisgender. the gender variant really encompasses all those, so I really like that word.

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Did Your Preservice Experience Leave Participant Feeling Prepared?

Did not feel prepared personal experiences or personal research Despite some discussion did not feel prepared because it wasn’t practical scenarios.

Was prepared with adequate resources

Participant

Answer

Chive

No it didn’t.

Dill Um well, yes again I hate to say again yes and no. because of who I am as a person an LGBT gender fluid person It strengthened my own awareness. if I was not the person that I am I honestly don't feel that it did…in fact one of the projects that i did during my graduate program, one of the final projects i did was sort of create my own podcast on how to um create an LGBTQ inclusive school. because i felt that it was not um you know I wasn't really getting you know a lot of information. so there is enough or it was enough of a topic that was not tackled enough so I feel like if i did that as my podcast it would be a new topic to bring to the course. so yeah.

Tarragon No, um, I think you know it's one thing to be in a classroom in college and hear about all these ways that you can be awesome. and it's like I've joked with friends in the past that it's kind of like the freedom writers disorder of like “I'm going to make a difference, I'm going to do the right thing” and then you walk into a classroom with all sorts of students um and you find yourself trying to put them into categories based on what you've been taught. um and really that just kind of narrowed my mindset initially because I was trying to identify markers of maybe the student is this and this student is that. so that was almost a whole another level of complication um sort of added a barrier to understanding students that made me think a little bit harder ultimately.

Rosemary

Not at all honestly. Honestly at the time that I graduated when I was twenty one I it wasn't on my radar to even consider that as an option. I had talked to I think one of my classes had talked about - I took a special Ed course I took an ELL course I was singing about language I was

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singing about needs but I was in no way thinking about gender variance or sexuality or anything at all.

Thyme No no it did not!

Oregano My first degree absolutely not. my second degree yeah. I feel like I'm better prepared just with what was provided to me from that University.

But also providing me resources to be learning more on my own so that I would feel more confident going in. Because you know at the end of the day they're still all of these other things that we have to talk about too. so like one of my classes was just way too much all the time and that was one of the classes that really tried to break in and be more understanding and making sure that we are better prepared. but you know we would run out of time so there was always more resources available And I made sure that I looked into those.

Parsley

honestly not really yeah I feel like my own personal experience as like being a member of the lgbtq + community and doing my own Community projects and working with other people and they Community especially gender variance people. I think that has helped me a lot but none of it has really come from any of my classes or any of the experiences of getting through school, And I don't think that I'm prepared to use those tools as a teacher. more is like a human being I understand how this works and how to support people but I don't think as a teacher.

Basil No, Definitely not. Supporting gender variance students has been um, my own research. I try to attend trainings.

Bay Sage

Marjoram

no. no I didn’t feel prepared to support gender variant students. What I know is from my personal experiences which are narrow.

I do but I don't know that I would credit it so much to my program. um as much as like my own personal experience. um but yeah I don't think if I would have had that internal motivation to really be thinking about it. like being inclusive to that population I don't know that there would have been a time that would have made me feel like I was really equipped with knowing you know like vocabulary and background knowledge and

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important concepts and like key ways to engage or include that population in my teaching. So no I don't really feel like probably for most cis het people coming out of my program I don't think they're coming out of this with like this great new understanding of like what it's like to treat queer and gender nonconforming people.

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Is representation of gender variant artists important for gender variant or potential gender variant students in your art classroom? Explain.

Yes Needs Resources for this to exist in class Representation of gender variant artists is important for everyone It’s important for gender variant students to see themselves mirrored in curriculum

Participant

Answer

Chive

Absolutely I think absolutely and I think um I think one of the resources that would be really great to have would be just like A listing of artists like Nick cave I know is gay does people talk about it very often no but was it helpful we looked at Nick caves for some my students be aware of that. but you know gay males and art tend to be pretty prevalence but trans or pansexual. you know I don't know those artists. and maybe because they're not speaking up about it themselves or maybe because when their work is putting on display it's not being mentioned. but informs the artist experience so I feel like it should be made.

Dill Absolutely I mean absolutely. I think in all subjects I mean absolutely. especially in art and really for the simple fact that it's very important for self esteem to feel you are included in the community. it's really important to see yourself mirrored out in the world. And that is something that i really did not have growing up for most of my childhood really. it is so important. so absolutely yes absolutely. and especially in arts I mean if you're not doing that in art class within any of the creative arts not just visual performing art whatever. if you're not doing it there my gosh you are really you know short changing the students. so absolutely yeah it's very important.

Tarragon Yes I think that there - I imagine that this would be the case in most places but especially in a climate where students are acutely aware that they may not be accepted. um I think that it's incredibly important to make clear that there are people who identify in a similar way and who are doing things professionally who are recognized for their work who are speaking on a topic that other people aren't speaking to in the same way. Like I have seen students' faces change when they see someone who they either just really admire their art or see a bit of themselves in. and that's all students but particularly in that population as students there are so little done from what I was told and other classes but that may be

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the only but a representation they may see in their entire school experience.

Rosemary I think just being - I feel like it would make them feel seen like and considered. A big part of teaching is making sure that all your students feel considered. I feel like that's a phrase that I use a lot, And I feel like by very simply showing them artists that identify similarly to them‌ I can't I don't know how to put it into words. And why that's important but it, it's huge to show them that you're not the only one that identifies this way. There are so many, many other people that do and there's obviously nothing wrong with that and [other] people might not be talking about it at school.

Thyme Yes, like for everything, representation is important for those students but for everyone to be exposed to artists and things that are different from themselves.

Oregano OYeah um, I feel like you know like. OK so this goes into something totally different but, but one of my special interests is special Ed and there is that statement you know nothing about us without us. And I feel like the more that people don't see themselves the worse it is. and so you know the idea you know I think exists sometimes that if I don't see people like me then i must not be able to do that. so I try to make sure that I always be showing kids like them. so generally, like if I do a lesson um that's really focused, like right now because the kids are so small I don't have to do something else to focus on an artist I can I can focus on a book. but if I am going to focus on an artist I make sure there is multiple artists. um an usually don't use - And I I will look into the artist too - you know there are certain artists that I will use certain artists I have used that I will not use anymore. um you know so I'm trying to find people like them but also not using people that have used their work to oppress.No matter what kind of oppression is going on I don't want to use a man who has worked really hard be associated with them.

Parsley Yes for sure so I think that it is helpful to include it an art history context. in the sense that - are you know even contemporary artists. I think that that's important in terms of Education just to show that there is a shift happening. That we’re not talking about straight white men anymore that there are these other artists out there that are equally as

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important. It’s important to gender variant students to see themselves represented and the artists who are getting talked about because that shows that it's possible that it's important and that they are just as important even if society doesn't accept gender variance so easily. basil Yes, yes absolutely I think that I touched on this a little bit earlier. but I can reiterate for you. it's important because if you don't see representation you feel invisible or you feel less valued. why are you don't even know that you have options that would be good options for you. if you are not exposed to something you may not even know that it exists. bay Yes well for everyone. I think that would be great for everyone but I don't know like where to even pull from for that. I mean obviously I can Google that but I think that everyone needs to see it not just a gender variant kids I feel like it's the whole group.

Sage

Yeah absolutely. I look l back on when I was a kid and if my art teacher would have showed me more artists and not been as focused on DBAE I would’ve realized that people related to me. I had no language for my identity until I was in college, and then it took me years to come to terms with it. Even in college I wasn’t looking at gender variant artists. I can’t help but feel like I would have felt more empowered if there was at least an inkling of representation in there. I keep hearing people talking about mirrors and windows when they talk about representation in the curriculum across all academia. I think that mirrors are so important for students to see in representation of artists. We could be showing students and validating their identities even if they don’t know they now they hold those identities.

Marjoram 1000% I mean I kinda touched on this already but you know, like the Emily Style piece from I think like 1989, the curriculum from Mirror and Lindo Is really someone that works in equity and inclusion. Like the approach to teaching and that's one thing that I reference a lot. So if you think in terms a lot of you know creating a balance of both mirrors for students to see their identities reflected but also windows into identities communities and experiences that are not uh their own gender is absolutely like a really really important one of those. um also like it's something that everyone encapsulates some sort of aspect of identity, but everybody has a personal experience of gender. Um so I think for

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everyone yeah whether it's a mirror or whether it's a window it's a part of our world.

Coriander

C: Oh yeah I mean I think that representation of all artists is important.

But I also think that representation of artists both have art that talks about their identity and art that doesn't. …So I used some of Kehinde Wiley’s images for that. But also like you shouldn't just be using that image of Kehinde Wiley’s you should also use other things that he's done and talk about other work that doesn't as directly speak to queer identity. I mean to an extent any work that an artist is going to say something about their identity. But, you should be using a broad spectrum all folks to be talking about a broad spectrum of things. and not just pigeon holing people into like here's the gay art by gay people, and here is the black guy by black people, and here is the normal white by white people. Yeah I mean I think it's a journey, it's also a part of my own personal practice because it's really easy for me to be like, I am probably one of the publicly out - in fact I could say that I am the most publicly out trans or queer person in museum education in the region.

And so it's really easy for me to just spend my day being the queer and trans educator. Like doing all this **** about queer stuff, which is great, but also there is more to me than being queer and trans and I forget that sometimes. so like if I'm intentionally looking for opportunities to teach with our queer and trans folks that isn't directly talking about their queer and trans identities that's a reminder to me to pay attention to these other parts of their identities as well.

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Data Organized in Matrices This matrix shows whether participants identified with being gender variant or cisgender.

The data shows that more participants identified as cisgender than gender variant.

Gender Identity Chive

Cisgender X

Dill

X

Tarragon

X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil Bay

Gender Variant

X X

Sage

X

Marjoram

X

Coriander

X Figure 4 matrix showing participants gender identity

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Experience working with students The data below shows quite a varied experience of what type of programs people have worked in. All but 1 participant has experienced student teaching. Most participants have experience working in public schools followed by community arts and private schools.

What are your experiences working with children?

Chive

Public

Private

X

X

Early Childhood

Museum

Community Charter Arts

X

Dill Tarragon

X X

X

Rosemary Thyme

X X X

Parsley Basil

X

Bay

X

X

Sage

X

X

X

X X

X

X X

X

X X

Marjoram

X

X

Oregano

Coriander

Preservice (student teaching)

X

X

X

X X

X

X Figure 5 Matrix of participants experiences working with students

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Defining Gender Variance Participants were asked to define gender variance. A majority of participants said that someone who is gender variant presents outside of the female / male binary or gender norms. Four participants said that gender variance is an umbrella term for gender expression and identity spectrum. One participant was unsure how to define gender variance. One Participant said that gender variance is related the sexuality.

Define Gender Variant for me

Outside of the traditional male/female binary or gender norms

Chive Dill

Umbrella term for gender expression and identity spectrum

Unsure how to define

X X

Tarragon

Can be related to sexuality (outlier) X

X X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

Marjoram

X

Coriander

X Figure 6 Matrix showing participants definition of gender variance

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Did Participants Preservice Experience Address Gender Variance?

This set of data shows that most participant’s preservice courses didn’t address how to support gender variant populations. Five participants did personal research that was not facilitated by a professor. Two participants had cooperating programs that addressed gender variance, but not from professors. 3 participants preservice experiences addressed inclusion in a broader way and were able to infer those practices

How Did your Pre-service experience address gender variant students?

Wasn’t addressed in required preservice courses

Chive

X

Dill

X

Yes, however, not from professors but from cooperating schools and programs

Yes, but it was driven by personal research, not facilitated by professors

Program talked about inclusion in general so was able to form some ideas of inclusion for gender variant students.

X

Tarragon

X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

X

X X X

X

Marjoram

X

Coriander

X

X

Figure 7 Matrix showing participants exposure to gender variant identities in their preservice program

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Did Preservice Experience Leave Participants Feeling Prepared to Support Gender Variant Students This matrix shows data that was a follow up question to the previous matrix. All participants did not feel prepared to support gender variant students. There was one outlier in this matrix, one participant felt prepared from a graduate program, but the matrix shows that the participant did not feel prepared from a previous program.

Did your preservice experience leave you feeling prepared to support gender variant students

Did not feel prepared from preservice experience

Was prepared from personal experiences or personal research

Chive

X

Dill

X

Tarragon

X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

X

Basil

X

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

X

Marjoram

X

X

Coriander

X

X

Was prepared with adequate resources

X

X

Figure 8 Matrix showing participants preparedness to support gender variant students from their preservice program

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Importance of Including Gender Variant Students in Curriculum All participants agreed that it is important of including gender variant students in curriculum is important. Some participants, however, are not sure where to start this inclusion. Many Participants agree that inclusive classrooms need to include gender variant students.

Do you think Yes it’s important to include Gender Variant Student?

Explain.

I do, but I don’t know where to start.

All classrooms should be inclusive, including gender variant students

Inclusion brings visibility and validation to students who are gender variant

Chive

X

X

Dill

X

Tarragon

X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

X

X

Marjoram

X

X

X

Coriander

X

X

X

X X X X

X

Figure 9 Matrix showing why participants Think that inclusion of gender variance is important in the art classroom

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School Climate Regarding Gender Variant Students.

This next matrix addresses school climate. Data shows that eight out of twelve participants noticed that the climate where they teach was either not supportive or not fully supportive of gender variant students. Four participants said that the climate at where they teach is supportive to gender variant students.

What is the Climate of your school regarding gender variant students? Are the Supportive? If not, how do you navigate that?

Chive

Loosely supportive

X

Dill Tarragon

Supportive and understanding

Staff and administratio n show lack of knowledge surrounding the topic

Difficult to navigate talking to co-workers about topic

No

Despite mild Support from district not all teachers follow policies

X X

X

X

Rosemary

X

X

Thyme

X

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

X

Bay Sage

X

Marjoram

X

Coriander

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Figure 10 Matrix showing participants work climates concerning gender variance

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Biases Concerning Gender Variant Students Participants were if they had thought about their identities concerning gender variant students. Participants answered with an array of answers. Four participants not sure what their biases would be. Many Participants are working on unlearning the way they were socialized and trying to pay more attention to automatically gendering students.

Have you address your biases concerning gender variant students? Why or why not.

Working on paying more attention to automatically gendering students

Chive

Unlearning Socialization in traditional binaries

Just beginning to address them

It’s an ongoing process

X X

X

X

Rosemary

X

Thyme Oregano

Assume that gender variant student need protection

X

Dill Tarragon

Not sure they are aware of what they are

X X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

X

Marjoram

X

X

Coriander

X

X Figure 11 Matrix showing participants biases concerning gender variance

Addressing Gender Variance in Pedagogy

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The matrix below shows a wide set of data of how participants address gender variance in their art classroom. This matrix shows the wide array of ways art teachers are starting to address this in their pedagogy. Four participants are still struggling to include this into their pedagogy. Five participants show representation of gender variants artists. Three participants show representation of gender variance through books.

How do you address gender variant identities in the classroom?

Through discussion, curriculum, representati on, specific lessons?

No explicit instruct ion, student led

Chive

X

Dill

Represent ation through books

Represen tation through Artists

Projects surroun ding the idea of identity

Using Correct pronouns for students

“queering� Allowing Struggle traditional open to heteronor- ended include mative space for content students to explore this identity

X X

X

X

Tarragon

X

Rosemary

X

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X X

X X

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

Marjoram Coriander

X X

X X

X

X X

X

X Figure 12 Matrix showing how participants address gender variance within their pedagogy

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Gender Inclusive and Neutral Language in the Art Classroom This matrix addresses the role that gender inclusive or gender-neutral language plays in the art classroom. Most participants are attempting to utilize more gender-neutral language in their classroom and respect students correct pronouns. One participant is still unlearning the gendered language that they previously used.

Do you use Gender variant inclusive, or gender-neutral language in your classroom?

Attempting to use more gender-neutral language

Chive

X

Dill

X

Tarragon

Unlearn previously taught gendered language

X X X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley Basil

Using students correct pronouns

X X

Bay

X

Sage

X

X

Marjoram

X

X

Coriander

X

X Figure 13 Matrix showing how participants use gender neutral language in the art classroom

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How Cisgender Students Benefit for a Gender Variant Inclusive Art Classroom This matrix shows participants thoughts on how a gender variant inclusive classroom also benefits the cisgender students in the classroom. Five participants believe it helps normalize gender variant identities when they are exposed to them. Three Participants says that students have the potential to learn empathy and be more understanding of this identity. Four participants believe it’s important to expose students of different identities other than their own including gender variant identities.

In what ways could Helps normalize cisgender students gender variant benefit from a gender identities when variant inclusive art cisgender students are classroom? exposed to this identity.

Helps cisgender students learn empathy and be more understanding of gender variant identities.

Chive

X

Dill

X

Tarragon

X

Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

Oregano Parsley

Important to educate identities that are different from their own.

X

X X

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

Marjoram Coriander

X

X

Figure 14 Matrix showing how cisgender students can benefit from a gender variant inclusive pedagogy

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Representation of Gender Variant Artists In this matrix, participants talk about the importance of representation of gender variant artists for gender variant students. Four participants said that representation of gender variant artists is important for everyone in the class. Eight participants said that it is important for gender variant artists to be represented because it mirrors the gender variant students in the classroom.

Is representation of gender variant artists important for gender variant, or potentially gender variant students in your art classroom. Why or why not?

Chive

Needs resources for this to exist in class

Representation of gender variant artists is important for everyone

X

It’s important for Representation of gender variant students all artists and all to see themselves of their identities mirrored in curriculum is important

X

Dill

X

Tarragon Rosemary

X

Thyme

X

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

X

Sage Marjoram Coriander

X X

X X

Figure 15 Matrix showing importance of representation of gender variant artists.

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Gender Variant Inclusive Imagery This matrix shows what kind of gender inclusive imagery they have around their art room. Five participants are still working on including this in their classroom. Six participants have more general LGBTQ poster int heir art room. One participant utilizes gender variants on display for representation

What types of visuals do you have in your room to support gender variance?

Still Books on working on display including visuals

Chive

General LGBTQ visuals

Colors are for everyone visual

Does not have a classroom

X

Dill Tarragon

X

Rosemary Thyme

X

X X

X

X

Oregano

X

X

Parsley

X

X

Basil

X

Bay

X

Sage

X

Marjoram Coriander

X X

X X

Figure 16 Matrix showing participations use of gender variant inclusive imagery.

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Visuals that Would be Helpful to Have in the Art Classroom This matrix show what visuals participants would want their art room. Three participants want more visuals or posters of gender variant artists artwork. Four participants are unsure what visuals would be necessary to have in their art classrooms.

What visuals would be helpful to have in your art room?

Visuals of gender variant artists artwork

Chive

X

Dill

X

Unsure Gender Visuals what Spectrum that show visuals they Chart total would need inclusion to support for every students. student

Tarragon X

Thyme

X

Oregano

X

Parsley

X

Basil

X

Bay

X X

Marjoram Coriander

Schools marketing visuals be more gender inclusive

X

Rosemary

Sage

Visuals that are not gender specific

X X Figure 17 Matrix showing what visuals would be helpful for participants to have in classroom

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Importance of the Art Room This matrix shows data from participants discussing the importance of the art room for the gender variant students. Eleven participants said that the art room is a natural place for students to explore, that could include gender. Seven participants said that the art room has the potential to be a safe place for gender variant students.

Why is the art room an important place for gender variant students?

It has the potential to be a safe place for gender variant students

Chive

X

Dill

X

Tarragon

Art is a natural place to encourage exploration in many ways including gender

X X

Rosemary

X

X

Thyme

X

X

Oregano

X

X

Parsley Basil

X X

Bay Sage

Gender Variant Students have the potential to feel validated in the art room.

X X

X

X

X

Marjoram

X

X

Coriander

X Figure 18 Matrix showing importance of the art room for gender variant students

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What Participants Want to Know More of to Make Pedagogy More Inclusive This matrix shows the diverse informational needs that art educators still need to be able to make their art pedagogies more inclusive for gender variant students. Some of the needs people pointed out were: gender variant artists, how to address gender variance with students, art educator groups that allow dialogues of how to support gender variant students and gender variant inclusive visuals for the art classroom.

Figure 19 Matrix showing what participants want to know more of concerning gender variance in the art classroom.

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Personal Definition of Gender Variant Inclusion in the art classroom In the matrix below participants were asked what gender variant inclusion would ideally look like in their classroom. Eight out of twelve participants said that representation of gender variant artists is important. Representation included visuals on the walls, gender variant artists, dialogues in the classroom and lessons. Three participants said What would your definition of inclusion for gender variant students look like in your art room?

Chive

A place Representation that of gender normalizes variant gender identities variant (through identities visuals, artists, dialogues, lesson,etc.)

X

X

Rosemary

X X

Oregano

Basil

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X

Bay Sage

X X

X

Marjoram Coriander

Being aware that you can’t change peoples opinions

X

Tarragon

Parsley

Correct pronouns being used

X

Dill

Thyme

A safe A basic place to understanding explore and support identity from peers expression and teachers

X X

X Figure 20 Matrix showing how participants define gender variance in their classroom

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Summary of Findings The data in this section has brought some concepts to light that will be further discussed in the next chapter. Some of these findings are the art educators are feeling underprepared to support gender variant students in the art room. There is lack of resources such as visuals, lessons, gender variant artists, etc. for the art room that art educators have access to. There is an overall awareness and understanding of gender variant identities, but art teachers are still struggling to create a more inclusive pedagogy.

Art educators believe that cisgender students also benefit from a gender variant inclusive pedagogy.

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CHAPTER V: Summary and Conclusions Introduction to Findings The intention of this study was to assess current inclusion of gender variance practices through art education in various settings. Through conducting interviews, I found an array of art educators starting to create inclusive practices, as well as educators who are still learning and understanding gender variant identities. In this chapter I will further discuss the findings from chapter 4. I will address the questions from my interview protocol in the context of my research question, the literature, the research environment, in the context of myself as a researcher and educator, and implications to the field.

Presentation of Findings

In context of Research Question As a refresher, I’m going to state my research question: Given that only 10.6% of LGBTQ students reported that their school or district had official policies or guidelines to support transgender or gender nonconforming students in 2017 (2017 GLSEN), and that Sadowski (2017) suggested that transgender students face the biggest challenges physically, psychologically, and academically at school, what resources and education about gender variance do art educators need in order to support their transgender and gender variant students, creating a more ethically inclusive pedagogy for this population?

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This section will highlight the successes art educators had of gender variant inclusion in their classrooms, as well as discussions of this inclusion. The dialogues that were had throughout this study brought to my attention what stepping stones teachers potentially need to make if they want to include a form of gender variant inclusive pedagogies. Based on these dialogues, I realized that there is an overall awareness, understanding, and willingness to support the gender variant populations in our classrooms. I spoke with participants who truly wanted to learn about how to represent, support, and be an ally to their students, but just didn’t know how. Participants didn’t know where to start this research. The more I looked at my data and read and reread my participants' interviews, however, I realized that they had already started doing some of the work to be more inclusive. In this next section, I will discuss specific questions asked throughout the interview protocol that brought these practices to light.

Collectively, the participants shared experiences and tactics that, when combined, began to address this population. Collectively, the participants are actually creating the beginnings of a pedagogy. I didn’t realize this until most of my data was completed.

Hearing these experiences, one could piece together what art educators are already doing to inform their own practices. The questions that were asked were informed by my literature review, my own experiences in art growing up, and my experiences from my past teaching experiences. These questions addressed what I saw lacking, representation, language that was inclusive to all genders, lessons that encourage exploration which includes gender variance, visuals amongst to room, and a deep look at our own biases concerning gender variance.

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Representation Though I only asked one question about representation, it kept coming up throughout the interviews. Representation of any minority group is important. Is it important for gender variant students to see themselves represented in positive ways? It is also important to for cisgender students to see gender variance represented in a positive way because it normalizes it.

Participant Basil said: “Representation is really important. If as a kid you don't see adults or like in the art room specifically if you don't see artists, kids will just be like okay I guess they don't exist I'm just invisible. or there's no one else like me I'm just lost. and I don't know when I was a kid I was a weird kid and I only had a couple friends And I just thought to myself I guess there's no one like me and I'm just not going to have friends. Like I didn't see people who are like me and I wasn't exposed to that… when kids are validated it makes a big difference.” (participant Basil, personal interview, February 29th, 2020) What Basil is saying here is something that resonates with my own experience. I never saw anyone who had the same identity as me. In fact, I had no idea that gender identities beyond male or female existed growing up. Representation can mean everything to a kid who is trying to figure out who they are.

Participant Marjoram said the following about representation:

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“So if you think in terms a lot of you know creating a balance of both mirrors for students to see their identities reflected but also windows into identities communities and experiences that are not uh their own gender is absolutely like a really really important one of those. um also like it's something that everyone encapsulates some sort of aspect of identity, but everybody has a personal experience of gender. Um so I think for everyone yeah whether it's a mirror or whether it's a window it's a part of our world.” -(participant Marjoram, personal interview, February 8th, 2020) Representation of different gender identities in the art room doesn’t just support the gender variant student in the classroom; it extends to the cisgender population as well. As Marjoram said, everyone experiences gender, so it’s really important to show different gender identities in the classroom. Marjoram's use of the word window can be exemplified by showing artists or having books available on gender variance because cisgender students are seeing that representation of identities different from themselves.

What Are Teachers Currently Doing to Support Gender Variant Students?

Using Books Collectively, these participants had many ideas that could help teachers start a gender variant-inclusive practice in their classroom. Oregano, Dill, and Sage have all used books to address gender variance in their classroom. All three of these educators work with either elementary or early childhood age students. They use books in their

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curriculum or have books on display. Oregano, who works in early childhood, often utilizes books whose characters don’t have a particular gender. “... I like these [books] in particular because none of the characters ever have gender. And I try to like not use books that do gender things felt like to for reasons that I have already talked about. like this one already kinda comes that way… They talk at one point about um I can't find it right now but um feeling silly and one of the things that made that monster silly was wearing big monsters clothes… They don't even use gender the dress up clothes they're just calling it big monster clothes and then there's just a picture of them wearing like a sweater, and the kids really glue on to that they find that fun.” (participant Oregano, personal interview, February 15th, 2020) By using books that have genderless characters, all students are able to relate and, and these books can provide opportunities for representation of student identity. I think using books like this, and basing projects off books that have genderless characters, also combats the enforcement of gender stereotypes on early childhood students.

Participant Coriander used the book Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress (2014) to help explain a teaching artist's gender identity when some students were having a hard time understanding that teacher's pronouns (Appendix….). Along with that, many participants talked about the flexibility to able stop class and have conversations about gender variance when they come up. It can be really beneficial and a great teachable moment to entertain conversations and dialogues with students when they have questions

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about gender variance. Even if the educator isn’t explicitly teaching about gender variance, being able to lean into a teachable moment holds a lot of weight, and can make an impact on any student with any gender.

Projects on Identity Is it appropriate to have projects specifically about gender variance? This was something that I talked about a lot with my participants. When I started this study, I anticipated talking to an educator who has a specific lesson they use. I quickly realized that perhaps utilizing lesson plans that explicitly talk about what it means to be gender variant wasn’t the best way to support the gender variant students in the classroom.

Having a lesson specifically about gender variance doesn’t speak to every student in the classroom. In fact, this could make gender variant students feel outed in their identity.

Being that gender variance is an identity, however, projects about identity can potentially be the perfect catalyst for a student to explore that part of themselves.

Preparing students for a project about identity can be a great way to introduce them to gender variant artists. The teacher can show the artist’s work and talk about how their identity plays a role in creating their work. For example, participant Dill talked about two specific projects that deal with self portraiture. These projects are designed to give students a lot of choice in how they represent themselves. Though Dill isn’t specifically talking about gender variance in this project, they have built in opportunities for students to explore that topic if they want to.

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How Gender Variant Students Can be Seen When supporting a minority group in an inclusive way, it's important to provide support in a way that doesn’t other that group. Tarragon, a high school art teacher, was very aware of this when she implemented a beginning of the semester introduction worksheet. Tarragon talked about wanting to know the pronouns of her students, but didn’t want to put any of them on the spot. This private introduction sheet would allow her to learn everyone’s pronouns, and she could then create a cheat sheet for herself to help learn everyone’s pronouns. She also expressed that this was a really good way to talk about pronouns with her students who were not gender variant.

By simply asking what her students’ pronouns were, teachable moments were brought forth for her cisgender students who were still grasping the idea of different pronouns. “...students who typically after that worksheet actually would write something that expressed confusion or disagreements with options. and that was only a handful of students over time. But I found that it was really um enlightening to ask them in private conversation why they had that response... but I would say things like I hear you and I understand where you're coming from and I want to tell you where I'm coming in from by providing this option that you don't have to utilize, which may not make sense to you but I want you to choose the one that does make sense to you.

They're here for a reason and here is that reason. And I found that by having those sort of conversations where I acknowledge the other person's viewpoint almost always I was met with understanding and not a

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combative response.” (participant Tarragon, personal interview, March 22nd, 2020) I love that Tarragon has also used this simple question as a teachable moment. I think the way that she privately talks to students is important, because it creates a dialogue where both the teacher and the student are heard, yet the teacher is able to explain why pronouns are important. Since Tarragon started doing this, she noticed an awareness in the language she uses with her students. “...it triggered an awareness of like vernacular things that I would say. So, like hey you guys. But there is also I think... when you just hear other teachers saying things and you find pieces of language that kind of feel comfortable for you… And so when I realized that I was providing the space but I wasn't reflecting it, I was catching it more. And then it became a matter of how do I catch it and not draw a ton of attention to the fact that I've made a mistake. So I got more comfortable when I slip. I would just rephrase it quickly and in the same tone and then I got much better at not saying it at all. but I think that is something that most people I taught with didn't have the awareness of that stuff. So I feel like a stretch to push it so hard even though it became a lot more comfortable at times.” (participant Tarragon, personal interview, march 22nd, 2020) This new awareness caused her to check in with herself to practice what she was preaching. But once she was aware, she became more confident in addressing pronouns

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and more gender neutral language in her classroom. Ultimately, Tarragon’s students were seen by their teacher who always used their correct pronouns.

Benefits for Everyone in the Room Participants discussed how a gender variant inclusive practice doesn’t just benefit the gender variant students in the room. In fact, it can benefit the cisgender students in the room just as much. The point of gender variant inclusion is to include and normalize gender variant identities. In a way, it’s a balancing act of supporting the gender variant identities in the room and informing the cisgender identities in the room. Participants such as Parsley talked about the effects that inclusion could possibly have on cisgender students.

“I think that inclusion is a useful thing to have in a classroom regardless of what kind of specific inclusion you're practicing at that time because there may be cisgender students of color and when they see you practicing inclusion you know creates a safe place for them and it also teaches cisgender students to be inclusive in their own practices. But I think it also teaches them to be inclusive and their own life and their own practices and it teaches them that it's something that should be normalized is that, it's something that is okay.” (participant Parsley, personal interview, February 25th, 2020) Again, teachers are being watched by their students all day. They set examples. When students see their art teacher normalizing gender variance through discussion,

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representation, and other inclusive practices. they have the potential of normalizing gender variance outside of the art room.

Implicit Teaching Sometimes the most teachable moments are those that aren’t planned. If students bring up a topic or show interest in something that isn’t in the lesson, being flexible enough to stop class and have those conversations in the long run can really benefit the students in your classroom. Marjoram said: “...colors are like one of my big things, like my catch phrases, like especially for younger kids are that colors are for everyone… [For example] when there are those teachable moments of like pink is a girl color or whatever, not just like dismissing it or just shutting it down but instead being like tell me more you know like what makes you think that, like where have you heard that. You know, just interrogating it anytime that those things come up, just modeling curiosity about that and not just doing it in like preachy lecturing way but actually priming students to be able to do that kind of critical examination and pushback on their own by modeling the kind of questioning that I do when I encounter these stereotypes um and starting to get students to do that on their own. So, it's always a really big win for me when like part way through the year when I've just been on the broken record and students start being like colors are for everyone.” (Marjoram, personal interview, February 8th, 2020)

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The way that Marjoram approached this idea of implicit teaching, is a great example of inclusion. They open up space for the cisgender students in the room to think critically while validating the gender variant students in the room. Marjoram was flexible enough to stop class and have a productive conversation with their students about colors.

What’s important to note is how they approached this conversation. Marjoram opened up a dialogue to challenge students previously conceived notions about colors by asking fairly simple questions. By asking those questions they are modeling critical examination (Marjoram, 2020) of traditional gender stereotypes. At no point does Marjoram tell the students that they’re wrong, or scold them, they simply start a conversation by asking questions and asking their students to think. They may have had to have that conversation multiple times but eventually it will stick. Or, at the least, it challenges students to examine why they think there are boy colors and girl colors. This type of impromptu examination in the class could also potentially set them up to do a similar examination outside of the classroom.

In Context of Literature Sources Addressing the Gaps in Literature: The gaps that I found initially when doing my literature review research were very similar to the gaps in knowledge my participants discussed in their interviews. Research in the literature review showed that there is very little written about gender variant students, specifically in the art classroom. How can art educators develop a practice when there isn’t one to begin with? Many of my participants expressed the desire to just read something about how other art

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educators are addressing gender variant students in the art classroom. They want an example to work from, but there are limited resources accessible to art educators that address their questions and needs so they can support and represent their students. This makes me want to encourage art educators to share the ways they’re addressing this. Write down those lessons that were successful. Write about what artists you’ve used. Write about the dialogues that you’ve had. Write about how you navigated negative responses from students and staff. That is the information my participants want. The literature review for this thesis can help start cultivating ideas. Having specific examples within an art education context, however, is helpful.

Queering Art History and Disrupting Heteronormativity Sometimes navigating how to talk about gender variance can be difficult. It can also be difficult to find artists whose work would be appropriate to show students. There are, however, ways to disrupt more traditional artwork, and look at it through a more critical queer framework. In the literature review, I introduced a text that had a section called “Disrupting Heteronormativity at Syracuse University,” which discusses how to disrupt typically heteronormative curriculum. Participant Coriander has figured out how to incorporate this disruption in an art setting. Coriander works in a museum that has extremely limited access to queer artists, and zero artists in their collection who are gender variant. Typically, they are teaching about the museum’s artwork within the collection, which can make it difficult to talk about gender variance. Coriander has, however, figured out a way to disrupt a typically heteronormative perspective with a queer lens.

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“So, in visual art we have a tendency to look at a visual of a figure and assume like - we make a judgment about whether this figure is male or female. So sometimes kind of depending on the vibe of the group I might challenge that. So, like a lot of our teaching is based on visual thinking strategies… I'm thinking of a specific work of art where there is a person wearing pants and a sweater and a hat whose back is to us and they're standing on the edge of a cliff looking out over a Valley where they have just cut down a tree. And so almost invariably people are like oh there's a guy - they immediately gender that person male - but we don't see their hair or their face. All we see is they're back from some distance, the clothes that they're wearing, and we assume that they have just cut down this tree that has just been cut. So… sometimes I will challenge that. Like okay, so you see a person what do you see that makes this be a man? And then we can dig into, especially because like the way that um people dress now a sweater and hat could be anyone… Then we can get into what is it about this person being alone in the wilderness that makes us automatically assume male? What is it about this person Having done physical labor that makes us automatically assume that it is male. Then we can start to breakdown some societal gender stereotypes. And I feel like that's a conversation that feels incredibly universal, even if no one in the group is gender variant because everyone is wrestling with like ‘how do I perform my gender’ … how do I perform gender in a way that makes sense for me in the world. Or, there are other figures that, that are maybe

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more ambiguously gendered that we can look out and say is this important that we know this person's gender does it feel relevant in this case? And if so why, or if not then cool we just move on.” (participant Coriander, personal interview, February 9th, 2020) I find this example formative, as it’s mostly a simple discussion amongst students that is guided by the teacher. By posing simple questions like, “is this figure a boy or a girl?”, a teacher can guide their students through a discussion that can challenge and discuss typical gender roles. It’s disrupting the act of being complacent in heteronormative representation. This disruption in more heteronormative art history can also potentially challenge traditional male female stereotypes that our students have been taught to think.

I think these conversations can bring in cisgender students and teach them, while also validating gender variant students.

BiasesPart of culturally responsive education is confronting biases. This was an important question for me to ask because this is something that I am still working on.

Even though I am gender variant myself, I was socialized as a girl and was raised under binary stereotypes. Those stereotypes have stuck with me, and are something that I still struggle with. I’ve had to unlearn how I look at myself as well as how I look at others.

Checking biases is something that one has to sit down and consciously think about, break down, and address. I asked participants if they had addressed their biases concerning gender variance, and was surprised at the range of answers.

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Many participants were unaware of what those biases would be or didn’t feel like they had enough knowledge surrounding gender variance to know what they’d be. Others discussed how they’ve had to do a lot of unlearning to address their biases. When raised with enforced gender stereotypes, it takes a while to unlearn biases. Participant Parsley said: I think I'm starting to. I think it's really hard to get to the point where you have to acknowledge that you have them ‘cause a lot of that gets internalized and a lot of that is just kind of how things are. You don't really question. So any different and so it takes a long time to realize that is a problem and start working on it... it's definitely something that I started working on more, to be more informed. (participant Parsley, personal interview, February 25th, 2020) Parsley has made some really valid points here. Once something is internalized, such as gender norms, it can take a while to identify it, and then even more time to unlearn it.

Many participants, including gender variant participants (like myself), still automatically gender all of their students. This something that is internalized. My participants didn’t grow up with the practice of asking people their pronouns when meeting someone.

Instead, we assume people’s pronouns with the gender we associate their gender presentation with.

Something that participant Tarragon said to me was “I do think that I have checked some boxes or really opened some boxes. but I definitely don't think that I am done evolving and being better” (2020). Tarragon saying this was a reminder to me that checking boxes is not checking off biases. In fact, unlearning biases should just be a

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constant stream of opening boxes. You have to continue revisiting it. As educators, especially art educators, we have to be mindful of this and continue to unlearn these biases that we have.

In Context of Research Environment School Climate School climate is curated by the expectations created by school administrations.

Though teachers can create a safe place in their classrooms, it can be challenging to navigate co-workers and administration who are either uneducated about or unsupportive of gender variants students. This is something that I struggle with a lot. As someone who doesn’t fit into the “Mr.” or “Ms.” category, I take up a different space as a teacher. Because there are no policies or expectations at my school surrounding gender variance, I have to pick and choose my battles. Do I want to educate my co-workers today? Do I have the energy to do that? What if they disagree with me in front of my students? I also look at my students who are not gender conforming and see that their school climate has not created a space for them. This both outrages and discourages me.

How do I fight for my students when I have upwards of 100 staff members who need to be educated on this subject, or, quite frankly don’t see eye to eye on this subject?

I was curious how other people are handling their school climate and whether or not they feel similarly as I do. Alternatively, I was curious to hear what it’s like to have a supportive climate. I quickly found that my participants' answers to this question reflected greatly on where they were teaching. If you look at the matrices for teachers’ experiences teaching and the climate where they teach, there’s a fairly notable

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distinction. Climates that are supportive tend to be either private schools, museums, or community arts. Participant Dill, who defines themself as gender variant, described the private school that they teach at: “Yeah I mean it is a private school. But it is a very liberal um I think it's a very [progressive school].. So one thing that they initiated this year was pronoun selection -- pronoun choice for faculty and for everybody as well as students… and you are notified that you can choose your pronoun so that you know [people’s pronouns], in effect. So they're very very, you know, I hate to say progressive but it's they're just [very aware]. And very again inclusive.” ( (participant Dill, personal interview, February 25th, 2020)) Their school climate supports both staff and students. Dill notes that part of this is because they are at a private school that has chosen to actively educate their staff and create policies that are practiced by staff.

However participant Bay who works at a public school says: “There is no, no discussion of it. The school follows the guidelines set by the district where you can't separate girls and boys. So that's followed but in terms of embracing anything there's never any talk of it at all. There's still a lot my middle schoolers are still saying that's gay you know even kids that you know are gay are saying it. There's just nothing there is nothing.” (participant Bay, personal interview, February 22nd, 2020)

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Bay’s experience is wildly different from Dill’s. The first notable difference is that there is a dialogue of gender variant populations that exist within schools. Even though Bay described policies set by the school district, their school recognizes that there’s still not enough dialogue happening. This reflects on the students as well by not educating them.

This could be a whole other thesis, but it is worth noting how the support of gender variance students and gender variance inclusion varies on the educational setting. For example, Oregano — who works for an early childhood community arts program — explained that the program was created for a diverse population, including gender variant individuals. This was on the forefront of this private school’s mind, whereas at public schools, this may not be as big of a priority.

Does School Climate Affect Inclusion?

I found that many art educators also had similar experiences to me where, due to their school climate they felt like it was hard to stand up, or to educate their co-workers on gender variance. Four participants expressed difficulty with this. Participant Thyme explained a moment from their class: “I remember earlier this week I had a class where a PCA that I'm friendly with and we talk a lot one of the boys was doing something or saying something I can't remember what and Mister J the PCA went ‘that's not how men act that's not what men do, what are you doing’. And I was like men can do whatever they want. Stop putting that kid in the corner, and he was like no that's not what men do. (Whispers) And I’m like

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you’re fine. But (sighs)” (participant Thyme, personal interview, February 7th, 2020) Thyme went on to talk about how this was a difficult moment to navigate because this PCA was well respected and liked by staff and students. It's particularly hard to navigate discussions about gender stereotypes when you're both teaching and pressured to conform to gender normativity. I’ve experienced this myself quite a bit, but in thinking about my experiences and looking at the data from this question, it is clear that many people working in schools are still unaware or uneducated about gender variance. Rosemary said: “I don't get the sense that there is really any knowledge around it. I am still asked to line up my students in a girls line and boys line … Um there really isn't any it doesn't seem I haven't run into talking with either a student or a staff member that is really aware that that is something to consider.” (participant Rosemary, personal interview, February 8th, 2020) Tarragon said: “ So there are moments when other educators would express things that made clear their lack of understanding about an identity that was different from their own. And because they didn't understand it they would say very little and then stop. Or there are more active “I just don't understand it, it doesn't make any sense” sort of statements made. Um and if the students, excuse me, if the teachers are doing that, you can only imagine how it

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trickles down into the student body.” (participant Tarragon, personal interview, March 22nd, 2020) Tarragon points out many things here that are important to think about. Lack of knowledge surrounding gender variance can result in staff staying silent, staff saying things that could potentially put down a gender variant student. The last part of this quote really stands out though. As teachers, we’re constantly being watched and constantly being a role model for our students. Being unaware of gender variant identities could result in ignorance, which could be harmful. If teachers and staff say transphobic things, students notice, whether or not they are aware of it. Students pick up on it. This relates to Thyme’s experience. What message does it send to students when they hear the adults in their school say to “act like men”?

In asking the question, what does a gender variant inclusive pedagogy include, of course, everyone’s answer was different. Some participants were really idealistic while others just wanted a basic understanding of gender variance amongst art educators and students. Neither of these answers are wrong. What that participants are experiencing in their current teaching environments, along with their personal experiences with gender variance (i.e. being gender variant themselves, having had gender variant students in the past), will influence their outlook on what this pedagogy look like in their classroom.

For participant Bay their response was simple — they just want to be able to respect students' pronouns and to create a space where kids can express their pronouns.

Looking back at their response to their climate at their school, however, I realized that they don’t have a whole lot of community support surrounding gender variance. Their administration is not starting a dialogue or offering opportunities for faculty to learn

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about this identity. So, inclusion for Bay would be for students to feel like they could use their correct pronoun. Many other participants expressed simple wants for an inclusive classroom. Tarragon, Sage, and Marjoram had similar wishes that extended beyond the art classroom, which was that staff had a basic understanding of gender variant identities.

Others such as Dill, who has a supportive administration that educates their faculty, had more concrete ideas.

In Context of Researcher as Self and Practitioner Completing this thesis has come at an unique time for myself. When I started the research for this thesis, I had also just started my student teaching. By January I got my first teaching position as an art educator. That being said, I am very young in my teaching career. This thesis will start building the foundational blocks of how I teach from now on.

Being a gender variant art educator teaching at a school where most of my co-workers are unaware and uneducated about gender variances, I’m still learning how to navigate that climate. I’m still learning how to stand up for myself and introduce myself as a nonbinary teacher who uses they/them pronouns and prefers to be called Teacher Hannah by my students.

After interviewing my participants, I realized that there are so many ways that I can start to create my own gender variant inclusive pedagogy. Many of those ways are simple. I asked all my participants what a gender variant inclusive classroom looks like for them. I need to define this for my own classroom. For myself, a gender variant inclusive classroom starts with myself. More specifically preparing myself to be confident enough to support my students, but also myself. My first steps are to spend

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some time thinking about how to equitably include this into my classroom. Ultimately, I’m trying to normalize gender variance as an identity. This includes thinking about the way I talk about gender with my students. During my student teaching, I told classes my pronouns and my gender identity without really prepping myself on potential negative reactions, but also preparing my students. While some kids knew about gender variance, many kids do not. Next year I want to start the year out with pronouns as a way to introduce my own pronouns but create space for students to state theirs. I like how participant Tarragon inserted pronouns in the beginning of the year. I think having students fill out a beginning of the year survey would be a way to allow students to share their pronouns without putting them on the spot. This will also allow me to address what pronouns are when students have questions.

To normalize gender variant identities is to have representation and dialogues and to create a space in which students feel safe within the classroom. I ran into a dialogue that I had multiple times with participants about representation. Representation holds many facets within the art room. For gender variant students they need to see themselves represented in the language from the teacher, through visuals on the walls, through artists, as well as productive conversations about gender. I’ve already begun curating and creating more gender variant inclusive visuals for my classroom. Students need to see themselves represented in a classroom. I believe that having posters about gender and pronouns can be conversation starters that teach the cis gender students in the classroom while validating the gender variant students. Posters of gender variant artists also show students examples of gender variant excellence.

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One thing this thesis brought to the light for me is that not everything has to be about a grand gesture. In fact, I think to truly be inclusive, gender variant perspectives should be embedded within the curriculum to create normalcy. Instead of creating a project that is about gender variance, create a project about identity that students could possibly explore their identity with gender. But for students to be able to do that, I must create a space that welcomes gender variance. Having visuals on the walls, encourages dialogues and teaching the cisgender students in the room creates that safety, even if a student isn’t public about their gender identity.

Another step that I want to take is to teach my students to be critical and thoughtful about gender and to address their own biases. I really appreciated participant Corianders ideas about how to queer and disrupt art history. It’s possible to address gender variance without using gender variant artists. Some really interesting dialogues could result in challenging traditional gender norms. For example, if I have my students look at portraitures, I can ask them whether or not the gender of this person matters. If the person in the portrait is doing something “traditionally” male or female, we can discuss and break down why the artist thought it was needed.

I want this inclusion to exist beyond my classroom by advocating for my students and myself. Part of that is encouraging my administration to provide their staff with training about gender. I have realized that there is a lack of knowledge surrounding gender variance amongst the staff at the school I work at. I am also going to encourage my administration to create a few policies that support and validate their gender variant students. If there is consistency in how gender variant students are supported beyond the art classroom, the more likely their identities will be normalized. An example of this is

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starting the school year with every teacher having students say their pronouns. Another would be to have teachers use gender neutral language and avoid addressing their class by boys and girls or ladies and gentlemen.

This is just the start of the inclusion of gender variant of gender variant identities in the art classroom. Ultimately, I am an adult in a school who identifies as gender variant. Though it’s hard, I do not want to keep this part of my identity hidden because I have kids that need to see their identity reflected out in the world. I owe it to them to stand in solidarity with them, regardless of whether or not they are publicly out about their gender identity. Or, whether or not they have realized they are gender variant. I owe this to my cisgender students to normalize this identity for them. My pedagogy extends beyond pedagogy how to create art. I want my pedagogy to extend beyond my classroom.

I want my teaching to cultivate in a space that is open, safe and understanding of all identities that continues outside of my classroom.

Implications for the Field

What do your Findings Mean for the Larger Audience of Art Educators?

Sometimes when I think about all that needs to be done to validate and support gender variant students in the art classroom it can be overwhelming. The implications from this study show the gaps in knowledge, and how far the world of art education needs to come to better address the gender variant population. That being said, conducting this study made me realize how possible it is. Little steps towards creating an inclusive classroom for gender variant students will not only speak volumes to gender

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variant students but has the potential to make strides towards normalizing that population for cisgender students as well.

The Privilege that Art Educators Have My final question for each participant was to have them define what an inclusive classroom for gender variant students would look like for them. Participant Chive said something that completely stopped me in my tracks. In reference to some writing by Connie Stewart from UNC, Chive said: “...Connie Stewart from UNC University of Northern Colorado made the comments you know that the people who get to determine what is normal, that's privilege. So normalizing something that's an act of privilege. And so understanding and acknowledging the privilege that I have in the position that I hold as an educator‌ I have both an opportunity and also a responsibility to normalize the experience of others... So having that, that rule as an educator is also your responsibility to have that because um if I only normalize western dead white males art that's what I've just done so I've normalized the western perspective. (Chive, personal interview, March 1st 2020)

Let this sink in for a minute. Despite the countless frustrating things that educators have to deal with as teachers, they are in a place of privilege. They set examples that our students soak in. They teach hundreds, and potentially thousands, of students that could benefit from the way art educators use their privilege. If they have the potential to show a student that they are valid, or teach a student about an identity that is

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different from their own, we should take that opportunity. Though I must admit my nervousness to be out at work and to confidently incorporate this into my own classroom, this quote instills the urgency and importance of gender variant inclusion and representation.

That being said, this work towards inclusion isn’t easy. Breaking down harmful ingrained societal gender norms is not easy. Taking the steps to unlearn gender binary stereotypes takes time. Feeling confident in implementing inclusion in a climate that is not supportive is not easy. In those moments of uncertainty and fear, art educators must remind themselves of the privilege that they hold ,and figure out how they can use it to benefit and support students in their classrooms, and in this case, their gender variant students.

Lack of Preparation in Preservice Programs It is important to point out the fact that all except for one participant did not feel prepared enough to adequately support gender variant students in their art classroom.

Oregano, the one participant that said they were prepared, clearly stated in their interview that their undergrad experience did not address this, however in their current grad program they had professors that did address gender variance in the classroom. Students who felt prepared, were only prepared because they pursued their own research or received education from outside resources. This shows that preservice teachers are going out to the field with potentially zero preparation for this population. It’s also important to point out that the participants who engaged in their own research also identify as gender variant themselves. This makes me wonder — if it’s not in the curriculum of the

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preservice program, will preservice teachers know that they need to be aware of gender variance in their classroom?

Many participants attended their preservice undergraduate at least 10 years ago or more. Many participants, however, graduated their preservice undergraduate in the past 5 years. This shows that with the change of language surrounding gender, and with gender variance being more widely acknowledged, art education professors may have not yet caught up. From experience, you are learning a lot in preservice, and learning how to support each population of students you may have is vital. With the changing shift in gender and the challenging of traditional binaries, professors should be addressing this with their preservice teachers who are about to go into the teaching world, and working with gender variant populations.

What Participants Want to Know More of My largest set of data is from the question: What do you want to know more of to make your classroom more inclusive for your gender variant population? The data from this question resulted in 13 different codes. This shows the gaps in where art educators are struggling and shows exactly what educators feel like they need to have a more inclusive classroom. Participants' answers varied depending on their experience working with gender variant identities and their personal identities. A lot of what participants wanted to know more about, though, was quite simple.

Many participants expressed the need for gender variant artists to show in the classroom. Participants expressed the struggle of finding gender variant artists, but also finding gender variant artists whose work is appropriate for a school setting. Relatedly,

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participants noted the need for having better visuals in their room that address gender variance. Participants need more information on how to incorporate gender variance into curriculum in a more implicit way that doesn’t other the gender variant students in the classroom. There’s an uncertainty amongst some participants about how to create lessons that could entertain the idea of gender variance for those who need it, but is still accessible and engaging for cisgender students. Some participants were still wanting to have more education surrounding gender variance in general. Those participants felt like they couldn’t begin a practice of gender variant inclusion in their classroom because they were still struggling with understanding that identity.

What struck me about this question was the desire from participants to just have a place to talk about how to include gender variance in their classroom. Art educators want to talk about this but are having a hard time finding where to do so. Creating a platform specifically for art educators who want to include gender variance in their classroom would help broaden this dialogue. Art educators could share experiences, resources, or lessons that were successful or unsuccessful. They could talk about challenges they are facing in an unsupportive climate, or how they navigated difficult conversations with students. They can ask questions about any topic concerning gender variance.

Another valuable source that a participant expressed interest in having is the ability to hear the perspective of a gender variant student in art. I think one of the most valuable pieces of information that an educator can get is feedback from their students.

Hearing the experiences of a gender variant student in the classroom could drastically change a teacher's inclusive practices regarding the topic. The act of being inclusive for a population is always evolving and should never be stagnant. Figuring out ways of

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listening to students' experiences concerning their gender identity in the art classroom is important because it’ll always inform what you do next.

Final Findings The data presented has made it clear that there are massive gaps in knowledge concerning gender variant students in the art classroom. There is still so much research and writing to be done on this population. My participants have also made it clear, though, that there is a desire to do better by this population; to learn more, and to be more inclusive. This is really encouraging for this population. Though this research is just beginning, it's the beginning of a dialogue that’ll hopefully extend into continuing research. It seems to me, from my literature research and my study, that there isn’t currently a place for art educators to discuss this.

Amongst my conversations with participants, I asked them why the art room in particular has the potential to be an important place for gender variant students. The answers to this question were a reminder of why art has the potential to be a safe place for so many students. Art is a place where students are encouraged to explore, to break the rules, and to have critical conversations about the world around us. They are challenged to think outside the box and to use their brains in different ways. If curated as so, the art room has the potential to normalize identities that may not be normalized in other places. It has the potential to normalize identities that may not be normalized in other places.

The art room has the potential to validate gender variant identities. Regardless of whether or not a teacher is aware of the gender variant identities in the room, the one time

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that they showed a gender variant artist in class could have validated a students’ identity.

As Marjoram points out many times in their interview, it’s important to teach as if that person is in the room, even if they’re not. Even something as small as that could encourage a student to explore that identity. The beauty of art is the encouragement of exploration. What better place to explore a gender identity than art?

Implications for Further Research: Next Questions There are many ways to continue this research. In a way, it’s just the beginning of my inquiries. Completing this research has only opened up more doors for continued investigation and analysis. When I started this thesis, I would frequently tell myself that this topic wasn’t important enough. Knowing that gender variance was such an underresearched topic discouraged me. My experiences being a gender variant person myself discouraged me. The moment that I started reaching out for interviews, I was struck by people’s reactions. I had people reaching out to me just to say how excited they were that I was finally doing research on this. All of a sudden it was like a community emerged that had been feeling what I had been feeling. I realized just how important this topic is.

What this thesis did was show was what still needs to be done to help teachers create an inclusive pedagogy. This thesis can be a jumping off point for many more studies, discussions, and curricula developments. During my study, I found so many ways to continue this research that it was hard to put it aside. In terms of research, I think that it would be really helpful to flip this narrative and have students answer similar questions. I found out what art educators need. Now, I would like to do this same research, but with students. What supports do gender variant students need to feel included within an art

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classroom? What supports and validation do they need to feel heard and seen in the classroom? I would ask similar questions as I did in this thesis. In terms of participants, I would want to interview older high school students (either junior or senior), or student teachers in undergrad. I think older students would have had time to reflect on their experiences in art, and thus have more to say on what could have made it feel more inclusive of their gender. Though I am using my own experiences in this thesis, I am just one gender variant person — having the experiences of students who have been in school more recently would be really valuable for art educators.

During my interviews with participants, many of them expressed that they wished there were more documents to read, lessons to follow, and lists of artists to reference.

These are parts of my thesis that I didn’t get to address that I’d like to in the future. The first being a platform like Facebook or an interactive blog, for art educators can have discussions about gender variance on. I envision this being a community support platform, in which art teachers can ask each other how to handle certain situations concerning gender variance. Members can ask each other for artist suggestions and lesson suggestions. They can share visuals that they’ve made, found, or are creating. Through this thesis, I’ve learned that people need a network like this, especially art educators who are navigating a climate that is not supportive towards gender variant artists. I need a community like this — I’m still struggling with how to navigate a school climate that is unaware and supportive of gender variant identities.

In the light of COVID-19 and learning very quickly how to teach art online, I saw art educators share resources and support each other greatly. What if we did this for our gender variant students? Zoom has become a vital platform for many people. I think that

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it could also be a great platform for continuing discussion about gender variant inclusive art pedagogies on a more personal level. I like thinking about this group existing on multiple planes. Having a place like a Facebook group or a blog would be a really great place for art teachers to pose questions or share materials, but I think adding Zoom calls to this group would help. I personally can get lost on online pages and gain a lot by running ideas by other people. This group could have monthly Zoom meetings or meetings when important topics come up.

Another need that I noticed from my interviews is access to information about gender variant artists, about gender 101, and about ways to incorporate gender variance into their curriculum. While writing this thesis, I took note of the resources that art teachers felt they needed and started creating them. For example, I made artwork about gender variant artists, pronouns, and gender variance 101. I would like to continue making this artwork and eventually compile it into a zine that could be dispersed either digitally or physically. Art educators need guidance on how to support gender variant students, and a simple zine could be an easy way to offer that guidance. The zine is something that could live an in an art teacher’s classroom and easily be referred to.

Lastly, I want to present this research as much as I can, as this research has the potential to open a dialogue concerning gender variant students in the art classroom.

There are massive literature gaps when it comes to gender variance. This is a problem. As said before, the experiences of gender variant identities are wildly different from their LGBQ counterparts. The research that has been done on LGBTQ students may not be as relevant for gender variant students. GLSEN’s school climate survey (2017) tells us that, and this needs to be addressed in the art education community. Presenting this thesis to a

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broad audience will help shine light on these gaps in knowledge and support for gender variant students. Starting the dialogue is where change could potentially start.

Conclusion Art educators know that the art room has the potential to be a safe haven for so many of our students. The creative nature of art that asks students to explore endlessly can be the perfect playground for exploring gender, and understanding one’s own gender.

This study shows an important glimpse into what art educators are doing to include gender variant students, as well as where art educators are struggling. With a population that is underrepresented within art education, it takes little steps to start. I encourage art educators to do just that — start small in ways that feel tangible in your classroom.

Create a poster for your classroom. Include one gender variant artist for the year. Read one book to your students, or one book to educate yourself (Resource List Appendix…)

It’s easy to feel alone in the endeavor to create a gender variant-inclusive practice.

Remember, however, that you are not alone. Many art educators are trying to do the same. Reach out to them, and start dialogues. From dialogues come ideas, and from ideas come pedagogical practices. I hope that this study is a jumping off point for art educators, as well as further research.

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REFERENCES Ballard K., Check E. (2014). Navigating Emotional, Intellectual, and Physical Violence Towards LGTBQ Students and Educators. Art Education. 67:3, 6-11.

DOI: 10.108- /00043125.2014.11519267.

Kosciw, J. G., Greytak, E. A., Zongrone, A. D., Clark, C. M., & Truong, N. L. (2018). The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools. New York: GLSEN. Sadowski, M. 2016. Safe is not Enough: Better Schools for LGBTQ Students. Cambridge MA: Harvard Education Press.

Kahn, E. (November 2016). The Schools Transgender Students Need. Educational Leadership, 74:3. Retrieved from http://eb.a.ebscohost.com.moore.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=2b37 de0e-5569-46fa-bd60-284e08163c50%40sdc-vsessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=EJ1119259&db =eric Abigail (2019) Uncharted Path: Parenting My Agender Teen. In Duane, S. Rajunov M. (Eds) Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity. 120-129 New York, NY. Columbia University Press.

Clemson, L., Diamond, M., Sitharthan, G. Riley, E.A. (2013). Recognising the Needs of Gender-Variant Children and their Parents. Sex Education. 13(6), 644-659. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2013.796287 Bollow Tempel, M. (2016) It’s Okay to Be Neither: Teaching that Supports Gender – Independents Children. Butler-Wall, A. Cosier, K. Harper, R. Stapp, J. et.al. Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality. Milwaukee WI: Rethinking Schools Publishing.

Wexler, A. J., (2016). Re-imagining Inclusion / Exclusion: Unpacking Assumptions and Contradictions in Arts and Special Education from a Critical Disabilities Perspective. The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education. 36, 32-42. Retrieved fromhttp://web.a.ebscohost.com.moore.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?v id=3&sid=44d20b67-9848-45a5-be30-b7b6efb93a99%40sessionmgr4006 Gude, O. (2008). The 2009 Lowenfeld Lecture: Art Educations for Democratic Life. Art Education. 62(6) 6-11, DOI: 10.1080/00043125.2009.11519039 Gude, O. (2004) Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Century. Art Education.

57(1), 6-14, DOI: 10.1080/00043125.2004.11653528

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Gude, O. (2007) Principles of Possibility: Considerations for a 21st- Century Art and Culture Curriculum. Art Education. 60 (1), 6-17, DOI: 10.2307/27696187 Rhoades, M. (2018). LGBTQ Trauma + Art Education. In Heise, D., Hunter A.D., Johns B.H., (Eds.) Art for Children Experiencing Psychological Trauma: A guide for Art Educators and School-Based Professionals (60-75). Routledge: New York, NY. Burke, E. (2019). Turning the Tide: Reframing How We Acknowledge and Support Transgender and gender Nonconforming Learners in Educational Spaces. Art Education. 72(2) 48-50, 0.1080/000043125.2019.1559667 Miller, S. (2015). A Queer Literacy Framework Promoting (A)Gender and (a)Sexuality Self-Determination and Justice. The English Journal. 104(5) 37 Retrieved from:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484578 Arenas, A., Gunckel K.L., Smith, W.L., (2016). 7 reasons for Accommodating Transgender Students a School. The Phi Delta Kappan. 98(1) 20-24 Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org /stable/24893302 Cosier, K. (2016). Framing Identity: Using Photographs to Rethink Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality. Butler-Wall, A. Cosier, K. Harper, R. Stapp, J. et.al. Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality. Milwaukee WI: Rethinking Schools Publishing.

Cosier, K. Harper, R. Stapp, J. et.al. Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality. Milwaukee WI: Rethinking Schools Publishing.

Stiegler, S. (2016) Ask Me Who I am. Butler-Wall, A. Cosier, K. Harper, R. Stapp, J. et.al. Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality. Milwaukee WI: Rethinking Schools Publishing.

Hicks, B.B., (2019) Beyond This or That: Challenging the Limits of Binary Language in Elementary Education Through Poetry, Word Art, and Creative Bookmaking.

Miller, S. Teaching, Affirming and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework. New York, NY: Springer Nature.

Inclusion. (n.d). In Meriam Webster Dictionary online. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inclusion Stembridge, A. (2019, November). What is Culturally Responsive Education (CRE).

Vancouver Public School. Talk presented at 2019 professional development for paraprofessionals, Vancouver, WA.

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Baker, C. (2004). The Importance of LGBT Allies. In Farrell, K., Gupta, N., Queen, M., (Eds) Interrupting Heteronormativity. (65-70). The Graduate School of Syracuse: Syracuse, NY.

Sierra-Zarella, E. (2004). Constant Queering: Practicing Responsible Pedagogy at Syracuse University. In Farrell, K., Gupta, N., Queen, M., (Eds) Interrupting Heteronormativity. (65-70). The Graduate School of Syracuse: Syracuse, NY.

Crisp, T. (2011). Disrupting heteronormativity: The inclusion of LGBTQ people in American public schools. In J. Carr, P. Jones, and J. Fauske (Eds.), Leading for inclusion: How schools can build on the strengths of all learners (pp. 150-168).

New York: Teachers College Press.

Black A., Chherawala S. (2018). HANDBOOK: Supporting Queer and Trans Students in Art and Design Education. Toronto, ON: The Queer Publishing Project.

Baldacchio C. (2014). Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books.

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Bibliography Booth, W.C., Colomb, G.G. and Williams, J.M. (2008). The craft of research. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Flick, U. (2002). An introduction to qualitative research. London, UK: SAGE Publications.

Pan, M. L. (2008). Preparing literature reviews. Glendale, CA: Pryczak Publishing.

Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Miller, SJ. (2019). Gender Identity Justice in School and Communities. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Panszi, S. (2016). An Open Letter to My Son’s Teacher. Cosier, K. Harper, R. Stapp, J. et.al. Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality. Milwaukee WI: Rethinking Schools Publishing.

Sullivan, A.L. (2019) Kindergartners Studying Trans* Issues Through I Am Jazz. Miller, S. Teaching, Affirming and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework. New York, NY: Springer Nature.

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APPENDICES

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APPENDIX A Timeline

Date

Process

Steps to Accomplish

December 7th

Proposal Hearing Complete AEGR618 course requirements and participate in proposal hearing by December 7th

December 12th?

Gain IRB Approval

Submit full proposal as requested by December 12th

December 1231st

Begin seeking site approvals

Start seeking people to be participants.

Once people start showing interest, I will send them an initial informal consent form to interested participants

January

1-15th

January 16th-31st

Create interview schedule

Once participants have agreed start scheduling interviews (Starting in February)

Prepare to launch Begin Fieldwork course with Amanda field study to ensure readiness to enter field Finalize my interview questions and all of my protocols.

February 1st - TBD

Launch field study

Start interviews Collect visuals data from teachers Once local interviews are completed start scheduling times to come observe classes.

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March 1st -TBD

Continuation of study

Continue to conduct interviews Observe teachers while teaching.

April- May

Data collection

Transcribe data code data

June

Continuation of data

Draw conclusions with transcribed interviews, observation and visuals Complete thesis

July 10th

Turn in thesis

July 10th- August 1st

Prepare for thesis Create presentation presentation Practice presentation

August 1st

Defend Thesis

Complete writing of thesis

Prepare for presentation with PowerPoint

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APPENDIX B INFORMED CONSENT FOR TEACHERS INTERVIEWS DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH: You are invited to participate in a research study that investigates the use of gender variant inclusive practices in the art classroom. It is hoped that valuable information on art teachers experience or lack of experience with gender variant inclusion, along with information about preservice experiences concerning gender variant practices will be revealed through these interviews. For the purpose of this thesis the term gender variant is an umbrella term used to describe children who don’t fall within traditional binary gender roles, this child may be gender fluid, transgender, or a tomboy. I will interview three types of educators; gender variant art educators, educators who are using gender variant inclusive practices, and art educators who are not using gender variant inclusive practices. For this study, I will ask you to participate in one hour – hour and a half interview. The location of this interview will be of your choice to insure that you feel safe and comfortable for the duration of the interview. This interview will consist of open ended questions revolving around your experiences working with this population, support from administration, how you’ve educated yourself, where you feel like you need help making your classroom more inclusive. You will also be asked if you have any visuals, lessons or inclusion methods you’d like to share. I will not be asking any personal questions about your gender variant students. During our interview you will be audio recorded. These audio recordings will provide information that I will use in writing my thesis, and the audio recordings will be destroyed upon the completion of my study. If you are teaching in Philadelphia or close to Philadelphia, upon our interview I will ask if you are comfortable with me coming to observe your classroom. If you are, I will share an informed consent that will explain the purpose of the observations. From there we will schedule a date for the observation.

RISKS AND BENEFITS: Participation in the study is completely voluntary. There will be no effects or risks to you should you decide not to participate in this study. The interview questions will be the same for teachers involved in the study. Therefore, you will not be singled out if you choose not to participate in the study. If you become uncomfortable at any time during the interview, you may address your concerns verbally or in writing. If this occurs at any point in this study, special arrangements can be made, and/or you can remove yourself from the study without penalty or repercussions. The benefits from the study include positively affecting students’ participation in art in school. This study will begin a dialogue to help readers understand teachers experiences with gender variant inclusion in a relatable way whether or not you’re actively using gender variant inclusive practices. .

PAYMENTS: There will be no payments for your participation in this study.

DATA STORAGE TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIALITY: Subject’s confidentiality will be preserved.

I am the sole researcher of this study. For the collation, analysis and reporting of all data, all of the participants will be assigned a pseudonym to prevent individuals from being identified. The school name will also be changed. Any charts used in my thesis or presentations, will be coded. All the data that I collect for this research project will be kept in a locked file cabinet in my home. The audio recordings will be destroyed upon the completion of my dissertation.

TIME INVOLVEMENT: Your participation in the study will take approximately 1 - 1 1/2 hours for 1 interview.

HOW RESULTS WILL BE USED: The results of the study will be used in drawing conclusions from the investigation on understanding how art educators may or may not be practicing gender variant inclusion within their classroom, tracking educators experiences in their preservice education about this population, as well how teachers are informing themselves now. The study will be reported in the form of a thesis, which serves to fulfill my requirements for a master’s degree in art education with and emphasis in special populations.

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( ) I give Hannah Swanson permission to record this interview

I, ________________________________________________________ do hereby give Hannah Swanson

permission to use the data from my interview for their thesis.

______________________________________________________________________ Signature

Date

Investigator's Verification of Explanation: I certify that I have carefully explained the purpose and nature of this research to _____________________________ (participant’s name) in the appropriate language or form.

They have had the opportunity to discuss it with me in detail. I have answered all their questions and they provided the affirmative agreement (i.e. assent) to participate in this research.

Investigator’s Signature: _________________________________________

Date:______________________

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INFORMED CONSENT FOR TEACHER VISUALS DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH: You are invited to participate in an observation for a research study that investigates the use of gender variant inclusive practices in the art classroom.

You have already participated in an interview, observation and I’m now hoping you’ll be willing to share gender variant inclusive visuals used in your classroom. It is hoped that valuable information on art teachers experience or lack of experience with gender variant inclusion. For this study, I will ask to use your visual aids as part of my research. I hope to present this thesis, have this published and eventually use this thesis to create curriculum. Because of this I would like to credit you for the creation of your visuals. Though your identity will be concealed for the rest of your participation, I would like to give you the opportunity to be credited for the visuals you have created. If you choose to be credited your interviews and/or observations will still be confidential.

RISKS AND BENEFITS: Participation in the study is completely voluntary. There will be no effects or risks to you should you decide not to participate in this study. If you become uncomfortable at any time with me using your visuals you may address your concerns verbally or in writing. If this occurs at any point in this study, special arrangements can be made, and/or you can remove yourself from the study without penalty or repercussions.

HOW RESULTS WILL BE USED: The results of the study will be used in drawing conclusions from the investigation on understanding how art educators may or may not be practicing gender variant inclusion within their classroom, tracking educators experiences in their preservice education about this population, as well how teachers are informing themselves now. The study will be reported in the form of a thesis, which serves to fulfill my requirements for a master’s degree in art education with and emphasis in special populations.

( ) I would not like to be credited for my visuals and remain anonymous. ( ) I would like to be credited for my visuals. ( ) I don’t want me visuals to be published.

I, ________________________________________________________ do hereby give Hannah Swanson permission to use the data from my observation for their thesis.

______________________________________________________ __ Signature

________________

Date

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INFORMED CONSENT FOR TEACHER OBSERVATIONS DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH: You are invited to participate in an observation for a research study that investigates the use of gender variant inclusive practices in the art classroom.

You have already participated in an interview and I’m now hoping you’ll participate in an observation. It is hoped that valuable information on art teachers experience or lack of experience with gender variant inclusion, along with information about preservice experiences concerning gender variant practices will be revealed through these observations. For the purpose of this thesis the term gender variant is an umbrella term used to describe children who don’t fall within traditional binary gender roles, this child may be gender fluid, transgender, or a tomboy. I will interview three types of educators; gender variant art educators, educators who are using gender variant inclusive practices, and art educators who are not using gender variant inclusive practices. For this study, I will ask you to participate in an observation of one of your classes. I will come to your school for this observation and you will be able to choose whatever class you’d like me to observe. This observation will consist of me acting as a non-participant in your classroom, I will be filling out an observation protocol (attached at the end of this consent form) as I observe you teaching. I will not be asking your students any questions. Your observation will not be recorded. These audio observation protocols will provide information that I will use in writing my thesis, and the documents will be destroyed upon the completion of my study.

RISKS AND BENEFITS: Participation in the study is completely voluntary. There will be no effects or risks to you should you decide not to participate in this study. All participants will be observed using the same protocol. Therefore, you will not be singled out if you choose not to participate in the study. If you become uncomfortable at any time during the observation, you may address your concerns verbally or in writing. If this occurs at any point in this study, special arrangements can be made, and/or you can remove yourself from the study without penalty or repercussions. The benefits from the study include positively affecting students’ participation in art in school. This study will begin a dialogue to help readers understand teachers experiences with gender variant inclusion in a relatable way whether or not you’re actively using gender variant inclusive practices.

PAYMENTS: There will be no payments for your participation in this study.

DATA STORAGE TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIALITY: Subject’s confidentiality will be preserved.

I am the sole researcher of this study. For the collation, analysis and reporting of all data, all of the participants will be assigned a pseudonym to prevent individuals from being identified. The school name will also be changed. Any charts used in my thesis or presentations, will be coded. All the data that I collect for this research project will be kept in a locked file cabinet in my home. The audio recordings will be destroyed upon the completion of my dissertation.

TIME INVOLVEMENT: Your participation in the study will take one of your class periods.

HOW RESULTS WILL BE USED: The results of the study will be used in drawing conclusions from the investigation on understanding how art educators may or may not be practicing gender variant inclusion within their classroom, tracking educators experiences in their preservice education about this population, as well how teachers are informing themselves now. The study will be reported in the form of a thesis, which serves to fulfill my requirements for a master’s degree in art education with an emphasis in special populations.

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I, ________________________________________________________ do hereby give Hannah Swanson

permission to use the data from my observation for their thesis.

________________________________________________________ ____________________ Signature

Date

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PARTICIPANT’S RIGHTS

Principal Investigator: Hannah Swanson Research Title: ART EDUCATORS AND THE CREATION OF GENDER VARIANT INCLUSION PRACTICES IN A K-12 ART CLASSROOM: A CLOSE LOOK AT INCLUSION THROUGH LANGUAGE AND CURRICULUM. •

I have read and discussed the Research Description with the researcher. I have had the opportunity to ask questions about the purposes and procedures regarding this study.

•

My participation in research is voluntary. I may refuse to participate or withdraw from participation at any time without jeopardy to future employment or other entitlements.

•

The researcher may withdraw me from the research at their professional discretion.

•

If, during the course of the study, significant new information that has been developed becomes available which may relate to my willingness to continue to participate, the investigator will provide this information to me.

•

Any information derived from the research project that personally identifies me will not be voluntarily released or disclosed without my separate consent, except as specifically required by law.

•

If at any time I have any questions regarding the research, I can contact the investigator, who will answer my questions. The investigator's phone number is (360) 609-7919 and their email is hswanson@moore.edu.

•

If at any time I have comments, or concerns regarding the conduct of the research or questions about my participation, I should contact the Moore College of Art & Design Institutional Review Board (IRB).

•

I should receive a copy of the Research Description and this Participant's Rights document.

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If audio recording is part of this research, I ( ) consent to be audio recorded.

I ( ) do NOT consent to being audio recorded.

The written and audio taped materials will be viewed only by the principal investigator and members of the program faculty.

Written and audio taped materials, ( ) may be viewed in an educational setting outside the research (Presentations or ( ) may NOT be viewed in an educational setting outside the research. ****************************************************************************** ***** Statement of Consent: I have read the above information and have received answers to my questions. I give my consent to participate in this study.

Printed name of Participant________________________________________ Signature of Participant ___________________________________________ Date_______________________ If necessary: Investigator's Verification of Explanation: I certify that I have carefully explained the purpose and nature of this research to _____________________________ (participant’s name) in the appropriate language or form.

They have had the opportunity to discuss it with me in detail. I have answered all their questions and they provided the affirmative agreement (i.e. assent) to participate in this research.

Investigator’s Signature: _________________________________________ Date: ______________________

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INTERVIEW PROTOCOL Name: ______________________________ Age (optional): __________ Pronouns: ____________ Years taught: __________ Grades taught: __________ Interviews will take place in a location of the interviewee’s choosing, public or private, to ensure comfort. They will have reviewed and signed the Participant’s Rights and the consent form prior to the interview. Approx. time: 1 - 1.5 hours.

Questions What is your definition of inclusion for gender variant students?

How did your preservice education experience address gender variance?

Did your preservice experience leave you feeling prepared to support gender variant students?

Explain.

What is the climate of your school regarding gender variant students? Are they Supportive? If not, how do you navigate that?

Does your school have any common language for supporting gender variant students? Is there common language for when students use homophobic or transphobic language?

Have you addressed your biases concerning gender variant students? Why or why not?

Notes

ART EDUCATORS AND GENDER VARIANT INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

What are educators doing and not doing to include their gender variant students?

How do you use gender variant inclusive language in your classroom?

Do think cisgender students benefit from a gender variant inclusive classroom? Explain

How are you tweaking what you’re already doing to support your gender variant student?

Do you provide opportunities for your classes to have dialogue surrounding gender variance? If so what do you notice about those dialogues?

Could you describe lessons that incorporate gender variance inclusion.

What types of visuals do you have in your room to support gender variance inclusion?

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APPENDIX C Prompts for Researcher Reflective Journaling In considering observations you have made of multiple teachers, what does this experience tell you about making teaching stylistically your own?

How does this new type of experience feed into your awareness of what an art teacher is?

What is the ecology of the school? Of the art room?

In what ways do the students, teachers, administration and community interact?

What might the parental role in school and in student activities tell you about the community What observations have you made about the culture of the school in terms of communication, respect, and collaboration? how can different types of questions help students move beyond their current thinking?

What is the language surrounding gender variant inclusion?

How do staff address homophobic and transphobic remarks?

In what ways did students react to dialogues regarding gender variant subjects?

In what ways did you address homophobic and transphobic remarks?

In what ways would developing norms help students?

How do you present your own gender identity?

ART EDUCATORS AND GENDER VARIANT INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

Prompts for Visual Journaling In what ways could you respond to “boy” colors and “girl” colors?

What gender variant inclusive visuals do you plan on having in your classroom?

What is an example of a norms poster you’d have in your class?

What inclusive materials would you use in your curriculum?

What would be some examples of student developing empathy for gender variant students?

How do you present your own gender identity?

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APPENDIX D Participant Demographics

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APPENDIX E CODED DATA ORGANIZED BY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

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What is your experience working with students?

Public Private Early childhood Museum Community arts Charter Preservice (student teaching) Participant

Answer

Marjoram P: So I have been teaching in schools during school based teaching in some capacity since 2006. my background is, my certification is in teaching visual arts. My certification is pa art K-12. And I have taught in a variety of settings but the most of my teaching experience has been at AIM Academy which is a small Independent School for students with language based learning disabilities. I have been there since 2009 and I've taught visual arts in pretty much all grades 1st through 12th focusing primarily on lower school visual arts and also lower school interactive humanities, specifically 5th grade course on the Italian renaissance. And I also do a bunch of other teaching I teach like student diversity leadership and some other things that are more related to um diversity and equity inclusion topics in schools.

Coriander So I mean if we got way back I did a lot of work in college working with youth groups in churches and working on summer camps. but then and more formal settings starting a maritime museum mostly 3rd through 5th graders and then some broader range Pre-K 3 like young adult. I was there for four years I also worked at the California Center for the Arts for 2 years with 4th graders. I got my masters in elementary Ed and worked at a middle school as a paraeducator did some tutoring as well. welcome to the world of Museum education when you have five jobs. I also, I am a certified therapeutic horseback riding instructor, with youth with disabilities teaching horseback riding lessons. and then I worked at the Museum of Flight as a museum educator mostly with Elementary but also the range for three years. Now I've been at the Tacoma Art Museum for two years. I was a manager for family in elementary Ed and still working with family and young

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ones and the teachers associate director of Education of student and teacher programs.

Chive

C: I have, this is my 15th year teaching. So, I have I spent my first 2 years teaching- I taught at a K-8 and K-12 private Christian school in California, never doing that again. Then moved back to Wyoming for some family reasons… I taught art at the elementary K-6 classroom for 12 years. Then this last year I got hired to move over to the district that I actually live in which I have been living in for a couple years, and I'm in a 6-8 public school setting, and I'm one of two in a Department. So, when I was in elementary I taught about 300 to about 380 kids a year for approximately about 36 contact hours a year I was the only art teacher in the building, and I'm under a Department of two. My teacher partner and I both teach art one. I teach art to art three and crafts and now I have about 130 kids per semester.

Sage

I’ve worked with kids ever since I can remember. I nannied and worked at a daycare when I was in high school. In college I worked for a grant funded program that supported students who were college bound. After college I worked as a paraprofessional forSeattle public schools for two years. I taught community arts for two years in Seattle. When I moved to Philly I was a nanny for 9 months then was the art teacher at a preschool for about a year and a half. I’m now the art teacher at k-12 approved private school.

Bay So, I have been teaching art in some capacity over 20 years, even when I was still in high school Before I graduated high school i did a summer camp right teaching experience. from there i went to University of the arts and I got a degree in ceramics. I wasn't doing any teaching at that point but following that became a clay mobile teaching artist for 12 years. So, I did outreach, and I pushed into schools. From there I got my teaching certificate at Moore (college of art and design). I was there I was teaching 9th grade arts at a private Catholic school part time. Since then I've been working full-time k-8 - well first it was middle school for four years at a charter school and now I'm at a K-8 school at James R Ludlow.

Basil I've been teaching full-time as an art teacher in a classroom for, this is my 9th year? I have taught in three states. I did undergrad at Tyler in - I think I graduated in 2011? I taught in Arizona for one

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year. I was a traveling art teacher at four schools. All of my experience has been elementary. So that was really interesting and that really helped me inform how I handle different classrooms. At each of those schools there is a main art teacher and I was there to teach the classes that didn't fit into their schedules. So, I basically had four mentor teachers and they were all completely different and it was amazing. But it was too far away from my family so I came back and I taught at a Montessori school in New Jersey for a year and a half. But my boss was toxic and really manipulative and made me cry a lot so I left that job. My intent the whole time was to teach at a public school in Philly and there is a hiring freeze the whole time. So then I was able to come back and I've been teaching in Philly‌ this is my six year? My 4th school I've been at my current school for three years for a k-8 school.

Parsley P: So, it's kind of complicated I currently work at an art museum so I do a lot of outreach and programming with them so I have been in classrooms K-12. And then I'm starting a weekend program where I'm teaching art to 2nd and 3rd graders.

H: Great this question goes a little bit along with what I just asked you but what is your experience working with students overall.

P: So, like I said it's kind of complex I haven't had my own students I work with time and time again. So I have done a lot of - we have an outreach program where art teachers can request the museum bring lesson plans to them and teach in their classroom for whatever their classroom needs are. So I've done that a lot. I have a lot of experience writing lesson plans I'm especially with this weekend program coming up. And then that will be my first experience with a real classroom. But other than that I've done several things very similar to that where I work with kids but I don't have my own kids so a lot of community programs like that.

Oregano

Almost all of my experience has been with community arts in some way. Or, like when I was doing the earth science stuff that was all community based as well. so people could come to the park some would get free admission some would pay. Here, where I work now in Illinois art station all of our programming is set up so if a family can afford to donate that's great but it's almost all grant funded. or in fact it is all grant funded because we primarily serve the underserved. So, people find out what we are doing, and they come to us to use new tools and do new experiences. So, that is primarily how I have always taught.

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This my 5th year working as an art teacher in public schools, before that I had worked for 7 years as the senior art counselor at a summer camp.

Rosemary R: working with students in general?

H: Yes R: So I've worked at 2 years at a after school arts program up in port Richmond in Philly and that was a class of about 20 - 25 students all between the ages of 1st and 5th grade, and we did painting sculpture drawing all that good stuff. And then I was part time at a small Catholic school that was K to 8 same kind of projects And I just started my first full-time position Add a K-5 school in West Philly. I teach about 500 kids a week.

Tarragon

K: Okay um, my experience working with students um, began when I was in undergrad. I was in an undergraduate art education program. and through that program you have your standard field experiences and um things that I probably did curriculum. But I also realized when I was a senior in college that we had some really rich preservice training opportunities that were kind of extracurricular. But we didn't have one for adults with disabilities.

And because of a family connection I knew that there was an organization in the area that we could partner with. so we worked it out so that the adult participants with disabilities could be students for our pre service our teachers. They would come twice a month every other week to our campus and um we go through an art lesson that the teachers would have in development. And then we got another students over the course of about 12 weeks. So that was the first thing. Then when I graduated I became a long term sub at our local high school for a semester and remained kind of a sub slash paraprofessional sporadically the spring after. And at the same time I was working at an art studio that was a commercial art studio catering mostly towards uh kids and families. So that was more of a elementary age group with the occasional middle school high school adults and those were purely hands-on very little theory and very little background art history wise etc sort of courses. then i got a job in Virginia so I moved from Ohio to teach high school in Virginia and spent five years in an inclusive arts classroom with 9th through 12th graders of all abilities. And most recently I've transitioned to work as an arts administrator. So I'm no longer seeing students regularly which has been a big big

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change. But I am trying to work with teachers so that their students have more resources.

Dill

Well I started my student teaching experience um an undergraduate school, as an undergraduate, primarily at Monmouth University which is in West Long Branch New Jersey.

I was studying both at Parsons school of design in New York and Monmouth University getting a BA in studio art with a minor in art history. and during that time because of my GPA I was invited to be a tutor for undergraduate students who had learning challenges. Even though I was never given specifics. so basically my first experience teaching students without any kind was it as an undergraduate as a tutor of art history for undergraduate students who has some type of learning challenges. The next experience was in in my MFA program At the school for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I was a teaching assistant in sculpture. It was an undergrad sculpture seminar where I was a teaching assistant. And from there the next thing would be in my second grad program was at the University of the arts in their Masters of teaching in art education program. um I, I was a teaching assistant in there Saturday arts lab that program I believe was for K - 5th. I believe I was doing five and there Saturday arts lab. and then in 2016 I began working as and our instructor and the after school program at the friends select school In Philadelphia. And I did that from 2016 to 2019. um when I, at which point I moved to San Francisco Bay Area to become a lower school art teacher for k-4 students at the key school.

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Could you explain gender variant for me?

Outside of traditional binary Related to sexuality Umbrella of gender expression/identity Not conforming to gender norms Unsure of how to define Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Gender variant means to me that there is a spectrum of ways that people could choose to see themselves. um and that you could be an feel the gender that you are born with. Um you could maybe feel like those pronouns are necessarily ones that you feel like describe you. I think sometimes it, especially in middle school, it ties into sexuality and attraction a little bit. Where kids are like wait that's not who I'm attracted to does that mean that my gender is different so there's some things like that that I got.

There are you know also gender expressions maybe where not having a choice or not choosing a typical male / female gender construct is an option. um so I would say that gender is more about the way that you identify how you want to feel as‌ and sometimes in tandem with with sexuality but really more about how the world and how you want to be known.

Dill

D: Well gender variant in my definition would be any individual who um, well gender variant term for me would mean uh a gender identity A.) it could be a gender identity that is not following strictly within um traditional definitions. A verb gender variants um, in other words if you have a gender variant curriculum it could be curriculum that seeks to touch upon either all different types of genders expressions were others simply chooses not to. It chooses to communicate or express gender in a very umbrella like manner, where it is aware of the sort of very large gender umbrella. It's not trying to um impose a strict gender identity or gender expression and it is one that is aware of the bigger umbrella of gender expression.

Tarragon

T: Yes um, gender variant to me means that a person may not identify as one gender specifically. They may not recognize um gender at all. they may identify as a gender that differs from their assigned sex at birth. Yeah.

Rosemary

Not identifying specifically as, I don't wanna say traditional, but male or female.

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Thyme

Someone who does not identify with society’s supposed standard of two genders. A person who identifies outside of the either or model?

Oregano

O: Um gender variant means that there… I don't want to say you are understanding the concept of being nonbinary. You um, you do you understand that there are more things going on than the traditionally taught genders and that you also um try to cater to… like are we talking about in terms of like for the kids? So, so like knowing that some of the kids are feeling different an knowing different and like trying to be encompassing for that as well. So like when I teach I don't, you know I don't say hey boys and girls.

You know if I show them a book and if the character is gendered we just don't talk about that because you know I want children to always feel included. Sometimes when you feel different you know it when you're really young. And I don't want them to feel that that doesn't include me because I don't feel that way. So, I tried to encompass that everyone feels comfortable.

Parsley

P: So, gender variant means not conforming to like the societal standards of gender it's different from…. not conforming to society standards of gender is existing outside of what society expects of you according to see what gender your side up birth.

Basil

Gender variant to me means that you don't specifically identify with your birth gender? There are a lot of different genders in it could mean male or female or it could mean non binary or it could mean something completely different.

Bay B:I have to say for me I don't have a good definition of it an I'm trying to understand it. it's a newer concept to me. It makes total sense to me but I don't know if i really even know how to define it. is that fair?

H: yes absolutely. do you have any explain how I'm using it in this thesis? So I realized that I was using transgender and gender nonconforming over and over again which is such a mouthful.

But, I also wanted it to be an umbrella term for a lot of different things. So I feel like gender variant can be - it could be like your tomboy or a tom girl it could be a gender nonconforming kid. It's kind of that umbrella term of all of those kids who maybe don't fit with it is specific binary, and goes against gender norms as well.

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B: That was what I was thinking but I wasn't 100% sure, and I didn't want to say the wrong answer.

H: Yeah, I'm kinda just using - you know there's just so much with it.

B: yeah there's so much conversation to be had.

H: Yeah absolutely! For the sake of this thesis I just wanted to use this word because there's so much and this kind of addresses everyone.

Sage

Someone who is gender variant doesn’t fit within the binary of girl/boy. So this could be a trans person, and non-binary person, a tom boy, a boy who paints his nails. Basically anything that strays away from societies expectations of traditional binary gender performances.

Marjoram

M: Define my gender variant means… I think that I would, I would think of gender variance as anything that is outside of the scope of a traditional um gender binary internal experience or outward expression of gender. Say like anything that doesn't adhere to typical gender norms. Which is funny because when I put it that way, I think everyone is gender variant to some degree.

So, I think even maybe a little bit broader way of of thinking about that would be a gender variance is anyone who has um a conscious awareness of systems of gender and is like thinking or engaging critically with those scripts.

Coriander

C: I don't think that I’ve seen gender variant very much as a term so I kind of like it. So, I've been leading a lot of professional development right now for educators both for formal and informal education about LGBTQ inclusion. So, talking a lot about the difference between transgender and gendernonconforming. I like that gender variant encompasses both because the two transgender and gender-nonconforming are not the same, right so you like have the - your gender non conforming folks to in some way will be Identity or gender expression or whatever don't quite conform to gender norms. And then you can have someone who is both and someone who's just one and not the other. So you can have a super gender conforming trans person or you could have a gender non-conforming trans or nonbinary person. Or I can have someone who's gender-nonconforming that still is cisgendered. Tthe gender variant really encompasses all those so I really like that word.

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How did your pre-service education experience address gender variant students?

NO, not in required preservice source Yes, but not from professors but from cooperating schools Yes, but from self driven research Talked about inclusion so informed some ideas of inclusion in general Participant

Answer

Chive

C: It did not; my preservice experience was in 2001 – 2002 / 2003 um in Wyoming so it was super conservative we had one, for 20 years the Department here had one art educator as a professional teacher teaching all preservice teachers. She had come out of Penn State during DBAE and visual culture and had never had been in a classroom. So, no classroom management skills or anything like that. And then I had two preservice placements I spent six weeks in an elementary classroom. Then my secondary placement was at a high school. Um I - my mentor teacher there, we're still friends she was actually like a mentor.

But she was super traditional cisgender woman in her third marriage had two girls. she also did IB and AP. So for her students who are working in the IB there was one student who is talking about sexuality and gender. But it was in the context of a feminist lens. and did her whole final project was underwear on clotheslines with things like zippers. So, this made my mentor teacher uncomfortable, but she was willing to let the student explore. That was really only my exposure preservice wise. So, nothing was explicitly addressed but this was also a time where they them pronouns were something that people would have really considered a thing.

Dill

D: I would say‌ I also did my student teaching while I was at the friends select school along with the after school program, I did at friend select. So my preservice experience was at friends select school with teacher Dan. So again I was in the lower portion of friend select. So I would say yes and no. I would say yes in the sense that simply being within the friends select community it is a very aware and very inclusive community. Though they are um I guess you could say very gender variant in their awareness and in their teaching. So yes, it did address it, but it did not specifically, the content did not specifically address the issue. But again it was more aware in the approach of being all inclusive and not gender specific.

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H: Did you feel like your curriculum classes that you took in your piece of experience address gender variance at all?

D: I would have to say not specifically. it was more focused on multiculturalism and students with learning challenges. it was not specific, it did not specifically deal with students who are on the LGBTQ spectrum. or within the LGBTQ community again in a broad sense it did not steal with that at all. No. Tarragon

T: oof, um, I feel like there were many moments when we were told about the importance of planning with different identities in mind, and planning with different types of students in mind. We heard a lot of anecdotal examples about um, how an art teacher had made a huge impact without knowing with particular kinds of students in the classroom. But, there is never any clear actionable examples of this is how you are a good teacher for students who identify as gender variant. Um I think there is certainly the awareness and producers training that oftentimes our teachers are the only or among the small group of teachers who are safe spaces for students. and so there is this understanding of like the sacredness that could be created in a classroom b-ut very little actionable resources.

Rosemary R: Not at all. I hadn't actually heard the term gender variant until about 3 or 4 years ago. But no, my undergrad education courses did not cover that. And actually I think the only experience that i had prior to my grad program with talking about LGBT issues and issues was going to a random conference with friends up in New England when I was about 19. And I went to one talk where 2 teachers preservice teachers talked about their experience in that realm. That's really all I've gotten.

H: Was that helpful for you?

R: It was, but I wasn't really in the place honestly where l understood a lot of what they were talking about. And they weren't talking so much about gender variance more about representing LGBTQ in the classroom they were talking about artists in the classroom and stuff like that.

H: It’s interesting how like just like not being exposed.

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T: It didn’t, at all. There was nothing, that I can think of that informed us about that at all. I'm trying to think more in depth now, maybe during student teaching but I really like I didn't have anyone in my class who was gender variant att all or queer. And it didn't come up.

H: Do you think it was not on people's radar.

T :Yeah

Oregano

O: So I actually have two degrees in art Ed. So, my first University in Southern California did not ever address anything.

And I remember thinking oh that's weird because, like the art room is kind of where kids come unraveled sometimes. It's where they find out a lot about themselves and process through artmaking. And I thought well I don't feel like I have been equipped to help anybody who is coming to me with these problems based on this program. And when I did that program I didn't get certification at the same time because of a lot of different things. So I um when I did my next degree here I went to ISU and they do a lot more in terms of just‌ not just um LGBT concerns but also race but just making sure you know how to reach your students where they are an being encompassing for them. Which was really nice because that wasn't something that i had experience within my degree. And when I was looking at other campuses I wasn't seeing a lot of that then either. There is really just a major depression because you know more and more and more people are feeling better and feeling more able to be out and less oppressed or whatever makes him feel less like a minority. And I thought you know why are we not making this a big deal when we are teaching teachers. So, I wanted to make sure that I found a place that did, and ISU does do that which is nice. and that is why in the main reasons why I went to ISU.

Parsley P: I think I'm trying but I feel like I haven't been able to help with that sort of area very much as much as I want to. I do work and a program called Mapping Q where LGBTQ+ youth come to the Museum of Arts and talk about self harm reduction and offer resources. But other than that I don't think that in my normal like art education practices outside of that I have really been able to serve gender at students to my own liking.

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H: Okay so is that program so in that you decided to work with or is that something that you did as a part of your program?

P: Yeah so it already existed when I started there. I was the one who chose to start working with them. It was an option and it was a part of the program so I could so did she use there was lots of options as to where to go with my internship and that's just sort of where I started to go.

H: Right so it's kind of been more like what you been exposed to this stuff that you've chosen to explore.

P: Yes H: Right so what you been exposed to is stuff that you’ve chosen to look at an explore?

P: Yes H: okay that makes sense. But not really anything in your curriculum classes or something like that?

P: No not so much Basil B: Like when I was in school? Barely, not at all. Like when I was in undergrad that was almost 10 years ago, it was 10 years ago. I don't remember anything at all. I could talk about what that experience didn't prepare me for awhile. There are definitely things that it prepared me for but not with supporting people who are not considered and I'm going to do air quotes here for the recording, I'm doing air quotes – “regular” person you know.

H: Did you run into it at all in your graduate program?

B: Not too much except when I was interacting with other people in the program. I don't think it was necessarily like a part of the program but you know I went to Moore for for grad. So you know how open ended a lot of assignments are so you can kind of study things that you are interested in.

Bay B: (Laughter) it really did not I was already teaching in the school district I think when the movement kinda started happening with like, that there isn't a specific, we're going to stop doing boy and girl. like at my school we started doing lines one line 2 odds and

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evens we don't have a boy and girl anymore. But that just happened two years ago. So it's new.

H: yeah I feel like language is catching up B: yes Sage My preservice program hardly mentioned gender variant students.

We briefly talked about LGBTQ stuff, but it was usually when someone else brough them up. In my student teaching I talked about it a lot with my cooperating teaching because we were navigating me being gender variant quite a bit.

My grad program, I was assigned two readings about LGBTQ youth but not specifically about gender variance. I’ve brought forth most of the conversation about gender variance in my classes because I am gender variant.

Marjoram M: Um so am I graduate program it was, I really don't think it was as explicitly in the curriculum to be honest. Um I think it addressed it in as much as it was something that was just like a lens that I implicitly brought to everything that I was doing. so my undergraduate program before I was actually getting into education as a practitioner I focused on visual arts arts history and gender studies. So, I already had this like background knowledge basis of uh specifically like an intersectional feminist lens. So, that was something that I brought with me and to my graduate work. So, like I don't know a lot of my own uh own independent research like my coursework my topics that I explored had to do with integrating this feminist queer educator identities. Um so it's something that I was always very cognizant of so I think that it was something that I was always looking for opportunities to bring in to my graduate program. The one time that I can say that it was like very explicit was in my in my like arts an inclusion chorus that I took there was a research in presentation component and that course where everyone had to choose a topic of interest by some special population that they wanted to research and then like present and develop lessons around working with that population. And I chose to do my research on working with transgender, gender nonconforming gender variance youth in K12 settings. So that was the one time where I can say that there was explicit instruction for folks in my cohort on the topic. But, I was the one that did it.

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H: Yeah it wasn't professor lead.

M: No i really don't, and again I really don't wanna be like uncharitable because this was a super long time ago and I don't remember, but I don't recall a time where like that was really explicitly brought into like my methods courses and things like that in grad school.

Coriander

M: Not really, or at least not explicitly. So there - I was only transferred in my cohort, but there are like three or four queer folks and there was the professors at rewards with a lot is also queer. and so like the professor did did a good job of being in the LGBTQ perspective. Or at least a little bit I mean he was older so we had a few conversations like one of my friends that got real close to us I had a few conversations with him and what she was kind of encouraging us to stay in the closet as teachers because he had bad experiences as a gay man teaching and like in the 70s it's like okay I see you but also I'm not going to do that.

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Did your pre-service experience leave you feeling prepared to support gender variant students? Explain.

Did not feel prepared personal experiences or personal research Despite some discussion did not feel prepared because it wasn’t practical scenarios.

Was prepared with adequate resources

Participant

Answer

Chive

No it didn’t.

Dill D: Um well, yes again I hate to say again yes and no. because of who I am as a person an LGBT gender fluid person It strengthened my own awareness. if I was not the person that I am I honestly don't feel that it did. I feel like it certainly help me again on a more multicultural perspective or a more multi economics perspective. and again with students who have certain learning challenges or behavior challenges. But not specifically with that sort of - the LGBT, gender variance community no. In fact, one of the projects that I did during my graduate program, one of the final projects i did was sort of create my own podcast on how to um create an LGBTQ inclusive school. because i felt that it was not um you know I wasn't really getting you know a lot of information. So there is enough or it wasn’t enough of a topic that was not tackled enough so I feel like if I did that as my podcast it would be a new topic to bring to the course, so yeah.

H: Interesting, so is that available on the Internet?

D: Yes. You can actually go to my website juliantomasello.com you can go into the art Ed section and under presentations and workshops you will be able to link to it.

H: Wow I really need to check that out I feel like that could be a good resource.

D: Yeah I mean within my mindset of that time as a student I think it's pretty good.

H: Yeah absolutely I just I agree I feel like there, there's a, there's not a whole lot of like tangible things. There's a lot written about it but not a lot of like can I use this tomorrow in my classroom you know.

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Tarragon T: No, um, I think you know it's one thing to be in a classroom in college and hear about all these ways that you can be awesome. And it's like I've joked with friends in the past that it's kind of like the freedom writers disorder of like “I'm going to make a difference, I'm going to do the right thing� and then you walk into a classroom with all sorts of students um, and you find yourself trying to put them into categories based on what you've been taught. Um, and really that just kind of narrowed my mindset initially because I was trying to identify markers of maybe the student is this and this student is that. so that was almost a whole another level of complication um sort of added a barrier to understanding students that made me think a little bit harder ultimately. Does that make sense?

H: yeah absolutely and it's like it's all theoretical until you're actually in the classroom. And it's really hard to like, like imagine those things and also until you're really in that space and things move so fast - you know so all those ideas and talking about in your previous question about the awareness of things like they only go so far until you actually working with students who are real.

T: Right, but there weren't scenarios brought up. It was never you're in a classroom and a fellow teacher says something that shows like a support or or something negative. You're not actually prepared for that you're told it might happen but you're given general statements like you just have to be the teacher.

H: Right, but what does that actually look like?

Rosemary

R: Not at all honestly. Honestly at the time that I graduated when I was twenty one I it wasn't on my radar to even consider that as an option. I had talked to I think one of my classes had talked about - I took a special Ed course I took an ELL course I was singing about language I was singing about needs but I was in no way thinking about gender variance or sexuality or anything at all.

Thyme T: No no it did not!

H: Yeah T: No it did not. But I mean also I was student teaching up in Upper Darby. And there were no like I can't think of when I was student teaching if there are any students who may have been gender variant.

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And or I hate to say this but, been allowed to come out as something else.

H: Yeah absolutely. When did you realize that gender variant student exists?

T: Probably as a kid? Like I don’t know there’s always just one two kids that are not conforming to the gender norms of everyone else in the class. Especially in high school where everyone is like who am I? And a few years ago, I had a first grader where I’m teaching now and where we were supposed to do self-portraits of how we actually looked. But he wanted to draw himself with long pigtails and and blush and long eyelashes and he was in the ES program and everyone around him was like, but that's not what you look like and he was like but this is how I want to look and so I was finally just like okay moving on.

H: Did you address it with your students, did you say this is what the student wants to do…

T: The one really questioned it because some of the students we're like can I like I want to have a different shirt on myself or something, I don't like the shirt I'm wearing today. And I said go ahead put your favorite one in there. This is a picture of you make yourself look the way you want to look. So, it was really just the adults you were saying that's not what you look like.

H: It’s always the adults.

T: It’s always the adults.

Oregano O: My first degree absolutely not. My second degree yeah. I feel like I'm better prepared just with what was provided to me from that University. But also providing me resources to be learning more on my own so that I would feel more confident going in. Because you know at the end of the day they're still all of these other things that we have to talk about too. So, like one of my classes was just way too much all the time and that was one of the classes that really tried to break in and be more understanding and making sure that we are better prepared. But, you know we would run out of time so there was always more resources available and I made sure that I looked into those.

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H: that's really helpful because I feel like it's kind of hard to know where to start in finding resources. It's hard to know what is good and what is not. I found that a lot when I was doing my literature review.

And also finding resources that are actually productive an offer really tangible examples you know of like how could you use this in your classroom?

Parsley

P: Honestly not really yeah I feel like my own personal experience as like being a member of the LGBTQ+ community and doing my own Community projects and working with other people and they Community especially gender variance people. I think that has helped me a lot but none of it has really come from any of my classes or any of the experiences of getting through school, And I don't think that I'm prepared to use those tools as a teacher. more is like a human being I understand how this works and how to support people but I don't think as a teacher.

Basil B: No, Definitely not. Supporting gender variance students has been um, my own research. I try to attend trainings. Before we were recording I was talking about going to NAEA And going to PD's there. but there is so little quality support so little in terms of like what options there are for supporting gender variant students. unless you're looking for it, you're probably not doing it.

H: Right I agree it's not really out there you kinda have to do your own research for it.

Bay

Sage

Marjoram

B: No. no I mean I honestly, we probably did discuss at some point along the way some sort of topic that related to this. But I really don't remember ever talking about it. We didn’t dive deep into it that's for sure.

S: Not really. For me I feel like it’s double sided. I didn’t feel prepared to support gender variant students. What I know is from my personal experiences which are narrow. I also didn’t quite know how to advocate for myself being gender variant. Which I’m currently dealing with that in my current position. What I did feel prepared for I prepared myself. I looked up artists and created lessons on my own.

It wasn’t necessarily led by my professors.

M: I do but I don't know that I would credit it so much to my program. um as much as like my own personal experience. um but yeah I don't think if I would have had that internal motivation to really be thinking about it. Like being inclusive to that population I

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don't know that there would have been a time that would have made me feel like I was really equipped with knowing you know like vocabulary and background knowledge and important concepts and like key ways to engage or include that population in my teaching. So no I don't really feel like probably for most cis het people coming out of my program I don't think they're coming out of this with like this great new understanding of like what it's like to treat queer and gender nonconforming people.

Coriander C: I mean yes because of that. otherwise probably not.

H: So more from personal experiences what you say?

M: Yes I mean there is a lot of navigating that I had to do with myself as a gender variant individual in the system. And I don't feel like my education program prepared me to do that. I think that by education - UCSD is a great School they're super liberal and I talked a lot about intersectionality and how to support immigrants in English language learners and people who are marginalized. So, we talked about that a lot and so I think it was easy to take that learning about people who are minorities in general. and like I know how to support this general category of youth So how do I apply it to this type of kid. I don't know if I've ever had anyone who was super gender variant if you kids like at the 5th grade classroom who I could sort of start to see this play out. And there is a few kids in the classroom where I was like oh you're gay you just don't know it yet.

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Do you think it’s important to include gender variant students in art curriculum.

Why or why not?

Yes I do but I don’t know where to start In your classroom you want to be inclusive to all identities, that includes gender variance.

Bring visibility and validation to students that is important for this population

Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Absolutely, because being seen and having the gender identity that they have selected recognized. I've seen how much of a difference it makes for those students when I use the right pronouns. I have one student who or I was calling by the name that was on the roster. And I have another student flashlight told me that they are pansexual in that they use they them pronouns. And then having and identifying artists that are LGBTQ or non gender conforming. and not excessively pulling out by mentioning it when we come across it kind of thing. I have had students possibly reacting to that I have had a couple of students in my art three classes semester creating installations around um LGBT issues and an coming out of the locker because we do locker installations. So translating that into gender and making little closets that are rainbow themed.

Dill J: Absolutely um I mean particularly in the, in the, the genre of - for the field of art education um I just believe that it is a subject matter that, it's a focus of study that can be a very easy um focus to bring into the art classroom if you are - if you want to do that because you know there - you know if you really look there is wonderful history. Even going back in art history there is plenty of examples of amazing art and amazing artist that would fit our contemporary idea of you know a genderfluid or a trans person in some way shape or form. So absolutely I think it's very important. And certainly on a contemporary art level you can, I think easily again if you are not someone who feels like you are informed you can easily become informed to these artists and to this artwork. So yeah I think that I think that it is as crucial to bring that aspect in as it is any other multicultural or you know multi human element that you want. And I think that it's equally as important um and all curriculum and all facets not just art. But I find that in the art, in the realm of art education it certainly is I think one of the more easier subjects to

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bring into. because I think that there is a plethora of past in current information materials that you could access.

H: Yeah and I think that it's becoming more accessible in more digestible.

J: Yes absolutely so yes absolutely.

Tarragon

K: I definitely do. Yes I definitely do. I think I will be transparent and say that I don't think I ever figured out how to do that affectively. I think that you should be creating a curriculum that is reflective of all of your students in an ideal world. Um and that doesn't have to be solely a student with Down syndrome let's show you a piece of art with Down syndrome in it, Like it can be broader. but I think that was a challenge that I always feel like there is a group of students every school year that I didn't quite reach. And I think that that was a situation where I struggled particularly in the social political environment, I was teaching in.

Rosemary

R: Definitely because if you have you should be including all your students you should be considering your students needs and backgrounds and whatever realm that is. You should be thinking about because you are responsible for educating them.

Thyme

Oregano

I do, but i don’t know how or where to start.

J: well yes because you know even if I am teaching a class that doesn’t have anyone That isn't transgender, I’m still at the end of the day teaching them how to support people who are. I’m still at the end of the day teaching them you know about artists that are as well or aren't. you know and I’m still exposing them so they're not always hearing the same exact things all the time. which isn't broad enough to fit the bill.

Parsley P: Absolutely I'm a big proponent that art is for everyone education is for everyone and I think that by not including curriculum that is geared towards gender variant students that you're automatically excluding them. Cause I think that's just the way that Society works that if inclusion is not specifically built in it's not going to be there.

H: Right like you definitely have to go out of your way to get those things.

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B: Yes, yes of course. Representation is really important. If as a kid you don't see adults or like in The Art Room specifically if you don't see artists, kids will just be like okay I guess they don't exist I'm just invisible. Or, there's no one else like me I'm just lost. And I don't know when I was a kid, I was a weird kid and I only had a couple friends. I just thought to myself I guess there's no one like me and I'm just not going to have friends. Like I didn't see people who are like me and I wasn't exposed to that. you know I think if kids are supported, and I'm speaking more generally but it can be also specific, when kids are supported and um what's the word, not recognized there's a better word than recognized. Validated, when kids are validated it makes a big difference. One of my siblings is trans. My family, I'm going to switch around genders when I'm talking about this sibling. But um as a family we still use him he him pronouns, and we misgender him, we use his dad name. My sibling uses she her pronouns, my sibling is at work. I have specifically asked how do you want me to identify you when we are with our family. He him, because my sibling doesn't want to upset my family. He came out to my parents when he was in high school and my mom said this is a phase I don't believe you. And it informs how I interact with my students. I was probably the first family member that my sibling came out. I was supportive and was like you know what do you need what can I do for you. Like there was a certain point um, and I'm going to keep using he him pronouns because that's how we talk when I'm with my family. When he came out to my grandparents and other family members there was a conversation of like well what happens if they don't accept you what can I do. And it's interesting not being that person myself but like being a support. In like thinking about that in terms of like what if my family doesn't accept you. what if they decided you're not part of my family anymore or something like that. And that is a real thing that some people go through, and it's really scary and no one should have to go through that. So uhm I think about it in terms of that. It's very real and it's very important to recognize that if you're not supporting a student, I don't know their identity is just it's like nonexistent it's invisible. Unless they want it to be invisible which some people do want that or feel like they want that I don't know.

H: You know based off of what you are saying, like art could actually be the one place of that person feels safe and actually be able to do things and explore these topics.

B: I think so even if you're not studying gender variant artists. It still can be a supportive environment. You know I was saying that I

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have one trans student and you know he comes in for lunch sometimes with his friends. Those students, those kids as a group they don't they don't like being in the lunchroom they don't like being around other kids. So, they like come down and draw, or hang out, or they’ll help me. You know it's like a nice place for them to be able to be themselves and just do their thing.

H: Yeah there's always those few kids that just come and hang out and they just need to get away. I mean I have kids running up to my room all the time it is usually when they're not supposed to be in class or if they're having a hard time in their freaking out there right up there. It's such a tossup because I want to support them, and I want to be here for you but also you gotta get back to class.

Bay

B: yeah everyone should be included for everything.

Sage

S: Absolutely. As an art teacher you’re asked to balance so much.

You see every student, so inclusion is incredibly important. Gender variance inclusion is sort of the last to be included, in a sense. It’s important to have gender variant inclusion in the art classroom because gender variant people exist in the world. They exist in our classrooms and out in the world and students should be exposed to this type of identity. It only benefits students, even if it’s a hard topic to navigate. Also, language is changing and there is finally more language to help support what these students are feeling. So, by included it in curriculum it kind of does two things at the same time. It validates gender variant student’s existence while informing and teaching other that these identities exist in the world.

Marjoram M: Yeah absolutely. Yeah, I mean do you want to know why?

H: Yes absolutely.

M: Yeah you know I think that for a lot of reasons. but I think for folks who that is or will be part of their experience I think that it is uhm a site of identity that's not always visible. So, I think that always coming from - so like when I'm teaching teachers um you know on creating inclusive learning environments I always say very things that maybe aren't as visible as maybe something like race or thanks for outing physical or developmental disabilities that maybe are more evident. so other sites of identities maybe around like class or you know like mental health and chronic illness and also gender and sexuality like may not be apparent to you. So like I always just advise that folks start from a baseline assumption that that person is in your room whether or not you know it. You know

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because, you know they may have some awareness of that or you know they might not and they do later so creating like that um like that space of inclusion is really important for just helping them feel like they can show up in authenticity in the classroom space. I also think that it's really important for people, for students who that might not be a part of their personal experience to also have an understanding of like this is part of the world this is like part of our community this is something that we need to be aware of and thinking about. And like I think they're all going on to live in a world where there are you know like trans and gender nonconforming people that they're going to encounter and be able to have some information and baseline knowledge to be able to treat people. Which is like kind of this respect understanding and empathy all of those things I think that requires direct instruction. uh I think that having um models of like queer in trans excellence is really important for everyone. Um and yeah we think in terms of just like you know like curriculum mirrors and windows that's always something that I want to being making sure that we're addressing. Also, if you don't know what people's like family situations are too. So, I've been just thinking about like family structure and family makeup I think that's also important from that perspective as well.

Coriander C: Yes of course. I mean the one thing is representation, right? and in your classroom do you want to be authentically representing a spectrum of diverse Human Experience. I would argue that you should more represent the diverse spectrum of experiences that are not often represented in society. So, like the default person in society is white, cis, hetero usually male. I think we should be talking less about white cis-hetero guys in the classroom then we do about other people. Because kids are going to see that as the default everywhere else we want them to have the opportunity to see how other folks express themselves through Arts and the contributions of other folks in history or literature or whatever. And that's true regardless of whether or not you have a gender variant kids in your class. I think that the conversation about representation I was like how do you ensure that your specific students are represented? Like I have a room full of kids who are mostly black and brown I should teach with more works of art by black and brown people. I mean yes A - you should not be teaching about a white folks serum for black and brown kids for many reasons. And also if you have a group full of white kids you should still be teaching with black and brown artist because the white kids need to start undoing some white supremacy in. And to

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start recognizing from a young age the contribution of people of color. And also if you have, you wouldn't know this anyways, but if you had a room full of cisgender kids or not they still need to see the contributions of gender variant artist that they can build and start understanding that experience a little bit. And also the nature of gender is such that you might have a kid in a class in second grade who is totally gender conforming Middle School that guy to come back and be tell a gender variant. you don't know where that path is going to be or they might be trans and not out yet. so like if you have examples Ojeda very faults then they can hey there hat on an experience in a different way. I didn't come out as nonbinary until I was twenty-five, and I came out as nonbinary like the day after I found out that what existed . I would have come out as nonbinary at 15 if I would have known that was a thing when I was 15.

H: I mean same here, it took me a really long time to realize that I was gender variant because I just didn't have a language for that at all. Um, and I feel like I spent so much of my childhood like trying so hard to conform to gender things and not feeling good and then I was like oh wait there's an option? This is so nice.

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What is the climate of your school regarding gender variant students? Are they Supportive? If not, how do you navigate that? If not does that discourage you from including it in your classroom?

Loosely supportive Supportive and understanding Lack of Knowledge surrounding the topic Find it hard to navigate talking about this topic with other co-workers No Despite mild support from district not all teachers follow expectations ` Participant

Answer

Chive

C: I would say that it is tentatively supportive the administration is willing to go along with a psychologist who is very strongly pro LGBTQ community support. they have been willing to you know that a GSA be created. So I think that the administration is supportive to a point of understanding. And I think that there are three staff members that are sponsoring the GSA group. And that's been community conversations that we've had inside of the leadership that had been how do we support students by helping staff be more aware of issues that they are completely unaware of. you know and then students will report to me that you know some kids are bullying me and I let a staff member know and they agreed with the student who was bullying me. So, I think that there is still like a climate of some oppression and some fear and some students are scared. I had a student who said you know I just don't think that this is right, and I said It's not your job to decide if it's right. This is about supported places and letting students know where safe places are. And I said likely for you as a cisgender male that is something that you don't have to worry about feeling very often. But for the students who do have that feeling it is not okay.

Dill D: I am very fortunate um; they are extremely supportive both of gender variants students as well as faculty staff an administration.

One of the requirements I had annal leaving and moving on from friends select was to find that moving on is to find a school community that was just as or even more so. That was an absolute requirement and an I'm very lucky they will - one of the things that we have at our school every month we have a book that we choose that is given to all the homeroom teachers well the specialist teachers which I'm considered. A lot of those books deal with um, all different kinds of social issues. One of the books that we had which they did right before I got there dealt with gender identity um

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so yeah. The climate at my school is very devoted to inclusivity in all aspects yeah very much so.

H: Wow that's kind of rare too.

D: Yeah, I mean it is a private school. But it is a very liberal um I think it's a very progressive and right on school and that - So one thing that they initiated this year was pronoun selection pronoun choice for faculty and for everybody as well as students. And everyone is openly, and you are notified that you can choose your pronoun so that you know, in effect. So, they’re very very you know I hate to say progressive but it's they're just very um aware. And very again inclusive.

H: I mean just that they have a baseline understanding is great. Yeah that's something that I've been talking a lot about with people is just wishing that people had that baseline understanding and that's really that's really awesome.

D: Yeah they are an exceptional school in that aspect I believe.

Tarragon

K: I taught in a really unique county… that could be classified as suburban but because of its infrastructure, like 2 lane roads throughout this enormous county um it was a real mix of rural suburban. And very much um How do I explain this, it was I guess I would call it moderate to conservative, politically. and it was this sort of moderate setting where outright support um and advocacy for marginalized groups of people was not seen. So, it was kind of like the if we don't talk about it then we’re not behaving poorly, or we are not being racist or sexist or whatever. Um so it was clear to me that the students in my building who identified as gender variance where are there not talked about or they were talked about in very uncertain terms. So, there are moments when other educators would express things that made clear their lack of understanding about an identity that was different from their own. And because they didn't understand it they would say very little and then stop. or there are more active “I just don't understand it, it doesn't make any sense” sort of statements made. Um and if the students, excuse me, if the teacher is are doing that you can only imagine how it trickles down into the student body. I'm so you know I had a wall of images behind my desk in my cabinet and it was just a big collage and I put the image of the White House lit up with rainbow from when um - I can't remember the name of the legislation which is real dumb 'cause I should know it - but the marriage equality act that does not have

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that name but I'm sorry. But that was on my cabinet And I was advised by a fellow teacher that I should be really careful about posting things like that. And that you should never be posting much of your opinion in your classroom. which was a fascinating thing for me to hear because I had never thought about it as an opinion. And I didn't take it down, but I was also kind of viewed by the time I left that position as a little bit of like - what's the phrase - a bleeding heart liberal. You know quote unquote reasonable people that was the way that I was treated.

Rosemary R: I don't get the sense that there is really any knowledge around it. I am still asked to line up my students in a girls line and boys line. We have a girls bathroom in a boys bathroom and there hasn't been any talk about having a gender neutral bathroom or no one introduces themselves with their pronouns. Um there really isn't any it doesn't seem I haven't run into talking with either a student or a staff member that is really aware that that is something to consider.

H: So how do you navigate that?

R: I really don't. I've asked about bathrooms. I've asked about the line thing. The line thing really bothers me I don't know seeing a boy standing in the girls line and having a teacher come to pick them up and say you're not in the right line. That just kind of eats at me because you don't actually you don't actually know. It really isn't that that shouldn't be an issue. I'm sorry what was the question.

H: how do you navigate that?

R: I really don't honestly i really don't think that I do .

H: So do you think because of that culture it is hard to kind of address some of these things in your classroom?

R: yes H: do you have aids in your classroom?

R: No, I do not it's just me.

H: So you're not feeling supported or are you kind of feeling like where do you start?

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Katherine: I feel like I'm just coming to the realization of how important this is and I don't even know what to research or who to talk to or what to even start with

Thyme T: Yeah I feel like it's starting like the culture is starting to change but the district I work in is shockingly more conservative then I expect so right now it does shy me away and they're still so few kids in my school who either‌ I mean it probably comes down that they don't have the vocabulary to begin with. thinking about the families that they come from they are probably extremely discouraged at home from talking about it let alone explain that concept themselves. My district is predominantly working class Irish Catholic and various other religions in place also but it's also we have a lot of first generation Americans or families that just immigrated kind of thing and that might not be part of their culture for mother from anyway. I remember earlier this week I had a class where a PCA that I'm friendly with and we talk a lot one of the boys was doing something or saying something I can't remember what and Mister J the PCA went that's not how men act that's not what men do what are you doing. And I was like men can do whatever they want. Stop putting that kid in the corner, and he was like no that's not what men do. (Whispers) And I’m like you’re fine. But (sighs)

H: Right and it's like it's hard to have that conversation with an adult when you're around students.

T: And it's also like he's one of the few like black men who is regarded with like respect and interacts with everyone and like almost the same level as a teacher's I don't want to put him down either because there's so many students in the building that think that he's a shit.

Oregano O: So this program is very specifically made for all children and um that is a very big component of this company. We are a nonprofit and um as part of that like we want to reach as many people as possible and that includes all children no matter what. So like we do

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have‌ there isn't one in here, but we do have the safe space triangles on windows and we do have staff that go to trainings. And we do‌ I think I had told you in my initial letter to you but you know like when we were planning books and things for different events like we’ll try to find ones that have same-sex parents and things like that so that everyone can always find themselves in what we're doing. So, we um I don't know I don't know if I answered your question.

H: No, it totally does um have you ever worked in a situation where they haven't been as welcoming?

O: I don't think so? but I don't know because you know sometimes you don't realize until someone has said something that's really alarming. So, I don't think that I have thank goodness. I try to be conscious of you know the people that I associate with that I am not finding myself with people that not necessarily don't think like me but like are so opposite from what I know and understand. So, um thank goodness that I haven't.

H: Yeah it is, it's tricky the school that I'm in right now is just very unaware and just like not educated on it at all. And I have a lot of aids in my classroom because we are a special needs school so trying to navigate that and like how much do I want to educate the adults in the room. It gets tricky for sure.

Parsley So far everyone has been very supportive. I think that part of that comes from being a very small Museum and so does a very close community and a lot of us are if not gender-variant are at least members of the LGBTQ community. So, I think that there is a sense of family I have that we really try to include that. But I feel like that's maybe not the case in all museums and all places I think that I'm just really lucky that this is a really big part of this Museum.

H: This is a bit of an off-topic question but I was talking to another Museum educator and they were saying that they are pretty limited on gender variant artist, is that the same case for you?

P: Somewhere recently they have been starting to try to include it.

But our archives are very very sparse in that field. That's one of the things that we actually talked to the students about in the queue program is we have them do an activity where they choose a part of their identity but they feel very strongly with and they have to find an artwork in the museum that corresponds that part of their identity and I mean 90% of the time no one can find anything not just in gay

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but also racially the whole spectrum it's really difficult. That's what I never even starting to bring to light recently and trying to work out.

Basil B: I think that the school is supportive. There are a lot of adults who are um… I can't think of the word, not superheroes but… um I can't think of the word that I am looking for it but there are a lot of adults who will go out of their way to be like a, like to speak up for a student. I just can't think of the word that means that. Anyway, for example, with my trans student the gym teacher made it a point to go to every specialist and came to all of us and he said you know this student uses he him pronouns do you have any questions? He just like went through what the students’ rights are like according to the district. And the Philadelphia school district actually has changed in the past couple years and had some really good things in there that most schools aren't doing. Like we still have boy and girl lines which is absurd to me. And not every teacher does that, and we're not supposed to do that anymore but it still happens. But anyways, so he came to all the specialists and was like the student uses he him pronouns, this student is a boy, this is what is happening. And one of the middle school teachers went down to the secretary and actually change the students name in the system. So, like his dead name isn't in there anymore which is great. And to add another thing to it his parents only speak Chinese and he's not out to his parents. But like he doesn't really need to be because teachers aren't really, like the parents aren’t going to go on the school website and be like why is this in the system because there is that language barrier which is kind of a weird extra dynamic in this situation. But I work at a school where the majority of the - and if there is a student who has a different need we're like on top of it and if we work together and it's like a burden on one teacher. Like that gym teacher, he was on top of it and made sure that everyone knew that this is what was going on. I don't know if I was the first teacher that he came out too, but I might have been because when like the first day of school he came up to me and said this is my name. Like I've known him for three years and he comes up to me and tells me his new name. And I was like okay, and a few minutes later I was walking around the classroom and I'm thinking about it and I said what are your pronouns? And like he didn't even think that he could change his pronouns and he was like (gasps) I could do that? And I was like yeah think about it get back to me also you can change your pronouns if you want to try something on and it doesn't work. Like try something on. He was looking at me like he didn't even know that was an option so like that goes back to what you were saying

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about with the training and everything like people don't know what their options are. We're like at so far from where we need to be.

H: yeah definitely like me growing up I didn't have a language for anything until like I didn't come out until I was 23 and it took me a really long time to figure it out. like process all of my childhood stuff and then be like oh okay this is real this makes sense. Yeah that's really awesome I feel like, especially when you're talking about that teacher it takes the burden off of that child as well. I feel like that's such a good example of like I hear you and now I'm going to make sure that everyone else knows so that you don't have to do this over and over again. Because it sucks like. I was saying this to someone like last week when you're queer or a trans you don't come out once you come out almost every single day. and it can be really exhausting but I feel like it's not like you say it once then everyone else in the world knows. Like you still have to revisit that conversation all the time.

B: And you can be selectively out too.

H: Yeah absolutely like where I'm at I'm not there yet, because I don't really have support. I have support from administration but, but that doesn't mean that teachers aren't going to do stuff. Like what you're saying with the Philadelphia school district like there's things in place but that doesn't mean that teachers are going to follow it.

B: And this is the only school that I've taught at where I've actually felt like most of the people that I work with understand or like would be supportive. Like I consider myself gender non variant to an extent. Sometimes I consider myself nonbinary sometimes I use female pronouns sometimes I go back and forth it's not one thing all the time. but I'm not out at work. I'm not even out to my family. you know and I'm only out to some friends. And like it's different for everybody and like what you need. But I feel like when you're a kid if you have that support and people are like doing that for you and not like outing you but like you using the correct pronouns for you it

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makes it better when you are an adult. And then you won't have as many doubts as an adult. like this is who I am, and this is how I am.

H: Right absolutely because like then. I completely agree with that because for me, there is that sense of guilt of like I'm, I'm sorry that I'm having to put you through this. you know like I'm sorry that I have to explain this to you. There is that layer of, and that's a lot of why I choose to not be out. there is also that safety concern as well. but I really agree with that. I feel like a lot of this for lack of better words is empowerment too like I see you.

B: That was the word I was looking for, empowering.

H: Yeah it's just like you know I see you I hear you And I recognizing you an I'm validating you. like if I would have had that growing up you know?

B: Right? Right?

Bay B: There is no, no discussion of it. the school follows the guidelines set by the district where you can't separate girls and boys. So that's followed but in terms of embracing anything there's never any talk of it at all. there's still a lot my middle schoolers are still saying that's gay you know even kids that you know are gay are saying it. there's just nothing there is nothing. except for maybe me saying hey let's not lose that word that way.

H: Yeah absolutely do you have any, well I guess does it feel a little bit discouraging to try and include things in your classroom because of that?

B: Oh, absolutely yeah right now my kids with the climate overall in the school, we're just working on being kind to one another period.

It's not a good situation right now.

H: I feel that because I feel like I'm still trying to figure out how to do this with my population where I am like the most important thing is getting you feeling safe enough to make art.

B: Exactly that's where we're at.

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H: Right and it's incredibly hard when you don't have a supportive staff you know.

B: yeah it's tricky and so little discuss it that I couldn't even tell you whether or not they are on board about it.

H: yeah absolutely and having the district say that one thing doesn't really go into it. It just makes it hard to include it when it's not fully supportive.

B: We had one conversation you know when the district started implementing like no girls and boys anymore. I wanna say that we are at the Jewish history museum for a big PD at the beginning of the year I want to say it was my second year teaching in the school district‌ and we had a big old discussion about it at the art PD because of course there's people there who are willing and ready to talk about it. and like our last 45 minutes of the PD was like talking about these things and it was intense, and people were really like whoo this is a hot topic. And I could tell that people were getting flustered tip people are getting upset people are coming from all different angles.

H: wow interesting how did that like go.

B: You know most of us stayed quiet because you know it was like I'm not going to argue with this very opinionated person over here and I'm just gonna here it's grown up. But there are a few people who are just getting really flustered I mean not - on both sides - or really all sides.

H: It brings up, it's a very like very emotional. it can be very defensive. It's really interesting you know because I feel like for like this thesis, I really wanted to kind of take this sexuality out of everything and just focus on gender identity which has nothing to do with that. And it's interesting because I feel like so many people say well that's not appropriate for school. And I'm like how is identity not appropriate for school you know.

B: You know I think the number one problem at my school with not being able to identify with the older kids is that they're not getting proper sex Ed anyways. So, they're already so awkward about all of the things like that it has to be explained like what your body is about and what you're identifying for middle school. Little guys I feel like there's a different discussion to have about it. But I think

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that's where we get stuck at my school where I'm just like I'm not going to touch that.

Sage

Currently it’s not great. My administrator is understanding and supportive to an extent. Most of my staff is not, I’d say like 90%. I work at school where my population is predominately black and latinx all of my students have either experienced trauma and have ED or are somewhere on the spectrum. I think most staff are so focused on behavior that they have no idea that this even exists. A lot of my co-workers are a little old school as well and really rely on teacher student power dynamics and hierarchies. So, when I asked for the kids to just call me Hannah or Teacher Hannah it created some tension. I haven’t fully come out at work because I know that it will take a lot of me explaining my identity over and over again.

I’m not sure if I’m ready for that. I’m not sure if my school is ready for it. So, it makes me very nervous to teach about gender variance.

Not because of how my students will react, I can handle that. It’s more about not feeling supported through my staff. Or fear of having my co-workers challenge me while I’m teaching about gender variance. It’s a bit discouraging. So I’m trying to figure out little ways to incorporate it. I kind of had a realization that my art room is mine. I can do literally whatever I want. It’s going to take some time, but I can eventually curate it to address these identities in a safe way. I’m starting to address and work on that now.

Marjoram

M: Yeah I think that …. I think that there is good faith and good intention you know I definitely um I'm happy that my school has you know my diversity and equity statement that I Ifeel is strong and was developed with input from like a variety of constituents like including um students board members faculty members parents from like all of those representatives kind of like all of those different stakeholders. And it does have specific language that addresses both gender and sexuality. Um I've been pretty instrumental in making sure that that's across the board in our communication. you know I think that it's I think that we've taken small steps, but I do think that there's a mindfulness about about these messages that are inherent in the spaces. So far example one of the things that we just did that was pretty meaningful was in my opinion anyways was taking all the gendered signage off of our single stall restrooms and changing them to like all gender restrooms. For me personally this is a sign that the spaces are inclusive, or at least have some awareness of um my gender. I think that in the practical sense I don't know that, I don't think that every space or every teacher or every student in the school really does have a really strong foundational knowledge of gender variants if you wanna use like that as a catchall. That said

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like I know that I have done I've done a lot in house trainings so that's one of the things that I do in my external teacher training consulting and stuff like that. I do a lot of LGBTQ 101, 201 gender and sexuality like for educators and stuff like that. So I've had the opportunity to do some of that training in-house for like our professional development so in that sense I know that - it hasn't been consistent enough to know that everyone has had that training - but I would say that more than half the faculty have had direct instruction um and some of this which I think is better than most places. But I don't think it's something that would have happened had I not been like advocating for it. Yeah, I know it has been an interesting experience being a part of like really having that institution because this is only our 14th year being a school so it's like then this process of creating culture. And just my own experience my own identity has shifted so much that I'm it I've been there And I have like been in this process of like you know coming out in various ways about various things over the years. Uh but I you know I have the experience of coming out as trans and unfair and airy where I felt very supported by my administration. They have been really responsive when I have you know expressed my needs or brought attention to areas that I feel like are not so great. I do feel like I've had like actual people who are like oh okay thank you for bringing this up. and like they still might be kind of clunky but they want to do well. Um and I think in the process of doing that like it's also um expanded the collective ability to also be mindful of the ways that we are being responsive to students who that might be part of their experience as well. So I don't think that is perfect.

Yeah, I think that ‌. I think that there is good faith and good intention. You know I definitely um I'm happy that my school has you know my diversity and equity statement that I, I feel is strong and was developed with input from like a variety of constituents... you know I think that it's I think that we've taken small steps but I do think that there's a mindfulness about these messages that are inherent in the spaces.... I think that in the practical sense I don't know that, I don't think that every space or every teacher or every student in the school really does have a really strong foundational knowledge of gender variants if you wanna use like that as a catchall. that said like I know that I have done I've done a lot in house trainings so that's one of the things that I do in my external teacher training consulting and stuff like that.

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Coriander M: Yeah, I mean Museum education is an interesting beast and that a lot of the work that we do is one of programs that we do with kids.

So, like we'll see kids for 2 hours and then never again. We're in 12 elementary schools all year. So those teaching artist get a relationship developed with the you said they're working with because they have consistency throughout the year there is some turnover in the students they'll get to see throughout the year or even two years. They get to know that you've pretty well. Also the flip side of that is that is A) you don't really get to know the youth most of the time. Also, we don’t have a very diverse archive. I don't have as much freedom as as an art museum educator to choose what works of art word teaching with as I would if I were teaching at a classroom where I could just Google search images. Or, looking at all of these different museums to see what images are available to me. I will occasionally pull in other images from museums if I feel like it is super relevant and necessary. But as much as possible we try to teach with artists that are either on view or in our collection. and our collection has approximately 5 works of art by queer people folks.

H: So you're really Limited.

M: Yeah, we are super Limited. we do pretty often have exhibitions that are not for my permanent collection that highlight the works of queer artist. So when that happens I can teach with those works. as a general rule I don't have a lot to work with. and none, that's not true one works that we have by a queer person explicitly deals with sexuality and it is very explicit. or pretty explicit. so that you can't have a conversation like that with Elementary Schoolers. It's such a great piece of work and I love it so much, but I'm so bummed I'll probably never be able to teach it. But this is the only work that we have in our selection that deals with gay sexuality. Or a gay identity even all of the other works by queer folks are just like oh look at this glass flower that I made. So it doesn't really offer a entrance point to be able to talk about gender and sexuality.

H: yeah that makes it hard. Have you all had a conversation about trying to diversify your collection?

M: I mean I have bothered the curatorial department a little bit about it right now the department has, our current collections policy says: use Museum acquisition funds to purchase works of art by straight white men. Which is cool. But that really spreads it out for art by women and people of color. LGBTQ stuff is not quite as high on the list. Currently there's not anyone in curatorial that identifies

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as queer. The head of the curatorial department who is now not in the curatorial department is gay, but he is not in charge of the department anymore. And he is from a generation of like he had a lot of homophobia at work and like the 80s and 90s and lived through the AIDS crisis and has a lot of s*** around can openly queer person. I think he tries to slip it in when he can, but he doesn't like push it. But as of right now I don't think that there is anyone in the curatorial department who's queer. Half of the education department is queer.

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Do you use gender variant inclusive language in your classroom? If so, what? If not, why?

Trying to use more neutral language Trying to eliminate binary language from vernacular Using correct pronouns Unlearn previously taught gendered language Participant

Answer

Chive

C: You know I think I'm gender neutral in a lot of ways gender inclusive when I know that soon as they are choosing pronouns um that are different than what it looks like they should be or you know if they chosen they/ them and other students are understanding. So, when it's applicable to have it as a learning situation the students feel better what I'm using that language in the classroom. When I have classes at really all have cisgendered students tend to be more neutral.

Dill D: To answer your question yes to all of that. Even though there are times when I remember one of my teachers at uarts, just drill it into us to stop saying you guys you guys. Which is something that I always remember. But yes, in language absolutely everything from how I address groups of students instead of saying you guys I try to be more gender neutral. Um in terms of uh how students sit particularly and certain grade levels when sort of boy girl tables quote unquote. I tried to eliminate that there's never any girl boy pairing up like okay I want a boy paired with a girl, none of that. So, I do absolutely attend to create a gender neutral classroom. But also, I will say a gender aware classroom, because I don't want to apply that gender is not important. I try to create a classroom that again deals with gender but doesn't force everyone into a one box. but again there are things that you do where after you do them or you're in the process of doing that you're like oh what am I doing. So yeah, I do try to do all of that in the classroom absolutely. And what's great is the students will pick up on things themselves and if someone else or another student makes a comment about colors, you know, oh you like this color that's not a boy color students as well will pick on that and respond. If I don't get to it first I have had instances where students have - the climate is very aware where the students will police the other students which is wonderful.

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Tarragon T: Yeah um, when I introduced the pronouns do, they get to know you sheet it triggered an awareness of like vernacular things that I would say so like hey you guys. But, there is also I think when you are I think when you just hear other teachers saying things and you find pieces of language that kind of feel comfortable for you. And for a while when I started my teaching career, I was saying ladies and gentlemen. And so, when I realized that I was providing the space but I wasn't reflecting it I was catching it more. And then it became a matter of how do I catch it and not draw a ton of attention to the fact that I've made a mistake. So, I got more comfortable when I slip, I would just rephrase it quickly and in the same tone and then i got much better at not saying it at all. but I think that is something that most people I taught with didn't have the awareness of that stuff. So, I feel like a stretch to push it so hard even though it became a lot more comfortable at time.

Rosemary R: Can you tell me more about that?

H: So, kind of like what you are saying earlier about how your school is very like boy girl do you sort of try to eliminate some of that language in your classroom?

R: Um… H: So, like maybe instead of saying boys and girls you say – R: Oh, I say everyone. I don't I don't say guys like when I'm addressing the class, I don't say boys and girls if I'm addressing the class I'll say everyone or all or something. And then in my permission slips for trips that we've gone on you know it's always he/she/them um I think that's about the most that I'm doing right now.

H: Do you think that is happening in other places in your school right now?

R: Honestly, I wouldn't think so. I would not count on it now cause even when a lot of teachers picked their students up from my room 9 times out of 10 they'll say guys, and that kind of bugs me a little bit.

H: Yeah, absolutely that's one that I'm still working on it's definitely ingrained in me especially because there's so much other better gender neutral language to use. It's… it's you have to retrain yourself. I cannot use that stuff, and I catch myself saying all the

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time like girl what are you doing. And I need to stop that I don't need to say that.

R: And because I'm in elementary school I think honestly, It's also morphed when I'm talking to either a group or individually like to the class will be everyone. But also, I think I've also gotten into the habit of just calling kids food names, so like pumpkin? So, it doesn't even have a pronoun.

H: I go for Boo Boo a lot. (Laughter) Thyme T: I'm definitely more conscious of the language that I'm using. Um, I guess I'm just more conscious about it and like more aware of what's happening and trying to like I don't like conversation which is terrible for a teacher to say but like be more willing to force myself to make the kids confront their own language if it comes up. But I think for the most part they also know there's language that I just won't tolerate so it doesn't happen very often in my room.

H: Are you trying to use like more gender neutral language in your room?

T: um yeah‌ Oregano J: Yeah um like when possible or big one that I see people do that gets on my nerves is hey boys and girls or hey ladies and gentlemen like that kind of thing. So, I try to say different things so like if we're using the monsters book, I'll call them monsters I'll say like hey monsters. So, I'm addressing everyone so i'm not gendering anyone.

Parsley P: I definitely do try to as much as I can. There are times where I of course, I do slip because it's something that I'm still having to reteach myself and relearn but yeah that's something that I definitely do try.

H: Do you have any go to things that you call your kids or anything.

P: Oh gosh I haven't really come up with anything yet. I usually just say hey class or I feel like that's a better one to use rather than ladies or gentlemen because even though I, I don't use that type of language when I hear other people use it I get like ehhhh. So that's one that I've noticed other people doing and I consciously try to stay

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away from that. I said I just don't think I figured out what it has worked for me best.

Basil B: I generally use more gender neutral language. So, there was a teacher that I worked with a couple of years ago. I don't know if any of your future questions we’ll address this thing. But she retired last year, and she was my favorite person ever and she still comes back and visits, she's amazing. But she does, a lot of the teachers at my school, I can't think of what the program is called, but there is a program where the kids picked a topic that they are interested in.

They started getting they go really deep into it and its totally student driven. So, like one year she did recycling one year I guess that was the first year I was at the school, but last year they studied gender.

And this is a third-grade classroom and the kids chose to study gender. You know, they debate and some topic wins and that was the topic that they picked. And she has always used mx instead of miss. and that year she made a big deal about it and I'm using she her pronouns because she uses she her pronouns. But in the yearbook, I do yearbook, she said put me in as Mx. Hammond not miss. And one of the parents got so upset just said they were studying gender. You know they brought in adults who are gender variant to speak with the kids, and like adults who had more experience talking about gender. Wait what was your question?

Then I can bring it back.

H: It was just about using gender variant inclusive language.

B: OK so, Mx. Hammond has a lot of opinions on gender and gender inclusivity. We have spoken extensively, but most of my education on this has just been speaking with that teacher, because there aren't a lot of resources especially for our teachers. In general, for education there are some resources but, but like. But you know she's a classroom teacher she's not an art teacher so most of my experience came from talking with that teacher. And um I don't say guys anymore I say friends most of the time because that's more comfortable for me. I don't say folks that much because that doesn't feel comfortable for me. I use y'all sometimes. But it's definitely easier to use gender neutral pronouns. but I don't have enough information yet to really be able to make an informed decision there.

Bay B: I am about that and I've realized that. So, I'm trying to stop saying ladies and gentlemen. because that was always a really fun way that

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me and the other art teachers up Memphis you know it's like addressing this public thing and being super polite to them and saying you know oh ladies and gentlemen. but then you find people that aren't specific so I have started trying to take that out. But I'm trying to call them friends or students or people. And I don't ever call the little little ones boys or girls just ladies and gentlemen. But that's what I'm trying to eliminate.

Sage

I do. I try to use friends, class, you all. I do really need to eliminate “you guys” from my vernacular. Especially because my population is mostly boys. It’s not fair to only address them. I also catch myself saying like “ooo girl c’mon” or “ooo boy what are you doing?” I’ve tried to switch that as well. I try to use more encouraging language because of my population, so a lot of buddy, friends.

Marjoram

M: Yeah always I mean just in that world I try. I try really hard to like to do that as a practice to just like ground and remind myself until I create a place for myself in the world you know. But yeah, it's an aspect in my language that I'm really mindful of.

Coriander

Yeah absolutely so we've done some interesting thing. One of the things that we put a lot of work into professionally is working on gender neutral language for educators. So, I it started with, I don't know if you're familiar with Margaret Middleton's work, but they are an exhibit designer currently based out of Boston but moving to Northern Ireland soon. They've done some work with education and stuff like that so I don't know like 10 five years ago or so they published an article, in published a family inclusive language guide so like how do you talk about families in an inclusive way. So, like how do you like, when you see a kid an adult who appears to be a woman like what can you say instead of like oh you're here with your mom. That would be an un-inclusive way of interpreting this this family group. And so, like Margaret is coming at it from a curatorial perspective because their queer and they're married to a woman and I think that they maybe even have a kid. So, this is something that they encounter all the time and they were working in children's museums. So, they built this family inclusive language guide that went like all over the place it went viral in museum education. And so, I took that, this was when I was working at the Museum of flight. I took that and I adapted it to widen the scope, because most of our educators don't work with families. And the family inclusive language guide was fairly limited just to the scope of families, so you know things like don't assume the biological relationship don't assume the gender of either the child or the adult.

Don't assume that they necessarily live in the same household things

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like that. Um and but like most of that is not relevant when you're staring at a bunch of 3rd graders and their chaperones. Like some of it is thank you still don’t want to say when you go home to your mom and dad or whatever. So, it was taking that family inclusive language guide and putting it into a setting that was more relevant for educators. So, I came out with a gender inclusive language guide that talked about things like don't assuming the gender of a child.

Don't assume the relationship between a child and a chaperone.

Don't assume the gender of like a hypothetical person that you are talking about. So, like at the Museum of flight um especially with our docents the habit was too refer to a hypothetical pilot with a male pronoun. Like when a pilot wants to turn on the plane, he moves the rudder this way. And so how do you get out of the gender stereotype expectations of particular roles. And then there is some other stuff in there as well but that was the sort of like the basis.

Also, like trying to get rid of the phrase you guys. Or the Pacific Northwest that everyone says you guys all the time. And so like what, how can we shift our language too um to get rid of that or we had our public programs Department who would open announcement with Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, like how do we get rid of ladies and gentlemen. So like looking at things like that in forms of address but that together in a guide the guy got used in the education department for a couple of years and then I brought it with me when I came to TAM and used it at TAM, I changed it a little bit to make it not about airplanes and to make it about art. and then from there it brought in out I wrote an article about gender inclusive language guide for NAEA museum education publication viewfinder this past year. I presented it at the western museums conference a year and a half ago two years ago. I have done some work to spread that around a little bit And I will be presenting at NAEA about it as well this year. So like that's where I put my attention like making sure that our educators are speaking as inclusively as possible about the youth and not make assumptions which is like especially true when you are working with someone for two hours and don't have the opportunity to get to know them.

But it's also true anyways when you're working with someone for a year you still shouldn’t be making assumptions about someone’s gender identity.

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Have you addressed your biases concerning gender variant students? Why or why not?

Paying attention to automatically gendering students Unlearning socialization in traditional binaries.

Just beginning to look at them Not sure they are aware of what they are.

Assuming that gender variant students need to be protected Having a more biased interaction with Cisgendered students.

It’s a continuing process that doesn’t end Participant

Answer

Chive C: Sometimes, it depends on the conversation in the class and the context and how much they're interested in knowing. Um, I have with some classes addressed like white privilege and understanding that I know that my life is different, and this is something that my teaching partner and I have addressed. He is white male but from a poverty background and that has formed a lot of his thinking and teaching. And I came from upper middle class very privileged childhood. So, those are things that I have addressed, and I have mixed race children. So, I have done work probably not as much as it needs to happen around racial issues and not necessarily because I was super aware but the realization that my daughter feels very strongly about how black women are portrayed.

As far as dealing with that with sexuality and gender not as much unless it becomes a conversation topic. And it's partly because this is - it's newer to me to be able to have the freedom to say things.

So, being in a space where I can have conversations about gender and sexuality has been different then my last context. So, some of that is like re learning for me. So, like in the context of my students who are doing installation art around their gender and their sexuality preferences and things, we have had some more conversations but it hasn't been anything explicit biased statements. Although, now that you mention it that would probably be a good call.

Dill

D: That's a good one, have I addressed my own biases? You know. it's funny um I will say that I have I have begun to think about my own expectations with all genders in the form of - for instance I have some students who identify sort of as cis male as far as I know. So, I do have some students who identify as cis male and

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you know some of them are not as interested in some of the art projects that we have done this far. So, I how can I caught myself thinking that oh well we'll be getting more into 3 dimensional more physical. And my thinking is well maybe that will be more of an appeal to these boys. But, then again that I catch myself thinking well that is- is it stereotype? Not necessarily with students who identify um and a gender variant way but it isn't away of a stereotype of the male child and what will be interesting towards them. So, I've caught myself there. but to be honest with you I have not, I haven't um I don't think I have addressed biases with gender variant students. And again if we're saying gender variant as meaning students who are identifying outside of stereotypical. is that what we mean?

H: yeah and I'm kind of using it as an umbrella term for like your tomboy‌ D: great OK you know I would have to say no I have not addressed it because I haven't to my knowledge I haven't been in a situation where - that's not to say that I don't have them - I'm not I have not yet become aware of those biases like I have and catching myself sometimes with your mores cisgender students.

H: Yeah absolutely.

D: Yeah I mean even if I'm giving my students folders that are colored um yeah I will sometimes catch myself if I am picking a color for student I will sometimes catch myself if I immediately grab for a blue or green. And so there are instances - but again it's I have caught myself in your more cisgender stereotypes. Not yet with gender variant.

Tarragon K: I definitely have done some real work around rewiring my thought processes. and you explaining some of the unlearning of binaries is it really, that makes a lot of sense to me and it's something that I identify greatly. I think you know, the more you learn about, trying to be clear‌ the more I have learned about gender variance the more that I understand that the assumption of a binary is harmful. And I think initially you know I consider myself to be a pretty like open minded an informed person. Um, but I had very little exposure um, too people who are gender variant. Um and I think now being further into this evolution of thought processes like I understand that it's not the responsibility of a person who identifies as gender variant to teach all the people

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around them about it. But, I would be lying saying that having first-person experiences with friends who are gender variant did not greatly impact the way that I think about it for the better. um so I think like getting to a point where I could acknowledge a spectrum, or an absence of gender change the way that I addressed students. um and I think that that was noticed immediately with students. I did like a “who are you” or a “get to know you” When we started every semester and there was a section on it where I asked what their pronouns were. And I started doing that and getting very clear indications from the beginning those who did not use the binary pronouns. Which, they were very appreciative to have that even known that was an option. And it also highlighted some real um their minded beliefs and provided some teachable moments where students didn't even know what pronouns were. Um, but I think being in the position and having to explain or having to um make clear a desire declare for all students made me really have to think about what I was saying and how that reflected on what I believed. Um I think there have been, there has been a big wave of visibility that I think has been really helpful for a lot of people to understand that this is not just an isolated incident. Um and I feel like I'm rambling away from the question but I do think that I have checked some boxes or really open some boxes. But, I definitely don't think that I am done evolving and being better.

H: Yeah, I think it's just an ongoing process like all biases are.

You can’t just check off the boxes or open the boxes and then be done I think it's like a constant shift in the way that we think and the way that we use language. And um just realizing certain things in your past in uh recounting situations. I feel like it's just like a constant thing that you're checking in with and checking yourself right? But I like the pronouns as being a sheet that you fill out because um, I mean it's going back and forth between How do I introduce pronouns in my classroom? How do I do it in a way that's protective of my students specially because my climate at my school is still pretty like on the - you know maybe not the safest place for my students. So, I'm trying to figure out ways to normalize it, but I don't want to put anyone on the spot. but I feel like that's a really good way of subtly putting it in there. We're like that person who is gender variant maybe doesn't have to out themselves to everyone but you're there for them you're here for them and you're teaching people a little bit of everything in it, and it's subtle too. I've been thinking a lot about subtlety in this, I'm getting off track but.

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K: But no, I agree it's something that was always private, and it was private before I started including it in those worksheets. And so when you're in the first week of the semester and you have that information you can make a mental note or some really subtle symbol that only you know what it means and then you can check yourself with beginning um and use what they want.

H: Yeah I feel like people um LGBTQ stuff and like gender variant stuff has to be like a really big - and really anything with minorities - that it has to be this big gesture And I feel like, I've been thinking a lot about the uh like workshops that I've gone to for LGBTQ inclusion it always feels like really intense. It feels very like you have to do these things otherwise you're not doing it right. And it just feels like there is so much pressure on it and I feel like there are so many ways you could do this in a way that it does not have to be a grand gesture. It can be those really simple ways. You know you're not yelling it from the rooftops, you’re gonna be like saying it a little bit quieter. But you're still being inclusive and you're still teaching those around you. So, I've been thinking about that a lot in terms of my next steps after this. Yeah I feel like This is why people freeze up on including stuff like this they just feel like if I can't do it right then why would I do it. but there are so many things that you can do that that maybe it doesn't feel like a lot, but it actually is. Anyways!

Rosemary R: [Sighs} H: This is a tough question R: Yeah, I mean don’t I feel like I've been addressing …

H: It's okay I mean I’m still working on this. And I am a gender variant student.

R: Honestly… I honestly don't know if I have because in the in the past say year and a half I have been really coming to, coming to understand how much more important this is in the classroom that I thought of. And I am also in the process as coming out as a bisexual woman. So, I'm like I don't even know where I'm at personally. So, I don't really know how that translates or if that translates into the classroom. So, I feel like I'm just kind of realizing what's going on and I don't really know how to jump into it yet. I feel like I know that something needs to be done and it's very clear based on like on my curriculum that it needs to be

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addressed because it's not currently but I don't really know how to start that.

Thyme T: My biases concerning gender variant students‌ I want to say yes but it probably and truth I'm only just beginning because it's new and there are still so many barriers within, not just a culture of my building but also the culture of the country? Just culture in general about how do you talk about that with kids and there's so much debate about do kids even need to know about that yet especially in elementary school. Uhhh we are all having to bust free from the predominant culture.

H: Yeah and I think it's hard to Oregano

J: Um I, I don't know how to answer that. I try not to assign gender to anything. Um like even will like - cause some of the kids that we work with are artistic - ha they are all artistic. But some are autistic, some of them are autistic, some of them have other things that are going on and so we'll bring like adaptive toys and things like um we will run cars and trucks over or like a number of things through paint and then put that on canvases and things. So even when we do stuff like that um you know they'll say things like oh I want uh the boy truck, and you're like what is a boy truck I have no idea. This truck though you can use. Um and we try to or at least I try to avoid that like entirely. Um you know we don't really have any colors are boy colors and we don't really have any colors that are girl colors, that kind of thing. which comes up all of the time. Just a little while ago a little kid said my favorite color is purple and another kid next to him said well that's a girl color.

Myself and another teacher were there and we're like what is that mean you know that's an awesome color in everyone gets to use that color because it is a great color. And you know we generally if it happens, we try just be like hey that's not a thing and then move on. You know if I got deeper I would try to do something about it but that hasn't happened. And generally when you're with kids that are in that young and that age group you know it's like 3 to 5 you say that's not it any move on and they're OK with that. you know like the middle schoolers would maybe argue with me, but you know the younger kids don't.

Parsley

D:I think I'm starting to I think it's really hard to Get to the point where you have to acknowledge that you have them ‘cause a lot of that gets internalized and a lot of that is just kind of how things are you don't really question. So, any different and so it takes a long time to realize that is a problem and start working on it. So yeah

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it's definitely something that I started working on more to be more informed.

Basil B: Yeah, I think biases are important to address. I'm not sure though I don't think I've had enough experience with students who are out as gender variant because I work in a K through 8 setting. I think that I will in the future because of the direction that our hope - I hope our society is going in. You know you hear more stories about kids coming out as gender variant when they are even younger and younger. And you do hear about supportive parents which is great. You know, but I have some students who identify as boys who wear nail polish and that's just like a normal thing that they do. And there is a lot more things that have traditionally been considered “girly” or “boy-ee” - that's not a word - but you know masculine or feminine. It's like well only boys do this and only girls do that, and it's more like well why. Why do only boys do this, and girls do this. and we are modeling that more and it's not as much about like will only girls do this thing and only girls will wear nail polish.

H: Right those ideas are being challenged.

B: Yeah and I think if it happens on a bunch of different levels thigs will be changing. Does that make sense?

H: Yeah absolutely Bay B: No and I'm not even sure what they are yet. I'm looking for a - I wish I could do a workshop where we kind of have to address our biases, because I'm sure I'm not even aware.

H: I think that's a really good point, because I feel like I'm someone who's gender variant and I still like to catch myself all the time. I'm just like gendering people and I think that's because we're all socialized too fall in the binary.

B: Well actually you starting to work with Margo made me and Margo have the conversation where we were like okay, we really need to get focused on this. And that's when I had that realization where I was like oh I didn't even realize that people were putting that in their signatures for their emails select. Just this year when you started teaching with her an another artist that works with me and she identifies as she her. And I was like oh this is like a whole

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big thing. My little 46 year old self did not know that this is mega. noted!

Sage

This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot. Even though I am gender variant I still have biases because I was socialized as a girl growing up. I still automatically assume genders everywhere I go, I’m trying to address that and not do that so much. I also tend to gravitate towards those that I think may be gender variant.

There is a part of me that feels like they need to be protected. But maybe that isn’t what those students need. I have to communicate more with them to earn what they need.

Marjoram

M: Yeah for sure I mean obviously I exist within systems of supremacy. So, you know I still have my experience of like socialization. I think a lot in terms of like the first thought second thought stuff. As far as like whatever, the automatic thing is, is an indication of my socialization. And then developing like a - an awareness of those things and then noticing them and then engage critically like with those things that come up. So, say like okay is this actually in alignment with my beliefs in values and if not then I did a second thought thing of like wait let me rephrase that let me correct that. But like I for sure still do of course like experience internalized transphobia internalize misogyny like I have like all of those things in me. So, I think that some of my biases are probably around um students who I don't have a lot of students who fit this profile but, but I think I can just talk more generally in terms of like the way that I see some of those biases come coming up in like queer communities for me. I'm checking my own like checking my own instincts to gender people that I don't know. so making that a priority and really working on my own like automatic thing with like assigning pronouns to people and just like doing this thing and now is probably like four or five years ago now where my New Year's resolution was too not gender anyone. That also still comes up for me. But also, another thing that I definitely struggle with is folks who use language or use pronouns that are I don't want to say are not in alignment cause that's not, not true but folks who maybe are, are you know like non binary but who are more like heavily cis passing. That's a place where I can see myself getting tripped up or like binary trans folks who are either like pre like physical social transition or who are like not physically transitioning or don't' wanna make those changes those are places where like I notice that the language isn't as automatic for me. When I'm in a queer community in and around people who have my like same like alternative lifestyle haircut or you know like vaguely masc of centered then it's a little

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more automatic. And I realized that I don't have that automaticity around peoples whose gender expression isn't as stereotypical or like someone who is conforming to norms.

Coriander

C: Interesting um I really like that as a question I... my instinct actually is to say that my reactions to gender variant students are overwhelmingly more positive than they are to non-gender variant students. Like when I see a queer kid I'm like oh honey I'm gonna come take care of you. I wanna protect you and help you along as much as I can. So, that instinct is also something that is also biased. That if I have a room full of kids And I have this one gender variant kid I also need to be conscious of just not spending all of my time with the queer kid because the queer kid is fun.

Also I don't have to work too hard add that because they always find me anyway. I also think that I tend to be more empathetic [towards those students]. (indiscernible‌). So, for me it's a really good experience to say how I would react to this one youth who I super relate to. How could I take that experience and like also make sure that I am relating to the other youth that I don't relate to an as visceral of a level in the same way. And I'm like seeing everyone's behavior is communication and not just the queer kids.

H: I agree with that because I feel like it's easy to fall into the I want to help you. I want to um you know and maybe they don't always need protection or just like, but also, I just have such a big soft spot for kids who our gender variant. But how do you translate that into all of your students.

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How do you address gender variant identities in the classroom? Through discussion, curriculum, through representation?

Not explicit instruction, more student led Books Representation through artists Respecting students pronouns Struggling to figure out how to include Genderless material and content Lessons that directly teach about gender variance “Queering� traditional heteronormative content.

Participant

Answer

Chive C: I think that is as needed it hasn't been explicitly - I haven't had a plan for that –Well and I think so that um I guess it's been student led so I've had students who have been interested. Um we've had conversations and so as one of my students has been like definitely pansexual and prefers to use they them pronouns and other students are like what then we have a conversation about it. I haven't really looked - I mean I can't say that there is not - but circularly I haven't found a way to methodically embed this into my curriculum. although I feel like if resources were to exist like that'd be super helpful. And they could exist I mean I think that what are the activists that is in the Shepard fairy project is Lindsey Amour from New York who does not only like age appropriate information - like general information about LGBTQ gender sexuality issues but also does like - for people with autism. So, there are some resources there that I have touched a little bit into personally just for finding age appropriate ways to have conversations. I'm not sure it's probably too explicit for a classroom without parents or like everyone being on board so tended to let it be more student driven because when it comes from the students then there tends to be a little more um not deniability but just you know a little bit you know of like confrontation with parents and administrators. I've just tried to let and this is what happened at the elementary school if I could let's just drive the conversation then there was a lot more protection on my end. It's unfortunate that that had to be a thing but that's the nature of living in a super conservative state.

Dill

J: Yes, in all of those ways specifically again I mentioned that we have that's addressed in the books. I have a library quiet time in my room that has a rug that has a mini library that contains both art books and non art books. Students after lunch have a 15 minute quiet

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time where after lunch if they have for instance me after lunch they spent 15 minutes before the class begins they must have quiet time in the classroom that they have class in. So, that is a time or early finishers if they want to go to the library, they have books. I have books that do address gender identity. So, they get it through literature. They get it through um curriculum in terms of art lessons that will address gender expression. They get it through the artist that I that are either influencing a lesson or an artist I will specifically discuss within the lesson. I always have some historic and contemporary artists in my lesson. So, I will absolutely give them exposure to those types of artists an artwork throughout their curriculum throughout the year. So, they are getting it that way in terms of representation this far - in the six months that I've been there I have yet to - oh I have yet to have a specific discussion about myself with students. Although this is the first year that my school And I like to think that I might have had something to do with that - I did not want students to call me Mr. And I did not them to call me miss, so I took label from friends select school the Quaker model where everyone is called teacher. So, I am teacher Julien. Because in the quicker approach to education obviously it's a Quaker school that every adult has the potential to be a teacher so students address every adult as teacher. So, I thought moving here to keys that was a wonderful title for me to continue to use. And it doesn't have to deal with gender. And if students want to ask me, they can do that although none of them have yet. But I have yet to deal with it from a direct conversation. But they do kind of deal with it and how they address me um calling me teacher. So those are the ways yeah.

Tarragon

T: Um, So I started by just trying to make clear my responsiveness to someone stating their own pronouns and using those when addressing them. But like you're saying not shouting them from the rooftops but also not refraining from saying the correct pronouns. Um when there were moments of conversation because of that initial worksheet when students would ask what is a pronoun? Then there would be a moment of you know I'm going to state pretty clearly and frankly a pronoun is - and I'm not gonna be as clear I made myself a uh like a like a cheat sheet - I didn't wanna mess it up. I wanted to explain what it is and what it's for and I wouldn't get into any of the sometimes people who are dot dot dot. I would just make it a very clear statement and you pick the ones that you would like to be referred to by. And in those moments I would encounter - And I may not have known another time - but I would encounter resistance from students occasionally while there is another student who is gender variant in the classroom. Um so when those questions were asked they weren't typically asked where a kid raised their hand in class it

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was a typically a one-on-one but I was aware but there are very likely people around me who would care a whole lot about the way I responded. Um so I worked really hard to uh make clear my support for all students my desire to celebrate the identities of all students and a reminder that no one is - or that you are going to be called what you would like to be called and we're going to do that for everyone. So it’s a lot of little moments like that initially, and I think had I been a little bit more advanced and had I felt a little safer getting deeper into it with the whole class I would have had some opportunities to really tease out some of the biases that students had overtime. um but I didn't, I didn't get that far. as far as I figure out the other portion of the question was.

H: Oh yeah so through discussion, curriculum, representation…

T: Okay so there were … I'm trying to remember what unit it was …

I know that on several occasions especially in the later years of my last teaching position there were artworks and artists that - why can I not remember what this. But there is artwork that was specifically chosen because um the figures were, the figures gender was not clear.

Man, it's gonna bother me I'm gonna remember it like 2 hours.

H: Also if you remember it later you can email Me. T: Okay um then there were, they were artists Oh my goodness.

Yeah, I'm gonna make a reminder like these things down now starting to get back to you. But there is an artist too um I knew was I don't know what the word is say this is like the historical the way this was phrasing writing was that this artist was suspected to be trans. I don't love that phrasing because it's very accusatory and gross, but we didn't spend a lot of time on it but we did talk about how and that may have impacted some of the visuals that artists created. that was a part of a broader conversation about how misunderstood identity can have effects on artists. Okay I'm gonna have to do some digging through files. Yeah, I didn't do it as much as I would've liked to. But I feel like I know now what, what I've done.

H: Yeah well also like when you're in it you know it's - cause you know I feel like right now I started in January and like I didn't have lessons really ready to go. You know I met the kids and was like basing it off of those materials that we had because we don't have a lot of materials. It's hard to really step back and think about it sometimes when you're on to the next thing and on to the next class.

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Rosemary R: Um I feel like I'm just going to keep saying that I don't.

H: Which is fine R: I don't think I do I introduced the closest that I've gotten to as that is I introduced in illustrator Lisa Congdon who is a gay woman. And I always like to show a picture of the artist when I introduced their work, so the kids actually have a name to face and it was a picture of her and her wife. And I had said this is Lisa content in her wife in both classes that I introduced this to the entire class just erupted with laughter. So, I don't even know how to navigate that conversation like that. Because after saying that we really didn't get much of the lesson done it was kind of fielding questions.

Hannah: Yes (laughter) It's hard it's really hard I had a similar experience to that when I showed Mickalene Thomas who I feel like fits under that gender variant realm because she, even though she is female identifying her - I feel like her gender presentation is maybe more masculine and so kids are like what?

Thyme

T: So I just started doing this because I am still struggling like when I show Keith Haring he still identified as a man he's not gender-variant he's just gay. He was just gay. So like it doesn't I mean he represents but I'm not going to get into a conversation about sex with 3rd grade.

Um... but like with 5th grade I started introducing stuff with like Mickalene Thomas and some other artists. showing like self-portraits and I plan on the end of the year like we’ve talked a lot about um, like technical skill throughout the year so at the end of the year I just want to give them like the last two months to like here’s how people have represented themselves in their art and done self-portraits now show me your plan. So, I’m hoping to kind of like open that up a little more with 5th grade this year. And I think this year’s 5th grade is a good grade to kind of test that out with myself because they’re kind of more respectful than the coming grade.

Oregano

O: I'm - definitely through representation of artists. So um I you know there's like um, the grandmaster is or whatever like all the dead right guys. I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. we try to find artists that um are I guess like in the loop and are aware or like gender variant themselves. Uh more definitely ones that make it part of their art. like Nick cave is a big one that we tried to use. we have uh we had an event where, or it was the ceramics class where we were doing tiles and so they were making tiles and then they were transferring them with marker and then using underglaze is too like you know fill in. and so a lot of some do themselves and we also gave

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them a whole bunch of. Of like precut out images we tried to make sure that a lot of them were people that they would know ones that they might be interested in about and definitely wear a gender variant. but like also when we start a class that I'm going to be spending time with the kids uh more than like you know, because a lot of stuff we do is like here's a 30 minute workshop we just did you'll never be able to make a bond with those kids. if there is anything coming up where I can I you know we start the class going around just like every other class around the world uh starting with what is your name but I also say what are your pronouns. Because that lets them tell me right away if they want me to have them call them something else or something that is on the roster. I mean my own name is not something that I use. so like I need to know that like right away so I cannot mislabel the kid because if I do then that is upsetting but also it tells all the other people in the room that we're not going to play the we're going to pretend that doesn't exist game either you know. So that sets the tone for the class right away and that is something that I do if I'm in one of those situations where I can build that relationship with those kids.

H: Cool I'm curious, do you have other gender very an artist that you teach from?

O: Um I've got you won't believe this I've got this list right here.

H: Oh that's so awesome I just did Mickalene Thomas not that long ago and it was very interesting. Could you send that to me would you be comfortable saying that to me?

J: You know this isn't the all-encompassing thing but something that we have here by the desk so that we can just quickly look at it.

Parsley

P: The representation is definitely a big one I am started trying to include trans artist and generate artist well I'm doing our history lessons with students and that sort of thin. I think that curriculum wise and lesson plan wise I'm still getting it to work I'm still trying to be more inclusive of gender-neutral pronouns and just throwing those sorts of things in their curriculum. I that haven't really started to do that. But I am especially with this weekend program coming up did they do have a lot younger kids I'm trying to get it ingrained their heads now but there are people who are trans that's a really big thing of what I'm trying to do now.

Basil

B: I don't feel like I've gotten there, and I wish that I‌ that's the thing that I want support in. knowing even how to address that in. I

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mean I use the correct pronouns but it's less of a conversation then I would like it to be? Um like I haven't taught about many gender variant artists. And I would like to… we generally don't have general big picture conversations about like important issues not as many as I would like to. My goal in general is for my middle school curriculum too be a little bit more I don't want to say social justice because now there's kind of like a connotation with that. But you know, I don't want that, but you know more like conversations about deep issues that impact society and the way that we think and also our biases.

And I think that talking about biases and talking about how artists interpret bias. Like that is a way that I could bring that into my classroom, and how that comes out in different artists work.

Bay B: At my old school where I had 900 middle schoolers 5th through 8 , on mephis st over in port Richmond. and that population was mostly like Puerto Rican and Dominican, which I feel like they're a little bit more supportive and their community that might not be gender specific I don't know, is transvestite a word that people use. th

H: No not really, transgender is more appropriate.

B: There's like a Latino culture of transgender people I have noticed.

I don’t know that's right to say it that way but anyway the only real discussions I've had what were some kids at that school one of my students had an older brother became an older sister then we had this at length discussion just the two of us. And she was the first person to talk to me about this stuff and she was so excited the change and how much happy they were after. and then I have one neighbor friend in my neighborhood whose daughter is not her son so that's my only conversation or instances is around those two things. I'm like oh OK this is a thing that's happening.

H: I mean there's this is something that has always been happening there's just a more language around it and more Accessibility too at you know what I mean.

Sage

S: So far, I’ve been doing it in subtle ways. I put up a picture on the power point and let students talk about it. I did this with Mickalene Thomas recently and it brought forth a really interesting discussion about gender performance. For my younger students I just started an all about me project based on the book Julien is a mermaid. I was so surprised when I read the book that my kids were totally sucked in and were able to relate to this boy’s love of mermaids with their own experiences. It didn’t become about Julian loving “girl things” it was

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about him loving what he loved. All kids can relate to that. I’m working more on representation through artists. I’m currently on the hunt to find gender variant artists that fall under this umbrella that are appropriate for all of my students.

Marjoram Penn: Yes, yes all of those things yeah, I think - this comes out in a lot of different ways. So, you know so I'm like a curriculum instructional leader, so curriculum is my focus it's what I'm looking at a lot um and I think a lot in terms of explicit and incidental. So, in terms of explicit ways I think about integrating that into curriculum would be you know highlighting artists who are like queer in some way or who do like play with gender or like address gender norms.

So, like making sure like to include those artists and like not whitewashing those aspects of identity and experience. So really just making sure to do that, you know, like what Adrienne Rich talks about like writing is a revision of history and being really mindful of the fact that that aspect of identities have been pretty systematically erased from there it is of excellence. So, like when that exists drawing attention to it for sure. Um even in places where there may not have been that language. So, you know I taught like the Renaissance for years and years and there's like so much homoerotic shit everywhere. It was also a time where there wasn't the same kind of linguistics constructs around gender that we have to play with now. So, highlighting that as well so like saying “here's what I can tell you about um like the behavior and experiences here is language that we might have attached.” But also, but also recognizing and drawing attention to the fact that like these concepts are not static and so there are like really changing overtime. Um and like being like explicit about bringing that to students’ attention because I think that also addresses the way of normalizing the idea that identity is fluid particularly when it comes to gender and sexuality. And like all these things that can be and honestly usually are fluid and changeable. Um so that would be like one really easy way like there's so many queer folks like in art history and like not erasing that aspect of experience.

Um, and I think other ways are when I think about like the more incidental or like the way that I am crafting like physical spaces or dealing with creation of like hierarchies in my classroom um being really mindful of like my own language of noticing where things might come up that play with like stereotypes and tropes within the gender binary and calling attention to them. Um, like there's some stuff that always comes up the colors or so like one of my big things like my catch phrases like especially for younger kids are that colors are for everyone. Yeah and like actually you know like talking about that like when there is those teachable moments of like pink is a girl

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color or whatever, not just like dismissing it or just shutting it down but instead being like tell me more you know like what makes you think that, like where have you heard that. You know, just interrogating it anytime that those things come up just modeling curiosity about that and not just doing it in like preachy lecturing way but actually priming students to be able to do that kind of critical examination and pushback on their own by modeling the kind of questioning that I do when I encounter these stereotypes um and starting to get students to do that on their own. So, it's always like a really big win for me when like partway through the year when I've just been on the broken record and students start being like colors are for everyone. Like, yes cool you got it those are like some of the things that immediately come to mind.

Hannah: No, for sure and I really like the questioning thing because I think it's easy to go to just like “no� but instead letting them get to that answer.

Penn: Another thing that I just thought of too is not separating people by binary gender and that's just a really easy one but it's one that's like it comes up a lot. Especially if we're coming up and doing an assessment or doing a group project and invariably students are always like let's do boys versus girls. And I will just kind of like especially if I'm assigning groups, I'll just be like well you know it's not really a way that I divide people in the world. And I think that there's more interesting and more accurate ways to create groups of people and that's not really something that I do because -and I'll be honest with them - like yeah when those kind of divisions come up that makes me feel like I don't really have a place to be. I don't want other people to feel that way and it's really important to me that we don't do boys lines and girls lines. And if I'm talking to students, I don't say boys and girls you know I say friends or folks or any of the other things and ways that we can use language. And it's those things that we can - you know I might not even draw attention and they might not even realize that I'm doing that but again but let's assume that that person is in the room and maybe they catch it and maybe they don't, but it's still creating space so that people so that everyone in theory or ideally has a place to fit.

H: I agree with that Coriander

I've done some work this past year with trans educators who are working in the Before and after school program and one of them had an incident where one of their youth was just like not getting it. And was like super transphobic. The kid asked are you a boy or girl and

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the educator responded with well I’m not really either or something like that. and the kid was like oh you can do that huh and then like went off. But the kid went home and talked to his mom instead I have a teacher who says that they are not a boy or a girl is that possible I didn't know that was possible. And the mom was like no that is not possible you are either a boy or a girl. And so, the kid came back and told the educator about all of this. And then like may the arbitrary decision that this educator must be a girl and started like running around the room yelling she's a she, she is a she. And my educator was like this sucks, please help. so, I came in for a day to the class and lead a lesson based on the book Maurice Micklewhite and the tangerine dress. So, I brought in this book in we like read it together and we talked about gender assumptions. like just because someone looks a certain way doesn't mean they have to act a certain way and etc. we got a little bit into gender identity but we mostly stayed in the realm of like you don't have to do a certain thing because you are a boy or a girl. which felt developmentally appropriate for that group and that's what they wanted to talk about. So we did that And I think that helped. Yeah I think the way that we handle, I mean any incidents of like oppression being acted in our classroom is basically to just say that this is not an appropriate space for this. partially because we understand that as museum educators especially we see kids for two hours or not could challenge their families racism or homophobia or whatever and two hours. but we can absolutely draw the line and say like hey that's not appropriate for this space. Like I don't care if you are parodying what your mom says about trump or like you've asked your parents if it's like possible not to be a boy or girl and they said no you still have to respect people in this space.

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Do you tweak any of your previous lessons to be more inclusive? Could you describe lessons that incorporate gender variance inclusion. Or could you explain how you would like to incorporate more inclusion into your lessons. \Not explicit instruction, more student led Books Representation through artists Projects surrounding ideas about identity Respecting students pronouns Struggling to figure out how to include Genderless material and content “Queering� traditionaly heteronormative content.

Allowing an open ended space for students to potentially explore this identity Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Um so pedagogically like my fundamental beliefs about how I teach art education an art informed by tab so that teaching for artistic behavior - I want students to be the artist but really what do artists do an really looking at what artists do. And I would say that I that means have like achieved like a full choice classroom where students are making all the choices. I work in a modified situation where I present problems or you know guidelines uh and allows seems to make choices. ah man so um for the students who are interested in issues around gender and sexuality there are opportunities for them to generate content with that. So, like my art to class they do research project where they need to find an artist and I've got them on Art21 because there are a ton of resources and it's not tick tock. My goal is to have them five artists learn about the artists learn about the artist's artwork then ideally, they should have found an artist that has is informed about issues that they are also interested in. So, if they're interested in something and the artist is interested in something then students generate a piece of artwork that incorporates something either an idea or a style or media of the artist that they're researching into their own artwork. So, they're not duplicating the artist artwork, but they are trying to synthesize that with their own ideas. So having that has that kind of framework has allowed me to talk about a project where we can talk about what an installation is what's important to you what do you want to engage the viewer in a dialogue about, you know how do you want to do this. ah my students with gender issues they want to address it's a pretty open format to be able to do that.

Dill J: Thus far in the curriculum this year we have not yet had an art project that specifically deals with it. although I have presented um 2 lessons which are actually on my website, again in the art education

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section of my website. I have taught 2 lessons which deal with um being different and deal with uh - talk about um diversity exclusion an inclusion. And both of those lessons I have presented a year ago or two years ago at the UM uh the national - again it's on my website under presentations. It's the diversity and inclusion conference through the multi-cultural Resource Center with the National Association with independent schools. The first lesson is called Frankenstein inspired self portraits creatures which again you'll find the whole thing on my website. That one is for slightly older elementary students. and then the other one is for k-2 is zig zag self portrait dolls. And both of those talk about your identity from appearance to your called be multicultural it could include gender identity it could be sexuality. they talk more broadly about those subjects and then students are - each are a selfportrait project, so students are putting their image into the project. you could tailor each of those the zigzag one would be more fitting in the Frankenstein one - but you could tell her that she's specifically dealing with gender variant students. But I have yet to present a lesson specifically to gender variant students.

H: Yeah but even with those two even if you're not explicitly talking about it you are opening up the, the dialogue and there's potential.

J: And what I like about those two lessons is that it will address every student in the room all other students. Even your white heterosexual cis student. They will be able to carve out something in those lessons that will make them different and then we'll be able to get that connection rather than if I just presented an art lesson specifically dealing with African-American children or children who are dealing with a disability. I have mentioned in my class Greer Lankton - is basically or was basically a doll maker during the early 80s. She was a sculptor she is a permanent installation at the Mattress Factory. Fabulous artist you should definitely look her up. Basically, she is most famous for making dolls. and those dolls are very autographed biographical. She was a trans artist, and her work was very autobiographical. And I have talked about her work and will quite possibly develop an art lesson from her work. I think that's a very easy thing to do and palatable for students’ young students because it's basically dolls. We've talked about Nick Cave who you know I don't I don't really know how specifically he identifies. But I feel like again I don't know if he's technically gender variant but he certainly LGBT. In fact, we just did my school in January when the kids come back, we have a special week called guide and discover. which is a week where teachers co -teach with another and they have a specific subject. So, I was teaching with a second grade homeroom teacher and like for instance two or three of us - like the science teacher could be paired with the physical education teacher and

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teaching for a week one subject. So, my subject was performance art. and so I brought in The Cave um and who else. I feel like there's more so Greer Lankton and Nice Cave. I'll say those two for now and I might think of others later.

Tarragon K: Oh, so many I'm sure. Um, I think part of the, I'm sure I could find some, I think that it's worth saying that this was a discipline based arts ed district that I worked for and I was not trained that way. I was trying to teach thematically and with big ideas and in response to my student population. So it was really surprising when I got a permanent teaching position and all the people who I was looking to for guidance and teaching were all discipline based art ed and because I was not coming with a huge collection of lessons and units I kinda held on to those initial with the attention to reinvent them. And a lot of them I did reinvent I would say at least a good I don't know probably like 30 to 40% of my talk was discipline faced. This kind of goes along with what you are saying being in it being on the wheel trying to get things moving and moving in a way that's logical or that builds constant skills.

And you don't want to introduce a new idea and do it badly so I would fall back on lessons I already had and I would do it next time. And so, I think only in the last here or even less than a year of teaching did I start to really anchor things in and those things and ideas. And that took a lot of work because I got myself into a mindset of DBAE there is hard to acquire from.

Rosemary R: I definitely think so. So um, I honestly don't know many artists that fall into this realm to use as a mentor artist. My whole curriculum is broken up into um I think 4, 4 units. We talk about identity which obviously could so involve that. We talk about community which so can involve that. That's what we're in now we I think it's just 3. Identity and community is most of the year and then we talk about environment and then the last one I’m still waiting on my uh I will be given my final unit but I'm not sure what it's going to be. But I think definitely within identity in community there is so much that could be done. Because I'm also just like I am creating my own curriculum, so I have so much lenience I just need I guess resources.

Thyme T: I guess really what I've been working on is making the projects I do more inclusive true like social emotional learning about like what their

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own choices are going to make and the hopes they are going to figure themselves out. I guess‌ Oregano J: Um so like I left it out because I just used it, So like this book glad monster sad monster. Yes, so I like these in particular because none of the characters ever have gender. And I try to like not use books that do gender things felt like to for reasons that I have already talked about.

Like this one already kinda comes that way. So even like they talk at one point about um I can't find it right now but um feeling silly and one of the things that made that monster silly was wearing big monsters clothes. So like they don't even gender the dress up clothes they're just calling it big monster clothes and then there's just a picture of them wearing like a sweater. And the kids really glue on to that they find that fun. So, a lot of that stuff that we are doing right now is um social emotional. And so, like the program specifically requires I was talking about different emotions. So [the] Saturday thing that I've been teaching the last week was happy this week was sad next week is, is excited. So, I'm trying to keep using this book as much as possible so that they are familiar with it but then I never, nothing ever gets gendered which is important to me. And at the end of this they all get to leave with a copy of this book. Because then I'll get to read the book because we won't cover all of it.

H: Nice are there any other books that you've used that you like?

J: I'm - yes let me grab some. Okay so like because we have little kids this is like the biggest one that we ever use. It's called the big oops which is just about accidents and it doesn't have any gendered anything which it isn’t important to. Let's see we have B's for brave, the color monster is a big one too um. This book just talks about, I mean it talks about emotions in art and it always puts the kid as like the viewpoint so like when you are feeling sad you might. it never says like you know this monster he feels sad when he or anything like that. Lines that wiggle is another one. We have used the day the crayons quit but I wasn't parts of that one so I wasn't really part of that one.

H: Have you heard of Julian is a mermaid?

J: I have but I don't know where from.

H: Yeah so I'm trying to use that book right now and trying to incorporate it in one of my younger classes. But yeah, thank you for those books I didn't really think about it as trying to just keep things

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gender neutral I think that's a really interesting like an interesting way to kind of look at these books too .

Parsley

D: guess I just I think that there are some that I for sure could tweak and start including that in them. I work with associative identity a lot in my own art-making and I plan on doing as well am I teaching. And I think that the more that I work on it the more I'm going to be able to include it. So, I definitely think there are ways to do it.

Basil E: I don't know that I have much yet. at this point it's more about how I interact and it's more like situational things. it's not even in my curriculum yet and it should be.

Bay B: I, self-identity wise, my culture at school, they have so much trouble doing portraits of themselves because of their emotional trauma that I tend to just go away from that stuff in general. I've never been in a situation where we've had enough safe space to feel like we were doing that. mine is more about like yeah you can make art with geometric shapes and designs and let's just be creative you know. You know like let's just enjoy doing something rather than sit and not do anything. you know until I get them, we call them cosmic kids my emotional support kids, they couldn't even handle their picture being taken in or looking at themselves in black and white. they were just like ugh. Right now, we are doing some self-portraits we're doing Kehinde Wiley style portraits. Pattern backgrounds and then we're picking a famous person because I couldn't have them try and draw themselves.

H: How would you like to incorporate more gender an inclusion in your classroom?

B: that's where still I would like a workshop 'cause I don't even know. I don't even know where to start. And I feel like that's a gap in knowledge for me. you know I want everyone to feel good about themselves but in terms of identifying I don't know.

Sage

I have a lot of lessons that allow students a lot of choice. So there’s room to talk about these ideas if they want. I think projects about identity will also remain a way to activate every identity in your classroom. I haven’t done this lesson yet, but I really want to do a zine making unit with my older kids and let them choose the content about their artwork. I think that could be a really good way to talk about these

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identities especially because the LGBTQ community used zines a lot to pass around information.

Marjoram

Penn: Hmmm yeah, I taught so many art lessons over the year that it's hard to say. But one of the first ones that comes to mind is um - when I was really thinking about not flattening experiences and teaching about like Frida Khalo. As someone that I love and like I think that she is someone who is such a hero of mine and she's such a brilliant and complex person and I really feel like her story has been has been kind of like flattened so that's the thing that I tried to be explicit about when I'm teaching her. So, like I draw attention to the way that she plays with gender and her presentation in her work and like her style of dress. I talk about the way she you know talk to more about her experience of sexuality I, I really explicitly talk about her politics you know and I think that we forget that she's this bad ass anti-capitalist communist revolutionary who like hung out with like all those people. And I think that that's one example of someone that I can point to that I very explicitly highlight the many ways that she um queered in like the verb sensed her work her life her relationships all of those things because I think that's important it. I think that there is a narrative of like um why do we need to say that people are like queer or gender nonconforming or whatever because you know just tokenism. But I think that's a good example of like a person who you can't understand the other aspects of her identity unless you are viewing them through a lens of queerness because it was so just important to the ways that she moved in the world. I'm trying to think yeah it's tough because I for me personally I identify as queer and that's just something that touches on a lot of things and that touches on my, my gender certainly but also my sexuality but also my political ideology but also blends in with it being a teacher as well. It's tough for me to parse out the question a little bit about…. How do I target gender variance…. I try to give other specific lessons one of the workshops that I do is on queering educational practices. And I’m a big theory nerd so taking things from queer theory or queer theories but taking things from that academic discipline and seeing what for teachers what can we take and how can we apply that as a lens and queer as a verb and teaching practice. when I do that I have 2 tracks I have space for people who like identify as the queer under umbrella and then I have the track of people who doubt so I think that's another way. It's like doing that self-reflection in self interrogation to be like okay if I think about it from this perspective if I look at queerness as this thing or like a cultural critique of looking at the building blocks that make things up and having a sense of like playfulness about things. That feels very queer to me that also involves a lot of my feelings about my gender as well and I think a lot about Kate Windstein like - I’m not going to remember the whole quote - but

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it's like gender is not something to be afraid of or constructed by but gender is something to be played with. And I especially working with children we need to leverage um like young folks’ capacity for imagination and play is something that is like a really powerful thing to bring into teaching spaces. And I think that that openness into interrogating playing with, with gender and playing with stereotypes and playing with expression especially with visual arts the dual expression of identity and that's something that it's like the eye rim is the natural place for that and I think especially doing things with like wearable arts or fashion that's a place where it's really a natural place to bring in artist designers who are really explicitly playing with those ideas in my work Coriander

C: Not this past summer but the summer before but a really gorgeous video installation by a queer black woman from Seattle that like - one of the pieces of that video installation was Two women like holding each other and singing. And it was really interesting to watch the general public's reaction to that (laughs). Like I walk into that space and I immediately think they are cuddling they are gay. But, the ways that the straight folks we're trying to conceptualize that these as anything other than a couple was fascinating. Like they look like they're the same age they look like they're in their 30’s I don't think that they're a daughter and a mother. We also had some summer camps running at the same time so we would talk about it. That was just you know we're going to come into this room and we're going to let conversations go wherever it goes. Which I feel like it's often how we run that kind of a thing, like I'm just going to show you this work of art that happens to be by a queer person and then we will talk about whatever comes up for you all. Um and that's an interesting way, I think that is a good way of kind of meeting the youth where they are at.

Like if you've got a queer kid like they're going to pull out those queer themes or if you kind of nudged the conversation in a direction if you want it to go there. But also, maybe they're not wanting to talk about that and that is also okay. I feel like actually the most curriculum development I have done around gender variances for teacher PD. Like professional development that we're doing with them so I've put a lot more thought into how do I teach teachers about gender variance then how do I teach youth about gender variance.

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Is representation of gender variant artists important for gender variant or potential gender variant students in your art classroom? Explain Yes Needs Resources for this to exist in class Representation of gender variant artists is important for everyone It’s important for gender variant students to see themselves mirrored in curriculum

Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Absolutely I think absolutely and I think um I think one of the resources that would be really great to have would be just like A listing of artists like Nick Cave I know is gay does people talk about it very often no but was it helpful we looked at Nick caves for some my students be aware of that. But you know gay males and art tend to be pretty prevalent, but trans or pansexual. you know I don't know those artists. And maybe because they're not speaking up about it themselves or maybe because when their work is putting on display it's not being mentioned, but informs the artist experience so I feel like it should be made.

Dill D: Absolutely I mean absolutely. I think in all subjects I mean absolutely. Especially in art and really for the simple fact that it's very important for self-esteem to feel you are included in the community. It's really important to see yourself mirrored out in the world. And that is something that i really did not have growing up for most of my childhood really. It is so important. So absolutely yes absolutely. And especially in arts I mean if you're not doing that in art class within any of the creative arts not just visual performing art whatever. If you're not doing it there my gosh you are really you know shortchanging the students. So absolutely yeah, it's very important.

Tarragon T: Yes I think that there - I imagine that this would be the case in most places but especially in a climate where students are acutely aware that they may not be accepted. Um, I think that it's incredibly important to make clear that there are people who identify in a similar way and who are doing things professionally who are recognized for their work who are speaking on a topic that other people aren't speaking to in the same way. Like I have seen students' faces change when they see someone who they either just really admire their art or see a bit of themselves in. And that's all students but particularly in

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that population as students there are so little done from what I was told and other classes but that may be the only but a representation they may see in their entire school experience.

Rosemary R: I think just being - I feel like it would make them feel seen like and considered. A big part of teaching is making sure that all your students feel considered. I feel like that's a phrase that I use a lot, And I feel like by very simply showing them artists that identify similarly to them‌ I can't I don't know how to put it into words. And why that's important - but it, it's huge to show them that you're not the only one that identifies this way. There are so many, many other people that do and there's obviously nothing wrong with that and [other] people might not be talking about it at school.

Thyme T: Yes, like for everything, representation is important for those students but for everyone to be exposed to artists and things that are different from themselves.

Oregano O: Yeah um, I feel like you know like. Okay so this goes into something totally different but, but one of my special interests is special ed and there is that statement you know nothing about us without us. And I feel like the more that people don't see themselves the worse it is. And so, you know the idea you know I think exists sometimes that if I don't see people like me then i must not be able to do that. So, I try to make sure that I always be showing kids like them. So, generally like if I do a lesson um that's really focused, like right now because the kids are so small I don't have to do something else to focus on an artist I can I can focus on a book. But if I am going to focus on an artist, I make sure there is multiple artists. Um and usually don't use - And I, I will look into the artist too - you know there are certain artists that I will use certain artists I have used that I will not use anymore. Um you know so I'm trying to find people like them but also not using people that have used their work to oppress. No matter what kind of oppression is going on I don't want to use a man who has worked really hard be associated with them.

Parsley Yes, for sure so I think that it is helpful to include it an art history context. in the sense that - are you know even contemporary

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artists. I think that that's important in terms of education just to show that there is a shift happening. That we’re not talking about straight white men anymore that there are these other artists out there that are equally as important. It’s important to gender variant students to see themselves represented and the artists who are getting talked about because that shows that it's possible that it's important and that they are just as important even if society doesn't accept gender variance so easily.

H: Yeah absolutely can you tell me about some of the artist that you were talking about.

P: so one of the artist that I have been talking about her name is Sherri Crider. she I believe she's from New Mexico we have an exhibition up and I Museum right now that has a lot of her work in it. the work is actually, we have two exhibitions that are kind of coinciding so one of them has art by inmates in the State Prison Complex, and then her work it's called other targets and it's about the idea of being other so she has works that talk about being trans and it talks about, it has a trans flag in it. It talks about how being trans is like being imprisoned and that is a really good conversation that goes on between her working at painting that's happening next door.

Students when I talk about this work will bring up what about trans people in prison and there's some of the stubble negatives that the situation that's going on there where you have his imprisonment physically and then and then you have to deal with being fan switch Force another Target on your back. So that's a big conversation that we've been talking about.

H: That's awesome I'll definitely have to look at that artist. do you have any other artists to I'm trying to collect some artists?

P: Not at the top of my head there have been a couple I feel like not ones that I spend enough time with and I'm not quite retaining a lot of their work. I'm trying to think of their names.

H: No worries if you think a little later you can always email them to me.

Basil B: Yes yes absolutely I think that I touched on this a little bit earlier. but I can reiterate for you. It's important because if you don't see representation you feel invisible or you feel less valued. why are you don't even know that you have options that would be good options for

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you. if you are not exposed to something you may not even know that it exists.

Bay B: Yes well for everyone. I think that would be great for everyone but I don't know like where to even pull from for that. I mean obviously I can Google that but I think that everyone needs to see it not just a gender variant kids I feel like it's the whole group.

Sage

S: Yeah absolutely. I look l back on when I was a kid and if my art teacher would have showed me more artists and not been as focused on DBAE I would’ve realized that people related to me. I had no language for my identity until I was in college, and then it took me years to come to terms with it. Even in college I wasn’t looking at gender variant artists. I can’t help but feel like I would have felt more empowered if there was at least an inkling of representation in there.

I keep hearing people talking about mirrors and windows when they talk about representation in the curriculum across all academia. I think that mirrors are so important for students to see in representation of artists. We could be showing students and validating their identities even if they don’t know they now they hold those identities.

Marjoram M: 1000% I mean I kinda touched on this already but you know, like the Emily Style piece from I think like 1989, the curriculum from Mirror and Lindo Is really someone that works in equity and inclusion. Like the approach to teaching and that's one thing that I reference a lot. So if you think in terms a lot of you know creating a balance of both mirrors for students to see their identities reflected but also windows into identities communities and experiences that are not uh their own gender is absolutely like a really really important one of those. um also like it's something that everyone encapsulates some sort of aspect of identity, but everybody has a personal experience of gender. Um so I think for everyone yeah whether it's a mirror or whether it's a window it's a part of our world. And we know from a research base that you know where at this point you know where like Gen Z is slightly over 50% of students you know I’m not like 12 or 13 to early 20s year old range identify as something other than says head so we're increasingly like, like living in a world in which people are either occupying these identities were or just encountering it all the time in their daily lives and it would do a disservice to students to not be explicitly teaching about something you know about a population and part of identity that you know in

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one way or another will be a part of their personal experience don't let it die Coriander

C: Oh yeah I mean I think that representation of all artists is important. But I also think that representation of artists both have art that talks about their identity and art that doesn't. So like you should be teaching with Carries James Marshall. And you shouldn’t be teaching about Carries James Marshall to talk about black people.

Anne you should be teaching with Kehinde Wiley and you shouldn’t just be teaching Kehinde Wiley to talk about gay folks. I love using Kehinde Wiley’s series is on the Mahu. I don't know if you are familiar with that series but that's the one that I use in my teacher professional development, we don't have that in our collection but, we don't have anything in our collection that works so I'm just going to pull the thing that's best. So, I used some of Kehinde Wiley’s images for that. But also like you shouldn't just be using that image of Kehinde Wiley’s you should also use other things that he's done and talk about other work that doesn't as directly speak to queer identity. I mean to an extent any work that an artist is going to say something about their identity. But, you should be using a broad spectrum all folks to be talking about a broad spectrum of things. and not just pigeon holing people into like here's the gay art by gay people, and here is the black guy by black people, and here is the normal white by white people. Yeah I mean I think it's a journey, it's also a part of my own personal practice because it's really easy for me to be like, I am probably one of the publicly out - in fact I could say that I am the most publicly out trans or queer person in museum education in the region. And so, it's really easy for me to just spend my day being the queer and trans educator. Like doing all this **** about queer stuff, which is great, but also there is more to me than being queer and trans and I forget that sometimes. So like if I'm intentionally looking for opportunities to teach with our queer and trans folks that isn't directly talking about their queer and trans identities that's a reminder to me to pay attention to

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Do you think cisgender students benefit from a gender variant inclusive art classroom? Explain It helps normalize these identities when cisgender students are exposed to them Help cisgender student learn empathy and understanding of their gender variant peers Important to educate students identities that are different from their own Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Yeah absolutely I mean like the kid that you know it was like I want your pride flag down we had a real conversation about dude you're also on the spectrum of gender and sexuality yours is just normalized in society. And it's harder for you to understand them but It doesn't hurt you to have a flag in the room you are going to be fine. it helps them immensely and you're not really understanding empathy right now so let's have a conversation about what it's like to be someone who is different. so being able to have conversations like those with kids it's been really helpful.

Dill D: Absolutely it's amazing how quickly you notice gender stereotypes in effect with students. and this is even from the beginning of my teaching experience. it's amazing how quickly - I mean even in pre K which I don't have pre K at this school - but even pre K students are carrying around these stereotypes which you know at five years old you see evidence of some students so it is absolutely yes they benefit wholeheartedly. and it's not Just again it might be - it's not just the boys those who - again I'm saying boys for ease of conversation - but it's not just the boys that needed it's even the girls who did it. because I find that your cis girls are putting other girls into a box or other boys into a boy box. So, it is absolutely um imperative that an importance that all teachers have this, again, this is just as important as having dealing with race religion all of that in the class. I think it's more important because everyone has a gender regardless of what it is everyone has a gender and everyone is affected by stereotypes in some way. so I think it's one of the most if not the most important uh you know focuses in any classroom. I really do.

Tarragon K: Yes, yes yes yes. I think there is this uh, process that students who come to an art room are inherently more open minded. And I think that there is some truth to that but I also think that that's too much um - it's not that simple. I think in The art room where you may have a group of students who love the arts are also open minded you have the unique opportunity to use that energy and willingness to affect a larger

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group. And I did see a difference and how my students were received by their cisgender peers from the start of the semester to the end of the semester. I think largely because there is just no acknowledgement of it in a negative way like there was a in some other classes. I think that it would be even more impactful if it was intentionally pulled into the curriculum. Um I think that it's always one of the greatest things you can do in an Art Room is to show students different perspectives and perspectives that are different from their own. Especially if you know that you are living in a predominantly white suburb like they need to see other things. and so I don't actually think it's that difficult to pull in there are snippets of experience from all over. but I think it would have been more impactful to do more than a couple artists or a couple artworks yeah. I don't know if I'm explaining this super well, but I know in my bones that is true.

Rosemary R: Definitely because then you are like made aware very early on like especially in elementary school that there are, that when you reach the real world not everything is going to be binary. That's not how everyone identifies. the more that you can learn about how other people function when you are in school it can only benefit you later.

H: absolutely do you think that it's appropriate to have these conversations with your elementary school students?

R: I do I'm not honestly sure how, how to navigate that um it definitely is, but I am not yet equipped to have a productive conversation about that.

Thyme T: Yeah! I mean they benefit from experience. I like being around that ES kids and the life skills kids. It’s another facet of life. And if they're exposed at a younger age they’ll be better adults and not ******* later in life.

Oregano O: Yes, I have taught art classes before where um you know there are students who are clearly like getting ready to transition or kind of discovering you know I would rather use different pronouns or there is a lot going on in that particular class. but their classmates did not know, And I could tell because I had done enough to see what was changing. And so a couple of the times the students felt comfortable enough to tell me they could you use these pronouns instead which I would do. And if another classmate would call it out sometimes that

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would it involve discussions. So, it was a ceramics class and there was um a transitioning student who wanted they/them pronouns. And we were talking to them as soon across the room was like why do you keep saying that why, why do you keep that up. I said well because that's what they need and there is a discussion about you know why we are doing this at all. well that is appropriate because of. And then we listed reasons why. and it definitely changed that kids outlook because no one had stopped and explained anything to him before. I feel like a lot of, a lot of the times why people are so ignorant to what is going on is because simply no one has ever explained it before. and so you know when I'm teaching it does happen and we do talk about it. it doesn't happen very often because like i said right now I'm just teaching pre K. But in the past it has it was discussion time because that's what that student needed too.

Parsley

Basil

D: Absolutely I think that inclusion is a useful thing to have in a classroom regardless of what kind of specific inclusion you're practicing at that time because there may be cisgender students of color and when they see you practicing inclusion you know creates a safe place for them and it also teaches Cisgender students to be inclusive in their own practices. But I think it also teaches them to be inclusive and their own life and their own practices and it teaches them that it's something that should be normalized is that, it's something that is okay.

E: Yes. Um‌ I can speak to this on a more general level because I have the language for that. but I think that anybody can benefit from education that is more inclusive. like just in general including inclusive of whatever group or whatever I don't know whatever or whoever needs that everyone else can also benefit from it. I don't know I can't really get into more details because I don't know that I have the language for it. That's a hard one to put into words.

Bay B: Of course, yes I think everybody would. You know I think that because it's up it's here we have to understand other people. and that is not one group that needs it more than others. and everyone needs to know how to communicate. And that's just another topic about things to work on.

Sage

Yes. They may even benefit more from it. Gender variants biggest issue is cis people invalidating their existence all of the time. But the

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art room is kind of the perfect place to introduce these identities. We kind of have an obligation to students to teach them how to be people you know? If we’re showing, teaching and normalizing these identities in the classroom I’d imagine that they’d take that with them beyond the classroom. It’s a trickle affect right?

Marjoram

M: Oh yeah absolutely. oh the other thing that I was going to say to go along with both of those is that the arts in general I think that there is like historically like in my own experiences both of us as a student and as a teacher like that's kinda just wear the weird kids go you know. so I think that of course like I want to see this across the board I want to see this in all divisions and content areas and disciplines but I think that especially in the arts have always historically been kinda like this safe haven for a difference. so I think that there is even maybe a greater imperative to have that kind of inclusion and safety in that space for folks that maybe feel like they don't fit in and feel like they have a space elsewhere.

Coriander

C: Of course I mean like A.) just because someone is presenting a cisgender doesn't mean that they are. And uh, and B.) trans folks are part of our world and students should know about them regardless they identify as trans or not. And also, there's some really interesting research about the ways that people think about trans folks based on how authentic their relationships have been with trans people like what they know about trans folks. And so like it's not a substitute for knowing an actual trans person, but looking at our by trans folks Or engaging with the experiences with trans folks in a more authentic way than just hearing about them from Fox news or something (indiscernible) Is helpful to build an accurate picture and more like empathy and understanding.

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Do you provide opportunities for your classes to have dialogue surrounding gender variance? If so, what do you notice about those dialogues? How does it involve Open ended questions or dialogues that are set up Dialogue by showing Artists As it comes up in class No Explicit discussions

Participant

Answer

Chive

C: So ,I had one class that was just super curious about everything. so I had the posters of the amplifier project up and that particular class wanted to know the story of every artist, a part of that project and every person on the poster so we read The entire amplifier booklet together. That was the only class that wanted to know. And so, we had those conversations and when we got to the Lindsay Ann Marie poster you know talking about being unapologetically queer there is some conversation about that. I think that it's productive to have conversations like that in a way that - and understanding the position of power like what I love is for every suit that comes into my classroom to be like a left leaning liberal by the time that they leave.

That's great yes but as being educated that's not something that I'm allowed to promote. ‌‌ So I do think we do people a disservice by not making that window available so that both people are not aware or open - or you know I think by keeping gender and sexuality uh neutral or non-talked about thing then it marginalizes the experience of students that identify like that. Also, then it is a missed opportunity for conversation with students that could benefit from it knowing that the, the world is more diverse than they realize. So, we might only focus on parts that are normalized as per society. I think that we are doing a disservice to students.

Dill J: Um yes um certainly when for instance in the past when I've presented Greer Lankton, when I present a Nick cave. If I am presenting an artist and we're talking about that artist I absolutely bring up in an age specific way certain components about that artist. and you know their sexuality their gender expression are key - are a very important factor in their lives. so I absolutely bring it up when we talk about artists. We will also - there has been a few instances where even though I'm dealing with a lower school one of the things that I started doing is we have after every major project we have an art critique. And even if it's in kindergarten I mean it's technically an art critique but even if it's a more informal gathering where you're presenting your work you're talking about it in students are being

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taught how to listen and look and respond constructively. There have been things that come up that tackle gender and so not only do they have a chance 2 and more art history presentations but also it has come up during our critics where they are talking about their own work. or students are responding to the work of another student. and sometimes those conversations are not intentional like someone will make a remark and it opens up the door. And of course, in their freedom uh to choose art materials colors materials it's - that is another facet of their art education where it could come up and it has come up. And again, if the opportunity comes up it's addressed. I also make it known to my students that the art room - really the whole school - but I do specify that the art room is a safe place and in the art room we will not be judged and we will have freedom of expression all of that. So, it's an environment where hopefully uh again as i said students bring it up on their own. So, they have the opportunity during art history during critiques but also during the actual art making process. all of that there have been times where gender expression and gender identity had been brought up.

Tarragon T: Um, I have not, I did not have any moments of discussion that were broader than one or two students at a time. um and it kind of fell into two buckets. So, like one of those buckets would be students who typically after that worksheet actually would write something that expressed confusion or disagreements with option. And that was only a handful of students over time. But I found that it was really um enlightening to ask them in private conversation why they had that response. um and then too - it's so hard because of the teacher you're told you should not be sharing your beliefs - which is weird, and I think is maybe a product of where I taught. Um but I would say things like I hear you and I understand where you're coming from And I want to tell you where I'm coming in from by providing this option that you don't have to utilize. Which may not make sense to you, but I want you to choose the one that does make sense to you. they're here for a reason and here is that reason. And I found that by having those sorts of conversations where I acknowledge the other person's viewpoint almost always, I was met with understanding and not's combative response. um the second spot was more conversations with students who either identified as being gender variant or who were friends with people in the classroom who are gender variant. and those tended to be a more candid conversation about experiences they had or about um any kind of need that was relevant in getting attention that was affecting them in some way. and that was typically a small group either in a particular class or dying

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the Honor Society the Honor Society that I advised after school just in private conversation. what was the question?

H: Providing opportunities to have dialogue surrounding gender variance.

T: Yeah but there are never whole class discussions.

Rosemary R: I have not because it honestly hasn't even crossed my mind as being an option.

H: Yeah absolutely have you like caught any conversations happening in your room?

R: Well after‌ so this is what happened that completely solidified that this was something that I need to do more of. because after I introduced Lisa Congdon specifically that day for one of my classes for kiddos stayed after, stayed after in my room too to just ask me a bunch of questions about gender and sexuality. one of them is just telling me that her I think it was that her dad had come out as gay.

What are them was saying that they think that they are transgender and I'm like listening to this And I don't know what to do with this because, because I don't even know how to have these conversations yet. So I think that like there is definitely a need to have these conversations um you know 4 of my students have tried to have that conversation with me. But I don't know how to facilitate that yet. I think that I'm just generally uncomfortable trying to set that up because I don't know how to do it yet.

H: Yeah but that's interesting how just showing one like having one class and showing one artist and that cause that trickle if it where you have 4 kids come up to you. Do you think that made them feel safe?

R: Definitely yeah yeah.

H: That',s that's really interesting Thyme

T: mmmm. Have I‌.. I feel like it has come up before but not recently. we did have a brief conversation I got to go to the art museum with them the group that I was with one of the paintings we were looking at had a grandmother her hair was pulled back severely and wearing those Grandpa glasses so they were all talking about how it was a grandpa and I the guide touched on it briefly but like

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didn't really get into anything. Um I'm trying to think of like... I feel like this has come up before. I feel like I usually end up covering more social studies stuff than gender variant stuff. like I had a firstgrade class come in one year and they were like guess what we found out that we're all Native American. And I was like everyone set everyone freeze everyone pause let's talk about this cause it's not. But again, that's more of a topic that I'm more familiar with. But I'm willing to set aside time to have those conversations with students.

Oregano O: I haven't set that up but that is mostly because right now and the majority of who I've taught are very young kids. And we haven't, not because it hasn't been appropriate because it's never inappropriate. but just thought it would have been beneficial. So, with my older students there was a class that um I was teaching that you know we set aside a time at beginning instead these are the things that are going to be inappropriate if we talk about. and these are the things that you know are welcome to be talked about, but you can't talk about it like this. because there were students in there that were vulnerable, and we didn't want them to feel uncomfortable talking about themselves. because the whole project was very intense and asked a lot of the students to share about themselves in the project.

And I didn't want them to be uncomfortable or feel vulnerable. so like there was a like we had like a I remember we called them, I think we call it like students’ rights or something where we talked and everyone signed an agreement that said you know this is a safe place this is a – what – you know these are the things that we Um are going to be exploring and this is going to be acceptable and if you can't agree to this then you cannot be in here right now. but everyone was fine um and once we had that we didn't really have to set anything else up. and it was it was a short-term thing that had happened anyway but I'm not opposed to doing that I just haven't had the opportunity recently.

H: Yeah, I think that's really awesome where you're basically setting up expectations. And I think that's really important because even if you didn't have a dialogue about it you're still like kids are still thinking about it and they're still processing it. and then like you said it provides a safe place for those students who are gender variant. awesome I love everything that you're saying so far.

Parsley

P: I have included a couple of times but it's not specifically a topic it's not like I was talking about gender variance are we going to talk about trans people it sort of comes up naturally you know and what

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we're discussing our what we're discussing artist who was nonbinary or that will come up I think that those discussions for the most part usually go pretty well and we're lucky that the environment that I'm in at least in the college of fine arts and our education program everyone seems to be very accepting and it's just sort of accepted that gender variance is a fact and there's no debate about it this is just something that we're going to include I think you have a style that's not the case and there are a lot of entrances around a little college that I think occur but so far I think at least in my program has been very nice I barely had any negative experience.

Basil B: I don't specifically have that built in but I don't have that built in for anything. Like if it seems important to have a conversation about something and it comes out in, in an authentic way I will make space for that. I’ll facilitate it the way that I feel like I need to. Yeah that's my specific gender variant example. but I have had experiences with other things like when the election happened four years ago or three years ago whenever that was. I was at a different school and I was in like a mostly lower-class white neighborhood for the most part. And I had one student who was just like just saying all these really racist things. I also had a whole bunch of students who were scared that their families were going to get deported and like all these other things. And I was like okay we're gonna put everything away we're going to stop and we're gonna have a conversation about this. and one student was like what about our emails and I was like okay you need to take a step back and look at this from your classmates point of view, and if we're not providing an opportunity for kids to talk about really important issues then sometimes we're contributing to problems.

H: Yeah, I completely agree and it's being willing to have that conversation and being willing to stop and have it because a lot of people want it.

B: Right and there are sometimes where you don't need to stop but then there's times where you need to stop and everyone needs to be involved because everyone needs to hear it. and everyone needs to be a part of it and like even if it's not an issue that affects you is it an issue that affects you because it affects your community and it affects the people around you.

Bay B: Well no not really. My school, Margot and I joked about it in the past like, like I really have her kids and my kids end up at her school.

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they're really in a situation that we're in, it's nothing. I mean I could include it with like my lunch buddies or my middle schoolers I want to come in and talk like when I have more private moments. but there's no way with the situation that I could do that as a big group. I will say at this school they're not talking about it; the kids aren't asking about it. They did at my other school but not here.

H: Interesting, do you think that it's not on their radar?

B: Yeah, I don't think it says much on their radar. But there's plenty of kids where I can see that they are. And I think that maybe it's a safety thing because I definitely see that I have a gamut of different types of kids. Yeah, I just think that we're a little dated my way over there cause not open. Yeah, I have a, a young kid that right now is identifying with most things female. you know he wants to sit on the pink things he always takes our paints smocks and pretends that they are his hair. but I just try to make sure that no one else makes fun of him.

Sage

S: Yes, like I said earlier I try to put in images surrounding gender variance and just let my students lead the conversation. I think that they’re helpful. I think it’s a lot of realization moments for students.

Also, when conversations come up I entertain them. I think it’s important to address topics as they come up.

Marjoram M: For sure, on explicit instruction I tend to start everything with like aesthetic inquiries as a jumping off point. I use that just about for everything and obviously for imagery that does touch on ideas related to, to gender expression and gender variance. Any of those things I would do some open-ended questioning to, to elicit some feelings or responses about that. Um and in the incidental sense I just like finding the teachable moments - one of my big beliefs is modeling like 0 indifference so I will always stop what I'm doing - I'm a very easy teacher to get off track. But, but like I don't really care because sometimes the learning that can happen in response to something that is happening is so much more meaningful and impactful then if I was like I want to do another lesson about XYZ. Sometimes the more meaningful and impactful instruction around that comes from things that happen just things that come up from those situations and just being able to like have a flexibility to think on your feet and just be like Oh my gosh that's like brilliant or I didn't think of that or like huh that's not really sitting right with me can you hit the pause button and unpack that a little bit together.

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H: right exactly I think that that is important too.

Coriander

C: I think that the like, the ways that I have seen those conversations be the most productive is when they challenge a gender assumption about somebody. So, in visual art we have a tendency to look at a visual of a figure and assume like - we make a judgment about whether this figure is male or female. So sometimes kind of depending on the vibe of the group I might challenge that. So like a lot of our teaching is based on visual thinking strategies so like what is going on in this picture, and someone says oh there's a man who is standing - I'm thinking of a specific work of art where there is a person wearing pants and a sweater and a hat who's back is to us and they're standing on the edge of a cliff looking out over a Valley where they have just cut down a tree. and so almost invariably people are like oh there's a guy - they immediately gender that person male but we don't see their hair or their face. All we see is they're back from some distance, the clothes that they're wearing, and we assume that they have just cut down this tree that has just been cut. So like sometimes I will challenge that. Like okay, so you see a person what do you see that makes this be a man? And then we can dig into, especially because like the way that um people dress now a sweater hat could be anyone. Like maybe if we were from the 50s it would be a little bit more gendered but, that's a fairly androgynous presentation. then we can get into what is it about this person being alone in the wilderness that makes us automatically assume male?

What is it about this person Having done physical labor that makes us automatically assume that it is male? then we can start to breakdown some societal gender stereotypes. And I feel like that's a conversation that feels incredibly universal, even if no one in the group is gender variant because everyone is wrestling with like How do I perform my gender even if they wouldn't put it in those words. How do I perform gender in a way that makes sense for me in the world? Or, there are other figures that that are maybe more ambiguously gendered that we can look out and say is this important that we know this person's gender does it feel relevant in this case? And if so why, or if not then cool we just move on.

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What types of visuals do you have in your room to support gender variance inclusion?

Still working on visuals Books More general LGBTQ posters, not gender variance specifically Colors are for everyone poster Don’t have a classroom to put posters Participant

Answer

Chive

C: So when I came into my room so in my elementary classroom I had the elements of principles and design posters up and subversively for a while I had the amplifier project posters printed like regular paper size up on the board where the administrator was not likely to see them. So, it wasn't until i got the big posters and it suddenly became an issue. So, this came down but I would try to have art work up that shared a lot of diverse uh you know racially diverse pieces. in my new classroom when I came into it there was a **** tons of everything old probably from the 70s old. A lot of western art and things like that and I just wasn't interested in it so I took everything down. so the only things that I have up in my room right now is visuals are the studio habits in mind and the amplifier project posters. Oh and I think I have a Kehinde Wiley up and a Basquiat as well.

Dill J: Well I have in terms of visuals I have thus far in my room - which is still in the process of being created - I do have for instance in the library I have and I can get I can even send you the titles of the books. I have them on display. I have those books. I have all books intentionally that are dealing with any kind of inclusion and diversity. I have them literally on display. they are visible in that section of the room. we had Mike genhart he said children's book Gardner author who just published a book called my first pride flag. so I have pride flags in the room um. in terms of artwork posters do I have - I have yet to have but I'm getting. I have yet to put up the posters but I'm trying to get a Greer Lankton. And I'm trying to get Nick Cave. I like to put up posters of artists that I actually talk about. I've talked about again you know during performance art week I talked about the work of Felix Gonzales Torres, who again I mean he's LGBT. I have Hockney. but I'm working on the visuals. that I find is still kind of difficult because they are not readily available.

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Tarragon T: Yeah I had the image that I told you about the White House. I had a couple um - I had a pride flag that was one of those tabletop flags it was pretty small but it was you know in a collage of other things. I had, I think i had like some other pins in patches that were in that same display that were from a pride event they were labeled with the words.

And that was an intentional choice ridding the climate other school. I didn't want there to be - I wanted it to feel safe and I wanted people to be able to recognize things without um being so direct about it. i had a poster that was - who was it - it might have been Amy sherald? but I might be confusing it there was an image of two - two men walking together and it wasn't I don't think that the message was explicitly forcing sex unions but I think that it was just an image that oh they probably haven't seen a lot of this. let's just suggest by pairing different people. yeah I think it was a lot of stuff like that.

Rosemary R: I do not, but I would love - could you tell me a little more about what that might look like.

H: um well my next question is what kind of visuals do you think would be helpful to have in your classroom.

R: I mean I don't know if this would qualify but I have one in my room um so it's a poster that I made that is broken up into 3 sections and one is, one is blue one is pink and one is kind of rainbow on the bottom and it says that colors belong to everyone because I have a lot of kids that say that that boys won't use pink and, and girls say that blue is a boys color I don't know how that qualifies for anything.

H: No I think that does because I think that um‌ Because it does have to do with, uh gender in a way that you are combating binaries, and kind of letting those things and letting kids use whatever colors they want and that does create a safe place to be able to explore those things.

I feel like I'm really interested in - I feel like I mean gender variance kind of for me could also be that tomgirl it could be so many different things so even if you're not so as like you're assigned sex at birth you know what I mean so I do feel like things like that could be really helpful.

Thyme I don't have any. I have very few things on my walls. Admin wants me to put up more but I hate an over decorated room. So...

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Oregano O: We actually don't have a classroom right now so we go to other places. so we're working on getting our space so right now no. when our space is done yes. we just don't have our own space yet. Right now we're still attached to Illinois State University that ends here the end of June. and like it's a good change everyone's happy about it, stop like a souring thing or anything. it's just time for us to move to our own parthan be the nonprofit that we want to be in the beginning but we needed ISU's help to get going. and so when we have our new space and when we have the kids coming. So there will be more things going on then just to save space stickers. um 'cause i got a lot of um the people in this general area are immigrants so one of the things that we want to do is have like flags that represent different people so but also I pride flags as well. But not just the traditional pride flag but the maybe the um like the BI pride flag. or just in general a lot of different things that again people can find themselves no matter who they are. will be hanging artwork that will be um not just our own artwork but but or like the kids artwork but like posters and things from different artists we're definitely going to be having some of the people from the list I was just showing you some of their artwork displayed. um we want people to feel comfortable.

Parsley

Basil

P: So you know I don't really have my own room but we do have a safe place sticker that's campus sponsored that is in the museum. and we have stickers and most of the classrooms Panera couple of their posters and things that just talked about what's a space is it's kind of an initiative that they have on campus that any of the organizations can choose to be a part of and these places have to go through a training officially get your recognition sticker after that.

B: Right I don’t think so 'cause those are the only things that I could really think of.

Bay B: No I don't right now.

Sage

I’m currently working on this. I’ve been creating a collection of inclusive imagery of all identities, races, abilities, etc. since I started at my position in January. I’ve gotten some good posters from Tolerance.org and the Amplifier project. I made a poster immediately for my classroom that says you are safe in this place. I think that talks to everyone in my class. I created a colors are for everyone poster that I

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think will be great for my little guys. My room is interesting because I work with students K-12 and I’m constantly trying to add things that would be relevant to all groups but also speak to specific groups as well. I plan to put these images as a smaller collage near my desk. I think that would show students my support. I also have a pronouns poster.

Marjoram M: So my space is, I'm not in a classroom anymore, so it's kind of like a classroom. It's kind of like half office half classroom. I just have a ton of representation in the things that I have up around my room. like I know I have a series of the free downloadable posters from amplifier.

Are you familiar with that series? go to amplifier.org they have all these amazing free downloadable posters and stuff. And I have some that are explicitly about queerness. So I know that I have imagery in my space that are specifically um like trans people of color. um and just having that visual representation I'm trying to think of like where else thStillat would come up. you know I know there are some things in the various art rooms that it is just depending on what artists are being shown. there may be visuals pulling that in.

Coriander

C: Yeah well we don't have a set classroom so we don't get to set up our classroom in any specific way.

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What types of visuals would be helpful to have in your classroom?

Visuals of artists artwork Not sure what visuals they would need Gender spectrum or pronouns chart Total inclusion for everyone signage Visuals that aren’t gender specific Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Um I do wish that I had more contemporary stuff up. I want contemporary relevant artwork that students can relate to that images - I saw Julie Jewel talk last year at a conference and she talked a lot about mirrors and windows and how what you have on your walls are either a mirror to students or a window into somebody else's experience. So that was really meaningful to me and I wanted to take that idea of you know being able to have art that both represents students but also exposes them to other experiences that they might not have encountered.

Dill D: yes. Again I'm definitely working on artists. I'm working on LGBT artist posters. um and to get back to your last question there are absolutely visuals that again are on my list where - And I believe this podcast tomorrow will help as well. There are visuals that you can put up in your room this sort of informational visuals. My school has a cultural competency committee that I'm a part of which is made up of faculty staff and administration. The purpose of the community is to raise awareness of all kinds of cultural issues, gender, multiculturalism. so we've talked about safe spaces and the signage and the materials. so I've got to do it but that's another - I'm perfectly free to put these things about gender. we do a program called learning on the loo, where in the bathrooms we're starting off with adult bathrooms every so many months we have informationals that are posted installs at the urinals that subject matter dealing with uh all kinds of things gender LGBT that gives you bullet points that you can learn while you're on the loo. Artist visuals are really difficult though. unless you are dealing with - but again I'm really thinking about trans artists - um and I have to say I can't think of any trans artists I gotta think… posters are hard to find.

H: Yep it's almost like you gotta make him yourself.

D: That's what I was gonna say you gotta make him yourself. Um what other materials… I do feel like there are other materials available about gender variant students um that I feel you know to be

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honest I feel like if you intentionally want them you can find them.

Again, as I'm in the process of creating my room I am hoping and tomorrow's podcast may help me. I want those visuals. I would love to see more educational websites and blogs that I can go to for lesson ideas and how this kind of content available. Honestly I understand that I have to be one of those creators. And I started by making my lesson plans on my website downloadable. but obviously I'm not a big website, I don't draw a crowd. so I'd love to see those lessons more available in more popular teacher resources. I would also like to get, may tell, make a gender neutral doll and I would like to get those for um like a free play time.

Tarragon T: I had like a list of - so it was a requirement in my school which is kind of silly that we have classroom rules and while I think classroom rules can be super effective it just felt a little elementary. so my rules were very simple and very broad. It was basically calm, prepared beyond time to be respectful, something like that. then we would break it down and talk about the specifics. But I wish i had some sort of signage that made clear that this space is for all students of all backgrounds of all abilities of all identities. something like that that was really a declarative statement of support and have ownership collectively. And I think talking about that and continuing to touch on that throughout the course would have been really, would have been a good touchstone.

Rosemary R:[sighs] This is where I start to feel very uneducated because I don't think I actually have an answer.

H: Yeah yeah, that’s okay.

R: Can I ask you what you have in your room.

H: Yeah, yeah so, I’m still working on that. So, I've been looking for more like safe place stickers I am hoping to get um Megan who's in the program right now she has like pronoun posters. And I'm an - I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like because I want it to be subtle and I want it to be inclusive beyond just LGBT. Like I have a sign that says you are safe in this place and that can be interpreted in a lot of different ways um but I'm still kind of looking for that I think that I want to start hanging out my posters of gender variant artist as

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well. But access to that right? I feel like I have to start creating those things because there is nothing.

R: Yeah you have to make your own tools for that.

H: right exactly so I don't know if that helps but.

R: It does yes.

Thyme T: I don't know. I don't know what it is that a kid would need to single them that it’s cool until I don't cause that's the other thing about thinking about my population I don't know if they would ever be able to recognize like what a rainbow flag is for like I don't I don't know how much exposure they have like no exposure outside of school. I don't know what it is a kid would need, especially an elementary-age kid.

Oregano O: Um I haven't come to that but again I don't have a space where the kids are coming in too, so I think that's something that maybe I'll notice later. but I just don't have the opportunity to even think about it right now.

Parsley

P: yeah so I saw one before I started working at the Museum I was working at another organization. It was a little chart that was talking about the differences you know like a visual like here is a person and I talked about what gender is versus sex and romantic orientation and sexual orientation and I was just really handy Chart that sort of explained and could answer questions that people have. I think that would be really helpful thing to have in their classroom for sure.

Basil B: Yes but I don't know what they are. I teach it Anna K-8 setting so it would be something that would work for my whole population if that makes sense.

H: yeah for sure I feel like I have that too cause I'm teaching K through 12. which is wild cause you know some of them are like 20.

B: right and I'm sure that you also have kids that are not developmentally their age either. So, you don't just have like a linear range but like a range that's all over the place.

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H: Yes, that's something that I'm just like so I kind of picking apart peoples answers and trying to figure out what would be helpful.

B: sorry I'm not more helpful for that.

H: Well no it is helpful because it tells me that, that you need support in that area.

Bay B: I think I know what we're talking about right now. So, having pictures of people who are not gender specific would be a really good idea for a start. Just like its not gender specific images whether it's the people or the artists so that we could have conversations from that would be awesome. Because that's really like I totally use margo's question of the day strategy and it works and I think that would be a place to put that in.

Sage

S: I want more pictures of artists who are transgender and gender variant. I think that would be really awesome to have in an art room because it could be a really good conversation starter that could lead to talking about gender variance. I also want to find artists that would be appropriate to hang out in my classroom since I am a k-12 school

Marjoram M: um yeah I think, I think just in terms of visual marketing stuff. I don't think I see a ton of visible gender nonconformity in those materials.

Coriander

C: Nothing is really coming to mind for me. You know I think that if I were setting up a classroom for our after-school program there’d be a lot of art on the walls by all kinds different people. I do have a friend that teaches before and after school programs at the YMCA who is trans and just like couldn't find one of these so created it for themselves but like a pronouns chart. And because they were creating it for themselves, they specifically could do one that was relevant to them. So, they did like, they had like a pronounced chart of He, She and They. So, they had their co-teacher who uses he him pronouns as an example of his name is blah - so like here is how to use he him pronouns using the example of the co teacher. Then using their supervisor who uses she her pronouns is an example for she her. then using themselves as an example for they/them. because their kids our first through third grade mostly, they are struggling because they are learning about pronouns in the first place. and they were struggling with the idea of How do I use they them as a pronoun for a person. so

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they just produced this poster that gave them examples of like you know that Sam's coat it belongs to them.

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Why is the art room an important place for gender variant students?

It has the potential to be a safe place Art is a natural place to encourage exploration in many ways, including identity Gender Variant students have the potential to feel validated there.

Participant

Answer

Chive

C: The art room is a place to take risks, to experiment, to learn from our mistakes and be daring. The art room is also a place that has the potential to be a safe place if the teacher fosters it. If that happens then I think that it becomes such an important place for gender variant students to be. Whether or not they are out or making work about their experiences being gender variant it could be a really supportive place to potentially explore that identity more. It could also be the one place that they are actually represented and see themselves in. It could, could be really validating for them.

Dill D: The Art Room is a crucial place for gender variant students because the very subject of arts just quite naturally opens itself up to the diverse community of the world. I mean if you are aware you have with a little research if you're not that aware you can easily become aware. the art world in general is a wonderful place to find all kinds of people. So, I think it's easy to find artists that either are gender variant or creates classroom appropriate work that you can show in a classroom and teach your students. You may have to edit it or be very conscientious about your contents in the class. But it's very easy to find artists or artwork. But also, the item is crucial because the album is about not only learning you're more foundational elements of art creation but also the art classroom is about expression. and it is about freedom and you have - and it's about courage and experimentation. so a.) you have to create an Art Room where students feel safe and where they feel they’re be respected by everybody. answer there's no better home for gender variance student to feel comfortable, to feel like they can experiment and express. So really, it's the duty of the art teacher to make that happen in the classroom. and even if you're a teacher who was told by your school which is a reality - no to certain content you can still get the message across without specifically focusing on, on you know you can still do it.

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Tarragon T: I think it's similar to why it's important for all students. I think The Art Room kind of walks this line in the minds of students, well in the minds of the students that I had, of being a space where let me rephrase this. I think, okay, I think that visual art and all the arts for that matter allow for open-ended interpretation. they allow for independent response. Um they allow for an acknowledgment of all identities. I think that there is this line with that my students walked between like or it should be a free for all and um I can do so many things with my art like there is this kind of harnessing that had to happen um where we talked about how these expectations for grades are and you still have to do these things. Um but also once you learn the basics you can do essentially whatever you want. And I think that kind of freedom is empowering for all students especially when it's freedom by way of their own hard work and preparation. I think all students benefit from having the ability to create their own path forward, and have it acknowledged as worthy when you compare it to completely different things. I think that there, it makes room for expression that doesn't always exist in other views or other classes.

Rosemary

R: I definitely think it is an important place for gender variant students. The art room is a unique space where one if its main goals is to give students tools to explore and express their personal identity, whether it be gender identity, race, personal relationships, etc. In my experience, it is one of the only spaces in school that allows students the opportunity to really think inwardly and explore who they are. If you are an art teacher that has already established that your room is a safe space, I think it’s very valid to say that your room could be an important and even beneficial place for gender variant students simply due to the nature of our content.

Thyme T: Well I suppose in the past the art room has always been a safe and more progressive space, more open to new ideas and people who do not identify with societal norms (my co-workers think I am exceptionally strange, when I would disagree, I know far weirder people than myself). It’s a place where they can be exposed to other thoughts and cultures, other societal norms, be able to express themselves and explore their identity.

Oregano O: I think I said something about this earlier but for whatever reason and I, I don't spend enough time thinking about the psychology of

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different classrooms. but for whatever reason when people need the extra support of someone that isn't their parents, they lean on their art teachers or their missing teachers. and that tends to be a space where they learn a lot about themselves as well. You know when you're making art you, you reach inside of yourself to pull things out. and these kids learn so much about themselves and they feel like the only person they can talk to you about it is a person that is standing there helping them do it. And that's usually the art teacher. And so making those places safe, making those places where the student knows going in that they are not just welcome but encouraged and celebrated is important because if they don't feel safe then that takes away yet one more space that they should be able to lean into. So, making sure the things that I do and provide are open ended and accessible are really important.

Parsley

P:I think that it's very important in terms of expression art is about expression and I feel that gender-variant people do not get enough chances in their normal lives to be able to express themselves the way they want to an art is a very good outlet for that so I think it's very important to be even more inclusive in that area because you're providing them an outlet that normally wouldn't exist. where is other people that might have other outlets that they could utilize.

Basil B: I think that most subjects are very 1 answer. So, like this is how you solve a problem. But in the art room you have more open-ended options and you are expressing yourself. Like when you're solving a math problem and not really expressing yourself. Like math is important but in a different way? And art the way that you are solving problems is deeply personal most of the time. So first of all, you need to be able to feel comfortable in doing something that is deeply personal. so it needs to be a space where you feel that and it's cyclical you know once you have that space then you can go there and you can use that space to feel comfortable and explore yourself even further.

Bay B: Is an important place for gender variance students because it is, it's about making your own choices it's not about buying into any specific way or a specific thing you have to do a certain way. It's about being open in my arm at least. It's about being open and trying all sorts of new things and ideas. I think that's an easy way to like uh there's no right answer here.

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S: The art room is a place to take risks, to experiment, to learn from our mistakes and be daring. The art room is also a place that has the potential to be a safe place if the teacher fosters it. If that happens then I think that it becomes such an important place for gender variant students to be. Whether or not they are out or making work about their experiences being gender variant it could be a really supportive place to potentially explore that identity more. It could also be the one place that they are actually represented and see themselves in. It could be really validating for them.

Marjoram M: You know I think that the arts in general just historically have been a place of - for outcasts for outliers for, for thinkers for revolutionaries. you know for people who are just outside of, of the norm in some way. Um and I think that it's also a place where there might be fewer rules in general. like I think there's just more, more freedom of expression. Obviously, I think that there are ways to bring this into like every curricular area so I'm not saying that this is like the only place or the most natural place. But I do think creative art spaces are uniquely poised just because we do have a really rich cultural tradition. And an overlap of like queer communities and artist communities. It's also been a side of a lot of activism happening through arts through like visual and performing arts. So I think that it's a place where there are a lot of existing narratives in a lot of really rich history to draw on where since you have that as part of their experience can feel you know not only less isolated in their day-today life but last generationally isolated and like the sense that like feeling parts of of a longer lineage or like a longer tradition that may not be as present or as accessible in other curricular areas.

Coriander C: I mean I think that um queer youth in general - are we including gay youth in gender variant? I feel like I could go either way.

H: It could, not for this thesis though.

C: So, like queer youth in general and also gender variant youth more specifically I feel like are drawn to the arts broadly as a way of expressing themselves. and having a little bit more freedom in their identity an expression then they might in like science. Which isn't to say that there aren't queer people who go into science there are pretty a queer folks who go into science. I think that there is something about art that like attracts those of us who are trying to figure out how we express ourselves. And so that's just like statistically more likely to have gender variants youth in an art room than in a non-art room.

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And also I think that because arts expression is so personal that you are more likely to get youth expressing their gender identity or their queerness through art than you might - they're probably not going to talk about it in their grammar assignment for English class. But they likely will express some form of it in an art project.

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What do you want to know more of to make your art room more inclusive to gender variant students?

Gender Variant Artists Places or groups to have dialogue surrounding gender variance with other art educators.

Lessons How to have dialogues with students about gender variance (specific language, or scenario specific) Seeing examples of how other art educators address gender variance in their classroom Book resources How to specifically Support early childhood students Learn more about experiences from Black trans people Learn how to address potentially gender variant from history Primer to gender If gender variant student process information differently than their cisgender counter parts Hear about gender variant students perspectives Gender variant inclusive visuals for classroom Participant

Answer

Chive

C: Definitely I need to do some research on artists here are gender variant I think that would be helpful to my students. I think that I mean as a resource I mean I guess I know more than some of my peers um I'm not sure like if my mentor teachers would be able to have this conversation in a real way of understanding what gender variance is.

Or you know people that I work with or have worked with in the past.

So I think maybe even kinda like a primer to gender. a primary to gender and sexuality of like what does it mean and I think that those are out there and it's just maybe in like given the context of what that might mean in the classroom which is probably also out there. And I guess there are people who do like to have projects and so you know maybe like I be a mirror and windows project kinda thing.

Dill D: I would love - one of the topics that I was really fascinated in and the MIT program at uarts was how different brains work and how gender and learning go together. I did a few papers and did some research but I would love to no more about how the gender fluid student or the trans student or the gender variant student, do their brains process information or, or absorbed information in ways that are different than let's say a cis boy or a cis girl. Again, I would love to learn more about how the learning process - how in gender variant student takes in a processes information and even expresses it that's one thing I would love to know.

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Tarragon K: I think there is a great need for information about scenario specific responses. um because I think when teachers are given a baseline to work with like a basic script to work with then they have an understanding of how they can change or tweak responses to their setting. I think there is definitely a need for, if not lessons aren't working themes that feature gender variant subjects or that are created by gender variant artists. And a clear illustration of how you don't just have to talk about gender variance because there's so many overlapping things that should be talked about in relation to gender variance. So, I think people get stuck on the like I don't I don't know how to lead a lesson about this one thing and they forget that there are so many other things that can be brought in. Yeah I think so i said scripting or scenario based stuff, more artwork I think lessons that are broader or units that are broader and inclusive or like identity as a construct and breaking down all the ways that identity touch people inclusive of gender variance people would be super helpful. these are like the monster lessons or units That people see at national conferences and they are all over and they don't know how to take it and make it work in their setting. So, I think that would be super helpful. I also just think that there should be, I would love to see a broader network available for teachers to talk through some of these things in real time. like I know the NAEA has a LGBTQ interest group that does great work talking through a lot of this stuff. But it also seems to me um perhaps a majority of their members are from the LGBTQ+ community. So, it can be intimidating for um someone who is not part of that community to seek help because they don't want to come across as being ignorant or ill informed. So, opportunities to bridge that gap appropriately would be really useful. And I think that's an opportunity to for people to learn a lesson that one person doesn't speak for an entire community. And now this is a resource, but you should also be a critical thinker parsing out everything you hear and not listening to one perspective exclusively. I just remember something too, I in a lot of informal situations I would pull social media into curriculum because I knew that it would be of interest to the students. Um so I had like a huge Instagram pool of artists that I would follow and if I thought that a student would enjoy an artist or would see some parallel in a project that they're working on I would pull up that art. And I did have many opportunities to highlights the work of a gender variant person to both cisgender and gender variant students. I don't know why I thought of that, but I think there was a useful relevant thing to you show all students like these people are working right now this was posted yesterday. So I don't know social media could play a part in this resource selection for teachers.

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Rosemary R: Oh, so many things [laughter] H: you can just list them down if you want [laughter] R: Definitely just very generally artists that identify honestly anywhere in the LGBT - really I’m honestly really I'm very ignorant in knowing about that. I think having a list of artists that would be relevant to this kind of content would be really helpful. Um I think seeing how at other art teachers who are including all of this in their rooms how - what that looks like in their rooms. I think that could be really helpful because also just I I've been in a lot of art rooms like I visited a lot of art rooms but I really can't recall anything that pertains to gender variance just even on the walls in the classrooms. So, to see a classroom that is doing this, that is doing this well and what that looks like I think that would be really helpful. If there is any like art educator, educator groups that are providing resources of, I don't know, any resources books anything that I could pull from because I really am at a point where I just need to start I don't know where to start.

H: Yes, it is, It's hard. It's very overwhelming, especially when I was doing my literature review, I found 1 article that has to do with exactly what I'm talking about um.

Re: And I think also finding… I don't know if it's finding interviews online or finding other um teachers or other individuals to talk to about how to have the conversation about all of this would be helpful.

Because I also just feel like I'm very, basically, not like ready to have that conversation. I'm not sure how to navigate that especially with, say these were 4th grade students that came to me, I don't know how to navigate that with students so young. It's not that any of those things are inappropriate it's not the issue I just don't know how to uh how to do that yet.

H: Yeah I agree. yeah and like I just… I'm a strong proponent that gender is not controversial um… and it's always appropriate to talk about. And I feel like a lot of people will argue that, that the rest of the LGBQ community is controversial in school but like gender has nothing to do with sexuality. So, it's separating that because it is lumped in with sexuality so how do you separate that and like show people that it's not, you know.

Which I think is really it's important.

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Thyme T: I feel like in general I like hearing about other people's experience as an elementary school student and what they wish their teacher would have been able to provide. Um‌ and I guess like good more discussions or like almost like a key card to go to to like help you to walk yourself through a conversation about gender variance what gender is. And I guess in Elementary it's just like I don't know like what, what they would need an up in the room other than just exposure to people that are different. And that's the other thing I work with such little guys.

Oregano J: You know because and not just because but because I think about it more now. But I work with such young kids and so people don't figure things about themselves until later on. But there are a lot of kids that do but I wish I knew more about when is it the kids are starting to figure this out. And then how I can support them figuring that out.

Like you know I had one kid in, he must have been 4 come up and say I need you to call me something different. And I said oh okay. he said he wanted to be called and I said oh that's great and they always refer to him like that. The and the rest of the class would not even the teacher would not. And every time we got there, I would talk to him like I would any kid and use the terms that he wanted. other people would kind of look at me, but he would smile. And it's important to me to you know let him know that he is supporting that there are people that's trust him to know. Um but definitely did not get that support elsewhere. And so, um I feel like, I feel like there has to be more information on how best to the littlest among us that are figuring this out. And I'm helping maybe those around them figured out too. you know I feel like things are better now than they have been in the past with all, with better understanding, but we are still not there. and you know the longer the gap exists I don't want to say the worse it is but the harder it is. And I just want that gap to be closed so badly. And like I just think about that kid all the time thinking about like is he getting the support that he needs is the rest of the class still calling him by the wrong pronouns are they still calling him the wrong name.

Parsley

D: I think I would want to know more about how to include it directly into the curriculum. I think that there's a sort of separation of mine where I'm I guess I'm not exist and that's something that's important but it's not really the core of what goes on in my lesson planning I don't really consider it when I'm doing my lesson planning. you know there are times here and there where I think I owe you representation

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and talking about identity but I think that if I had a way to include it more directly that would be very helpful.

Basil E: Mostly I think artists that are gender variant who my k-8 population could relate to. I think that visuals for sure. And language. I think that those are the big three.

H: Yeah, I feel you on the artists that are appropriate. Well I don't wanna say appropriate but are accessible for students.

E: yeah like accessible in relatable. I can teach my kids about Keith Haring you know, and he is a relatable artist because of the way his art looks. I could talk about deeper issues there. there are some artists where the kids are looking at their work and are like What is this what am I looking at or they're not interested in someone's story. I tried to teach my six graders about Yayoi Kusama this year and I talked about mental health and all that and they were making fun of her and it was awful. And I was like How do I reframe with this because I think that it's important to talk about but they're being so judgmental.

Bay B: I wanna know more about the vocabulary and just like the whole, I don't even know what to call it but what's already out there was existing in the world to know about. whatever has been defined an what isn't okay anymore what is okay. I definitely feel like I'm in the loop and I’m not like and a community that keeps me completely you know up today on that stuff.

Sage

Visuals for the classroom More artists that I can show to all of my students no matter their age. A bank of images that challenge gender stereotypes that aren’t necessarily by gender variant artists. Books that are diverse racially and ability wise that also talk about gender variance.

Marjoram M: I think that I learn a lot from the people around me. and I'm always singing a lot about when I'm in any kind of space of seeing like who is in the room and who is not and why and think about that. And I know that one thing in the education world and sort of like in the helping professionals like soft skills in general there just like isn't a lot of representation of trans feminine people. and like especially like trans women of color and that's something that I really benefit from having more access 2 to colleagues and mentors and students who maybe have or are part of like this community that is part of my experience

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but occupy different space. Because I think that there are different things that I'm missing as, as I wait you know trans and nonbinary but female socialized person. you know my experience is going to be different than other people that are in this community with me. I think that there are things that I miss because of the lens that I have and because of like the other identities that I hold that I think that I have and would learn a lot more from being in really close daily community of people who share some identity with me or other things to it in terms of like the intersection of their identities that they hold and that's something that I really see a lack of. I would really I wish that I had more, more colleagues who had different experiences of transness than idea because I think that there would be different things that they could bring to their work or a different things that they would notice that I don't because just a combination of identity is that I hold.

Coriander

C: That's a really good question. Um one of the things that I am interested in from a museum education perspective and this isn't so much art specifically, but it does relate to art. But the ways that we talk about historically queer figures and like - this is a conversation that I'm actively having with some colleagues just because we are all nerds and interested in it. But, like the question of, for example, I have a friend who uh is part of the burlesque museum In Las Vegas in a lot of the people who were influential in the early burlesque seeing In Las Vegas are people who uh, if they were like active right now we would probably refer to them as trans women, but they did not refer to themselves as that way. Some of them are still alive some other not.

Some of them are alive in consider themselves trans. Some of them are alive and don't, or like don't identify with like any of the drag queen kind of words. So the question is like, in this particular instance how do we refer to these people. like there's a part of me that wants to claim you as a queer ancestor and identify with this part of your journey and like I don't want to erase the queer experience in history.

And, I don't want to use words for a person that don't feel good to that person. Like a.) how do you - in some of these cases you can ask the person because they're still alive and like burlesque or you can their friends who is still alive‌ So where does it feel good to say that this person is from our queer and trans ancestry and where does it feel questionable. And where does it say - what other ways that we put identity on other people especially other historical people. I think that this comes up in art too because we have plenty of potentially queer and trans artists in history probably more on the like gay lesbian end of things then the trans end of things, just like percentage wise. But also, some people are potentially trans and so like how do you talk about those folks in the classroom an honor the fact that they could

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have been queer but also not muddy the waters too much. Like I'm teaching with a you know - I can't think of any example at the top of my head but I'm teaching with someone who possibly gay I would want to talk about that because I would want my queer youth to see that And I also don't want to like put identity language on someone that doesn't fit. Because you know you don't want to contribute to trans erasure and this idea that trans people are a fairly new phenomenon, because that is not the case and I can point you to lots and lots of either obviously or pretty obviously trans people through history for like forever.

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What is your definition of inclusion for gender variant students in the art classroom?

A place that normalizes gender variant identities Representation of gender variant identities (through visuals, artists, dialogues, lessons etc.)

A safe place to explore expression Basic Understanding and support from peers and teachers Correct pronouns are used Being aware that you can’t change people’s opinions

Participant

Answer C: Um so something that someone said recently that I wrote down was just like um Connie Stewart from UNC University of Northern Colorado made the comments you know that the people who get to determine what normal is that's privilege. So, normalizing something that's an active privilege. And so understanding and acknowledging the privilege that I have in the position that I hold as an educator um I have both an opportunity and also it responsibility to normalize the experience of others. in a way that I guess it is a balance in a way that it's not like everyone needs to be gay because that's not the best like this is the best way to be this is a way of being and we're going to be tolerant of it kind of thing. so having that that rule as an educator that is also your responsibility to have that because um if I only normalize western dead white males art that's what I've just done so I've normalized the western perspective.You know so I think that inclusion you know um it's different than Accessibility. ‌ How can I make students of any gender any sexual orientation um have access to a wide variety of things um that shows - you know and then in my head I'm extrapolating like the disability and mental health an racial but also gender and sexuality. giving equal time to those I think is a way to normalize and create inclusion in a very meaningful and real way.

D: So my definition of what gender variance looks like in the classroom is where the teacher through their daily communication, through the material that they're presenting and through the support of the students - and again from an art perspective - as the students are in the process of creating. From coming up with ideas to choosing materials to creating the artwork to presenting it to the class . a gender variant classroom is open to all genders there is no hierarchy. There is particularly reverse hierarchy of like let's say because of I am who I am and that I may have gender variance

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students that I'm not putting that first. It is an open environment. a gender variant classroom is an open environment where everybody in that classroom is a, is encouraged to express who they are. uh and is made to feel that no matter - that all genders are important and celebrated and supported and made visible. So it's really just a classroom that accepts them and mirrors who they are as gender variant people. Uh no hierarchy and it's one where you are really catering to each type of learner. again going back to wanting to have more information about how gender variant students learn that you are really encouraging and supporting their ways of learning and their ways of seeing themselves based on gender.

Tarragon T: I think ideally inclusion for gender variance students would be the ability to make their identity known knowing that it would be respected and supported. um it would be learning in an environment where that support wouldn't only come from teachers but from their peers. it would be learning with relevant artwork um and figures who are reflective of varying identities including gender variant people. it would be - I think it would be a place where regular conversation about what normal means um would be welcome. yeah I think it would yeah.

H: I mean you just saying what is normal mean like that's a lesson right there. I feel like that would be really good for my high school students and my middle school students really all of them 'cause there's so many ways you could differentiate that but what does that mean and that could be. that could relate to identity that could also be relate to are showing artists in a unit that have all different abilities or are come from different backgrounds or have different identities in that could be what does that even mean. should be like my kids would actually kind of glom on to that in a way.

Rosemary R: Um I feel like it would be a very long list. Um I mean having a good chunk of the artists in my curriculum across the gender spectrum would be huge. I think that talking that - giving students a chance to, to talk about it with each other and not just in a giant group setting would be huge because in a small group that could be so helpful. Um, having visuals or posters that pertain to that. I think that starting off the - this is something that I regret not doing this year because it was a completely new school to me is starting off this school year by in addition to telling me your name tell me your pronoun. That says something that's so simple but I feel like that I

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started the school year and just assumed but everyone that - no one fell into that category I don't know why I felt that way but I think that just kind of opening that up the first day would be huge.

Thyme T: Well it probably realistically would have a bunch of things that currently culture can't handle. Which would be like anyone would just be like totally chill with like okay yeah cool. Um‌ but I guess total inclusion would be like anything else that they're getting equal representation that there are discussions about gender variance to normalize it, um‌ yeah cuz I mean like it's like with the life skills kids or the es kids we're having discussions about emotions and needs and anger issues or educational needs our personal needs our physical needs are normalizing it we're making it fine.

Oregano O: I don't know it feels like a dream still. I feel like, I feel like at the end of the day people who feel so strongly um I guess I kind of against my grain I'm not going to change them. or change their thought process at all. so I can control what's happening in my classroom and I can say you know this is a safe place this is a space for everyone and these are the things that we're going to talk about band this is how we're going to talk about it and if you can't complain you can't be here. and they can comply and then they can leave and say a different something different. and it's not that I need to be able to control them I just feel like you know there are some people that just I'm not going to be able to reach. And I don't know how best to support them because I want them to feel supported as well but also, I'm not going to support oh thinking or um hurtful behaviors. And so, I just feel like that's such a slippery slope you know I want them to feel just as included as everyone else. I think falling back on what I had said earlier just that I you know I always drive when I introduce artists too try to introduce an artist who everyone can relate to. And if I can't find one then I will find multiple as much as possible. So I'm you know maybe they don't even use the same exact same type of art but if I can connect it in some way I can find a way for that kid too get into that project still. I don't know.

H: yeah that's a really good thought and that's something that I'm struggling with too specially being someone that is gender variant like how - like every kid that's in my classroom I care about my love so how do you address and still show that kids support even if they're not lining up with what you want to see happen. Yeah and it's

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interesting it's you know how do you better support them and it's not like a matter of I'm going to change your thinking because that's maybe not gonna happen. but like you know maybe it's still having conversations.

O: Ye,ah I mean we can broaden their thinking we can't change their thinking. I can give them more information and I can give them more resources.

Parsley

P: So, I think inclusion would be a place where nobody feels like there's a stigma or that there's a Target on their back. I think inclusion would be a place where they are seeing as equal at least in terms - I don't want to say that everyone should be treated in the same because I think that it's important to acknowledge that difference and to expect that difference. but I think that acknowledging that the capabilities and intelligence and progress and their social things we're the same and I think it's it would be a place where nobody feels left out, and nobody has that thought of, like you know when I was talking about somebody says ladies and gentlemen that's such a small thing that people do all the time and no one ever questions but for someone who is non-binary that could be very, that can stick out to them a lot. so I think the classroom where everybody feels not necessarily even like outright attacks but just doesn't feel like there's things working against them.

Basil E: Representation, it would look like being identified appropriately and like‌ what else‌ I feel like there's gotta be more. you know it just depends on the student. you know if a student needs check ins or extra support in a specific way. I don't even know I don't know what the ideal is because we're so far from it still.

Bay B: I will start saying that we don't ever be specific about gender when I'm not sure how the person identifies because then I will become aware immediately that not everyone identifies a certain way. I think that's where I would start the inclusion. like don't ever assume. and from there I don't know but that's where I'll start.

Sage

For everyone to have a baseline understanding of gender variance.

To have visuals on the wall that show mirrors for gender variant students and windows for those who are not. To take the time to explain and educate students when topics surrounding gender

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variance comes up. To create projects that allow for the exploration of this identity.

Marjoram M: I don't think that things are gonna be perfect anytime soon but I think that as at least a transitional step I think that being in spaces where there is a baseline of shared knowledge would go a really long way. um having spaces where this is at least parts of the conversation part of the vocabulary in which there is explicit teacher knowledge about like trans or gender variant experience. um even if it's just enough understanding for you know like cis educators to um no more about what they don't know yeah. and just be like mindful of that I think that inclusion would also look like pushing back against student teacher hierarchies. i really intrinsic, or what's the weather I want, recognition of the fact that just because someone is sitting in the teacher's chair - this is something I tell my students that does not mean that they are going to be the person that has the most knowledge or experience about a given topic than anyone else in the room. I'm leaning really heavily on teachers right now but it's like yeah, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to create culture. so I think just like having that's self-awareness of knowing how to think about these things but also having the tools and like for a teacher is being able to do the self-work to have like the same resilience and humility to be able to accept critical feedback in a way that does not just peak the dominant fragility response that tends to come out. so that I think would be the best saying I don't expect her wants everyone to be perfect all the time I'm not I f*** up all the time And I live and breathe these systems. my first thoughts are still all of these really like wack ingrained s***. And I think that just the utopia is it space for people believe other folks lived experience. And make adjustments accordingly without just like again just kind of digging into the defensiveness in the dismissiveness of those other kind of markers of a fragility that come with like holding dominant identities. that might be like a little bar but that's‌ And I guess I could even expand that and just say like truly having a mentality of lifelong learning a really embracing that in its fullness.

Coriander

C: I mean I think that the - for me the utopia version of inclusion is that you don't have to do you think of any of your identities if you don't want to. Like you can just exist in the space as who you are without having to think about how you're navigating that identity and that's true with like any identity right - if you're like whatever it may be. Like, I'm thinking about my queer and trans identity all the

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time. and some of that is by choice and some of that is you know should I be holding hands with my wife as I walked down the street. or do I want to fight for this person to use the right pronoun for me because that wastes my time and energy. select the utopia version of inclusion they don't ever have to think about that. I can just grab my wife's hand as I'm walking down the street and people will use the right dang pronouns for me. And I don't ever have to do that calculus on how much energy do I want to put in here. And if I want to talk about being queer and trans I absolutely can and if I want to center that identity for myself or others I can. but I don't have to, I want to be put in a place where I have to come out to make a point or do that math of like am I safe here.

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APPENDIX F Resources about Gender Variance for Art Educators

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SJ Miller’s Queer Literacy Framework This framework from SJ Miller is easily adaptable for the art classroom. Replace literacy with art, artists, art history and see how it changes the framework of your class.

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“Colors are for Everyone” Poster version 1

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“Colors are for Everyone” Poster version 2

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“Colors are for Everyone” Poster version 3

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Pronouns Poster

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Concept Map about Gender Variant Identities

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Gender Variant Artists

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Resources about Gender Variance for Art Educators

By Hannah Swanson hannahswanson92@gmail

BOOKS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality - Edited by Annika Butler-Wall, Kim Cosier, Rachel L.S. Harper, Jeff Sapp, Jody Melissa Bollow Tempel.

Gender Identity Justice in Schools and Communities - SJ Miller Non-Binary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity - Edited Micah Rajunov and Scott Duane Teaching, Affirming, And Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework - SJ Miller The Right to Be Out: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in America’s Public Schools - Stuart Beigel Art and Queer Culture - Catherine Lord, Richard Meyer HANDBOOK: Supporting Queer and Transgender Students in Art and Design Education: Edited by Anthea Black and Shamina Chherawala Safe is Not Enough: Better Schools for LGBTQ Students - Edited by Michael Sadowski Beyond the Gender Binary – Alok Vaid-Menon Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out – Susan Kuklin Transgender History, second edition: The Roots of Today's Revolution – Susan Stryker Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of our lives – Nia King Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity – C. Riley Snorton A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns – Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson Queer (White Chapel Documents of Contemporary Art) – Edited By David J. Getsy

ONLINE RESOURCES • • • • • •

Teaching Tolerance - Tolerance.org GLSEN - glsen.org Human Rights Campaign - www.hrc.org Los Angeles Unified School District - https://achieve.lausd.net/human-relations The Genderbread Person - https://www.genderbread.org LGBTQ Glossary of Terms: https://www.hrc.org/resources/glossary-of-terms

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CHILDREN'S BOOKS • • • • • • •

Julian is a Mermaid - Jessica Love Morris Mickewhite and the Tangerine Dress - Christine Baldacchino They She He Me: Free to Be! - Maya & Matthew Smith-Gonzalez Call Me Tree / Llamame Arbol - Maya Christina Gonzalez 10,000 Dresses – Marcus Ewert Neither – Airlie Anderson Pink is for Boys – Robb Pearlmann

YOUNG ADULT • • • • •

I am J - Cris Beam Luna - Anne Peters Dunkin - Donna Gephart Gracefully Grayson – Ami Polonski How Beautiful the Ordinary – Michael Cart

GENDER VARIANT ARTISTS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Mickalene Thomas Nick Cave Julianna Huxtable Quil Lemons Zanele Muholi Ally Schmaling Nia King Johnathan Lyndon Chase Hannah McBroom Kiam Marcelo Junio Wednesday Holmes Wu Tsang Kate Moross Fabian Romero Lili Elbe Meg Lee Amos Mac Zackary Drucker Micha Cardenas Greer Lankton

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MEDIA WITH GENDER VARIANT REPRESENTATION • • • • • • • •

Pose – created by Steven Canals, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy – 2018-present - FX or Netflix Disclosure – documentary from Sam Feder, Amy Scholder and Laverne Cox 2020 -Netflix Euphoria – Created by Sam Levinson – 2019 – HBO Chilling Adventure Sabrina – Directed by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa – 2018present - Netflix Paris is Burning – Directed by Jennie Livingston - 1990 Tangerine – Directed by Sean Baker – 2015 – Hulu Saturday Church – Directed by Damon Cardasis – 2017 Gun Hill Road – Directed by Rashad Ernesto Green - 2011