Written by CTG Manny <3
What are the affects of and deadnaming and misgendering students in school?
Students are less likely to ask for help from their educators, they’re also less likely to go to class. Because they don’t feel respected some students report not caring about their schoolwork which results in academic underperformance.
Prologue & Interview
There are multiple studies done researching the trans community but they tend to look into adults and the medical side of transitioning. This leaves the most vulnerable part of the community, Trans adolescents, unheard.
This article aims to understand the trans experience from the perspective of an American high schooler. What are their struggles? Does their gender expression hinder their education, and how?
I aim to answer these questions so that people can better understand trans students and learn from my findings and implement different strategies to improve the quality of life for trans students.
Introduction
Gender, modern society’s biggest scam, is the social construct that categorizes people into masculine or feminine roles and stereotypes that are bestowed upon them at birth.
The gender binary, which refers to the strict division between women and men, or the masculine and feminine, has been a system that the queer community has overhauled, broken, and turned on its head.
This is because as queer people, they’re breaking one of the biggest definers of the gender binary in the traditional CisHet world, and the headliners of this gender renaissance is the Transgender community.
Most trans people discover their identity in adulthood, this is because lots of adolescents have not had access to the language used to depict trans or gender non-conforming people and explain the dysphoria they’re feeling causing people to come out later in life.
But recently with more medical and social support people have been coming out earlier and earlier. This has led trans minors to socially transition in a school environment.
Research Method & Results
This study was conducted through interviews with Students who identify as transgender and use a chosen name in public high school. Interviews were used as a more qualitative way to learn of opinions and experiences trans individuals have faced in their high school experience.
I specifically used interviews so that I could gain more insight into first-hand experiences and how they affected the participants individually.
To express my results I’ve decided to visualize the ideas expressed by the participants. The congruence column is a numerical representation of how many out of the two participants expressed the same feelings.
If only one participant expressed a certain feeling the congruence will be labeled as “1” if both participants express the feeling it will be labeled as “2”.
Table 1: themes expressed
| Themes Congruence |
| Discomfort socializing 1 |
| Discomfort participating in class 2 |
| Discouraged from getting help from a teacher (2) that doesn’t use their preferred name, after/outside of class Feeling supported by teachers (2) Feeling supported by peers other than close friends (1) Not having your gender identity respected (2) can lead to decreased grades |
Table 2: quotes to support said themes
| Theme | Quote |
| Discomfort socializing | “I’ll talk to people that I know are safe and will respect me. But I have a hard time branching out.” (participant A) “I always feel like people might be not looking at me the right way”. (participant B) |
| Discouraged from getting help from a teacher, that doesn’t use their preferred name, after/outside of class Not having your gender identity respected can lead to decreased grades | “I don’t want to talk to them (their teacher) for any longer than I have to. Yeah, I’ve probably done worse on assessments and assignments if I could’ve asked for more help” (participant A) “I don’t like the class as much as I could have, I won’t really go to extra help, because I feel such a disconnect and that lack of wanting to be in that class more than im required to” (participant A) “The teachers that were not very respectful, I was like I don’t really care about this work”. (participant B) |
Discussion/Implications
After reading through the transcripts of the two conversations I compared my notes taken from the interviews. I drew connections between certain points made and pointed out similarities woven into intersecting thoughts and ideas.
I concluded that, yes, when experiencing misgendering and dead naming from a teacher the student will be less inclined to seek extra help outside of that teacher’s class.
One of the participants expressed in return to being asked about how dead naming could affect their grades,
“I don’t like the class as much as I could have, I won’t really go to extra help, because I feel such a disconnect and that lack of wanting to be in that class more than I’m required to”.
This clearly depicts the disappointment and silent struggle that trans students face in relation to the use of their chosen name by their teacher. The other participant expressed similar feelings,
“The teachers that were not very respectful, I was like I don’t really care about this work”.
They also expressed discomfort in socializing with a wider variety of peers due to their gender identity. The result of this study shows that a lack of understanding can lead to the misinterpretation of a preferred name leading to a trans student feeling unsupported by teachers and peers.
A solution to this would be to offer more education for the teachers in relation to chosen names and transgender students.
It seems, from the experience of the students, that the misgendering comes from a place of misunderstanding and not a place of genuine disrespect.
“Like mistakes happen, but you know, it shows to me that it feels like they’re not even trying or they don’t really understand. Therefore I can’t get to know them on a closer level if they can’t get to know me on a base or closer level.”
It seems that students face fewer problems with their peers, but the problems they do face usually involve a lack of understanding. These problems could reportedly explain or cause a falter in the student’s grades. This comes from a lack of motivation because of not feeling seen or understood.
Limitations
My research was hindered by my lack of participants. I believe that a larger sample size would greatly benefit the research by providing more perspectives. There could be data that conflict with each other and could inspire even further investigation.
More participants will help give more insight through quotes as well, the more people that are interviewed the more we can see how their ideas intersect to find the most prominent thoughts expressed.
This would help draw a more clear understanding of the struggles that trans students face and better direct how we can solve these problems. Although there need to be more participants the study should not lose its personal nature.
This study thrived off of its direct conversation and quotes and should continue in other research. There was also a lack of gender representation in my studies due to a lack of resources and the inability to find participants.
Future research needs to include trans women as well as non-binary individuals. They are not represented in my research and could have great insight as well as they might face unique problems that their other counterparts may not.
This topic is all about inclusion and the lack of diversity really limits the perspectives seen.
CTA: Further Research Needed
While the focus group for this paper was small, this research paper has made it apparent that we need to compile more data.
With your help by taking this survey, we can seek to bridge the gap between trans/gender non conforming high schoolers and our educators.
Xoxo
CTG Manny
