Gavin, Jennifer;
(2021)
Building a Better Understanding of How Educational Professionals Engage with Systems to Support Trans* Young People.
Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
There is an increasingly visible population of trans* young people of secondary school age in the UK. In an attempt to support these young people, legislation and guidance for schools has been published; The Equality Act (2010) and Human Rights Act (1998) provide protection for trans* young people, including their right to access education without discrimination, whilst the Government, national organisations and Local Authorities (LAs) have published policies and guidance. However, there is a lack of information regarding how many schools engage with these. Moreover, research suggests that educational professionals are not aware that guidance exists and feel ill-equipped to support trans* young people. The current research aims to generate new knowledge about the way that educational professionals engage with systems to support trans* young people in secondary schools. Educational professionals’ experiences and perceptions of best support, unsupportive practice and how support can be improved will be explored. This small-scale qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of 32 educational professionals, including 22 secondary school staff and 8 Educational Psychologists (EPs) from one LA in South-East England and 2 key personnel working at a national level. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to analyse the interview data. Four themes were identified which related to system readiness to change, ensuring a sense of safety and belonging throughout school communities, education and prioritising the voices of trans* young people. Themes are discussed in relation to previous literature, along with implications for LA policy, practice and research. Consideration of how the findings could inform the work of EPs is presented, including applying the concept of readiness to change to ascertain what stage a school is in, in terms of their readiness to implement changes in their support of trans* young people to ensure that EP support is tailored accordingly.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Ed.Psy |
| Title: | Building a Better Understanding of How Educational Professionals Engage with Systems to Support Trans* Young People |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10131331 |
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