Young people (12 - 14) talk about their experiences of gender in schools in England.

What is it about?

This article is based on research in 2015 with over 100 young people aged 12 - 14 in different locations around England, which aimed to understand how they experience and talk about gender. This paper focuses on their views on gender diversity in schools. It finds that young people often perceive that there is a generation gap around this issue, in which they and their peers understand gender identity as fluid and as a continuum – with many new words and ways to capture it - rather than in traditional terms where male and female are the only options. It relates this to rapidly changing cultural contexts, including popular culture and social media on which young people draw to develop their understandings. We note that many of our research participants were very committed to LGBTQ rights and to gender equality, and that some schools offered some support in this. However, we note how in practice it seems that schools still work with gender binaries, and that young people’s experiences in schools include many examples of gender-based harassment and violence.

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Why is it important?

This is some of the most recent research to shed light on young people’s views on and experiences of gender, in a context where trans* rights and LGBTQ issues have come to the fore in UK political debate, such as in the government’s promise to overhaul the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. UK schools, however, are fast playing catch-up with laws and guidance, and how to best support the increasing number of students who are self-identifying as trans* (Hines, 2017). This article offers a helpful barometer of youth perspectives.