Counselors are legally and ethically called to provide affirmative services to trans and gender-expansive youth. Counselors, whether working in schools, agencies or private practices, must affirm all clients. This presentation will provide counselors with legal and ethical information and resources for honing skills for supporting gender-expansive youth.

As advocates and leaders, school counselors play a vital role in school communities working for and with transgender, intersex and genderqueer (TIG) students. Learn how the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success can bolster your curriculum planning efforts and promote safe and healthy outcomes for TIG students and with school stakeholders. Discover the mindsets and beliefs about TIG student success, and engage your school community in creating an inclusive and welcoming culture. After attending this session, you should be able to: 1) Discuss the risk and protective factors among TIG students. 2) Explain the rationale for curriculum material use with TIG students. 3) Integrate the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors to TIG youth in school counseling core curriculum and across various school settings. 4) Examine your school counseling program and share inclusive curriculum resources.

Even though America has seen an increase in the level of acceptance for people who identify as LGBTQ and/or gender non-conforming, certain aspects within society continue to hinder their rights, especially within public education. Specifically, there are insufficiencies regarding content of and attitudes toward including LGBTQ issues in teaching and leadership training programs. Add to that, the deficits in most Family Life Education (FLE) programs in elementary schools as they lack adequate coverage of developmentally appropriate teaching and learning about gender and sexuality. Taken together, it remains questionable whether the needs of LGBTQ and/or gender non-conforming children can truly be met. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the policy discourse concerning teaching and learning gender and sexuality issues during early childhood at an elementary school in Virginia. Another purpose was to understand how educators perceive developmentally appropriate timing and content for these topics as well. A combination of critical policy analysis and critical advocacy research was utilized to compare and analyze the written policy discourse as presented within Virginia’s FLE policy to educators’ (teachers, counselors, principals) interpretation and enactment of these written discourses in their classrooms and schools. Findings revealed specific ways the written, spoken, and enacted discourses diverged and coalesced and how these similarities and differences inform future policy and practice. A critical analysis of the written discourses (and silences) suggest Virginia’s FLE curriculum and instruction maintains heteronormative undertones, while the spoken and enacted discourses indicates concern for expanding elementary students’ understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ and/or gender non-conforming children and non-normative family structures. Implications of findings include suggestions for future research and changes in policy and practice that aim to create more inclusive classrooms and schools.

Current research indicates that caregivers’ responses and behaviors to young children’s emotion expressions communicate messages that teach young children how to understand, label, recognize and modify emotions in socially desirable ways. This process is referred to as emotion socialization. This topic is timely and relevant due to the large numbers of preschoolers suspended and expelled each year. Several reports indicate that 50,000 preschoolers are suspended each year and that Black boys are the largest recipients of such actions. Black boys comprise just 19% of preschool enrollment, but 45% of male suspensions. In addition, data show that preschool teachers expect challenging behavior to occur when Black boys are present, even when there is no challenging behavior. Cultural and contextual factors such as child’s race/ethnicity, gender, social status, are also influencing differences in preschool caregiver’s emotion socialization behaviors. The goal of this study was to examine whether a professional development (PD) model increases preschool teachers’ use of emotionally supportive responses to the negative emotion expressions of Black boys with low levels of emotional competence. The research design was a multiple-baseline across participants design. There were two Black female teacher participants and the model was implemented in a private not-for profit center and a non-profit center that targeted families and children at risk for developmental delays. Findings from the study showed a functional relation between the PD model and teachers’ use of emotionally supportive instructional practices. Implications for the future include examining the impact of setting on implementation of the PD model using a multiple baseline across settings design and examining the role of teachers’ thoughts and beliefs about negative emotion expressions on teachers’ use of emotionally supportive responses.

<p>The study concentrates on a particular type of state intervention in social policy. It considers whether policy reforms and subsequent provision of information with regards to the issue of parental leave and part-time work arrangements, makes an impact on gender equity in the labour market (Del Boca, 2002 / Naldini &amp / Saraceno, 2008). Giddens&rsquo / theory of structuration is the conceptual framework from which this study approaches these questions. It is thus held that agents (in this instance, women) are constrained by structures (labour policy framework and institutionalised labour practices) to achieve specific social goals. And further: that the apparent lack of power on the part of agents requires intervention on the part of the state apparatus to correct the failure (or inability) of the labour market to deliver the social justice as aspired to in the cited European Employment Strategy, as well as fostering economic efficiency (Barr, 1992). I further contend that not only are agents constrained by structural properties, but that institutional reform (in the form of labour policy reform) is constrained by the human action1 of the management of firms and enterprises as economic agents within the policy framework.</p>

<p>The study concentrates on a particular type of state intervention in social policy. It considers whether policy reforms and subsequent provision of information with regards to the issue of parental leave and part-time work arrangements, makes an impact on gender equity in the labour market (Del Boca, 2002 / Naldini &amp / Saraceno, 2008). Giddens&rsquo / theory of structuration is the conceptual framework from which this study approaches these questions. It is thus held that agents (in this instance, women) are constrained by structures (labour policy framework and institutionalised labour practices) to achieve specific social goals. And further: that the apparent lack of power on the part of agents requires intervention on the part of the state apparatus to correct the failure (or inability) of the labour market to deliver the social justice as aspired to in the cited European Employment Strategy, as well as fostering economic efficiency (Barr, 1992). I further contend that not only are agents constrained by structural properties, but that institutional reform (in the form of labour policy reform) is constrained by the human action1 of the management of firms and enterprises as economic agents within the policy framework.</p>

The Gender Equity Task Team’s (1997) report, Gender Equity in Education, recommends that further research be done to identify the practices perpetuating inequitable gender relations in classrooms and to provide guidelines for teachers and learners to understand the meaning of the gender issues presented in the curriculum (South Africa, 1997:14&16). This research study echoes some of the desires of The Gender Equity Task Team through an exploration that engages with the extent to which gender equity is enacted in Human Rights Education curricula. In particular, the aims of this research study were to; • contest and deconstruct the notion ‘gender equity’ from scholarly perspectives as well as from explicit curriculum, female teachers’ and schoolgirls’ narratives, so as to create an awareness of gender equity in society and curriculum; and • engage with Human Rights Education pedagogical approaches so as to consider the promotion of gender equity through Human Rights Education curricula. The aims of the study were explored through a theoretical framework that engaged with Human Rights Education -, curriculum -, feminist - and gender studies theories. The methodological framework was that of qualitative narrative inquiry. A purposeful sample consisting of South African national curriculum policy documents as well as secondary school female teachers and Grade 9 schoolgirls in semi-rural and inner-city environments was selected. Document research, semi-structured one-on-one interviews and narrative-photovoice were the data collection methods, and critical discourse analysis the analytical framework. These theoretical and methodological stances were purposefully selected juxtaposed to the interests of the international SANPAD (South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development) project in which this research study resides, entitled: ‘Human Rights Education in diversity: Empowering girls in rural and metropolitan school environments’ (Roux, 2009). The findings and interpretations derived from the empirical data reveal that the formal Human Rights Education curriculum portrays gender and gender equity nuances as health, social and wellbeing dilemmas that have detrimental and destructive consequences on individuals and on society as a whole. The female teachers and schoolgirls experience gender equity primarily in terms of sameness and ‘being equal’. The elusive, complex nature of gender equity was not prevalent. However, the lived experiences of some female teachers and schoolgirls demonstrated the situatedness of their gender identity through the hidden curriculum and reinforced the notion of gender equity as a social construct. The findings of this research study have refined my understanding of the nuances of gender and gender equity, creating in me a deeper awareness of these concepts. This awareness permeates my vision of the curriculum in particular and the education system and society in general, and makes me want to strive toward fostering transformative curriculum spaces. Another contribution of this research study emerged from the desire to elicit schoolgirls’ narratives with the aid of photographs. By disrupting the boundaries between narrative and photovoice as data collection methods, narrative-photovoice was coined as a methodological contribution to this research study. The value of narrative-photovoice for and within gender studies research is also revealed. The third contribution of this research study emerged in response to the need to enrich the concept of gender equity within Human Rights Education. In effect, critical human rights literacy (HRLit) was conceptualized as a developing normative theory to deconstruct the discursive spaces emerging in Human Rights Education and to critically engage with their meanings. / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The Gender Equity Task Team’s (1997) report, Gender Equity in Education, recommends that further research be done to identify the practices perpetuating inequitable gender relations in classrooms and to provide guidelines for teachers and learners to understand the meaning of the gender issues presented in the curriculum (South Africa, 1997:14&16). This research study echoes some of the desires of The Gender Equity Task Team through an exploration that engages with the extent to which gender equity is enacted in Human Rights Education curricula. In particular, the aims of this research study were to; • contest and deconstruct the notion ‘gender equity’ from scholarly perspectives as well as from explicit curriculum, female teachers’ and schoolgirls’ narratives, so as to create an awareness of gender equity in society and curriculum; and • engage with Human Rights Education pedagogical approaches so as to consider the promotion of gender equity through Human Rights Education curricula. The aims of the study were explored through a theoretical framework that engaged with Human Rights Education -, curriculum -, feminist - and gender studies theories. The methodological framework was that of qualitative narrative inquiry. A purposeful sample consisting of South African national curriculum policy documents as well as secondary school female teachers and Grade 9 schoolgirls in semi-rural and inner-city environments was selected. Document research, semi-structured one-on-one interviews and narrative-photovoice were the data collection methods, and critical discourse analysis the analytical framework. These theoretical and methodological stances were purposefully selected juxtaposed to the interests of the international SANPAD (South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development) project in which this research study resides, entitled: ‘Human Rights Education in diversity: Empowering girls in rural and metropolitan school environments’ (Roux, 2009). The findings and interpretations derived from the empirical data reveal that the formal Human Rights Education curriculum portrays gender and gender equity nuances as health, social and wellbeing dilemmas that have detrimental and destructive consequences on individuals and on society as a whole. The female teachers and schoolgirls experience gender equity primarily in terms of sameness and ‘being equal’. The elusive, complex nature of gender equity was not prevalent. However, the lived experiences of some female teachers and schoolgirls demonstrated the situatedness of their gender identity through the hidden curriculum and reinforced the notion of gender equity as a social construct. The findings of this research study have refined my understanding of the nuances of gender and gender equity, creating in me a deeper awareness of these concepts. This awareness permeates my vision of the curriculum in particular and the education system and society in general, and makes me want to strive toward fostering transformative curriculum spaces. Another contribution of this research study emerged from the desire to elicit schoolgirls’ narratives with the aid of photographs. By disrupting the boundaries between narrative and photovoice as data collection methods, narrative-photovoice was coined as a methodological contribution to this research study. The value of narrative-photovoice for and within gender studies research is also revealed. The third contribution of this research study emerged in response to the need to enrich the concept of gender equity within Human Rights Education. In effect, critical human rights literacy (HRLit) was conceptualized as a developing normative theory to deconstruct the discursive spaces emerging in Human Rights Education and to critically engage with their meanings. / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

abstract: The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) policy scheme launched in 2004 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Government of India, aims to provide secondary level education (grade 6-8) for girls residing predominantly in minority communities, the Scheduled Caste (SC), the Scheduled Tribe (ST), and the Other Backward Caste (OBC). Since its launch, the Government of India established 2,578 KGBV schools in 27 states and union territories (UTs). The present study examines the new policy and its implementation at three KGBV schools located in rural villages of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The purpose was to analyze the Government of India's approach to increasing education opportunity and participation for educationally disadvantaged girls using the empowerment framework developed by Deepa Narayan. Observations at three schools, interviews with teachers and staff members of the implementation agency (i.e., Mahila Samakhya (MS)), and surveys administered to 139 teachers were conducted over a four month period in 2009. Adopting creative teaching approaches and learning activities, MS creates safe learning community which is appropriate for the rural girls. MS gives special attention to nurturing the girls' potential and empowering them inside and outside the school environment through social discussion, parental involvement, rigid discipline and structure, health and hygiene education, and physical and mental training. Interviews with the state program director and coordinators identified some conflicts within government policy schemes such as the Teacher-pupil ratios guidelines as a part of the programs for the universalization of elementary education. Major challenges include a high turnover rate of teachers, a lack of female teachers, a lack of provision after Class 8, and inadequate budget for medical treatment. Recommendations include promoting active involvement of male members in the process of girls' empowerment, making MS approaches of girls' education in rural settings standardized for wider dissemination, and developing flexible and strong partnership among local agencies and government organizations for effective service delivery. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

Magister Economicae - MEcon / The study concentrates on a particular type of state intervention in social policy. It considers whether policy reforms and subsequent provision of information with regards to the issue of parental leave and part-time work arrangements, makes an impact on gender equity in the labour market (Del Boca, 2002; Naldini & Saraceno, 2008). Giddens' theory of structuration is the conceptual framework from which this study approaches these questions. It is thus held that agents (in this instance, women) are constrained by structures (labour policy framework and institutionalised labour practices) to achieve specific social goals. And further: that the apparent lack of power on the part of agents requires intervention on the part of the state apparatus to correct the failure (or inability) of the labour market to deliver the social justice as aspired to in the cited European Employment Strategy, as well as fostering economic efficiency (Barr, 1992). I further contend that not only are agents constrained by structural properties, but that institutional reform (in the form of labour policy reform) is constrained by the human action1 of the management of firms and enterprises as economic agents within the policy framework. / South Africa