Date of Award

4-10-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Selected Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities

Department

Education

School

School of Education and Human Services

Abstract

Transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary (TGNCNB) students face many challenges in secondary school that increase their allostatic load and can lead to allostatic overload. Various aspects of their identity cultivate stress, compounded by variables that impact them throughout the day. TGNCNB youth are at a greater risk of bullying and harassment than their cisgendered peers and are at a greater risk of employing harmful mitigating behaviors and suicidal ideation. TGNCNB youth spend most of their day in the school setting, and there is limited research on this population that identifies what schools can do to support this population better. I conducted this research using a phenomenological, heuristic qualitative research design to understand the lived experiences of TGNCNB individuals while they were in high school through semi-structured interviews and a focus group. A phenomenological design permits the researcher to embed their own experiences with those of their participants. The researcher’s positionality as an educator and identifying as transgender benefitted the research by creating a safe environment for TGNCNB to share their experiences. Participants (n=11) were between 18 and 30 years of age, and the study allowed them to reflect on their experiences in high school and have a disc gender identity as it related to the stress they experienced during that time. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for central themes, and I derived findings through data grounded in resiliency theory, transgender theory, and liminality theory. I coded the data through a multi-step analysis process and extracted common themes. The ideas of stress and resiliency permeate all themes and form the central thread throughout this study. Furthermore, in addition to the findings, the participants’ hindsight and recommendations regarding their past selves, other TGNCNB students, and school personnel are discussed. Stressors were placed into three categories: identity, which includes stressors that impact adolescent students (attending a new school, academic achievement, athletic achievement, home lives, ethnic and religious identities, and romantic relationships), and stress associated with embodying gender identity (transitioning, coming out, and embodiment); school environment (school culture, school policy, safe spaces, and champions of safe spaces); and personal connections (family, peers, and technology). Finally, the participants identified the aspects of a positive school culture and recommended that school personnel support the TGNCNB community better. When synthesizing the findings with other relevant studies, three related ideas emerge: fear is the underlying emotion among all TGNCNB youth; allostatic load accrues from a multitude of sources and is cumulative; schools must better support the needs of their TGNCNB students; and the education community must act urgently to determine a course of action.

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