Researchers: j. wallace skelton, Ashlee Sandiford, Hannah Paul, Alex Schmidt.
On August
22 2023, then Education Minister Dustin Duncan announced new policies that
impacted what school staff are to do if a child under sixteen asks to be called
by a different name or pronoun at school, requiring parents be informed about sexual
health education, and prohibiting anyone other than teachers from delivering
content “connected to sexual health education” (Ministry of Education, 2023).
This was then codified into law with Bill 137, and became part of the Education
Act.
As teachers, we are worried for our students. There has been
a lack of clarity about how these rules are to be enacted at the school level.
And yet, teachers and students are creative and resilient. We are finding ways
even in this climate to support vulnerable students, and to build safety and
belonging.
We are interested in learning from other teachers what they
are doing to support gender diverse students in this moment and in sharing
success stories and possibility models to better equip other teachers and
schools to do the same. Across the next year we will host interviews and focus
groups with teachers across Saskatchewan who are looking for ways to support
gender diverse students. We’ll analyse the data and share it back with the
field, hoping to provide possibility models for teachers who feel uncertain
about how to support gender diverse students now, and with the goal of
increasing safety for gender diverse students across Saskatchewan.