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ABSTRACT: In 2009, QuERI offered its first cultural competency training to youth service providers in CNY. Informal research conducted prior to the training indicated that there was little awareness among youth service providers of the experiences or needs of LGBTQ youth. Many participants in the workshop revealed that their agencies had not addressed the issue and they were unaware of the statistical likelihood of disproportionate representation of LGBTQ youth in their services. This study will explore the awareness and LGBTQ cultural competence of youth service providers in CNY.
Data collection to begin late Fall 2010.
ABSTRACT: LGBTQ youth narratives have for decades marked arts spaces as their spaces of safe retreat within the schools. However, there is no research exploring the arts classroom as a supportive environment for LGBTQ students. This study will explore the experiences of arts educators with LGBTQ youth, their awareness of the presence of LGBTQ young people in their classrooms, the environments they create for youth, and their preparedness to support LGBTQ young people.
Data collection to begin late Fall 2010.
In 2008/2009, Elizabethe Payne, Q Intern Kris Goodrich (now graduated), and Melissa Luke in the Educational Counseling, designed a course progression to prepare future school counselors to support LGBT students. A team of researchers from Dr. Payne’s previous qualitative research methods courses conducted observations and created detailed fieldnotes. Those data are currently being compiled for analysis to better understand counselor resistance to supporting LGBT students.
Further data may be collected Spring 2011 as part of a Payne taught research practicum course.
Rebecca Johnson, Melissa Smith & Elizabethe Payne
Paper Title: Policy as Protection?: An analysis of school policy in a district sued for failing to protect a student harassed for his gender and sexual identity.
Abstract: Increasingly, efforts to improve school climate for LGBTQ students are turning to legislation, policy, and litigation. Researchers have asserted that in order to disrupt patterns of harassment, schools need “clear, comprehensive, and accessible…policies” that clearly communicate to the entire school community that LGBT students are afforded the same protections as their peers (Anagnostopoulos et al, 2009). However, inclusive policy does not equate to inclusive school culture, and policy without commitment to communication and enforcement is ineffective. This paper explores the limitations of policy and litigation as illuminated by a 2009 school harassment case in Upstate New York. We outline the inconsistencies and ambiguities in the school’s anti-discrimination policies and examine these policies alongside parent and student affidavits which indicate school officials did very little to disrupt the pattern of abuse. The administration’s reported indifference to the policies—which included sexual orientation—was central in supporting a school climate that actively tolerated LGBT harassment. In summary, the larger issues of legislation, litigation, and inclusive policy as tools for improving school climate for LGBT students are explored.
ABSTRACT: In response to an increase in area youth testing HIV+, this study seeks to explore the sexual health messages communicated to young people through youth service providers in CNY.
Project begun Summer 2010.
ABSTRACT: This research uses critical textual analysis to explore the heteronormative structure of sex education curricula in use in the Central New York area. Preliminary evaluation indicates that these curricula either A.) do not address sexual diversity or B.) if they do, utilize an add-on approach which fails to provide validity for non- reproductive sexual acts and/or associated non-hetero sexualities with disease.
Project begun Summer 2010.
ABSTRACT: This study addresses the challenge of supporting transgender children in public school contexts by exploring the lived experience, fears and concerns of school personnel working with or preparing to work with young transgender students in Central New York.
Data collection and analysis on-going. The RSIS research-based training draft from preliminary data was presented at the Transgender Health Conference, Philadelphia, PA, June 2010. This training is being piloted in schools fall, 2010.
Case study of a Vermont elementary school that successfully created a supportive environment for a transitioning transgender elementary school child planned for 2011.
Data collection complete. Analysis on-going. Initial research papers submitted Spring 2010.