| Author/Contributor(s): | Keenan, Harper B. |
| Publisher: | Beacon Press |
| Date: | 5/25/2027 |
| Binding: | Hardcover |
| Condition: | NEW |
In recent years, there have been increasing political attacks on transgender young people and LGBT-affirming education in public schools. These attacks reflect a strong backlash to the fragile political gains made toward trans-affirming public education during the early 2000s.
Educator and researcher Harper B. Keenan comes to this research as a transgender adult who grew up as a gender-nonconforming kid in a small, conservative, rural community in the US. In this book, Keenan argues that trans people are positioned as unmanageable subjects within the context of K-12 schools. This phrase has an intentional double meaning, referencing both the treatment of transgender existence as a taboo topic and the challenges trans and gender- nonconforming children pose to the regulation of gender and childhood.
Keenan presents historical research, contemporary policy analysis, and data drawn from five kindergarten and first-grade classrooms and one after-school program in a large urban school district in Northern California. These case studies offer a vision of what is possible in educational environments that actively support LGBT children, families, and educators.
Instead of providing another neat-and-tidy “Trans 101” that prompts us to tinker with existing administrative and pedagogical structures, this book invites readers to engage more deeply with the experiences of gender-non-conforming children toward a deeper consideration of how power works in public schooling. Through evidence-based insights into the history of restrictive gender regulation in schools, Keenan showcases what can be done to cultivate greater gender freedom for all children at school.