Lead Changes for LGBTQ+ Students
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Author(s): Zach Coffee
November 1, 2022
Many schools have focused heavily on closing achievement gaps for students based on race and socioeconomic class. They have worked to improve students’ mental health through professional development and the instructional strategies implemented in schools. In some schools, however, LGBTQ+ issues have received less focus and resulted in these students feeling marginalized, unsupported and often ignored.
The 2019 GLSEN National School Climate Survey reported that 59.1% of LGBTQ+ students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation. More than 70% of LGBTQ+ students reported avoiding school functions or extracurricular activities because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable. These pressures result in LGBTQ+ students having higher rates of truancy and a higher likelihood of dropping out. Due to discrimination and resulting isolation from their experience in school, many LGBTQ+ students develop mental health issues leading to high-risk behaviors or suicidal ideation.
In addition to the statistics provided by GLSEN, multiple researchers have noted that administrators might be unwilling to include LGBTQ+ supportive policies due to a lack of community support or pressures from educators within their building. Here’s where school counselors come in.
You can use your role as a leader in the school and community to expose educators and community members to LGBTQ+ related issues, including rates of truancy and dropout, negative experiences in school and the impact policy has on the ability to positively shift perceptions and increase LGBTQ+ student support. Additionally, supportive school counselors can provide professional development to increase teacher self-efficacy and implement change initiatives to improve LGBTQ+ students’ educational experience.
School counselors have taken more of a leadership role in their schools with implementation of the ASCA National Model. A mixture of school counselor preparation programs and job descriptions have allowed school counselors more power to identify issues and provide support to close achievement gaps and improve students’ educational experiences. Since school counselors regularly communicate with students, parents/guardians and staff, they typically understand school issues and can share the academic community’s needs with administrators in their building. School counselors also typically have positive relationships and trust with individuals outside the building. By leveraging these relationships, you can provide important information and create conditions to change community members’ perceptions positively.
Maintaining and relying on these relationships allows school counselors to understand the issues specific to their educational community and create avenues to implement changes with stakeholder support. School counselors’ relationships with stakeholders in their schools allow them to expose the community to the issues and communicate the challenges presented by the lack of equitable or gender-inclusive policies. When creating changes in their schools, school counselors can use a distributive leadership model to create leadership teams that will identify issues within school systems and develop plans to correct the existing inequitable practices. Since school counselors are knowledgeable about the problems in the school and strategies to address inequitable practices, they have the information and skills necessary to lead a team to create positive change.
LGBTQ+ issues are related to the systems and structures that have existed in schools for a very long time and connect to the norms and identities of individuals working inside the school and the individuals that make up the school’s educational community. Issues such as heteronormativity, victimization and LGBTQ+ student avoidance of schools and school events are a part of the educational structure. School counselors must create conditions that allow changes to community members’ perceptions and remove these norms from educational systems.
School counselors attempting to implement gender-inclusive policies for LGBTQ+ students must address the identities of the individuals working within the building and the pushback from parents and community members that could hinder the implementation of such supports. Heteronormativity, or the cultural and systemic inequalities that result in the discrimination or marginalization of LGBTQ+ students, also plays a role in the lack of LGBTQ+ student support found in schools across the country and could encourage parents and community members to resist positive changes.
School counselors have access to students and community members to gauge community members’ interest and determine community perceptions around implementing gender-inclusive policies. Additionally, school counselors can understand where students, parents and community members are in their support of LGBTQ+ policies and develop strategies to increase exposure and support around LGBTQ+ issues. For example:
Creating community nights or town halls to discuss the issues LGBTQ+ students face in schools can increase understanding of the problems and reduce the negative perceptions related to LGBTQ+ students.
Building grassroots community support for LGBTQ+ policies can reduce the pushback administrators and school staff receive and lead to effective policy implementation.
Addressing staff’s negative perceptions and resistive identities in inservice trainings allows staff members to reflect on their current positions and consider the school policies leading to LGBTQ+ students’ marginalization.
Researchers have noted that self-reflection and evaluation of the school systems help educators identify discrimination and develop strategies to improve students’ experience. After allowing educators to reflect on their practices and identify issues within their building resulting in disparities in LGBTQ+ students’ experiences, school counselors can work with administrative teams to develop leadership groups that will propose and implement new policies. Opening leadership groups to anyone who would like to participate, including educators, parents, community members and students, will further work to shift the perceptions of individuals involved in the educational community and work to remove the issues within the school. Heteronormativity is part of our societal norms and makes up many policies found in schools. By increasing stakeholder participation and voice, teams can address the barriers in their community and develop a collective goal to remove disparities.
Once you’ve had a chance to identify stakeholders’ issues when implementing LGBTQ+ related policy, you can build professional development addressing the problems in your school and increase educators’ self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to one’s ability to complete a task or control events in their life and their ability to persist when pressure is applied. Educators have reported to researchers that self-efficacy has reduced their ability to implement LGBTQ+ supportive initiatives and reduced their ability to intervene when discrimination is observed. Additionally, LGBTQ+ students have reported that educators contribute to the discriminatory cultures they experience in schools by reinforcing gender stereotypes, misgendering students and participating in discriminatory policies that are part of their identities or included in the systems that exist in the school.
A teacher with high self-efficacy is less likely to experience stress and anxiety around implementing a policy and is more likely to persist in the performance of an initiative if pressure is applied. Educators with high self-efficacy are more likely to intervene when they see an issue contributing to discrimination, including policy and specific incidents that can happen when students or staff interact with LGBTQ+ individuals. Consider providing professional development that exposes educators to essential vocabulary addresses the specific issues experienced in your school. After the learning activities, you can create a framework of informal learning, allowing staff to reflect and then collaborate with colleagues to develop a habit of daily discussions around the inequalities students experience in their school to further increase staff self-efficacy.
Modeling this behavior will teach staff that communication and collaboration around correcting LGBTQ+ discrimination are essential and will lead to increased participation throughout the building. In addition to improving staff self-efficacy around LGBTQ+ inclusive practices, staff participation will show the administrative team the importance of focusing on equity issues and may motivate them to focus on similar initiatives in the future.
Most school counselors have knowledge and skills around the implementation of social justice initiatives and an ability to build relationships with students, parents, staff and community members to shift perceptions and create support around equity issues. Training is also available across the country to teach these skills and aid in developing equity initiatives. You can use their knowledge and skills to provide professional development, design activities to increase reflection and collaboration among staff and build a culture of change in your buildings.
It’s well within the school counselor’s role to improve marginalized students’ educational experience and help develop policy that serves your LGBTQ+ students. Working with the administrative team to bring more LGBTQ+ supportive training into the professional development schedule and exposing staff to the issues LGBTQ+ students experience is a significant first step in implementing positive changes. Working with parents, students and community members to change perceptions and illustrate the importance of supporting LGBTQ+ students can help motivate administrators to provide this training and reduce fear and anxiety about the implementation.
Any steps you can take to create conditions to improve LGBTQ+ students’ academic experience will pay dividends as long as you work to remove discrimination and develop an equitable learning environment for your school.
Zach Coffee is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado – Denver and a teacher at Niwot High School in Niwot, Colo.
The 2019 GLSEN National School Climate Survey reported that 59.1% of LGBTQ+ students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation. More than 70% of LGBTQ+ students reported avoiding school functions or extracurricular activities because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable. These pressures result in LGBTQ+ students having higher rates of truancy and a higher likelihood of dropping out. Due to discrimination and resulting isolation from their experience in school, many LGBTQ+ students develop mental health issues leading to high-risk behaviors or suicidal ideation.
In addition to the statistics provided by GLSEN, multiple researchers have noted that administrators might be unwilling to include LGBTQ+ supportive policies due to a lack of community support or pressures from educators within their building. Here’s where school counselors come in.
You can use your role as a leader in the school and community to expose educators and community members to LGBTQ+ related issues, including rates of truancy and dropout, negative experiences in school and the impact policy has on the ability to positively shift perceptions and increase LGBTQ+ student support. Additionally, supportive school counselors can provide professional development to increase teacher self-efficacy and implement change initiatives to improve LGBTQ+ students’ educational experience.
School counselors have taken more of a leadership role in their schools with implementation of the ASCA National Model. A mixture of school counselor preparation programs and job descriptions have allowed school counselors more power to identify issues and provide support to close achievement gaps and improve students’ educational experiences. Since school counselors regularly communicate with students, parents/guardians and staff, they typically understand school issues and can share the academic community’s needs with administrators in their building. School counselors also typically have positive relationships and trust with individuals outside the building. By leveraging these relationships, you can provide important information and create conditions to change community members’ perceptions positively.
Maintaining and relying on these relationships allows school counselors to understand the issues specific to their educational community and create avenues to implement changes with stakeholder support. School counselors’ relationships with stakeholders in their schools allow them to expose the community to the issues and communicate the challenges presented by the lack of equitable or gender-inclusive policies. When creating changes in their schools, school counselors can use a distributive leadership model to create leadership teams that will identify issues within school systems and develop plans to correct the existing inequitable practices. Since school counselors are knowledgeable about the problems in the school and strategies to address inequitable practices, they have the information and skills necessary to lead a team to create positive change.
LGBTQ+ issues are related to the systems and structures that have existed in schools for a very long time and connect to the norms and identities of individuals working inside the school and the individuals that make up the school’s educational community. Issues such as heteronormativity, victimization and LGBTQ+ student avoidance of schools and school events are a part of the educational structure. School counselors must create conditions that allow changes to community members’ perceptions and remove these norms from educational systems.
School counselors attempting to implement gender-inclusive policies for LGBTQ+ students must address the identities of the individuals working within the building and the pushback from parents and community members that could hinder the implementation of such supports. Heteronormativity, or the cultural and systemic inequalities that result in the discrimination or marginalization of LGBTQ+ students, also plays a role in the lack of LGBTQ+ student support found in schools across the country and could encourage parents and community members to resist positive changes.
School counselors have access to students and community members to gauge community members’ interest and determine community perceptions around implementing gender-inclusive policies. Additionally, school counselors can understand where students, parents and community members are in their support of LGBTQ+ policies and develop strategies to increase exposure and support around LGBTQ+ issues. For example:
Creating community nights or town halls to discuss the issues LGBTQ+ students face in schools can increase understanding of the problems and reduce the negative perceptions related to LGBTQ+ students.
Building grassroots community support for LGBTQ+ policies can reduce the pushback administrators and school staff receive and lead to effective policy implementation.
Addressing staff’s negative perceptions and resistive identities in inservice trainings allows staff members to reflect on their current positions and consider the school policies leading to LGBTQ+ students’ marginalization.
Researchers have noted that self-reflection and evaluation of the school systems help educators identify discrimination and develop strategies to improve students’ experience. After allowing educators to reflect on their practices and identify issues within their building resulting in disparities in LGBTQ+ students’ experiences, school counselors can work with administrative teams to develop leadership groups that will propose and implement new policies. Opening leadership groups to anyone who would like to participate, including educators, parents, community members and students, will further work to shift the perceptions of individuals involved in the educational community and work to remove the issues within the school. Heteronormativity is part of our societal norms and makes up many policies found in schools. By increasing stakeholder participation and voice, teams can address the barriers in their community and develop a collective goal to remove disparities.
Once you’ve had a chance to identify stakeholders’ issues when implementing LGBTQ+ related policy, you can build professional development addressing the problems in your school and increase educators’ self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to one’s ability to complete a task or control events in their life and their ability to persist when pressure is applied. Educators have reported to researchers that self-efficacy has reduced their ability to implement LGBTQ+ supportive initiatives and reduced their ability to intervene when discrimination is observed. Additionally, LGBTQ+ students have reported that educators contribute to the discriminatory cultures they experience in schools by reinforcing gender stereotypes, misgendering students and participating in discriminatory policies that are part of their identities or included in the systems that exist in the school.
A teacher with high self-efficacy is less likely to experience stress and anxiety around implementing a policy and is more likely to persist in the performance of an initiative if pressure is applied. Educators with high self-efficacy are more likely to intervene when they see an issue contributing to discrimination, including policy and specific incidents that can happen when students or staff interact with LGBTQ+ individuals. Consider providing professional development that exposes educators to essential vocabulary addresses the specific issues experienced in your school. After the learning activities, you can create a framework of informal learning, allowing staff to reflect and then collaborate with colleagues to develop a habit of daily discussions around the inequalities students experience in their school to further increase staff self-efficacy.
Modeling this behavior will teach staff that communication and collaboration around correcting LGBTQ+ discrimination are essential and will lead to increased participation throughout the building. In addition to improving staff self-efficacy around LGBTQ+ inclusive practices, staff participation will show the administrative team the importance of focusing on equity issues and may motivate them to focus on similar initiatives in the future.
Most school counselors have knowledge and skills around the implementation of social justice initiatives and an ability to build relationships with students, parents, staff and community members to shift perceptions and create support around equity issues. Training is also available across the country to teach these skills and aid in developing equity initiatives. You can use their knowledge and skills to provide professional development, design activities to increase reflection and collaboration among staff and build a culture of change in your buildings.
It’s well within the school counselor’s role to improve marginalized students’ educational experience and help develop policy that serves your LGBTQ+ students. Working with the administrative team to bring more LGBTQ+ supportive training into the professional development schedule and exposing staff to the issues LGBTQ+ students experience is a significant first step in implementing positive changes. Working with parents, students and community members to change perceptions and illustrate the importance of supporting LGBTQ+ students can help motivate administrators to provide this training and reduce fear and anxiety about the implementation.
Any steps you can take to create conditions to improve LGBTQ+ students’ academic experience will pay dividends as long as you work to remove discrimination and develop an equitable learning environment for your school.
Zach Coffee is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado – Denver and a teacher at Niwot High School in Niwot, Colo.