Melinda Mangin stresses the importance of creating welcoming gender inclusive environments -- regardless of whether anyone in your school identifies as transgender.
“If you imagine a quarter of your students somehow see themselves as gender nonconforming-- they like something that's not stereotypically appropriate for their assigned gender-- then we're talking about a lot of kids,” says Mangin, a professor at Rutgers University who is an expert in inclusive schools for transgender people. “I think it's really incumbent upon us to move away from seeing gender as a problem, and waiting to fix a problem, and trying to reframe it as this is an opportunity to be more expansive in how we understand a concept, and to create space for that expansiveness to present itself, and really just shifting our mindset about the work that we're doing. We're not fixing a problem. We're creating opportunities for genuine authenticity for kids.”
Many educators struggle to understand how best to do this work, and it comes with many fears, she says. Given the current climate of hate and laws against transgender people, she hopes educators will still do their best to affirm student’s identify and work on developing gender neutral school cultures.
In this episode, she discusses steps educators can make to develop more trans inclusive schools and efforts all schools should take toward building more gender inclusive school climates.
Summer Unplugged: Navigating Screen Time and Finding Balance for Kids
Reshaping Teacher Licensure: Lessons from the Pandemic
Discipline in Schools: Why Is Hitting Still an Option?
Combatting Chronic Absenteeism through Family Engagement
Getting to College: FAFSA Challenges for First Gen Students
Why Math is the Greatest Equalizer in School
Why Emotional Intelligence Matters for Educators
Meddling Moms: The Movements Making Change in Public Schools
Independent Play Key to Countering Children’s Declining Mental Health
Navigating Literacy Challenges, Fostering a Love of Reading
The Cultural Power of Report Cards
Brightening Schools' Futures with Solar Innovation
Talking to Kids When the World Feels Scary
Higher Education's Resistance to Change
How to Raise Grateful Children
Unveiling the Invisible: Pro-Asian American and Intersectional Perspectives in the Classroom
The Case for Early Dyslexia Screening
What it Takes to Change a School
The Future of DEI in Higher Education
Get on Board with AI
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The HBR Channel
Women and Public Policy Program Seminar Series
PolicyCast
Shorenstein Center Media and Politics Podcast
Harvard Center for International Development