Australian primary school teachers’ responses to students with same-sex/gender parents

Abstract

ABSTRACT As part of their everyday experiences in schools, primary school teachers will engage with same-sex/gender parents. This study seeks to explore Australian primary school teachers’ experiences in which they have engaged same-sex/gender parents and the ways in which they have responded. Concepts of childhood innocence, hetero-cis-normativity and visibility/invisibility can reproduce cultural norms of ‘mum and dad’ families, but in the real world there is great variation in family make-ups including same-sex/gender parents. Teachers’ decisions about how to respond to same-sex/gender parents vary depending on personal, institutional and/or cultural beliefs and practices. We argue that teachers and schools need time, resources, and support to a) unlearn social norms about ‘family’ and b) to create practices that are socially just for children and their same-sex/gender parents. All children and families should be recognised in education policy and practice.