Non-Normative Gender and Sexual Identities in Schools: - Schools Out

AM …so if you’ve got a teacher who, gay or not gay, is willing to take these on and
adapt the polices to, you know, then they can do it, but others wont and I mean [//]…
SS: {well it’s not obvious.
AM: Yep.
SS: That’s, that’s the issue. I mean somebody who is passionate and wants to do the
work…
AM: {yep}
SS: …can fly. Because it’s all potentially there.
AM: Yeah.
SS: But if you are not thinking about those issues, there’s nothing in the material which
will prompt you to think about it and therefore be inclusive.
AM: Right, that probably answers the sort of second point of the question actually, is why
do you think that some schools and some teachers make use of these resources and some
don’t.
SS: Well, that’s right.
AM: And I think probably the biggest thing that some, if they are already aware of the
issues then they’ll use the policy, but like you have just said, its not obvious to them. It’s
not going to jump out at them and go…
SS: {No, no and I think you know until we get our our teachers more effectively
trained…
AM: {yep}
SS: …so that they are enabled to you know see the potential and see the possibilities and
be given some um ur [//] training in how to do it, why would they take the risk. And I
think that’s the other big issue I think…
AM: {yeah}
SS: …that what what’s interesting is when I’ve been doing this training in the schools
that teachers have said this has been really excited this is the first time we’ve talked about
these issues.
AM: Yeah.
SS: And it’s the first time that I can actually test with my um senior learning team or
senior management team or whatever it is a sense of that I can say this stuff and that we
can deal with it.