My heart goes out and I empathize with the challenges that gender-variant children deal with. As educators, we are professionally and morally obligated to help these students by ruling out societal prejudice. Some people may feel that it is inappropriate to address these issues in the classroom, however, my role is not judge but to teach and it is not possible to teach if the students in my class are distracted or uncomfortable.

My role is to not only promote academic achievement but provide physical and emotional safety for my students so that become valuable and contributing members of society, have strong self- esteem, and a positive self concept (Ministry of Education, 2007). Students need to know that people make all kinds of choices and decisions about everything including gender and that sometimes we might not want to pick one or the other and that’s okay because we don’t have to. By tackling these issues I am developing an early intervention curriculum that focuses on building a respectful classroom environment where children are encouraged to think critically about gender stereotypes and enhance their communication, relationship and social skills (Ministry of Education, 2007).

Through this journey I have recognized my willingness to explore how my beliefs and values relate to the New Zealand Curriculum, my professional knowledge and practice so that I can use this positively to promote students' intellectual growth, autonomy and equity in the classroom. More importantly, it creates space for my own growth as I learn to identify and adjust my beliefs that do not serve me or my students.

 I will leave you to formulate your own thoughts on the topic once you have watched this You-tube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkOvXW3ORno ,(the testimony of a transgender child, 2010).

Some gender variant children may be open and comfortable in expressing themselves but most are aware that they don’t fit expected norms, are subject to bullying and become shy and withdrawn in an attempt to protect themselves. It is also important to remember that even children that are not diagnosed with GID may also suffer bullying simply because they have features that resemble the opposite-sex, for example, children may notice that Mary has a deep voice and ask," Mary, why do you talk like a boy?". Therefore understanding how to address gender identity and expression within the classroom is crucial to helping children succeed. I will provide students with opportunities to discuss bullying and help them to develop more effective strategies for managing peer relationships such as cooperative learning and conflict resolution skills.

Upon reflection on my teaching, I became aware of using the phrase “boys and girls” to address my students and decided that in future I would use gender –neutral terms like “children”.  I also recognized how I unintentionally used gender to divide students into groups, teams and assembly lines. I immediately started to think of fun ways to line them up, for example, “if you like ice-blocks line up on the right and those that like ice-cream can line up on the left” other examples are:-

Which would you choose today?

           1.  Soccer or rugby?

           2. Pool or the beach?

           3. Dolphins or whales?

I realized how fun this could be and decided that even traditional music rhymes, songs and finger plays can be changed to include characters of both gender to prevent gender-bias in young children. I will also ensure that my classroom environment reflects diversity in gender roles by including posters depicting physically strong women, ladies in leadership roles, men participating in domestic tasks or showing emotion (other than anger) and  an alternative to a play kitchen could be a workbench or office desk. This inclusive environment will allow all children to express their interests and find confidence in their strengths (Marsh, 2008).

By providing thoughtful lessons on stereotypes, I intend to create a healthy environment in which boys and girls could come together to learn from and about one another, appreciate differences and discover their commonalities. To get children comfortable with a range of experiences I will establish non-sexists routines and ensure that students have equal opportunity in assigned jobs. I will also inform and work with the “real” experts who are the parents and caregivers that may provide insight into their children’s behavior and strategies to resolve sensitive issues.

To deepen the discussion on gender I would use developmentally and age appropriate lessons on the complexity of gender and the many ways children express it through gender roles in the media, celebrities, films, books and advertising. I will have my students explore their ideas and discuss what ‘is’ or ‘is not’ fair with respect to gender. This will allow them to formulate their own ideas to questions like:-

       1. Are there jobs that girls or ladies should not do?

       2. Why shouldn't boys cry?

       3. What is difficult about being a girl or a boy? How many of these difficulties are caused 

           by society rather than nature?

I will seize the opportunity to teach students ways to address hurtful gender put-downs and will honor children that stand up for themselves or others in the face of gender bias. This will help children develop skills for thinking critically and taking action. These skills, coupled with positive messages of empowerment regardless of gender will equip children with the self-concept of resilience. 

To understand children’s development (bearing in mind that children develop at different rates), I turned to theorists to give me a better understanding and found that development of gender identity and sexuality cuts across physical, cognitive, social, and emotional developmental dimensions. However, Kohlberg's theory of gender identity development (cited in Educational Psychology for learning and teaching, 2013) consists of three stages and is addressed as a learned, cognitive concept that describes how children learn about gender through everyday life.

During preschool years (ages 3 to 4), young children engage in gender labeling and they are able to correctly identify and explain the difference between boys and girls (Duchesne et al., 2013).   At this age they cannot understand the concept that males and females can share similar characteristics and believe that gender can change. Later they begin to understand that gender is stable over time, but feel that changing physical appearance or activities can change them into the other sex. For example, Jackie might believe that if she cuts her hair and plays with cars, she will become a boy (Santrock, 2010).

Kohlberg (cited in Educational Psychology for learning and Teaching, 2013) believed that children's cognitive understanding of gender influences their behavior and that by the age six, most children's understand that they are a specific gender and that they will remain that gender throughout life. While most children at this age are comfortable with their "birth" gender, there are some who find themselves dealing with personal questions during different stages of life. The Gender-schema theory suggests that children learn about gender through culture and then adjust their thinking and behavior to fit into acceptable norms and expectations of that culture (Santrock, 2010).

By examining children’s play and social interaction, Piaget's theory (Santrock, 2010) can also be applied to the development of gender identity. He believed that children are active learners that construct an understanding of the world around them, through interaction with their environment (Marsh, 2008).   At five-years of age, boys and girls play separately with "gender-specific" toys, think symbolically resulting in make-believe play and understand that things fit into categories (Santrock, 2010). Children are exposed to learning about rules from the day they are born, such as “pink is for girls”, “girls don’t like cars”, “boys don’t cry” and the list grows. This is how children learn about the world around and become aware of stereotypical gender-related activities and behaviors.

Children learn to express their own feelings and emotions, feel reflective empathy and socially, are able to create meaningful relationships with peers and family. They develop an understanding of moral concepts such as "right" versus "wrong," and realize that they have choice. Cognitive psychologists feel that developmental changes allow the brain to analyse information gathered from the environment in more sophisticated ways, therefore, they believe that changes in gender role behavior can change children’s thinking about gender (Santrock, 2010).

Since each development stage allows children to grow and form their gender identity, they begin to understand what it means to be male or female. This cognitive developmental theory (with focus on the individual) allows us to recognize the active role that children take in their own development (Duchesne et al., 2013). When a child’s gender expression doesn't fall in line with society’s “rules”, children compulsively make it their job to let peers know that “rules” are not followed. When “rules” aren't followed, it causes anxiety and the child reassesses their thinking to make sense of their world again.

Since children create and internalize their own meanings of gender, based on the social cues from adults, their environments and media around them, adults in turn have a responsibility to ensure that they have a healthy understanding of what these cues means by creating contexts that shapes a global, multicultural, anti-bias world view(Duchesne et al., 2013). Therefore, schools and the teachers play a very important role as children start to understand their identity beyond the family, a role that they play in society through friends, teachers, books and lessons in class room.

Speech:Gay marriages (Maharaj, 2012).

Schooling is one of the most important socialization processes for children because it shapes understanding of self in relation to others (McGee & Fraser, 2012). It was a proud moment when my daughter delivered a speech and not only was the content meaningful but it outlined the responsible person that she is growing up to be. Her inspiring speech on gay marriages encouraged me to think about such students trying to find themselves, fitting into school and society and what my role as a teacher would involve.

Initially I was dismissive of the topic because as a training teacher I knew that according to Piaget’s and Erikson’s stages of development it is the adolescent (12 to 18 years of age)  that may face gender identity issues as they begin developing a sense of self -identity (Santrock, 2010).  However, I realized that I couldn't be more wrong when I stumbled across an article about little Zach, a five year old boy who is one of the youngest to be diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID).

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9093108/Five-year-old-boy-lives-as-girl-in-youngest-case-of-Gender-Identity-Disorder.html

Through research, I discovered that in Samoa, a Fa'afaine (the practice of males adopting female gender roles) is deeply embedded and is based on a person's role within the family (Charting the Pacific, 2005). If a family consists of many sons, parents may choose to raise one as a girl. Reality hit hard as I realized that as a teacher, among the challenges of a packed Curriculum, English-Language learners and special need students I would also have to create a safe learning environment for these students. A supportive learning environment provides fair, safe and ethical access to a suitable and varied range of instructions and resources and special provisions may be necessary so that all students are given the opportunity to achieve (Gibbs, 2006).

I realized that I need to find effective ways to address diversity so that instruction and learning takes place in a comfortable environment that encourages multiple viewpoints, allows for inclusion and celebrates differences (Marsh, 2008). Furthermore, I need to develop positive, respectful and meaningful relationships with learners, parents, the community and peers to promote a learning culture that acknowledges and includes all students (McGee & Fraser, 2012). I also need to gain a better understanding of GID and ways in which I can be better prepared for classroom practice.