How safe and inclusive are Te Pūkenga
campuses for
rainbow ākonga?
Susan Beaumont (W&W), Lauren Addington (W&W), Dr Lee Smith (W&W), Assoc Prof Helen Gremillion (Unitec), Dr Rachael Burke (Toi Ohomai), Fleur Kelsey (Otago), Meg Nelis (Ara), Dr Richard Smith (Toi
Ohomai)
The Team
• Whitireia and WelTec (3)
• Toi Ohomai (2)
• Ara (1)
• Otago Polytechnic (1)
• UniTech (1)
Impetus for Research
• Disparaging
comments made by academic staff
member
• Rainbow: LGBTQI+ An umbrella term for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Takatāpui, Irawhiti, T ā hine, Whakawahine, Whakatāne Queer, Intersex, Pansexual, Asexual+, and MVPFAFF+ (An acronym to describe Pasifika identities; Mahu (Hawai’i and Tahiti), Vaka sa lewa lewa (Fiji), Palopa (Papua New Guinea) Fa’afafine (Samoa) Akava’ine (Rarotonga), Fakaleiti (Tonga), Fakafifine (Niue).
• Heterosexual: A person who is romantically and sexually attracted to the ‘opposite’ sex.
Heteronormativity: The societal construction of heterosexuality as the ‘normal’ sexuality.
• Cisgender: Where one’s gender follows from one’s assigned sex at birth (e.g. feminine- female). Cisnormativity: The societal construction that one’s gender expression must match one’s assigned sex at birth
Terminology
Background
• 2013 same-sex marriage
• 2021 legal to change sex on official documents
• 2021 conversion therapy banned
Yet Rainbow populations:
• Targets of crimes
• Higher mental health concerns incl. suicidality
• Vulnerable when stressors hit – e.g. 99% did not manage
well during the pandemic compared to 73% of yp
Research on rainbow high school ākonga
• 2012: 46% of high school ākonga who identified as being attracted to the same gender/or both genders reported that they were bullied
(Clark et al., 2012; Lucassen et al., 2014).• 2014: 60% of ākonga attracted to the same or sex or both male and female genders had self-harmed,
• 41.3% had significant depressive symptoms
• 18.3% had attempted suicide in the last 12 months
• 35.7% had difficulty getting help for their emotional concerns
(Lucassen, 2014).1993 Human Rights Act - discrimination on the basis of gender illegal, yet
educational institutions remain hostile spaces for rainbow ākonga.
Research with rainbow ā konga in tertiary settings
• National studies are scarce
• Powell and Gremillion (2018) : 7 gender diverse participants reported cisnormativity and hostile administration process and multiple
microaggressions
)• Truman (2020): 8 sexual + gender diverse akonga from a range of Aotearoa tertiarty institutions reported cisnormativity +
heteronormativity were entrenched; gender-neutral bathrooms lacking;
absence of gender/sexual diversity in the curriculum; discrimantory
forms + policies
Research Aim
To explore how safe and inclusive ITP campuses are for rainbow ākonga.
Research Question
How safe and inclusive is Aotearoa’s biggest tertiary education
provider for rainbow ākonga?
Methods
• Two electronic online surveys (Survey Monkey) will be distributed
through permitting ITP subsidiaries to kaimahi and ā konga networks:
1: All kaimahi and heterosexual/cisnormative ā konga 2. Rainbow ā konga
• Thematic analysis for qualitative data
• Descriptive statistics for quantitative data
Conclusion
• One in 20 people identify as sexual and gender diverse- consequently, our campus will have large numbers of rainbow ākonga.
• We wish to make a difference because we care for our rainbow ākonga
• We have a moral, legal, professional + pastoral care duty to protect
their wellbeing.
References
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