Abstract: Mapping School Safety Concerns In Context: A National Qualitative Analysis of Transgender and Gender-Expansive School Professionals (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Schedule:

Friday, January 22, 2027

Golden Gate 4 (Hilton San Francisco Union Square)

* noted as presenting author

Vanessa Warri, MSW, Doctoral Student, Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

Ron Avi Astor, PhD, Professor, UCLA, Woodland Hills, CA

Susan McMahon, PhD, Professor, DePaul University

Eric Anderman, PhD, Professor, Ohio State University

Dorothy Espelage, PhD, Professor, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Andrew Martinez, PhD, Principal Research Associate, Center for Justice Innovation, NY

Linda Reddy, PhD, Professor, Rutgers University

Frank Worrell, PhD, Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Background

Transgender and gender-expansive (TGE) educators and school personnel remain a vulnerable and understudied group of school professionals whose perspectives are underexamined in school climate and safety research. Few studies have examined how gender identity interacts with individual, professional, and school contextual factors to shape TGE school professionals' safety concerns. Understanding the school socioecological contexts that shape TGE school professionals' safety concerns can provide insight into their safety priorities and help identify supportive, inclusive school contexts for TGE school staff members.

Methods

This study relied on second-wave data from a nationwide online survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel (n = 14,966) collected from 2021 to 2022. Ninety-four TGE school professionals (n = 94) were included in the sample. Using comparative thematic analysis, this study examined the qualitative responses to one open-ended survey question: ‘What is the most pressing safety concern facing educators and staff in your school?’ Emergent themes were iteratively compared across gender identity, professional role, years of experience, school level, and experiences of victimization across different perpetrators (Naeem et al., 2023).

Major Themes

TGE school professionals highlight the urgent need to prioritize and integrate trauma-informed approaches and universal supports into the school's culture and organization, for students and staff. “Teachers are not equipped or given adequate time or resources to support the well-being of students, and the unfair and inequitable practices...”.

Understaffing of pupil personnel and security not only fostered school violence but also decreased effectiveness and optimism. “There's nothing we can do about it. We cannot send students out of our classrooms; we cannot expect support from admin - they've told us this...”.

TGE school personnel spoke about concerns about school organizational and cultural factors as central to their well-being. “When a teacher calls for help using the numbers the administration has given, no one answers. I have stopped calling because it just shows students that no one is there to help us...”

TGE school professionals prioritized their recommendations and experiences through the lenses of their professional roles as educators and school staff members. “Our students need to learn that education is important, but we don't have a good way of showing them that right now...”

Conclusion

Transgender and gender-expansive (TGE) school professionals bring a diagnostic lens to their assessments of school safety, informed by their lived experiences of marginalization. The safety priorities of TGE school personnel highlight concerns that, when addressed, would benefit the entire school community. School safety and climate researchers should leverage opportunities to draw on the lived and professional expertise of TGE school professionals in developing school policies and schoolwide interventions.