“It’s a Constant Wear and Tear”: Trans Visibility as Educational Labour in the Neoliberal School

Authors

Bishop Owis, Saint Mary's University - CanadaFollow
Harper Keenan, University of British ColumbiaFollow
Lee Iskander, University of British ColumbiaFollow
Mario I. Suárez, Utah State UniversityFollow
Mollie McQuillan, University of Wisconsin - MadisonFollow
Christina Cook, University of British ColumbiaFollow
Daniel Gallardo, University of British ColumbiaFollow

Abstract

Although transgender people are increasingly visible in mainstream North America, trans teachers are without adequate resources or protections to support their employment in schools. Legislation in both Canada and the United States that invokes concern about parental rights and “LGBT indoctrination” in schools illustrate the dangerous political landscape facing teachers. In 2023, over 500 anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) bills were introduced in state legislatures across the United States (Choi, 2024). Given this context, this paper explores trans education workers’ descriptions of trans visibility in the workplace. Drawing from interviews from the Trans Workers in Schools Project (TWISP), we ask: how do trans education workers describe how visibility related to their gender impacts their work lives? Findings from this study indicate that trans education workers believe being visibly trans in schools creates simultaneous joys and burdens. Trans workers’ descriptions of carrying identity-based burdens have broader implications for minority workers within the political context of neoliberalism. Although many workers are drawn toward providing better representation for students, this often comes with personal burdens that push workers’ capacity and professional limits. Building from scholarship that details the politics of visibility for trans people, this paper complicates the narratives of trans visibility and inclusion in the education system. In doing so, our findings expose some of the operations and mechanics of neoliberalism as they relate to trans workers in schools.

Methodological Approach

Qualitative

DOI

https://doi.org/10.60808/s537-q373

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Owis, B., Keenan, H., Iskander, L., Suárez, M. I., McQuillan, M., Cook, C., & Gallardo, D. (2025). “It’s a Constant Wear and Tear”: Trans Visibility as Educational Labour in the Neoliberal School. Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.60808/s537-q373