What is changing?
We have revised the selection options for gender identity within the online data entry site:
Previously, we offered two options: Male or Female. Now, we offer three options: Child identifies a) As Male b) as Female c) In another way.
Why the change?
We have expanded our gender identity options in order to more accurately reflect the student population, and to increase sensitivity and inclusivity.
The specific wording of our three options are based on recommendations by Egale Canada Human Rights Trust and Rainbow Health Ontario in Canada; the Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria in Australia; the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Center for Transgender Equality in the United States.
Gender identity exists along a continuum and is categorized differently by each individual (e.g., male, female, transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, two-spirited, etc.). These labels are constantly evolving, which makes it difficult to provide an all-inclusive list of terms that would be stable across all administrations. When choosing options, we purposefully avoided using the term ‘Other’. The term ‘Other’ is widely accepted as a minimum requirement for inclusivity; however, previous research has investigated the use of ‘Other’ for the gender identity variable and found that it was perceived as being non-inclusive and further marginalizing to gender variant individuals (Rainbow Health Ontario, 2012). The National Center for Social Research (2011) also found that this term was regarded negatively by both transgender and non-transgender individuals. Our chosen phrasing of ‘In another way’ frames this option more positively and avoids using a negative tone, such as ‘You do not have an option that applies to me’.
What does this mean for you?
As of September 2020, we are pleased to offer our clients the ability to choose from three gender identity options: Child identifies a) As Male b) as Female c) In another way.
Teachers and/or evaluators will see these options upon adding a new child to their assessment list, or, upon editing an existing child's demographic information.
Additionally, when EYE coordinators fill out the Excel file at the beginning of the implementation with all of the children's demographic information, children that identify "in another way" can be labelled as such, or if an alternative label is used (i.e. Unspecified, Unknown, etc.), our system will convert it to "in another way".
We recognize that some of our clients may prefer to maintain use of the binary Male/Female gender options. We can certainly accommodate this, and any client that wishes to use this version may continue to do so by simply letting us know. This configuration must be done at the jurisdiction-level (for example, all schools and classrooms underneath a particular school division must use the same version of the gender identity options).
References
National Center for Social Research: Equality and Human Rights Commission. (2011).
Monitoring equality: Developing a gender identification question. Retrieved from www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/research-report-75-monitoring-equality-developing-gender-identity-question
Rainbow Health Ontario. (2012). Research Methods: Designing Surveys and Questionnaires.
Retrieved from http://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/resources/rho-fact-sheet-designing-surveys-and-questionnaires/
For further information, please contact eye-support@thelearningbar.com.