Conference Agenda

In comparison to their cisgender peers, gender creative students are more vulnerable to develop mental health problems, poor psychological well-being and negative peer relationships (Baams and al., 2013; Bennet and al., 2019; Gordon and al., 2018; Jewell and Brown, 2014; Rieger and Savin-Williams, 2012; Roberts and al., 2013; Zosuls and al., 2016). Ehrensaft (2011, p.5) defines a gender creative person as someone who “transcends the normative male/female definitions of culture to creatively weave a sense of gender that does not come entirely from within (the body, the psyche), nor entirely from without (culture, others' perception of one's gender), but resides somewhere in the middle”. Gender creative students deviate from the gender identity or gender expression that is culturally associated with their assigned sex at birth (Airton and Meyer, 2014). Thus, those students deviate from gender norms, i.e., they do not follow socially prescribed rules of conduct regarding roles, behaviours, activities, and characteristics deemed appropriate for their gender, which traditionally must correspond to their birth-assigned sex (Heise and al., 2019). Schools play a key role in the development of young people and in promoting their mental health. Since gender creative students are more vulnerable to developing poor mental health and since schools represent an environment that can convey gender norms (Weber et al., 2019), it seems important to look upon these topics inside secondary schools. This research will therefore try to answer the following question: How do gender creative secondary students perceive their mental health at school? Mental health is more than the absence of mental health problems (Gilmour, 2014). To see mental health fully, it is important to take into account positive mental health. Positive mental health has three dimensions: emotional well-being, psychological well-being and social functioning (Keyes, 2007). Meyer (2013) developed a minority stress model to explain the factors influencing mental health in minority individuals, i.e., the additional stresses experienced by these people. According to Martin-Storey (2016) and Rieger and Savin Williams (2012), the minority stress model could be a key to understanding low psychological well-being among gender creative youth as it would explain the discrimination, stigma and stresses experienced by them due to their minority status. The present study’s objectives are to explore the perception of gender norms in the school environment as well as the perception of mental health of gender creative secondary students. This study takes place in Canada, and more specifically in the province of Quebec. In Quebec, students in secondary school are between 12 to 17 years old and stay normally five years in these schools, from secondary one to five. The United Kingdom equivalent would be college from year 7 to year 11. Data were collected through narrative interviews with six gender-creative Quebec secondary school students, average age 15.5. Through their accounts of their school experiences, the students revealed that gender norms are still present in their respective school environments. Qualitative analysis by themes grouping revealed the sampled students' sense of well-being at school, the stressors they felt in the school environment, the coping strategies they developed, and the social support felt inside and outside school. In summary, the life stories highlight the different paths and varying levels of mental health of the students interviewed. Most of them reported overall positive mental health, despite previous literature generally attributing different indicators of negative mental health to gender creative students. The results allow to propose a model that incorporates additional stressors (Meyer, 2013) and elements of positive mental health (Keyes, 2007) experienced as a result of minority status, thus influencing the mental health of gender creative students.

This poster is based on a research that looked at the learning experiences of teachers during their journey through a full-time Master of Education programme for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MEd TESOL), in a university in the UK. The aim was to explore the cognition development of four international Asian students: two novice and two in-service teachers enrolled on the programme. This was achieved by exploring their cognitive processes (Badger, 2018) through focus on knowledge, beliefs, and identity which together form the model of cognition used in the current study, as set out by Borg (2003, 2009, 2015). This model is situated within the framework of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT) that is widely used in this type of context.

The following research questions were addressed in the study: 1) what is the impact of the MEd TESOL programme on the teachers’ cognition? And 2) what is the influence of the MEd TESOL programme on the teachers’ future professional teaching identities? These were answered by examining the experiences of the four participants. Although each participant lived a unique experience, they all showed some indicators of changes in knowledge, beliefs, and identities. Also, their experiences on the MEd TESOL programme have clearly influenced their professional identities. The findings revealed unexpected aspects of the participants’ well-being, as well as the impact of Covid-19 on the students’ lives.

The ubiquitous phenomenon of sexualization, noticeable especially at the sociocultural level, is reflected in numerous activities in the public space (Waszyńska, Zielona-Jenek, 2016). It would seem that with the tendency to popularize this topic, there will be increasingly more studies, concerning sexual violence in the scientific discourse. Yet, the number of studies and researchers studying this topic is very limited. Simultaneously, one can find studies indicating a clear correlation between the acceptance of rape myths and the perpetration of sexual violence, as well as less frequent reporting of crimes by victims (Moyano, Monge, Sierra, 2017; Heath, Lynch, Fritch, Wong, 2013). The current disparities in the level of education and its consequences suggest the need to create a whole system of prevention and education against sexual violence. However, it is difficult to create effective social policy without adequate knowledge, a thorough scientific analysis of the phenomenon or a thorough terminological study of the new phenomena of sexual violence that have arisen with the development of new technologies.

Thus, the scientific aim of my work will be to investigate and describe the phenomenon of men experiencing sexual violence by women.

The research problems in this work concern (1) society's knowledge and opinion on sexual violence against men in Poland, including, among others, knowledge of the physiology of the male body during an attempted sexual abuse, current myths and stereotypes of masculinity, knowledge of the functioning of aid institutions or the social image of male victims of violence. In addition, the aim of the research is to present (2) statistics from the Central Statistical Office and the Police regarding reports of sexual abuse of which a male victim was a victim, as well as any noticeable, statistically-significant changes that have occurred in recent years. The third research problem revolves around the interviews conducted with experts and their knowledge of, the range of available assistance from which victimized men can benefit, the scale of the analyzed phenomenon in Poland, the social causes and consequences of not reporting the act of violence to law enforcement, and the recommended changes in this regard on the social, political and legal levels. The final, fourth research problem concerns the context surrounding the act of sexual violence in selected cases of men who experienced it. That is, the characteristics of the victim and the perpetrator, the consequences faced by the victims and the reporting of the analyzed situation to law enforcement authorities.

In the literature, it can be noted that the taboo of sexual violence, if it is already mentioned, mainly concerns women and children (e.g.: Marzec-Holka, 2011; Piotrowska, Synakiewicz, 2011). There is now much talk in the public space about equality and fair treatment of all people regardless of gender. A number of foundations have also been created to provide assistance and information campaigns on violence and gender equality. The nature of these foundations, however, most often points to women and children as the objects of assistance. In Poland, only one foundation deals with assistance aimed directly at men victimized by sexual violence. Certainly one of the reasons for this is the stereotype of men, which has been built up for many years, as those who are always willing to engage in sexual activity, are tough and do not show emotions, do not talk to other people about their feelings and suffer in silence (Grzybek, Bielak, 2015). The lack of reporting of the act of violence on men is reflected in statistics, which show that sexually victimized men are practically non-existent in Poland (Central Statistical Office), contrary to case evidence and sociopedagogical practice.

Despite extensive research about the value and features of dialogic teaching and learning (Vrikki et al., 2019), predominantly monologic interactions continue to persist in primary classrooms in the UK. The complexities of dialogic approaches are well-documented, from the difficulties of the fluid and transient nature of spoken language (Bearne and Reedy, 2018) to the shifts in power dynamics that such an approach demands (Thompson, 2007). However, the role of dialogue seems to be benefiting from a renewed focus, with current educational policy instructing pre-service teachers to both support effective dialogue within the classroom and engage in reflective dialogic learning themselves (DfE, 2013; 2019). With limited progress in this area of practice and professional development (Vrikki et al., 2019), teaching practices seem to resist fundamental and shifts towards dialogic teaching; this study asks why this might be.

In the context of dialogic education, prior research has often focused on dialogic interactions as a pedagogical approach. However, research which has moved beyond an interactional form in considering classroom dialogue suggests that teachers’ dialogic stance, identity, and sociocultural and socio-historical expectations of professional identity may offer insight for understanding why monologic patterns persist (Sherry et al., 2019). Furthermore, whilst attitudes and beliefs are seen as highly influential in the development of dialogic approaches, understanding how personal and professional dialogic experiences relate to pre-service teachers’ professional identities, learning, and practice is a significantly under-researched area (Groschner et al., 2020). Although research has considered the role of teacher identity in relation to reading and writing, there is a gap in research seeking to understand how teachers’ identities might either constrain or enable dialogic practices within the classroom. Indeed, Hofmann (2020) highlights the need for research which understands professional development as a sociocultural process and the role of teachers’ own learning experiences within this, in order to consider the range of complex challenges inherent in realising the benefits of a dialogic approach.

Whilst there has been a significant increase in interest in teacher identity within educational research and teacher education, there is a continuing lack of clarity around what we mean by this (Solari and Ortega, 2022) which presents a key challenge in understanding its influence on teachers’ learning and professional roles. Teachers’ professional identity can be seen as shaped by their past experiences and as a key motivating and orienting factor in their actions and beliefs about practice; yet there is a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of identity construction within teacher education (Henry, 2019). Hsieh (2015) usefully articulates these dynamics as “how teachers’ orientations in relation to the intersection of multiple competing discourse (internal and external) play out in their establishment of identities as professionals and in their professional practices” (p.179). By applying a dialogic lens to pre-service teachers’ professional identity construction, this study seeks to recognise this ongoing, dynamic interplay as distinct from the functions and procedures of the professional role. Furthermore, it is not simply a process of change and adaptation but is wrought with potential conflicts and tensions (Henry and Mollstedt, 2022), one in which core beliefs continue to be shaped and changed through experience (Wyk, 2011). Through this lens, the study aims to explore how past dialogic experiences and the ways in which pre-service teachers position themselves in relation to dialogue, influence their navigation of dialogic spaces and possibilities within their teaching practices and professional roles.