“Not just a tick on a form”: Working towards gender justice in secondary schools

Gender is volatile, slippery, un-pin-downable for many young people, a descriptor that escapes binary, categorical gender associated with masculinity/femininity; boy/girl, male/female with their concomitant expectations, limitations, and privileges. When young people are given opportunities to move beyond discourse to explore gender through non-verbal means, then shimmering affects, materials, atmospheres, embodied capacities and potentialities begin to interfere with straightforward binary explanations of gender. And yet, while some young people are pushing beyond the bounds of gender, old and new patterns of violence and exclusions continue to impact educational experiences. In search of gender justice, this chapter weaves through situated accounts of gender and secondary schooling that young people and teachers shared with us in the Gender Matters research. It lingers with contradictions, failures, and glimmers" affective intensities - of localised practices where young people advocate for and begin to create safe and inclusive schools for all genders.