Trans Children in Primary Schools: Thinking Queerly About Happiness and Time

Aoife Neary

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter brings together queer theories of time and emotion to think through parents’ accounts of how their trans and gender-diverse children are navigating their everyday lives. The accounts drawn on in this chapter arise from a qualitative study conducted in partnership with the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (TENI). Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 parents of trans and gender-diverse children (ages 5""13) and six educators in primary schools. The chapter explores how parents became affectively invested in linear temporal paths to gender normativity while simultaneously being reflexively aware of the cruelty of their own fantasies and the fluidity of gender expression. These parents’ accounts yielded a discussion of the ways in which happiness is bound up with gender normativity and what the concept of “happenstance,” instead of “happiness,” might offer for thinking anew about gender, childhood, and education.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationQueer Studies and Education
Subtitle of host publicationAn International Reader
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages333-349
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)9780197687031
ISBN (Print)9780197687000
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2023

Keywords

  • children
  • emotion
  • gender diverse
  • happiness
  • parents
  • primary school
  • queer
  • temporality
  • trans

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