Tania Ferfolja
Biographic Data
| ID | 114080 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tania Ferfolja |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tania |
| FAMILY NAME | Ferfolja |
| SIGNATURE | FERFOLJA T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Sydney University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0892-5326 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 145 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Supporting the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity in schools
While school policies are not a panacea, gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive policies have the potential to relieve educators’ concerns about what they are ‘allowed’ to engage with in respect to GSD inclusivity and to guide their proactive efforts to support gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) students. Unfortunately, policies enabling educators’ proactive, positive support for GSD students are far from systematised in schools across Australi…
What can Australian schools do better? Supporting students during menstruation
Menstrual management is recognized as a critical issue for young people internationally. Relatively little published research explores issues pertaining to menstruation in school education. This paper is based on the results of an Australian survey of 5007 young women aged 13–25, which examined their experiences of menstruation and dysmenorrhea. It focuses specifically on participant qualitative responses to the question, “What do you think schoo…
Parents’ perspectives on gender and sexuality diversity inclusion in the K-12 curriculum
Recent years have witnessed growing acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity in Australia; yet, its inclusion in the school curriculum remains contentious.Despite evidence to the contrary, there is a commonly held belief that parents consider the inclusion of such topics inappropriate.In the light of this, this paper focuses on an analysis of three qualitative items from an Australian national survey of parents of children attending governmen…
Australian parents of gender and sexuality diverse children
This paper focuses on 16 parents of gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) children and their experiences of negotiating their child’s education in Australian public schools. It reports on the ways these parents worked to protect their child/ren from an educational climate that is frequently, but not always, institutionally and interpersonally hostile towards, and/or uninformed about, gender and sexuality diversity. Applying a descriptive thematic an…
Revalidating a Measure of Parents' Attitudes Toward Gender and Sexuality Diversity-Inclusive Curricula in an Australian National Sample
This paper details revalidation of a higher-order (HO) version of the Parental Attitudes Toward Inclusiveness Instrument (PATII), measuring parents' attitudes toward curricular inclusivity of gender and sexuality diversity. The 48-item scale includes two HO factors: Supports and Barriers, and one first-order factor: Parental Capability. Responses from parents of government-school students (N = 2093) provided evidence for scale reliability, validi…
Parents’ perspectives on the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity in K-12 schooling
While educators, curriculum authors and policy makers alike are influenced by assumptions about parents' dis/approval of gender and sexuality diversity, both generally, as well as specifically in relation to this topic's appropriateness for K-12 classrooms, little empirical data is available to support these assumptions. What data does exist suggests that parents generally support the implementation of a comprehensive sexuality curriculum, inclus…
Parental Attitudes Towards Inclusiveness Instrument (Patii)
Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation
Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation provides an outstanding and insightful critique of the ways that contemporary education is impacted by a range of political, social and cultural influences that inform the approaches that schools take in relation to gender and sexuality diversity. By applying feminist poststructural and Foucauldian frameworks, the book examines the ongoing impact of broader socio-cultural discourse on the …
In/visibility on campus? Gender and sexuality diversity in tertiary institutions
Transgender people and education
Transgender People and Education by Clare Bartholomaeus and Damien W. Riggs is a comprehensive publication that both informs and educates readers about the lives of transgender people engaging in s
Exploring ‘Thing-Power’ and the ‘Spectre of Fear’ on Schooling Subjectivities
Gender and sexuality diversity and schooling
Although social acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity is growing in Australian society, in schools, visibility and inclusion of knowledge pertaining to those who are gender- and/or sexuality-diverse, such as lesbians, gay men and transgender people, remain marginalised. This may be due, in part, to a belief that parents are opposed to such content inclusions in their children’s education; yet, virtually no Australian research supports this…
Gender and sexuality in education and health
In Australia, sexual health and sexuality education in relation to young people are not well integrated and education and health systems appear to function, in the main, independently of each other
Sexual diversity, discrimination and ‘homosexuality policy’ in New South Wales' government schools
Lesbians and gay men have historically been derided, harassed, silenced and made invisible in Australia. This prejudice and discrimination has been reinforced structurally through social, cultural and political institutions. Although sexual orientation is now included in state and territory anti-discrimination legislation, and recent federal legislative change supports greater parity with the rights of heterosexuals, there is still discrimination…
The complexities of workplace experience for lesbian and gay teachers
Discrimination against lesbians and gay men has been endemic throughout Australia's history. However, in twenty-first century Australian society there are signs of growing sophistication and acceptance of sexual diversities. Despite this, schools continue to be organisations where sexual 'difference' is marginalised and silenced, having ramifications on the professional lives of lesbian and gay teachers. This article, based on qualitative researc…
Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney
Rarely do refugee students entering Australian schools possess the multiple forms of social, linguistic and cultural capital that are taken for granted in mainstream classrooms. While refugees of high-school age are assisted initially through Intensive English Centres (IECs), the transition from IECs to mainstream classrooms presents substantial challenges. This paper outlines the perceived impacts of a partnership program known as Refugee Action…
State of the Field Review
This article examines the academic literature that addresses the experiences of lesbian teachers working in western schooling systems. It illustrates that although all individuals have a right to work in a safe and secure context, lesbian teachers face an on-going trend of silencing, marginalization and discrimination in the workplace. Issues of harassment and the need to negotiate one's sexuality continue to prevail. Although lesbian and gay res…
Lesbian teachers, harassment and the workplace
Playing it up, playing it down, playing it safe
Discourses that silence
This paper examines the way lesbian identities are silenced in schools particularly through anti-lesbian harassment. Based on research with 30 self-identified lesbian teachers working across high schools in New South Wales, Australia, the discussion illustrates how various responses to anti-lesbian harassment silence the recognition of such harassment, contributing to the invisibility of lesbian identities in schools generally. The argument highl…
Schooling cultures
This paper explores how some schooling cultures in New South Wales (hereafter NSW), Australia, police and silence non‐heterosexuality through a number of institutional processes which enable homophobia and heterosexism to flourish, while normalizing and constituting heterosexuality as the dominant and only valid sexuality. The discussion shows that despite an apparent broader societal ‘tolerance’ for non‐heterosexuality, as well as legislation th…
Teacher negotiations of sexual subjectivities
Discrimination often silences and marginalizes those who do not conform to the dominant gender and (hetero)sexual discourses that operate in broader society. This discussion addresses the ways that seventeen self‐identified lesbian teachers working in New South Wales (NSW) Australia negotiate their sexual subjectivities at work in order to pass or cover as heterosexual. Despite anti‐discrimination legislation aimed at protecting some basic rights…
A Reflection of Resistance
Training pre-service teachers about lesbian and gay issues and heterosexism is crucial to counteracting the harassment of young people and teachers in schools, in promoting social change and enhancing the quality of life of lesbian and gay individuals. However, this discussion focuses on pre-service teachers' resistance to addressing lesbian and gay issues in schooling. The forms of resistance encountered are many, and include the personal percep…
What are We Doing this For?' Dealing with Lesbian and Gay Issues in Teacher Education
This paper reflects on the issues that arise when pre-service teachers are introduced to lesbian and gay concerns in schooling. It explores pre-service teachers' resistance and their commonly espoused attitudes and beliefs, as well as the difficulties faced by teacher educators in challenging the myths, stereotypes and biases that exist in university classrooms. The paper highlights the perceived (ir)relevance of gay and lesbian issues to pre-ser…
Australian Lesbian Teachers-a reflection of homophobic harassment of high school teachers in New South Wales government schools
This article examines the homophobic harassment of lesbian teachers working in government high schools in Sydney, Australia. Six women were interviewed about their experiences of student homophobia, including how they dealt with that harassment on both a personal and practical level and their philosophies on youth homophobia and anti-homophobic education in New South Wales government schools. The article demonstrates the fact that harassment base…
Schooling cultures
This paper explores how some schooling cultures in New South Wales (hereafter NSW), Australia, police and silence non‐heterosexuality through a number of institutional processes which enable homophobia and heterosexism to flourish, while normalizing and constituting heterosexuality as the dominant and only valid sexuality. The discussion shows that despite an apparent broader societal ‘tolerance’ for non‐heterosexuality, as well as legislation th…
Teacher negotiations of sexual subjectivities
Discrimination often silences and marginalizes those who do not conform to the dominant gender and (hetero)sexual discourses that operate in broader society. This discussion addresses the ways that seventeen self‐identified lesbian teachers working in New South Wales (NSW) Australia negotiate their sexual subjectivities at work in order to pass or cover as heterosexual. Despite anti‐discrimination legislation aimed at protecting some basic rights…
The complexities of workplace experience for lesbian and gay teachers
Discrimination against lesbians and gay men has been endemic throughout Australia's history. However, in twenty-first century Australian society there are signs of growing sophistication and acceptance of sexual diversities. Despite this, schools continue to be organisations where sexual 'difference' is marginalised and silenced, having ramifications on the professional lives of lesbian and gay teachers. This article, based on qualitative researc…
State of the Field Review
This article examines the academic literature that addresses the experiences of lesbian teachers working in western schooling systems. It illustrates that although all individuals have a right to work in a safe and secure context, lesbian teachers face an on-going trend of silencing, marginalization and discrimination in the workplace. Issues of harassment and the need to negotiate one's sexuality continue to prevail. Although lesbian and gay res…
Australian Lesbian Teachers-a reflection of homophobic harassment of high school teachers in New South Wales government schools
This article examines the homophobic harassment of lesbian teachers working in government high schools in Sydney, Australia. Six women were interviewed about their experiences of student homophobia, including how they dealt with that harassment on both a personal and practical level and their philosophies on youth homophobia and anti-homophobic education in New South Wales government schools. The article demonstrates the fact that harassment base…
Playing it up, playing it down, playing it safe
Lesbian teachers, harassment and the workplace
Discourses that silence
This paper examines the way lesbian identities are silenced in schools particularly through anti-lesbian harassment. Based on research with 30 self-identified lesbian teachers working across high schools in New South Wales, Australia, the discussion illustrates how various responses to anti-lesbian harassment silence the recognition of such harassment, contributing to the invisibility of lesbian identities in schools generally. The argument highl…
A Reflection of Resistance
Training pre-service teachers about lesbian and gay issues and heterosexism is crucial to counteracting the harassment of young people and teachers in schools, in promoting social change and enhancing the quality of life of lesbian and gay individuals. However, this discussion focuses on pre-service teachers' resistance to addressing lesbian and gay issues in schooling. The forms of resistance encountered are many, and include the personal percep…
What are We Doing this For?' Dealing with Lesbian and Gay Issues in Teacher Education
This paper reflects on the issues that arise when pre-service teachers are introduced to lesbian and gay concerns in schooling. It explores pre-service teachers' resistance and their commonly espoused attitudes and beliefs, as well as the difficulties faced by teacher educators in challenging the myths, stereotypes and biases that exist in university classrooms. The paper highlights the perceived (ir)relevance of gay and lesbian issues to pre-ser…
Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney
Rarely do refugee students entering Australian schools possess the multiple forms of social, linguistic and cultural capital that are taken for granted in mainstream classrooms. While refugees of high-school age are assisted initially through Intensive English Centres (IECs), the transition from IECs to mainstream classrooms presents substantial challenges. This paper outlines the perceived impacts of a partnership program known as Refugee Action…
Australian Lesbian Teachers-a reflection of homophobic harassment of high school teachers in New South Wales government schools
This article examines the homophobic harassment of lesbian teachers working in government high schools in Sydney, Australia. Six women were interviewed about their experiences of student homophobia, including how they dealt with that harassment on both a personal and practical level and their philosophies on youth homophobia and anti-homophobic education in New South Wales government schools. The article demonstrates the fact that harassment base…
What are We Doing this For?' Dealing with Lesbian and Gay Issues in Teacher Education
This paper reflects on the issues that arise when pre-service teachers are introduced to lesbian and gay concerns in schooling. It explores pre-service teachers' resistance and their commonly espoused attitudes and beliefs, as well as the difficulties faced by teacher educators in challenging the myths, stereotypes and biases that exist in university classrooms. The paper highlights the perceived (ir)relevance of gay and lesbian issues to pre-ser…
A Reflection of Resistance
Training pre-service teachers about lesbian and gay issues and heterosexism is crucial to counteracting the harassment of young people and teachers in schools, in promoting social change and enhancing the quality of life of lesbian and gay individuals. However, this discussion focuses on pre-service teachers' resistance to addressing lesbian and gay issues in schooling. The forms of resistance encountered are many, and include the personal percep…
Schooling cultures
This paper explores how some schooling cultures in New South Wales (hereafter NSW), Australia, police and silence non‐heterosexuality through a number of institutional processes which enable homophobia and heterosexism to flourish, while normalizing and constituting heterosexuality as the dominant and only valid sexuality. The discussion shows that despite an apparent broader societal ‘tolerance’ for non‐heterosexuality, as well as legislation th…
Teacher negotiations of sexual subjectivities
Discrimination often silences and marginalizes those who do not conform to the dominant gender and (hetero)sexual discourses that operate in broader society. This discussion addresses the ways that seventeen self‐identified lesbian teachers working in New South Wales (NSW) Australia negotiate their sexual subjectivities at work in order to pass or cover as heterosexual. Despite anti‐discrimination legislation aimed at protecting some basic rights…
Playing it up, playing it down, playing it safe
Discourses that silence
This paper examines the way lesbian identities are silenced in schools particularly through anti-lesbian harassment. Based on research with 30 self-identified lesbian teachers working across high schools in New South Wales, Australia, the discussion illustrates how various responses to anti-lesbian harassment silence the recognition of such harassment, contributing to the invisibility of lesbian identities in schools generally. The argument highl…
State of the Field Review
This article examines the academic literature that addresses the experiences of lesbian teachers working in western schooling systems. It illustrates that although all individuals have a right to work in a safe and secure context, lesbian teachers face an on-going trend of silencing, marginalization and discrimination in the workplace. Issues of harassment and the need to negotiate one's sexuality continue to prevail. Although lesbian and gay res…
Lesbian teachers, harassment and the workplace
Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney
Rarely do refugee students entering Australian schools possess the multiple forms of social, linguistic and cultural capital that are taken for granted in mainstream classrooms. While refugees of high-school age are assisted initially through Intensive English Centres (IECs), the transition from IECs to mainstream classrooms presents substantial challenges. This paper outlines the perceived impacts of a partnership program known as Refugee Action…
Sexual diversity, discrimination and ‘homosexuality policy’ in New South Wales' government schools
Lesbians and gay men have historically been derided, harassed, silenced and made invisible in Australia. This prejudice and discrimination has been reinforced structurally through social, cultural and political institutions. Although sexual orientation is now included in state and territory anti-discrimination legislation, and recent federal legislative change supports greater parity with the rights of heterosexuals, there is still discrimination…
The complexities of workplace experience for lesbian and gay teachers
Discrimination against lesbians and gay men has been endemic throughout Australia's history. However, in twenty-first century Australian society there are signs of growing sophistication and acceptance of sexual diversities. Despite this, schools continue to be organisations where sexual 'difference' is marginalised and silenced, having ramifications on the professional lives of lesbian and gay teachers. This article, based on qualitative researc…
Exploring ‘Thing-Power’ and the ‘Spectre of Fear’ on Schooling Subjectivities
Gender and sexuality diversity and schooling
Although social acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity is growing in Australian society, in schools, visibility and inclusion of knowledge pertaining to those who are gender- and/or sexuality-diverse, such as lesbians, gay men and transgender people, remain marginalised. This may be due, in part, to a belief that parents are opposed to such content inclusions in their children’s education; yet, virtually no Australian research supports this…
Gender and sexuality in education and health
In Australia, sexual health and sexuality education in relation to young people are not well integrated and education and health systems appear to function, in the main, independently of each other
Transgender people and education
Transgender People and Education by Clare Bartholomaeus and Damien W. Riggs is a comprehensive publication that both informs and educates readers about the lives of transgender people engaging in s
Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation
Gender and Sexuality Diversity in a Culture of Limitation provides an outstanding and insightful critique of the ways that contemporary education is impacted by a range of political, social and cultural influences that inform the approaches that schools take in relation to gender and sexuality diversity. By applying feminist poststructural and Foucauldian frameworks, the book examines the ongoing impact of broader socio-cultural discourse on the …
In/visibility on campus? Gender and sexuality diversity in tertiary institutions
Parental Attitudes Towards Inclusiveness Instrument (Patii)
Parents’ perspectives on the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity in K-12 schooling
While educators, curriculum authors and policy makers alike are influenced by assumptions about parents' dis/approval of gender and sexuality diversity, both generally, as well as specifically in relation to this topic's appropriateness for K-12 classrooms, little empirical data is available to support these assumptions. What data does exist suggests that parents generally support the implementation of a comprehensive sexuality curriculum, inclus…
Supporting the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity in schools
While school policies are not a panacea, gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive policies have the potential to relieve educators’ concerns about what they are ‘allowed’ to engage with in respect to GSD inclusivity and to guide their proactive efforts to support gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) students. Unfortunately, policies enabling educators’ proactive, positive support for GSD students are far from systematised in schools across Australi…
What can Australian schools do better? Supporting students during menstruation
Menstrual management is recognized as a critical issue for young people internationally. Relatively little published research explores issues pertaining to menstruation in school education. This paper is based on the results of an Australian survey of 5007 young women aged 13–25, which examined their experiences of menstruation and dysmenorrhea. It focuses specifically on participant qualitative responses to the question, “What do you think schoo…
Parents’ perspectives on gender and sexuality diversity inclusion in the K-12 curriculum
Recent years have witnessed growing acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity in Australia; yet, its inclusion in the school curriculum remains contentious.Despite evidence to the contrary, there is a commonly held belief that parents consider the inclusion of such topics inappropriate.In the light of this, this paper focuses on an analysis of three qualitative items from an Australian national survey of parents of children attending governmen…
Australian parents of gender and sexuality diverse children
This paper focuses on 16 parents of gender and sexuality diverse (GSD) children and their experiences of negotiating their child’s education in Australian public schools. It reports on the ways these parents worked to protect their child/ren from an educational climate that is frequently, but not always, institutionally and interpersonally hostile towards, and/or uninformed about, gender and sexuality diversity. Applying a descriptive thematic an…
Revalidating a Measure of Parents' Attitudes Toward Gender and Sexuality Diversity-Inclusive Curricula in an Australian National Sample
This paper details revalidation of a higher-order (HO) version of the Parental Attitudes Toward Inclusiveness Instrument (PATII), measuring parents' attitudes toward curricular inclusivity of gender and sexuality diversity. The 48-item scale includes two HO factors: Supports and Barriers, and one first-order factor: Parental Capability. Responses from parents of government-school students (N = 2093) provided evidence for scale reliability, validi…
Sociology (25 works) · Gender Studies (23 works) · Gender Roles and Identity Studies (20 works) · Political science (18 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (17 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Human sexuality (15 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Law (10 works)