Are we making them feel safer? A dialogue on LGBTQ-targeted school-based safety strategies

In recent decades, both research and practice have worked towards developing strategies to improve the school experiences of sexually and gender diverse (SGD) adolescents. A primary aim of these strategies has been ‘safety’ for SGD students, who too often report feeling unsafe in school. Despite decades of attention, a meta-analysis recently conducted by one of the authors found only small effect sizes for these strategies on students’ safety feelings. To try and shed light on why, this chapter offers a critical reflection on measuring the efficacy of LGBTQ-targeted strategies through an interdisciplinary dialogue. It begins with a state-of-the-art concerning SGD students’ feelings of safety in school and the most common school strategies, presenting both contemporary and historical overviews. Then, both authors discuss school-based strategies for SGD students’ safety feelings from different research perspectives: One through reflecting on methodological challenges of measuring safety in youth research, and the other through the lens of educational history and theory, before jointly problematizing ‘safety’ as an aim. This chapter concludes with a collaborative discussion on the main takeaways from this exercise, paths for future research, and the benefits of exchanging interdisciplinary perspectives.