School experiences of children raised by same-sex parents, and their families : a review of literature

Abstract

This research carries forward a systematic literature review that will delve into the experiences of same-sex parents and their children in the foreign and local society and school setting. After having looked into such experiences, the researcher puts forward practices which have been implemented successfully overseas and which may be implemented in the same manner in local schools and classrooms. Some of the main practices include celebrating family week/day instead of mother’s/father’s day, introducing lesbian and gay- friendly themed literature in the classroom, displaying gay and lesbian-friendly material in school corridors and classrooms and altering the way of addressing parents through school circulars so that the vocabulary used is more inclusive. According to the annual review conducted by ILGA-Europe (2015), the local setting seems to be developing at a good pace as Malta finds itself in the third position in relation to the human rights granted to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. Developments leading to such results include the legalisation of civil unions between same-sex couples, joint adoption rights, and a bullying policy addressing homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools (ILGA-Europe, 2015). Nevertheless, there is still more which needs to be done when it comes to the local educational setting. The researcher acknowledges the various limitations which she encountered when carrying out this dissertation, mainly, the lack of available local research on the topic.