The Colonisation of the Irish Curriculum: Part II
By Colette Colfer
In Part I of this series, we explored how gender ideology was exported from foreign NGOs into Irish classrooms. It began as an effort to tackle bullying and other challenges experienced by homosexual and gender-distressed children; now, however, it has morphed into an ideological drive that sees the contested theory of gender identity presented uncritically across all levels of the Irish education system. As another Genspect contributor has reported, no apparent risk assessment has been carried out on the impact of this theory on the psychological well-being of children or on single-sex spaces such as changing rooms, toilets, or dormitories on trips away. The resources do not even mention desisters or detransitioners, and up-to-date evidence on the potential harmful impacts of socially transitioning students has been completely overlooked. In addition, despite the repeated focus on ‘inclusion and diversity’, there appears to be little-to-no space for those who do not subscribe to the theory.
Part of the reason for the uncritical adoption of this theory is linked to activist groups involved in the development of educational materials. When the Irish Government, in 2018, announced a national review of the Relationship and Sexual Education (RSE) curriculum that is taught as part of Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE), the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment1 (NCCA) established two development groups whose job was to develop and publish interim guidance in the form of online toolkits. These two small RSE working groups included individuals with strong links to Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI):
- Catherine Cross worked for TENI from 2015 to 2019 before taking up a position with the National Parents Council. She was appointed to the national working group for the primary school RSE.
- Aoife Neary of the School of Education in the University of Limerick has carried out a number of research projects in collaboration with TENI including one published in 2020 and another in 2018. She was appointed to the RSE working group for secondary schools.
The toolkits SPHE/RSE developed indicate the NCCA’s (and the Government’s) uncritical adoption of gender identity theory. However, before outlining some of the unearthed gems, it’s important to point out that the roll-out of gender ideology is also taking place in early childhood settings.
Early Childhood
Aistear is the early childhood curriculum framework for children from birth to 6 years. Aistear is complemented by another national framework for the same age-group called Síolta that focuses more specifically on early childhood services. The ‘Aistear Síolta Practice Guide’ has New Resources including a list of inclusive picture books aimed at children aged 2.5 to 6 years:
- Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (which won a 2019 American Library Association Stonewall Book Award) is about a boy who wants to be a mermaid.
- 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert and Rex Ray is about a boy called Bailey who ‘becomes the girl she always dreamed she’d be’.
- A Fox Called Herbert by Margaret Sturton is about a rabbit who wants to be a fox.
- Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall is about a blue crayon that is mistakenly labelled as ‘red’.
Although these books might seem benign to some, they subtly suggest that it is possible for a child to be born in a ‘wrong body’ and that a child might be incorrectly labelled at birth.
Primary Schools
The primary school curriculum is also in the process of being redeveloped but the SPHE/RSE Toolkit section online has already been updated with optional resources for teachers. One booklet, Gender Equality Matters, includes the following scenario that suggests that it is better to quickly affirm a child’s gender identity and to support a social transition:
- Chloe’s older brother Séan has been thinking about his gender for a long time and has now asked his family to use the female pronoun (she) and to use Shauna instead of his birth name. His school and part-time employer are slow to make the changes asked for…
Another contentious resource in the primary school toolkit section is the Busy Bodies booklet developed by the Health Service Executive (HSE). This booklet, aimed at c.10-13 year olds, states: ‘We all have a gender identity’. This is incorrect. Not everyone has a gender identity. Surely children going through puberty do not need the added pressures of trying to work out their internal subjective sense of a gendered self?
Junior Cycle
The Junior Cycle caters for students aged roughly 12-15 years and includes the 100 hour short course—Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). The brand new curriculum for SPHE published in May 2023 even gives a definition of gender that is at odds with Irish legislation.
The new SPHE curriculum states that the Equal Status Acts prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender. This is correct. However, it states that gender is socially constructed and is determined by ‘social and cultural factors’. This definition does not match the definition given in the Equal Status Acts where it is stated that the gender ground is: ‘that one is male and the other is female (the “gender ground”)’—a biological ground.
The area where gender ideology is most evident in NCCA material is, again, within the SPHE/RSE toolkit section. There is a level of cognitive dissonance apparent throughout the materials as, on the one hand, it states that teachers ‘should show respect and understanding for diverse views’, and in another resource, it recommends that teachers announce their pronouns to students. Not all students will subscribe to gender ideology, and students who have detransitioned or desisted may experience discomfort when teachers adopt this type of ideological introduction.
Other places where gender ideology is evident or where the social transitioning of children is recommended:
- One resource, ‘What makes an inclusive SPHE/RSE classroom?’, advises teachers to ‘[a]void unnecessary grouping students on the grounds of gender… For example, you could replace “boys and girls” or “lad and ladies” with phrases like “everyone” or “folks” and you can use “parents and carers” instead of “Mums and Dads”’.
- The linked BodyWhys website includes a section entitled ‘LGBTQIA+ and Body Image’ with the claim: ‘There is evidence to show that when individuals are able to access gender affirming healthcare, e.g. hormone treatment, there is generally a decrease in body image concerns.’ (No citation is included to indicate where this ‘evidence’ came from).
- The booklet ‘Being LGBT in School’ advises the school to use ‘the correct gender, name and pronoun’ and states that the school ‘should be alert to the use of the original name and pronoun as a means of name-calling and harassment’.
- The Stand Up Awareness Week resource includes a toolkit that gives details of neo-pronouns ‘including xe/xem, ze/zir, and fae/faer’ and states that ‘[f]or those who use pronouns (and not all people do) they are not preferred, they are essential’.
- NCCA guidance published this year states ‘teachers and students are advised to respect the language and terms that young people use to identify themselves as this is one way of creating an inclusive environment and supporting students who identify as LGBTQ+.’
Resources suggest that schools should affirm a child’s gender identity and aid social transitioning, but do teachers have the necessary qualifications to oversee such a profound psycho-social intervention? Research that is currently available advises caution on social transition of children and adolescents. The Dutch study that pioneered the use of puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria in 2012 recommended that pre-pubertal young children should ‘not yet make a social transition (different clothing, a different given name, referring to a boy as “her” instead of “him.”)’ Meanwhile, a recently published review on the two Dutch studies that gave rise to affirmative care points to numerous problems with the original studies and highlights the problematic outcomes experienced by many of the young people who transitioned.
In sum, the Irish education system is embarking on a pathway that embeds gender identity theory as uncontested. Are the NCCA, the Irish Government, the Department of Education, and the Education Minister Norma Foley rushing headlong into a pathway for which insufficient research has been carried out? When it comes to the colonisation of the Irish curriculum with gender ideology, I suggest that caution is needed.
Step on the brakes.
1 The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment advises the Minister for Education on curriculum and assessment from early childhood to the end of second-level education.