Matthew Rice

Bard High School Early College, Science, Health & PE, Department Chair

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Dr. Matthew Rice is a long-time transitioned (more than 30 years) non-binary trans guy. Matt began his activism in the late 1980s and early 1990s with ACT UP and Queer Nation in Chicago. Matt was involved in trans visibility activism in the early 1990s in San Francisco. Matt was a research assistant for the SF Department of Public Health on the first HIV seroprevalence study of the transgender community in San Francisco in the late 1990s. Matt has been a high school science teacher for more than 19 years, and currently works as an the Department Chair for Science, health and PE at Bard High School Early College. He is happiest when he is working with his students and his professors.

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A Special Kind of Brave: LGBTQIA+ People in Schools Facing Hostility to Create Safer Spaces and Futures

PK-12 Professionals’ Narratives of Working as Advocates Impacting Today’s Schools, 2023

Schools in the United States have long supported cisgender heterosexuality as the only healthy mo... more Schools in the United States have long supported cisgender heterosexuality as the only healthy moral option for adult life. LGBTQIA+ adults, even some cis-het allies, are weathering the terrifying hostility and increasingly facing the experience of being doxxed for supporting LGBTQIA+ youth. Some are even losing their jobs. LGBTQIA+ professional educators face discrimination, marginalization, and silencing, especially for supporting gender-diverse youth. Students need models of healthy LGBTQIA+ adult life and healthy gender-diverse adults. They need to see cisgender heterosexual adults warmly including their gender-diverse colleagues, to model the expectations of modern healthy workplace relationships. Happy, healthy LGBTQIA+ adults are an antidote to LGBTQIA+ young people's despair. By seeing people like themselves living happy, well-integrated adult lives in their communities, LGBTQIA+ youth clearly understand that adulthood is possible.

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Working within trans-affirmative, anti-trans, and cisnormative storylines: The experiences of transgender and non-binary teachers

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2023

This qualitative study draws on positioning theory to analyze interviews with 33 transgender and ... more This qualitative study draws on positioning theory to analyze interviews with 33 transgender and non-binary teachers. It examines their experiences at school intersectionally, through interactions with others and policies/practices. Findings include particular marginalization faced by trans teachers of color and non-binary teachers. Teachers reported wide variability regarding levels of support and transphobia. At schools with some administrative support, more participants reported that all colleagues had been supportive. The paper captures forms of support and transphobia experienced from administrators, colleagues, students, parents, and policies/practices. It suggests that attributions of rights/duties within storylines may be one way to work toward supportive contexts.

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Stress and Resilience in Transgender and Non-binary K-12 Educators: An Explanatory Sequential Study

Stress and Resilence in Transgender and Non-binary K–12 Educators: An Explanatory Sequential Study, 2023

Two Spirit, transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming (2STING) and other gend... more Two Spirit, transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming
(2STING) and other gender-diverse teachers face significant additional stress in their
careers. This explanatory sequential transformative mixed methods study (Quan → Qual)
assessed stress and resilience in 134 transgender and non-binary teachers in the United
States and conducted semi-structured follow-up interviews with twelve teachers. By
highlighting the experiences of gender-diverse people working in education, this work
sought to improve the working conditions and long-term career prospects in education for 2STING and other gender-diverse educators.
The results uncovered intolerable conditions for many teachers, even those in
states with long-standing anti-discrimination policies. All professional educators reported
experiencing harassment at work, at least one hostile colleague, and at least one
supportive colleague. Many participants reported colleagues passively hostile to them but actively hostile to the LGBTQIA+ students in their care. Participants also reported
difficulty in accessing medical and mental health care, sometimes because of exclusions
for care in teacher health plans due to a gender identity disorder diagnosis. Some teachers experienced nightmarish doxxing campaigns and other forms of harassment online and at work. Many participants did not have safe, accessible gender-neutral restroom access.
Many participants worked for educational leaders who claimed to be supportive but did
not demonstrate actual support. Non-binary teachers faced daunting circumstances with
hostility and deliberate and persistent misgendering. Gender-diverse teachers have
strengths that are essential assets for any learning community. Participants’ strengths
included perspective-taking with diverse student experiences, modeling empathy,
creating safe spaces for students, and disrupting homophobia and anti-trans bias. Twentyfive percent of participants interviewed have already left their careers in education.
Participants reported alarming rates of non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, and
suicide attempts. All learning communities must change the culture surrounding these
issues to help keep LGB and 2STING educators and students alive.

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Be Ready For Us

Educational Leadership, 2023

“Schools need gender-diverse teachers,” write Matthew Rice and Heather Killelea McEntarfer. But g... more “Schools need gender-diverse teachers,” write Matthew Rice and Heather Killelea McEntarfer. But gender-diverse educators are often forced to navigate hostile working environments and unsupportive leadership. In this article, Rice and Killelea McEntarfer provide practical guidance based on survey research for ensuring gender-diverse staff members feel affirmed and supported in their school communities.

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Moving Towards Equity Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse People in Education

Social Justice and Culturally-Affirming Education in K-12 Settings, 2023

Two Spirit, transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming (2STING) teachers face s... more Two Spirit, transgender, intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming (2STING) teachers face significant additional stress in their careers. Research shows intolerable conditions for many teachers, even those in states with long-standing anti-discrimination policies in place. Educators reported experiencing harassment at work, hostile colleagues, hostile families, and doxing and social media bullying. Twentyfive percent of participants interviewed for a recent study had left their careers in education within a month of the study completion. Transgender and gender-diverse educators reported shocking rates of non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. All learning communities must change the culture surrounding these issues to help keep our LGB and 2STING educators and students alive.

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