Chapter 5: Trans*Ing Pedagogy: Recognition of Trans* and Gender Creative Youth in the Secondary ELA Classroom

The struggle for recognition is at the core of human identity. With social positioning as the presumed or “normative” condition, those whose gender identities fall outside of the binary tend to be misrecognized and misunderstood and suffer from what I call a recognition gap. Misrecognition subverts the possibility to be made credible and legible or to be read and/or truly understood. When one is misrecognized, it is altogether difficult to hold a positive self-image, knowing that others may hold a different or negative image (Harris-Perry, 2011). When the presumed normative condition is challenged, though, a corollary emerges; this presupposition suggests that at the base of the human condition, people are in search of positive recognition because it validates one’s humanity.