Mentorship as Co-Created Relational Learning Alongside Trans and Non-binary Young Adults: A Visual Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

For trans and non-binary young adults, impoverished social support hampers positive identity formation and can have lifelong consequences. Mentorship may provide a platform to voice often silenced stories and counter hegemonic narratives such as hetero- and cisnormativity. Despite its potential, there is a paucity of research on mentorship as social support for trans and non-binary young adults. The purpose of this research is to inquire into the experience of mentorship provided to trans and non-binary young adults. There are four research purposes:

Understand the experience of mentorship provided to trans and non-binary young adults; Attend to mentorship as a co-created identity formation and asset-building process; Understand trans, non-binary, and queer intergenerational learning experiences, and; Understand the tensions and possibilities with narrative inquiry to develop new theoretical perspectives. It is important to attend to mentorship as a life making experience that happens in dynamic interactions and in often conflicting constructions of identity, agency, and resistance. I have engaged in narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), a relational methodology, to understand mentorship because relational learning is tacit to both. I have created mentorship opportunities within this study using monthly sessions in a community printmaking studio to create artwork to deepen reflections on experience. I have used my expertise as an artist, post-secondary art instructor, and queer community activist to facilitate these sessions. This study has been conducted in informal settings over two years in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I have used purposive sampling to recruit three trans and non-binary young adults who have engaged in trans and non-binary and/or queer programs and could speak to mentorship experiences. This research addresses a paucity of adult educational scholarship on arts-based mentorship to support trans and non-binary young adults, who often do not feel safe or fully included in formal educational environments. Significantly, this research demonstrates how trans and non-binary young adults transform mentorship into “relational assets” (Sadowski, Chow, & Scanlon, 2009); abilities, skills, and resources co-created in relationship that foster a sense of connectedness to self and others. These trans and non-binary young adults mobilized artmaking to make sense of experience, combat social isolation, and build communities. These findings can be used to formalize trans and non-binary mentorship programs, resources, and services in public schools, universities, and community agencies. Additionally, this research highlights how theory, ground in daily experience, can be utilized as a practical tool to negotiate complex lives.