Dr. Wayne Martino, PhD

Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies

Dr. Wayne Martino, PhD

Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies

My research and teaching interests are broadly in the field of equity and social justice education, and more specifically in queer, gender and transgender studies in education. I have a long history of conducting gender and sexuality based research, which has focused specifically on schooling, pedagogy, critical policy analysis, addressing the inequities faced by LGBTQI youth and teachers in the education system. I am committed to intersectional approaches and an interest in the application of anti-racist, critical feminist and more broadly anti-oppressive frameworks for researching equity issues in education.

I have been successful in securing many external research grants, both here in Canada, and in Australia. My current SSHRC study (2023-2027) is entitled: Supporting transgender students and transgender affirmative education in a context of resurgent anti‐trans backlash and far‐right extremism ($224,381).

Please see current web site for details about previous research and also our report on Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse Students in Schools: Educators' Responses:

https://trans-affirm.edu.uwo.ca/

For more details about my research, books and publications in international refereed journals, as well as my supervision of MA and PhD graduate students, please see below.


Editorial Roles:

Dr Martino is Editor of the Book Series: Routledge Critical Studies in Gender and Sexuality in Education, and editorial board member for the following international refereed journals:

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Educational Review, Gender and Education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, Journal of LGBT Youth, Journal of Men and Masculinities, Psychology of Men and Masculinities, Teaching Education

Research

Funded Research

SSHRC Insight Grant [2023-2027] ($224,381)Supporting transgender students and transgender affirmative education in a context of resurgent anti‐trans backlash and far‐right extremism (Principal Investigator)

SSHRC Insight Grant (2015-2022] ($240,446): Supporting transgender and gender minority youth in schools: Policy and practice ( Principal Investigator)

SSHRC Insight Grant [2014-2018] ( $180,440): Accountability and the impact of standardized testing on equity education and the achievement of minority students in Canadian and Australian schools ( Co-Applicant)

Cooperative Research Centre (Australia) [2013-2014] ( $138,607): Online and offline community connections: Digital storytelling and multiliteracies for challenging inequities faced by LGBTI Youth ( Co-Investigator with Program Leader: Dr. Wendy Cumming-Potvin, Murdoch University, Western Australia).

SSHRC Standard Research Grant Awarded 2010-2013 ($95,000): Beyond the crisis of “failing boys”: Investigating which boys and which girls are underachieving? ( Principal Investigator) [410-2010-0599]

ETFO (Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, 2010) ( $12,000) From theory to practice: Infusing equity and leadership into the curriculum. (Evaluation of PD program offered to Ontario teachers).

SSHRC Standard Research Grant Awarded 2006-2009 ($114,000): The Influence of Male Teachers as role models ( Principal Investigator) [410-2006-115381]

SSHRC Standard Research Grant 2003-2005 ($140,000): Post-Colonial Masculinities and Schooling in the New Millennium (Collaborator with Principal Investigator, Professor Blye Frank)

ARC (Australian Research Council) Research Grant 2003-2004 ($90,000): Productive Pedagogies, Productive Schools and Gender Reform ( Principal Investigator)

Other Research

I have conducted major school based research which documents the perspectives of principals, teachers, students and parents on gender and pedagogical reform initiatives in schools. See:

Lingard, B., Martino, W. & Mills, M. (2009). Boys and Schooling: Beyond Structural Reform (London & New York: Palgrave). http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780230517011

Martino, W. & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2005). Being normal is the only way to be': Adolescent perspectives on gender and school, (Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press). https://www.bookshop.unsw.edu.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9780868406879

Martino, W. & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2003). So what's a boy? Addressing issues of masculinity and schooling (Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press). [Translated into Spanish, 2006, Pero, que es un chico? Aproximacion a la masculinidad en contextos escolares, Barcelona: Octaedro]. http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335203817.html

Lingard, R., Martino, W., Mills, M. & Bahr, M. (2002) Addressing the Educational Needs of Boys, Canberra, Australia: https://works.bepress.com/mark_bahr/1/

Recent Publications

Selected Books:

Blackburn, M., Clark, C. & Martino, W. (2017) Queer and trans perspectives on teaching LGBT-themed text in schools. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-138-56503-6

Rodriguez, N., Martino, W., Ingrey, J.  and Brockenbrough, E. (2016) Queer Studies and Education: Critical Concepts for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave.

Lingard, R., Martino, W., Rezai-Rashti, G. & Sellar, S. (2016) Globalizing educational accountabilities: Testing regimes and rescaling governance. New York: Routledge.

Martino, W., & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2013). Gender, race and the politics of role modeling: The influence of male teachers, New York: Routledge [Paperback Edition].

Martino, W., & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2012). Gender, race and the politics of role modeling: The influence of male teachers, New York: Routledge [Hardback Edition].

Martino, W., Kehler, M., & Weaver-Hightower, M. (Eds.). (2009). The problem with boys’ education: Beyond the backlash. New York: Routledge.

Lingard, B., Martino, W., & Mills, M. (2009). Boys and schooling: Beyond structural reform. London & NY: Palgrave.

Kendall, C., & Martino, W. (2006). Gendered outcasts and sexual outlaws. New York: Routledge.

Martino, W., & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2005). ‘Being normal is the only way to be’: Adolescent perspectives on gender and school. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.

Martino, W., & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2003). So what's a boy? Addressing issues of masculinity and schooling. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. [Translated into Spanish, 2006, Pero, que es un chico? Aproximacion a la masculinidad en contextos escolares, Barcelona: Octaedro]

Selected Publications:

Martino, W., Kassen, J., Omercajic, K., & Dare, L. (2022). Supporting transgender and gender diverse students in Ontario schools: Educators’ responses. London, Ontario: The University of Western Ontario. https://trans-affirm.edu.uwo.ca/report/index.html

Martino, W. (2022) Supporting transgender students and gender expansive education in schools: Investigating policy, pedagogy and curricular implications, Teachers College Record 124(8): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01614681221121513

Martino, W. (2022) A Transgender Studies approach for educators in schools: Reflections on “cissexist pitfalls”, bifurcated frameworks and racial justice, Teachers College Record 124(8): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01614681221121514

Martino, W., Omercajic, K. & Kassen, J. (2022) “We have no “visibly” trans students in our school”: Educators’ perspectives on transgender affirmative policies in schools, Teachers College Record.124(8): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01614681221121522

Martino, W., Kassen, J. & Omercajic, K. (2022) Supporting transgender students in schools: Beyond an individualist approach to envisaging gender expansive education, Educational Review 72(4): 753-772. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131911.2020.1829559

Martino, W., Omercajic, K. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2021) YouTube as a site of desubjugation for trans and nonbinary youth: Pedagogical potentialities and the limits of whiteness, Pedagogy, Culture and Society: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681366.2021.1912156 

Martino, W.  Omercajic, K. (2021) A trans pedagogy of refusal: interrogating cisgenderism, the limits of antinormativity and trans necropolitics, Pedagogy, Culture and Society: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681366.2021.1912155 

Omercajic, K. & Martino, W. (2020) Supporting Transgender Inclusion and Gender Diversity in Schools: A Critical Policy Analysis, Frontiers in Sociology: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00027

Martino, W, Airton, L., Kuhl, D. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2019) Mapping transgender policyscapes: A policy analysis of transgender inclusivity and gender diversity in the education system in Ontario, The Journal of Education Policy: 34(3): 302-330. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2018.1478992

Martino, W. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2017) "Effeminate arty boys and butch soccer girls": Investigating queer and trans-affirmative pedagogies under conditions of neoliberal governance, Research Papers in Education 34(2): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02671522.2017.1402082?journalCode=rred20

Martino, W. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2018) Transgender and Gender Expansive Education Research, Policy and Practice: Reflecting on epistemological and ontological possibilities of bodily becoming, Gender and Education 30(6): 687-694: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2018.1487518

Cumming-Potvin, W. & Martino W. (2018) The policyscape of transgender equality and gender diversity in the Western Australian education system: a case study, Gender and Education 30(6): 715-735:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540253.2018.1483491

Cumming-Potvin, W. & Martino, W. (2018) Countering heteronormativity and cisnormativity in Australian schools: Examining English teachers' reflections on gender and sexual diversity in the classroom, Teaching and Teacher Education 74: 35-48. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0742051X18305407?via%3Dihub

Kjaran, J. & Martino, W. (2017) In search of queer spaces in Tehran: Heterotopias and power geometries in queer Iranian men’s lives, Sexualities 22(4):587-604. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/metrics/10.1177/1363460717713383

Kuhl, D. & Martino, W. (2017) ‘Sissy’ boys and the pathologization of gender non-conformity. In Talburt, S. (Ed.), Youth Sexualities: Public Feelings and Contemporary Cultural Politics. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

Martino, W. (2016) The transgender imaginary: Implications for queer studies in Education, in  Brockenbrough, E. , Ingrey, J., Martino, W. & Rodriguez, N. (Eds.) Queer studies in Education: Critical concepts for the 21 st century . New York: Palgrave.

Blackburn, M., Clark, C. & Martino, W. (2016) Investigating LGBT-themed literature and trans informed pedagogies in classrooms, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 37(6): 801-806.

Martino, W. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2016) Teaching about sexual minorities and “princess boys”: A queer and trans-infused approach to investigating LGBTQ themed texts in the elementary school classroom, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(6): 807-827.  DOI:10.1080/01596306.2014.940239

Martino, W. (2015) The limits of role modeling as a basis for critical multicultural education: The case of Black male teachers in urban schools, Multicultural Education Review 7(1-2), pp. 59-84.

Martino, W. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2015) Teaching about 'princess boys' or not: The case of one male elementary school teacher and the polemics of gender expression and embodiment, Journal of Men and Masculinities, 18 (1), pp. 79-99. http://jmm.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/09/24/1097184X14551278

Martino, W. (2014) Masculinities, gender non-conformity and the significance of queer and transgender perspectives in education. In Meyer, E. & Carlson, D. (Eds.), Gender and sexualities in education: A reader (pp.9-24), New York: Peter Lang.

Martino, W. (2014) “Love the sinner, hate the sin": The clash of religious and sexual minority rights in Ontario Catholic schools. In G. Walton (Ed.), The gay agenda: Creating space, identity, and justice (pp. 207-222), New York: Peter Lang.

Martino, W. (2014) Teaching boys in neoliberal and post-feminist times: Feminization and the question of re-masculinization in the education system, Special Issue of Jahrbuch für Frauen und Geschlechterforschung in der Erziehungswissenschaft ( Yearbook of Women’s and Gender Studies in Education): Masculinities – Gender construction in pedagogical institutions, vol. 10, pp. 29-47.

Cumming-Potvin, W. & Martino, W. (2014) Teaching about queer families: Surveillance, censorship and the schooling of sexualities, Teaching Education, 25(3), 309-333.  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10476210.2014.889672#.U0LquFckdTs

Martino, W. (2013) On a commitment to gender and sexual minority justice: Personal and professional reflections on boys’ education, masculinities and queer politics in the field of education. In C. Skelton and M. Weaver-Hightower (Eds.) Leaders in Gender and Education: Intellectual Self-Portraits, (pp. 163-178), Sense Publishers.

Lingard, B., Martino, W. & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2013) Testing regimes, accountabilities, and education policy: Commensurate global and national developments, Journal of Education Policy 28 (5), pp. 539-556.

Martino, W. & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2013) ‘Gap talk’ and the global rescaling of educational accountability in Canada, Journal of Education Policy 28 (5), pp. 589-611.

Martino, W., Rezai-Rashti, G. & Lingard, B. (2013) Gendering in gender research: Methodological considerations, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26 (4), 391-399.

Lingard, R., Martino, W. & Mills, M. (2013) Managing oppositional masculinity politics: The gendering of a government commissioned research project, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26 (4), pp. 434-454.

Martino, W. (2012) Queering masculinities as a basis for gender democratization: Toward embracing a transgender imaginary. In Greig, C. & Martino, W. (Eds.) Canadian men and masculinities: Historical and contemporary perspectives, (pp. 205-236), Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Martino, W. & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2012) Rethinking the influence of male teachers, Investigating gendered and raced authority in an elementary school in Toronto, Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 34 (5), pp. 258-281.

Martino, W. & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2012) Neo-liberal accountability and boys’ underachievement: Steering education policy by numbers in the Ontario context, International Journal of Inclusive Education 16 (4), pp. 423-440.

Martino, W. & Cumming-Potvin, W. (2011) “They didn’t have out there gay parents – they just looked like normal regular parents”: Investigating teachers’ approaches to addressing same-sex parenting and non-normative sexuality in the elementary school classroom, Curriculum Inquiry 41(4), pp. 480-501.

Martino, W. (2011) “ Cool boys”, “party animals”, “squids”, and “poofters”: Interrogating the dynamics and politics of adolescent masculinities in school. In M. Kimmel & Aronson, A. (Eds.), Fourth Edition, The gendered society reader. New York: Oxford University Press.

Martino, W., & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2010). Male teacher shortage: Black teachers’ perspectives, Gender and Education 22 (3), pp. 247-262.

Martino, W. & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2009). You’re not a real boy if you’re disabled. In Ferber, A., Jimenez, C., Herrera, A. & Samuels, D. (Eds.) The matrix reader: Examining the dynamics of oppression and privilege, (pp. 124- 132). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Martino, W. (2009). Literacy issues and GLBTQ Youth: Queer interventions in English education. In L. Christenbury, R. Bomer & P. Smagorinsky (Eds.), Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research (pp. 386-399). Guildford Press.

Martino, W. (2009). Teachers as role models: An international perspective. In L. Saba & A. Dworkin (Eds.), The International Handbook of Teachers and Teaching (pp. 755-768). New York: Springer.

Martino, W. (2008). The lure of hegemonic masculinity: Investigating the dynamics of gender relations in male elementary school teachers’ lives, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 21(6), pp. 575- 603.

Martino, W., & Rezai-Rashti, G. (2008). The politics of veiling, gender and the Muslim subject: On the limits and possibilities of anti-racist education in the aftermath of September 11, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 29(3), 417-431.

Martino, W. (2008). Male teachers as role models: Addressing issues of masculinity, pedagogy and the re-masculinization of schooling. Curriculum Inquiry, 38(2), pp. 189-223.

Martino, W., & Kehler, M. (2007). Gender-based literacy reform: A question of challenging or recuperating gender binaries, Canadian Journal of Education, 30(2), 406-431.

Martino, W., & Frank, B. (2006). ‘The tyranny of surveillance’: Male teachers and the policing of masculinities in a single sex school, Gender and Education, 18(1), pp. 17-33.

Martino, W., Mills, M., & Lingard, B. (2005). Interrogating single-sex classes as a strategy for addressing boys’ educational and social needs, Oxford Review of Education, 31(2), pp. 237-254.

Martino, W., Lingard, B., & Mills, M. (2004). Issues in boys’ education: A question of teacher threshold knowledges? Gender and Education, 16(4), pp. 435-454.

Teaching and Supervision

Courses:

Graduate Education

EDU 9446 Sexual Diversity and Transgender Equality in Education

EDU 629 Equity and Social Justice Education

EDU 9411 Gender Equity in Education

EDU 626 Gender Theories/Gender in Curriculum

WS9586 Queer and Transgender Studies

EDU9711 Qualitative Research in Education

Teacher Education

EDU 5476 Investigating Urban Schools: A case Study Approach

EDU 5424 Teaching for Equity and Social Justice

EDU 5475 Urban Schools

Supervision:

PhD

Jenny Kassen: Working (in)visible binaries: Trans, Two-Spirit and Nonbinary youths’ experience of accessing mental health supports in Ontario secondary schools, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario (in progress).

Danielle Carr: Acting out gender: Embodied criticality and performance-based pedagogies, University of Western Ontario (July 20, 2022).

Kenan Omercajic: Investigating all-gender bathrooms in Ontario schools: A multi-sited case study, University of Western Ontario (February 26, 2021).

Diana Kuhl: Death of the clinic Trans-Informing the clinical gaze, University of Western Ontario (October, 23, 2019).

David Mara: Disability, masculinities and schooling: A narrative inquiry into the storied lives of men and boys with physical disabilities, The University of Western Ontario (June 6, 2018).

Bailing Zhang (Co-Supervisor): The quest for world-class elite universities in China: The perspectives of faculty members, The University of Western Ontario (April 24, 2018).

Alicia Lapointe: Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs) and student activism in Ontario Public and Catholic high schools, The University of Western Ontario (submitted, March 29, 2018).

Jessica Ticar: Investigating the transnational identities of Filipina/o/x youth in Toronto urban high schools: A critical ethnographic study of the impact of Canada’s Live in/Caregiver Program, University of Western Ontario (September 30, 2017).

AnnaLise Trudell: Schoolgirl femininities in postfeminist times: A critical feminist analysis, Department of Women’s Studies, The University of Western Ontario (April 28, 2016).

Mark Castrodale: Examining the socio-spatial knowledge(s) of disabled and mad students in higher education, The University of Western Ontario (August 4, 2015).

Jenny Ingrey: The public school washroom as heterotopia: Gendered spatiality and subjectification (The University of Western Ontario (December 3, 2013).

Anne Watson: Men to the rescue: The influence of male English teachers on boys’ literacy achievement, The University of Western Ontario (August 8, 2012).

Lisa Faden: The History classroom as a site for imagining the nation: An Investigation of U.S. and Canadian teachers’ pedagogical practices, The University of Western Ontario (May 9, 2012).

Alfred Masinire: The interplay of masculinities and schooling in Zimbabwe, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, October 6, 2011).

Lucy Karanja (Associate Supervisor) An investigation into the educational experiences and support for urban Sudanese refugee children in Kenya: An Ethnographic Case Study, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, April, 2010).

Dorothy Vaandering: Towards effective implementation and sustainability of restorative justice in Ontario public schools: A Critical Case Study, The University of Western Ontario (Completed June 16, 2009).

Helen Hatchel: Masculinities and Whiteness: The shaping of adolescent male students’ subjectivities in an Australian boys’ school, School of Education, Murdoch University (Completed, December 2003).

Aggie Meerwald: ‘Chineseness at the crossroads’: Negotiations of Chineseness and the politics of liminality in diasporic Chinese women’s lives in Australia, School of Education, Murdoch University (Completed, December, 2002).

MA

Melanie Bourdeleau: Teacher professionalism, embodiment, and surveillance: An autoethnographic study, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (October 6, 2021).

Jordan Gentile: Investigating elementary school teachers’ approaches to addressing gender and sexual diversity in the education system, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (May 2, 2017).

Kenan Omercajic: Investigating trans-affirmative education policies in Ontario, The University of Western Ontario (August 24, 2015).

Elizabeth Patrick: The experiences of international queer students in a Canadian university, The University of Western Ontario (July 17, 2014).

Diana Kuhl: Voices count:  Employing a critical narrative research bricolage for insights into dyscalculia , The University of Western Ontario (July 7, 2014).

Katee Van Campen: Investigating teachers’ understandings of gender equity and achievement in post-feminist times, The University of Western Ontario (June, 13, 2014).

Ronnie Ali: Trans-affirmative or trans-positive counseling: A qualitative study of practicing counseling psychologists who work with transgender and gender variant clients, Counseling Psychology, The University of Western Ontario (April 22, 2014).

Kelley Porteous Jones: Exploring teachers’ understanding of equity and inclusive education and their pedagogical choices, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (December 10, 2013).

Marlene Frederick: ‘Sit-Still and Shut-Up’: The construction of childhood and classroom management in a preservice textbook, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, August 8, 2013).

Francillia Paul: The experiences of Black international Caribbean students at a Canadian university, The University of Western Ontario (August 8, 2012).

Melanie-Anne Atkins: Black students’ perspectives on academic achievement, The University of Western Ontario, (Completed, July 25, 2012).

Alicia Lapointe: “ Straight” allies: Combating homophobia and interrogating heteronormativity ‘straight’ on, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, April, 19, 2012).

Julie Hohner: Rural boys and masculinities in South Western Ontario, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, August 18, 2011).

Anne Eliott: The interplay of masculinities in elementary school: Investigating the dynamics of peer group relationships, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, December 1, 2010).

David Mara: Disability, masculinities and teaching: An auto-ethnography, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, November 3, 2010).

Jenny Ingrey: Gender variance and youth: Examining the space in between, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, August 19, 2009).

Kim Tornabuono: Gendered authority: Female teachers’ perspectives, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, August 19, 2009).

Marina Gallant: Teachers’ understanding of school-based bullying: A socio-cultural perspective, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed, August 13, 2009).

Jim Slee: Campers’ experiences at a social justice summer camp: Critical pedagogy in practice, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed April 23, 2009).

Jan Pennycook: (Re) Engendering Classroom Space: Teachers and the Politics of “Me Read? No Way!” Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed April, 3, 2009).

Jessica Burassa: First Year university students’ experiences of cyberbullying throughout their high school years, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed June 27, 2008).

Anne Stebbins: Breaking the silence: Queer female teachers speak out, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed April, 2008).

Anne Watson : More than Just a Boy Problem: The nature and authorization of school-based literacy practices, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario (Completed April 16, 2007).

Glenn Savage: Silencing everyday experiences of youth? Issues of subjectivity, corporate ideology and popular culture in the English classroom, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia (Completed, 2006).

Amanda Collins: Empowering Indigenous students in a critical literacy classroom, School of Education, Murdoch University (Completed, 2003).

Graeme Law-Davis: Transformational Learning and the construction of meaning: How exiled migrants make meaning of their lives, School of Education, Murdoch University (Completed, December, 1999/Result: First Class Honours).