Participant Information Sheet for Questionnaire
Name of department: Education (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)
Title of the study: Theyby Parent Pedagogy: An Exploration of Teaching and Learning about Gender in an Online Community
Introduction
The investigation is being conducted by Milo Chesnut as part of their PhD research at the University of Strathclyde. Chesnut has been a member of the Parenting Theybies Facebook group since 2018. Please refer to milochesnut.com for more background information on the researcher.
What is the purpose of this research?
The overall aim of this study is to explore the motivations, meanings and experiences of gender open parenting from the parents’ perspectives. The researcher is broadly defining ‘gender open parenting’ and ‘theyby parenting,’ as parents who use they/them/their pronouns with their children from the start, but also plans to explore the language parents use to describe their parenting approach through the research. The investigation aims to understand gender open experiences with schooling, how parents learn about gender open parenting, how they educate others – including their children- about their politics and practices. All participants will be drawn from the Parenting Theybies Facebook Group. The researcher hopes to use the findings of the study to increase awareness of gender open parenting, and support parents and educators of all children who push the expected boundaries of sex and gender, including, but not limited to, transgender and non-binary youth, and theybies.
The study includes several components, including a questionnaire, and interviews. This information sheet is for the online questionnaire phase of the study only.
The purpose of the questionnaire is to understand basic demographic information about members of the Parenting Theybies Facebook group, and to gain a sense of who may be interested in participating in an interview. The researcher will use the information collected through the questionnaire to reach out to possible interviewees.
Do you have to take part?
It is entirely your decision to complete the questionnaire. There are no consequences for refusing to participate or withdrawing your data after completing the questionnaire. You can withdraw from the study at any time, if you do so, then all identifying information will be destroyed by the researcher, unless the data has already been anonymized.
All phases of the study are voluntary, and will require separate consent. For example, if you consent to the questionnaire phase of the study, that does not mean that you’ve also consented to be interviewed.
There is no compensation for completing the questionnaire, which will take about 10 minutes to complete.
You are welcome to ask questions or request access to the data the researcher has collected about you at any time by contacting the researcher at the details below. The researcher will respond as soon as possible.
What will you do in the project?
The online questionnaire consists of less than 30 multiple-choice and short-answer questions focused on demographic and family information. For example, there are questions about age, education, employment, gender identity, pronouns, location, and race. The questionnaire will be available for at least four months. The questionnaire is estimated to take 10 minutes of your time.
Why have you been invited to take part?
You are invited to take part because you are a member of Parenting Theybies.
What are the potential risks to you in taking part?
The researcher does not anticipate any significant risks as a result of participating in the online observation phase of the study.
What information is being collected in the project?
As explained above, the questionnaire collects demographic information on the Parenting Theybies group in order to describe the population. Questions focus on the backgrounds and identities of parents and their children. The questionnaire also asks what words parents use to describe their parenting approach, how they originally learned about gender open parenting, how children are schooled, and whether children have expressed a gender identity or a desire for specific pronouns.
Who will have access to the information?
Precautions will be taken to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of members of Parenting Theybies throughout the investigation. Responses to the online questionnaire will be anonymized using pseudonyms at the point of collection, and any potentially identifying details such as age and location will be removed or anonymized. The personal identities of participants will be protected in all research documents and publications. Only the researchers named in this sheet will have access to the locations in which data is stored, as detailed below.
Where will the information be stored and how long will it be kept for?
All data will be anonymized using pseudonyms when collected, and then uploaded to password-protected files on the University of Strathclyde’s institutional server, along with records of informed consent for the online questionnaire. Only the researchers named in this information sheet will have access to the password-protected files. The key to the pseudonymization will be kept separately from other data on an encrypted and password-protected file of an external hard drive. The drive will be stored in a lockable cabinet at the researcher’s place of work. Only the researcher named in this sheet will have access to the cabinet. Data will not be stored in any other location.
All personal data on participants will be processed and stored in accordance with the regulations of the Data Protection Act 1998, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the University of Strathclyde Data Protection Policy. The researcher will destroy all personally identifying data when it is no longer needed for the purposes of this specific study. Anonymous research data may be retained indefinitely in the University Records Centre.
Please also read our Privacy Notice for Research Participants
What happens next?
If you are happy to complete the questionnaire, you can sign the consent form at the beginning of the survey.
If you do not want to participate in this phase of the study, thank you for your time.
If you are unsure about whether you would like to participate and have further questions, please contact the researcher using the information below.
After completion of the study, you will be offered the opportunity to receive the following electronic documents:
Summary of the investigation findings
The final PhD thesis
You may contact the researcher with any questions after reading the findings. The researcher will notify the group of other publications as necessary.
Thank you for reading this information – please ask any questions if you are unsure about what is written here.
Researcher contact details:
Feel free to reach out with any questions about the study:
Milo ChesnutPostgraduate Student (PhD Education)
Education Department; School of Humanities and Social Sciences
milo.chesnut@strath.ac.uk
PhD Supervisor Details:
If you would like to contact the PhD Supervisors during the study, her information is below:
Professor Yvette Taylor
Education Department; School of Humanities and Social Sciences
+44 (0)141 444 8048
yvette.taylor@strath.ac.uk
Dr Maddie Breeze
Strathclyde Chancellor’s Fellow; Education Department
+44 (0)141 444 8072
maddie.breeze@strath.ac.uk
This research was granted ethical approval by the University of Strathclyde School of Education Ethics Committee.
If you have any questions/concerns, during or after the research, or wish to contact an independent person to whom any questions may be directed or further information may be sought from, please contact:
Chair of the School of Education Ethics Committee
University of Strathclyde
Dr Eugenie A. Samier
Lord Hope Building
141 St James Road
Glasgow
G4 0LT
eugenie.samier@strath.ac.uk