ABSTRACT
This chapter examines not only the methodological conundrums of researcher subjectivity and reflexivity but also those issues arising from accessing vulnerable spaces in schools such as the school washroom, both with student participants and without. This chapter also discusses the value of developing a critical trans methodology akin to and yet distinct from queer methodologies where ‘critical trans-ing’ must ontologically and epistemologically depart from queering to take on, and yet simultaneously reject, queer's relationship to gendered and sexed norms. I also engage with a review of the battlefield of trans studies to opt for strategic contestation in making room for multiple embodiments of trans and gender diversity, both coherent and incoherent. By way of further enmeshing these disparate sections, I hinge the discussion on the role of the confessional, both figuratively and methodologically. Because my study concerned the gender regulation and effects of the school bathroom, I spent time in and thinking about the stalls in the bathroom. The physical structure of the washroom stall conjures the notion of the confessional booth that incites such truth-telling practices. I turn this incitation to my own researcher self to ask how I was capable and permitted to access the space, as well as to imagine the effects of this space on students to build to subsequent chapters that argue for trans affirmation and inclusion.
