Gender and sexual diversity: Inclusion in the Namibian education context

Abstract Despite efforts to address all forms of diversity among learners and promote inclusion in education, and much research done on inclusive education in Namibia, there remains a scarcity of empirical evidence of the inclusion of gender and sexual diversity in Namibian education. This study employed a Social Identity Perspective within a qualitative approach to explore the inclusion of gender and sexual diversity in the Namibian education context. Four education officers were selected through population sampling, and one hundred eighty-two teachers were purposively selected. The thematic analysis of data revealed minimal inclusion of gender and sexual diversity at the national and school levels. The Life Skills curriculum contains gender and sexual diversity content, and Life Skills teachers receive training on the subject content. However, the training program lacks content on gender and sexual diversity. Teachers do not teach sexuality, specifically sexual orientation content in Life Skills lessons, and heteronormative is the default norm. This study recommends including measures and guidelines on handling gender and sexual diversity in national educational frameworks. Further, there should be gender and sexual diversity content in the teacher training programs and school rules. The MoEAC should monitor Life Skills subject teaching.


Introduction
Most societies have moved toward understanding gender outside the traditional gender binary, man and woman.As some researchers (Goehring & Whittington, 2017;Wilkinson et al., 2021) indicate, gender goes beyond the binary framework as some individuals have gender identities and expressions that do not fit into one of the traditional binary genders of woman and man.However, within the Namibian context, gender does refer to the gender binary in most cases (Brown, 2019).Hence, most communities expect individuals to exhibit socially constructed characteristics (i.e., sexuality and expressions) of a woman and a man.These expectations have framed heterosexuality as a norm in Namibian communities (Brown, 2019;Francis, 2017;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a).Any other gender and sexual identities and expressions that do not conform to these social expectations are a deviation from the norm and are deemed taboo in Namibian communities (Brown, 2019).
The hostility surrounding gender and sexual diversity [GSD] is an ongoing issue within Namibian communities (Brown, 2019).Discrimination and vilification still exist against people of diverse gender and sexual identities (Brown, 2019).Moreover, the Roman-Dutch laws that criminalise sodomy still appear in Namibian laws even though they are not enforced in Namibia (Government Republic of Namibia [GRN], 1990).Further, the country's laws are silent regarding GSD (Brown, 2016;Francis et al., 2017).Accordingly, the understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of diverse gender and sexual identities within Namibian communities remain low (Brown, 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b).Subsequently, the school communities reflect the large community's view on GSD (Francis et al., 2017;Haitembu, 2021).Consequently, learners with diverse gender and sexual identities are treated differently in some schools (Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b) regardless of the inclusive ideology in the Namibian education system.Some learners were bullied based on their diverse gender and sexual identities and expressions (Brown, 2016).This bullying based on sexual orientation raises a concern regarding learners' well-being as research (Gentz et al., 2021;Källmén & Hallgren, 2021;Nilholm, 2021;Rusteholz et al., 2021) states that bullying affects learners psychologically and leads to stress, suicide, poor academic performance, and school dropout.
The realisation of inclusive education requires educators to acknowledge that inclusion in education is not only about responding to learners' physical and learning needs.In the Namibian context, inclusive education is aligned with several international laws and statements on providing education, such as the Salamanca statement that calls for education systems to consider the diversity of unique characteristics and needs of all learners (UNESCO, 1994).Further, it is aligned with the Namibian constitution that guarantees all citizens a right to quality education free from discrimination (GRN, 1990).Thus, an inclusive education system should acknowledge all forms of diversity among learners, such as language, gender and sexuality, and other forms.Moreover, inclusive education should allow learners to learn about individual differences such as diverse gender and sexual identities.Additionally, if teachers are to teach and handle issues regarding GSD effectively, the inclusive education system should allow them to explore and understand GSD.
An inclusive learning environment could be instrumental in helping the school communities understand gender and sexuality differently from the larger society.There should be proactive responses to GSD to promote acceptance of differences and prevent discrimination in schools.Hence, an inclusive learning environment should offer learners opportunities to understand themselves concerning the realities of gender and sexuality and their societies' expectations regarding gender and sexuality.When learners understand the realities of sexuality and their societies' expectations, gender conforming learners could understand others' differences and treat them equally.Thus, learners with diverse gender and sexuality identities may feel safe, accepted, and valued to benefit from the educational opportunities provided to them (Haitembu, 2021).Appropriately the Namibian education system aims to respond to all learners in schools by promoting understanding and acceptance of differences among learners (MoEAC, 2018).Hence, inclusion in the Namibian context is about promoting human rights and responding to all the needs of learners.
Amidst the ongoing hostility towards diverse gender and sexuality forms and the psychological effects of bullying on learners discussed above, there is little research on how GSD is included in Namibian education.Thus, a gap remains regarding the level of GSD inclusion in Namibian education at all levels.In light of the low level of understanding and acceptance of diverse gender and sexuality forms and discrimination and vilification against learners with diverse gender and sexual identities in Namibia, research on inclusion in education regarding GSD at all levels is necessary.Therefore, to understand how GSD is included in the Namibian education system, this article answered the following research question: How is gender and sexual diversity included in the Namibian education context at the national and school levels?The following section presents literature on the inclusion of GSD in education systems, including Namibia.

Inclusion of gender and sexual diversity in education systems
Evidence shows that inclusion regarding GSD could be attainable in the education systems.For instance, education systems could address GSD within the educational policies that address other forms of diversity, such as culture (Sydney, 2018).Further, research (Francis & Kuhl, 2022;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a;Kirchhoff & Keller, 2021) states that including GSD content in the school curricula is a positive effort toward inclusion regarding GSD in education systems.Similarly, Gallardo-Nieto et al. (2021) and Brown (2022) maintain that including GSD content in the curriculum has the highest impact on addressing GSD.
Acknowledgement of GSD among learners could lead to the attainment of inclusion of GSD in education.However, several researchers (Francis et al., 2017;Lees, 2017) revealed that even though some education systems addressed GSD within policies and curricula, educators did not address GSD either through school policies or teaching content.Some authors (i.e., Francis & Kuhl, 2022;James, 2020;McQuillan, 2021;Munyuki & Vincent, 2017;Reygan, 2019;Zulu et al., 2019) cite the lack of GSD content in the school curricula and school policies to be extensive oppression that positions heterosexuality as a predominant framework.Some studies (i.e., Adekola & Mavhandu-Mudzusi, 2021;Sydney, 2018) found that lack of knowledge and personal, religious and cultural beliefs prevented teachers from teaching topics on diverse gender and sexual orientations.As a result, teachers could not address GSD among learners, affecting the level of inclusion in schools (James, 2020).Researchers such as Gallardo-Nieto et al. (2021) and Reygan (2019) report that learners suffer from stress and drop out of school due to discrimination resulting from a lack of information on GSD.The literature discussed above indicates that including GSD content in the schools' curricula and educational policies could prevent discrimination.Further, teaching this content in schools is crucial in promoting inclusion.
Inclusive education is about providing learners with chances to learn.Schools are part of the social environments where young people learn about their fundamental human rights (Cardinal, 2021;Johnson, 2022;Leijen et al., 2021;Roldán et al., 2021).Moreover, schools are places where young people come to conceptualise an understanding of their relationship with others (Brown, 2022;Haitembu, 2021).School environments influence young people's outlook on the world and their relation to other people.Hence, including GSD in the school curricula and policies could promote respect and acceptance of differences.

Inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system
The goal to provide access to quality education equitably and democratically in Namibia (MoEC, 1993;Ministry of Education [MoE], 2014) compelled the education system to respond to all forms of diversity among learners, such as socioeconomic, culture, disabilities, learning difficulties and others.In response to this call, the education system implemented educational reforms at the national and school levels.The Namibian legal frameworks on education, such as the Inclusive Education policy and the Namibian constitution's stand on the rights of all Namibians, form the basis for providing education in Namibia (Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a).Thus, the MoEAC made several efforts to make the education system inclusive of diversity among learners at the national and school levels.
Several forms of diversity mentioned above have received considerable attention, except for GSD.For instance, the MoEAC established policies such as the Inclusive Education policy and the Orphans and Vulnerable Children policy to guide educators in responding to educational needs and vulnerability among learners (MoE, 2008(MoE, , 2014)).Further, the MoEAC adapted the curriculum at the junior primary phase into the supplementary curriculum for inclusive education to address learners' educational needs (MoEAC, 2016).Additionally, the promotion of cultural tolerance and acceptance is adequately covered in the school curriculum and education policies (MoE, 2008).
The educational responses to diversity discussed above indicate considerable progress in the Namibian education system to promote inclusion regarding diversity among learners.However, diversity in the form of gender and sexuality appears to receive less attention in the Namibian education context.The MoEAC has introduced GSD content in the Life Skills subject curriculum (MoEAC, 2016).The Life Skills curriculum shows progressive potential to respond to GSD among learners.However, the only visible effort to address GSD in the Namibian education system is including GSD in the Life Skills curriculum.There needs to be more evidence on how the education system addresses diversity in terms of GSD apart from the Life Skills curriculum.Consequently, it needs to be made clear how the schools are promoting inclusion regarding GSD as an impact of the educational reforms after the country's independence in 1990.Thus, a gap remains as to what extent the Namibian education system is inclusive regarding GSD.

Diversity and inclusion from a social identity perspective
Every human being is a unique individual, different in several ways from other human beings.This diversity drives them to identify with and reject certain social groups.Through social categorisation, diversity is crucial in human beings' self-identification and achievement of belongingness (Stryker, 1977).When individuals understand diversity among themselves, they recognise and accept individual differences.Appropriately, a Social Identity Perspective [SIP] devised from Spivak's concept of othering of 1985, Stryker's identity theory of 1977, and Tajfel and Turner's social identity theory of 1979 highlights the impact of including GSD within the education systems on reducing discrimination and promoting acceptance of differences.
Several authors recognise the advantage of combining these theories when studying social issues.For example, Burke and Stets (2009) and Hogg et al. (1995) stress that these theories' overlapping cognitive processes of social identity, social comparison, and social categorisation could make a solid lens for forming one perspective.Appropriately, the combination of these theories helped this study to draw from various assumptions of different perspectives to highlight the benefits of including GSD in education systems, such as the prevention of discrimination and the promotion of inclusion for the attainment of learners' well-being (Burke & Stets, 2009).
The SIP posits that social identities are formed when people construct sameness and differences, and once people believe these identities to be the norm, they identify with them (Spivak, 1985;Stryker, 1977;Tajfel & Turner, 1979).Thus, any identity that deviates from their expectations and norms becomes the "other" of a law-abiding society (Powell & Menendian, 2016).Correctly, a society such as Namibia that perceive gender in terms of gender binary considers diverse gender and sexuality forms as deviation from the norm (Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b).Further, society perceives any behaviour different from the norm as threatening the social order, leading to social rejection (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).Consequently, in terms of GSD, as literature (Spivak, 1985;Stryker, 1977;Tajfel & Turner, 1979) maintains, social categorisation of people based on GSD could lead to the exclusion of learners, discrimination, and homophobia in schools.Tajfel and Turner (1979) maintain that discrimination occurs when people believe that individuals can only belong to a particular group.Spivak (1985) writes that a lack of understanding of other people's differences has led individuals to label others as different.Regarding GSD, literature (Kirchhoff & Keller, 2021;Lees, 2017) shows that some schools did not recognise differences among learners and categorised gender and sexually diverse learners as different.Further, research (Brown, 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b) indicates that Namibian teachers treated learners who did not conform to gender norms differently.Regarding the above concerns, several studies (e.g., Breshears & Lubbe De Beer, 2016;Daniels et al., 2019) show that a lack of information on GSD led teachers and other learners to discriminate against learners that did not conform to gender norms.Hence, the SIP demonstrated that including GSD within the education systems through educational policies and teaching content could prevent discrimination by providing relevant information to teachers and learners.
Literature indicates that social categorisation causes the internalisation of discriminationrelated stress (McLeod, 2019).Appropriately, Powell and Menendian (2016) point out the need for an inclusive society to improve the well-being of everyone.In that regard, the SIP demonstrated the importance of social inclusion in increasing the learners' pride, social self, and sense of social identity (McLeod, 2019;Tajfel & Turner, 1979).In line with the SIP, this study recognises the impact of including GSD within the education systems in transforming the schools' culture and environments to value all forms of diversity (i.e., socioeconomic, cultural, intelligence, learning abilities, gender and sexuality, and others) among learners (James, 2020;Mertens, 2021).Thus, education systems that include GSD at all levels could bring about an understanding of the importance of recognising differences (Burke et al., 2007).Hence, the SIP used in this study demonstrated the impact of including GSD in education systems in preventing the adverse effects of discrimination on learners through the promotion of inclusion.

Research paradigm and design
A descriptive case study design guided by a transformative paradigm provided an in-depth exploration of the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system (Creswell, 2016).The transformative paradigm, aligned with the SIP's assumptions, helped this study collect relevant data for transforming school environments and promoting social justice regarding GSD (Mertens, 2021).The exploratory nature of the qualitative approach to social realities and the search for understanding of the lived experiences of human beings served as an essential aspect in collecting relevant data regarding the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system (Creswell, 2016).Additionally, through a descriptive case study, the qualitative approach has allowed the description of how the Namibian education system includes GSD in the real-life school context (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).Hence, the transformative paradigm and the qualitative approach enabled the development of a detailed understanding of inclusion regarding GSD in the Namibian education system (Gay & Mills, 2016).Thus, employing a case study informed by a transformative paradigm and SIP within a qualitative approach benefited this study by revealing new knowledge and understanding regarding the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system (Gay & Mills, 2016).

Population and sampling
The population of the study comprises education officers and teachers in Namibia.Due to the small number of education officers who possessed the relevant information due to their roles and experiences, all four of them were included in this study through a total population sampling procedure (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018).These education officers were responsible for conducting in-service teacher training for the Life Skills teachers, formulating the educational policies on inclusion, developing the Life Skills subject syllabuses, and supervising learner psychosocial support and inclusive education activities in schools (MoE, 2014).Therefore, they provided relevant information regarding the efforts made by the MoEAC at the national level to include GSD in education.
Through purposive criterion sampling, one hundred eighty-two teachers in Namibian schools formed part of the sample.Every teacher is responsible for responding to learner diversity daily in schools.However, the topic's sensitive nature necessitated the researcher to focus on the teachers of grades 6-12 only as they were teaching learners at the stage where exploration of gender identities and sexuality is prominent.These teachers were able to give their views on the extent to which the Namibian education system is inclusive regarding GSD based on their daily interactions with learners and their understanding of the school policies and programs' content.Thus, these teachers gave relevant data on how the schools address GSD in school programs, policies and lessons at the school level (Gay & Mills, 2016).Thus, the sample consisted of four education officers and one hundred eighty-two teachers.

Ethical considerations
This study heeded caution from several authors (e.g., Cohen et al., 2018;Creswell, 2016;Gay & Mills, 2016) for researchers to ensure that no harm in any form, either physical, mental, or social, should come to research participants.Thus, the researcher obtained ethical clearance and approval of the methodologies (Cohen et al., 2018) from the Humanities and Social Science Research Ethics Committee of the University of the Western Cape before the data collection.In addition, the nature of the topic under study could be sensitive to an extent for some people.Thus, the researcher arranged for psychological assistance through the Ministry of Health and Social Services to prevent possible emotional risks.The information sheet for participants contained this information for the education officers and the teachers to be aware of this arrangement before participating in the study.
As per some researchers' recommendations (e.g., Cohen et al., 2018;Creswell, 2016), education officers and teachers received an information sheet explaining the purpose of the study and what they should expect during and after the data collection.Further, the researcher assured the education officers and teachers of their right to voluntary participation and confidentiality (Creswell, 2016).The education officers and teachers also received a consent form to indicate their consent to take part in the study by signing the form.Finally, the researcher used pseudonames during the data analysis and discussions to ensure participant anonymity.

Data collection
The researcher collected data through individual interviews with education officers using a semistructured and exploratory interview schedule consisting of open-ended questions.The openended questions helped the study gain in-depth views, thoughts, and opinions of the education officers on the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system (Creswell, 2016;Gay & Mills, 2016).In addition, the researcher collected data from the interview sessions by audio-recording the sessions for better analysis.Teachers expressed their thoughts and opinions on the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system by responding to a questionnaire.The researcher called for a meeting at each school and distributed the questionnaires, information sheets and consent forms to the teachers.During these meetings, the teachers reviewed the questionnaire and the information sheet and asked for clarity where needed.The questionnaire contained open-ended questions, allowing teachers to respond independently and have time to reflect on the questions to clarify the information the researcher needed.Further, open-ended questions helped the teachers to express themselves freely without the restrictions of closed-ended questions (Creswell, 2016).The use of open-ended questions resulted in gathering relevant data to inform the education officers, teachers, and all education stakeholders on the extent to which the Namibian education system is inclusive regarding GSD.

Data analysis procedures
The researcher applied thematic analysis to these data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) by closely examining, transcribing, and organising the data into themes.The researcher transcribed data from individual interviews to identify themes.The data from open-ended questions on the questionnaires were analysed by identifying similarities and grouping them into common themes.The researcher further analysed the emerged themes to filter out irrelevant information and grouped the data from individual interviews and questionnaires into two categories for easy discussions.Hence, two main themes emerged from the data analysis: 1) Inclusion of GSD at the national level and 2) Inclusion of GSD at the school level.The researcher discussed the findings from individual interviews and the questionnaires under the two main themes and drew conclusions from the study.Thus, the researcher presented a descriptive discussion of the findings supported by verbatim quotations from the education officers and teachers and by literature on SIP, GSD, and inclusion.

Overview
The data analysis revealed two main themes (see Tables 1 and 2) regarding the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system.These themes are 1) Inclusion of GSD at the national level and 2) Inclusion of GSD at the school level.Psychological support to learners There are Regional School counsellors to provide psychological support to learners at the regional level.

National educational policy guidelines
The teachers and education officers who participated in this study had similar views on the inclusion of diversity in the education system at the national level.They indicated that the MoEAC had established several policy documents to respond to diversity among learners.The education officers and teachers indicated that the MoEAC had established and adopted several policies and supplementary programs such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Namibia's National Safe Schools Framework, School Health Policy, Inclusive Education policy, and Orphans and Vulnerable Children policy.These national policies aim to respond to diversity among learners by advocating for schools to create enabling environments.The following discussions highlight these points: Education Officer Sophie indicated that the MoEAC had established policies to address the vulnerability, like policies on Orphans and Vulnerable Children.In addition, the MoEAC is busy drafting Namibia's National Safe School Framework (NNSSF) to protect all learners in schools by enabling a safer environment for our children.
Similarly, Education Officer Saara was of this opinion: Inclusive education in Namibia is committed to legal frameworks such as Sustainable Development Goals and rights to education.We have a policy on inclusion that aims to create enabling environments for all children in schools.There are also guiding documents on inclusion for teachers to follow in schools.
Teachers John and Petrus felt that the Namibian education system responds to the constitution's call for providing education to all free from discrimination.They pointed out that schools are to create safe environments for all learners and teach learners about GSD from a young age for better understanding.
Teacher John had this to say:The constitution of Namibia made it clear that no person shall be discriminated against in terms of gender or race, colour, age, religion, and other bases.
The national policies on education are in response to the constitution and human rights to protect all children.
Teacher Petrus added: Schools are supposed to create platforms to encourage learners' tolerance toward others who do not conform to gender norms.In addition, the schools are to put up firm policies that could discourage learners and teachers from bullying other learners based on gender and sexual differences.All teachers and learners should take care of each other.Sexuality education topics should also be taught at a tender age to avoid bullying.

The Life Skills syllabus
The findings from teachers and education officers reveal that the MoEAC has included content on GSD in the Life Skills curriculum and created teaching posts for one full-time Life Skills teacher per school.These findings also indicate that the content of the Life Skills subject provides learners with chances to discuss issues concerning GSD.The following verbatim from Education Officer Martha and Teacher Ndahafa elaborates more on these findings: Education officer Martha said: The Life Skills subject offers education on sexuality in schools.This new Life Skills subject curriculum addresses sexual orientation in detail, and the ministry made provision for the schools to recruit one full-time Life Skills teacher.
Teacher Ndahafa shared: Through school social clubs and Life Skills as a subject; learners get chances to learn about sexual orientation issues.

Teacher training
The Teacher Ndali: Teachers receive training at the institutions of higher learning, but there is no content on GSD in the teacher training curriculum, and I cannot remember being trained on that, and the in-service training done by the regional officials does not address issues of GSD.Teachers are not trained on these issues.
Teacher Ndaala elaborated: This issue can be handled better if the teachers are well equipped with the knowhow at any level in the school set up.So the teacher counsellors should receive training in dealing with gender and sexual diverse learners, they need support to learn.

Psychological support to learners
The MoEAC made provision for recruiting Regional School counsellors to provide psychological support to school learners at the regional level.The following verbatim read as follows: Education Officer Munungu: The education system is responsive to all learners.For instance, the learners receive counselling at the regional level.
Education Officer Saara: Apart from the policies established to address vulnerability, like the orphans and vulnerable children policy, Regional School Counsellors offer psychological support to learners at the regional level.They also train Life Skills teachers on basic skills in counselling to handle less severe cases at schools.
The above data analysis presents that in response to the Namibian constitution's call for providing education to all Namibians, the MoEAC has established national policies and documents in response to diversity among learners.However, GSD receives inadequate attention at the national level.These findings revealed the only evidence of including GSD at the national level by introducing diverse sexual orientations and gender identity content in the Life Skills curriculum.Nevertheless, schools each is provided with resources to recruit one fulltime Life Skills teacher.Additionally, the MoEAC and the institutions of higher learning offer pre-and in-service teacher training for Life Skills teachers on the teaching of Life Skills subject content.However, both the curriculum of the pre-service teacher training program and the inservice teacher training program need GSD content.In a positive light, learners receive psychological support at the regional level.

School programs, policies and rules
This study's findings revealed that the schools established general anti-bullying rules prohibiting bullying in response to diversity.The following verbatim highlights the above points: Teacher Hafeni indicated: There are anti-bullying policies in place in schools.Moreover, the school and hostel rules are there to protect all learners.Therefore, no learner can verbally, psychologically, or psychically hurt another learner regardless of their sexual orientation because all learners are equal in school.
Teacher Mimi supported Hafeni's view by saying: The school treats bullying based on sexual orientation in the same manner as any other case of bullying.Learners are given verbal or written warnings, and parents are informed to come to school and be informed about their children's behaviours.Those who bully others are suspended from school for a certain period.
Teacher Bob was of this opinion: The Education Act calls for establishing a Learner Representative Council in schools.Through this process, the schools equip learners to help others on the school ground.All learners are encouraged to report bullying activities to their class teachers, class captains, or Learner Representative Council member.Learner representatives are given the power to deal with cases of bullying and report to the teachers.
However, the established school rules and regulations revealed by these findings lacked specific measures for homophobic bullying.The findings of this study further show that schools could not respond to GSD directly due to the country's lack of clear legal frameworks, such as the constitution and Inclusive Education policy on GSD.The teachers attributed the lack of these legal frameworks' pronouncement on GSD to the need for more specific responses in school rules to GSD reported in this study.The following views demonstrate the above observations: There are no specific measures established at schools to address homophobic bullying.
Heteronormative is functioning as the default norm in some schools; thus, the schools use general school rules to address bullying in general with the understanding that there are no gender and sexual diverse learners at these schools.
Some programs raise awareness of GSD at schools.
Teaching GSD in the Life Skills lessons Some Life Skills teachers do not teach GSD topics.

Provision of psychological support to learners
The Life Skills teachers do provide psychological support for learners who need it.
Teacher Mwaya elaborated: Educational policies do not include issues regarding GSD, and no legal frameworks indicate how schools should address these issues.Without national legal frameworks that address GSD, this issue has no legal grounds for addressing it at school.
Teacher Mono supported the above view by pointing out that: Namibia does not have a legal framework to support GSD.Therefore, there are no specific measures to prevent bullying because of sexual orientation in schools, as there is no legal document at school supporting GSD.Therefore, it should start with the constitution, and we follow what it says on issues.
In support of the above views, Teacher Meriam stated: There are no specific strategies to include GSD in our school, but learners are exposed to information on diversity during the Life Skills lessons as they are taught about these issues in Life Skills lessons.
The findings of this study further revealed that some teachers were unsure of any measure by the school to respond to GSD among learners.Thus, they responded as follows: Teacher Maria indicated: None.I wonder if the school has anything in place.There are no specific measures on sexual orientation.I have no idea if the schools have made any efforts, and I am unaware of such measures and provisions.
Teacher Ndapandula confirms the above views: I am unsure if the schools have anything to address homophobia.Furthermore, I do not know if the school is doing something in response to these issues.As an educator who does not discriminate against learners based on sexuality, I try to prevent any bullying from happening.I do not, however, know if other educators are doing the same.This study's findings revealed that there seems to be a view that learners in schools are all heterosexual and do not present diversity regarding gender identities and sexual orientations.Therefore, some teachers did not see a need to establish responses to GSD among learners.Teachers Hamunyela, Saara and Nangolo highlighted this point by saying: Teacher Hamunyela: Issues regarding GSD are not accommodated in the policy at our school.We do not have such learners at our school, so we do not need to put up protective or responsive measures for them as we do not have them here.
Teacher Nangolo confirms the above sentiments by saying: There are no rules to respond to homophobic bullying because we do not experience cases of this nature, at least not openly.
We have not had such incidents at our school yet.We do not experience such bullying unless learners bully each other behind us.We are not aware of that.
Teacher Sarafina has responded to this concern from a Biblical viewpoint: There is only a man and woman in God's creation.So why do we have to think of responding to and protecting sins?We do not have them [gender and sexual diverse learners] here.

Teaching GSD in Life Skills lessons
Education officers and teachers had similar views on teaching the Life Skills subject in schools.
Even though this study revealed that the Life Skills subject syllabus includes GSD content and the national policies on education advocate for schools to respond to diversity, the same findings show that some teachers failed to teach topics on GSD.For example, the findings report that the Life Skills teachers were uncomfortable teaching topics that deal with sexual orientations to learners due to religious and cultural beliefs regardless of the inclusion of GSD content in the Life Skills syllabus and the Namibian constitution's recognition of all religious beliefs.
Education Officer Munengu went on to explain: The current curriculum reform touches on GSD issues, but only teachers from the field (psychology and inclusive education) can refer to GSD.The Life Skills as a subject new syllabus touches on sexuality education.However, the implementation might be an issue as teachers shy away from sex topics because of their culture and religion.However, sexual orientation as a topic receives much attention in the Life Skills curriculum.We hope that cross-curricular issues might help these teachers to talk about this topic during their teaching even though their religion and culture are an issue when it comes to talking about these issues.However, they are not comfortable talking about sexuality issues, and they do not teach these topics during Life Skills lessons.When teachers skip these topics, learners are neither equipped with accurate information nor empowered.The schools also do not fully implement the Comprehensive Sexuality Education program introduced by the MoEAC.
They also skip topics that address sexuality in this program; some schools are against it.
Provision is made for schools to respond to all learners, but some teachers are uncomfortable with the topics in the Comprehensive Sexuality Education program and Life Skills subject syllabus Education Officer Martha supports the above by pointing out: It is difficult for teachers to talk about topics concerning gender differences and sexuality, primarily gay and lesbian issues, but they have to address them because we are talking about inclusion.We hope they can address GSD during lessons.
Teacher Wahengo was of the following opinion: People need more awareness of same-sex education.This topic is not spoken of in schools.As teachers, we see the learners, and some are treated equally, but some are not liked, and peers discriminate against them.This issue could be handled differently in schools, better than now, if teachers are well equipped with the know-how at any level in the school set-up.
Teacher Mbambo elaborated: Different communities respond differently toward GSD due to culture.People in the villages do not understand this issue, and they do not talk about it.Teachers cannot teach these topics.It is against culture and the Bible.I cannot teach these topics or talk about them.
Teacher Ndapwa said: I base my teaching on the Bible, and it is a sin in the Bible.Also, there was no homosexuality in Africa.Why now?

Psychological support to learners
The current data indicate the provision of psychological support to learners in schools.The learners do receive information on bullying during the teaching of the Life Skills lessons.Teachers Nelago, Nuule and Hangula elaborated as follows: Teacher Nelago: Learners are counselled, and the Life Skills teacher is there to deal with such cases.During counselling sessions, they are educated about their rights and the other person's.Life Skills teachers also raise awareness of the dangers of bullying.
Teacher Hangula: Life Skills teachers provide the learners counselling at the school level.
Teacher Nuule indicated: Life Skills teachers are there for them.They talk with them.
The data present minimal inclusion in terms of GSD among learners at the school level.The school policies had no clear guidelines for responding to GSD among learners.Further, the school rules lack specific measures to address homophobic bullying.Hence the schools are using general school rules to address all types of bullying.Heteronormative is the default norm in some schools; hence teachers saw no need to establish programs and policies to respond to GSD.Moreover, some teachers did not know if there were measures and provisions to include GSD in school programs in their schools.Further, not all Life Skills teachers do teach topics on GSD during the Life Skills lessons.However, Life Skills teachers provide psychological support to learners needing such support.

Discussion
The laws and regulations on recognising human rights for all people in Namibia form the basis for educating learners in Namibian schools.Hence, the education system is based on the principle of inclusion (MoE, 2014).The reforms made after the Namibian independence in 1990 led to numerous notable educational changes regarding recognising Namibians' diversity.Moreover, studies done in Namibia (i.e., Haitembu, 2014, 2021;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a;Mokaleng & Möwes, 2020) indicate that the Namibian education system is making progress in terms of inclusion.However, there is inadequate research on the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system.Hence, this study has contributed to the literature on the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system.Diversity, such as culture, language, socioeconomic and other forms, is given much attention in the Namibian education system.However, as the following discussions demonstrate, this study revealed minimal attention regarding GSD.

Inclusion of GSD at the national level
This study revealed that in response to the Namibian constitution's call for providing education to all Namibians, there are efforts within the education system at the national level to respond to diversity among learners.However, there is room for improvement in terms of GSD.The study conforms literature on the MoEAC efforts to make provisions for diversity.This study reports that the MoEAC established several educational policies, such as the Inclusive Education policy in 2014, the Orphans and Vulnerable Children policy in 2008, and Namibia's National Safe Schools Framework in 2018, to address diversity among school learners.Research (Cardinal, 2021;Johnson, 2022) cited the establishment of policies as one of the positive educational responses to GSD.The literature in this study (i.e., Brown, 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b) points out that the level of understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of GSD is still low within the Namibian society.Appropriately, the establishment of national policies to address diversity could be helpful to schools.Given the lack of understanding of this issue in Namibian society, the schools will need a directive to respond to GSD among learners.It follows that legal frameworks such as the Inclusive Education policy become crucial tools to guide schools in responding to GSD.Hence, the availability of education policies that address diversity revealed in the findings of this study is worth noting, as these policies could be functional in guiding and mandating the schools to respond to GSD among learners.The teachers will likely relate these policies on diversity to GSD as well.
The efforts by the MoEAC to respond to diversity seem to consider GSD to a certain extent considering empirical evidence of the low level of acceptance for GSD in Namibia (Brown, 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b).In corroboration with the literature, this study revealed that the MoEAC had adopted the Comprehensive Sexuality Education into the Namibian school curriculum and introduced diverse gender identities and sexual orientation content in the Life Skills subject syllabus.Research (i.e., Gallardo-Nieto et al., 2021;Roldán et al., 2021) maintains that the invisibility of sexual content in the school curriculum negatively affects learners.This study's findings present a positive stand in that regard, as the MoEAC has included content on sexual orientation in the Life Skills syllabus.As research (i.e., Munyuki & Vincent, 2017;Reygan, 2019;Zulu et al., 2019) maintains, including GSD content in school subjects provides learners with opportunities to learn about diversity and to accept others.To infer from these findings, the inclusion of GSD content in the Life Skills syllabus promotes inclusion in terms of GSD within the Namibian education system.Teachers and learners could discuss issues regarding GSD during Life Skills lessons and gain a better understanding of GSD.A better understanding of GSD could lead to acceptance of differences.
The realisation of inclusion in education depends on the teachers' knowledge and willingness to implement the inclusion practices at the school level.Literature (Spivak, 1985;Stryker, 1977) indicates that a lack of understanding of individual differences could lead individuals to label others as different and abnormal.It is worth noting that the MoEAC had made provision for recruiting full-time Life Skills teachers.Moreover, the findings show that Regional School Counsellors are responsible for training Life Skills teachers.Apart from the Regional School counsellors, the institutions of higher learning offer student teachers training in teaching Life Skills subject at school (University of Namibia [UNAM], 2022).Teachers could gain the necessary knowledge through training to include GSD in school programs, policies, and lesson presentations.The SIP maintains that recognising differences makes individuals feel belonging to a group, boosts their self-esteem and makes them feel good about themselves (Burke et al., 2007;Tajfel & Turner, 1979).Including GSD in school programs, policies, and lessons could make GSD content visible to promote self-understanding and recognition of differences among learners.
The provision for training for the Life Skills teachers revealed in the findings of this study is an applaudable effort by the MoEAC.However, these findings agree with the literature (i.e., Kirchhoff & Keller, 2021;Sydney, 2018) on the content of the teacher training programs.The curriculum of the in-service training program offered by the MoEAC and the institutions of higher learning's preservice curriculum needed more content on GSD among learners.These findings have implications for the inclusion of GSD in schools, as teachers need more information on GSD to lead to success in addressing GSD and discrimination of learners based on GSD.
This study agrees with the literature (Cardinal, 2021;Daniels et al., 2019;MoE, 2014) that for schools to function as units of social acceptance and places where children discover their potential, teachers should have the necessary knowledge on all forms of diversity including GSD for better educational responses to all learners.In addition, this study concurs with the literature (Mturi & Bechuke, 2019;Sydney, 2018) on the implications of a lack of sexual orientation education in teacher training programs.It leads to unprepared future teachers who lack an understanding of GSD among learners.Thus, the lack of content on GSD in teacher training programs revealed in this study has implications for teachers' ability to respond to GSD among learners due to a lack of knowledge and information.
Reasoning within the SIP, this study maintains that providing teacher training on GSD could prevent negative social categorisation of learners based on GSD.Literature (e.g., Breshears & Lubbe De Beer, 2016;Brown, 2019;Daniels et al., 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b) substantiates this view by indicating that when teachers lacked information regarding GSD among learners, they treated learners who did not conform to gender norms differently from those who conformed to gender norms.Hence, this study highlights that including GSD content in the teacher-training program for Life Skills teachers could provide correct and appropriate information for these teachers.Appropriately, they could gain an understanding of GSD among learners to include these issues in their lessons and school policies.Therefore, it is crucial to include GSD in educational policies, school curricula and teacher training program curricula.Including GSD in these documents will offer the teachers a guide on including GSD content in their lessons and school policies at the school level.It will also give teachers the necessary knowledge and understanding of GSD among learners.Consequently, teachers will understand the importance of recognising GSD in schools.
This study reports that the Regional School Counsellors are helping to provide psychosocial support to learners at the regional level.Gender and sexually diverse learners were found to be some of the learners that suffer from psychical and verbal violence in Namibian schools (Brown, 2016(Brown, , 2017;;Francis et al., 2017).These types of violence could lead to psychological distress in learners.Research (Abreu et al., 2022;Simons & Cuadrado, 2018) indicates that psychological support enables learners to develop coping mechanisms and deal with stressful situations.In light of the growing body of research that highlights the distressing homophobic bullying and violence against gender and diverse learners (Abreu et al., 2022;Brown, 2016Brown, , 2017;;Francis et al., 2017), the provision of psychological support is crucial for learners to develop coping skills in schools.Therefore, this study's findings conclude that the MoEAC is trying to support learners as needed.

Inclusion of GSD at the school level
The successful implementation of inclusive education mainly lies with teachers at the school level.Hence the teachers' knowledge and willingness to include GSD in lessons and school policies is crucial in addressing GSD at the school level.Unfortunately, the current data presents minimal inclusion in terms of GSD among learners at the school level.
These findings align with McQuillan (2021), who reports that the schools that established policies on bullying did not base these policies on concrete plans and laws.Even though policies are established at the national level to address diversity among learners, the school policies established by schools need clear guidelines to respond to GSD among learners.Moreover, the school rules and disciplinary procedures do not include measures to curb homophobic bullying.The current research revealed that the Namibian constitution and other legal frameworks, such as the Inclusive Education policy form the basis for addressing school diversity (Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a).These findings highlight the importance of reflecting GSD in legal frameworks and policies at the national level.The schools' policies and rules reflect the absence of GSD in the national policies and rules.Brown (2019) supports these findings that the constitution and other legal frameworks (i.e., the Education for All policy document and Education Act) influence the formulation of educational policies concerning GSD.It is evident from the current study's findings that the formulation of the school policies and rules reflects the need for more reference to GSD in national legal frameworks such as the constitution of Namibia, Inclusive Education policy and Orphans and Vulnerable Children policy.
This study deduces from the above discussions that the existing legal frameworks, such as the constitution and the Inclusive Education policy, acted as barriers to the inclusion of GSD in schools since there was no reference on which to base school rules on addressing homophobic bullying.Homophobic bullying has long-lasting effects on learners (Brown, 2016(Brown, , 2019)).Based on these findings, some learners in Namibian schools might be experiencing psychological distress due to the failure to include GSD in the education system at the school level.In agreement with research (Gentz et al., 2021;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a), this study highlights a need for the MoEAC to establish clear legal frameworks that address GSD.Moreover, this study revealed a need for providing clear guidelines on preventing bullying in schools based explicitly on GSD.Some schools did not acknowledge GSD among learners.Thus, they did not make provisions for protecting children against homophobic bullying.Moreover, teachers did not see a need to make provisions to include GSD in school programs like other forms of diversity such as culture.There seems to be a view that there are no learners with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations in some Namibian schools.Thus, there is no need to establish measures to prevent homophobic bullying.Literature (Brown, 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a) validates this study's findings as schools' lack of responses to GSD led to positioning heteronormative as the default norm in schools.Literature (Stryker, 1977;Tajfel & Turner, 1979) states that when people look at others as belonging to a particular group, they tend to develop a discriminating attitude towards the people they have positioned in the out-group.In agreement with Brown (2019), this study points out that nurturing heteronormativity as the default norm in Namibian schools could lead to discrimination and create barriers to an optimal learning environment for all learners.Based on the interpretation of the assumptions of the SIP within the context of this study, the current findings bring forth a caution to educators to ensure their personal beliefs do not contribute to nurturing heteronormative as a default norm in the education curriculum and classroom.Positioning heteronormative as a default norm in the education curriculum and classroom will prevent recognition of GSD and create room for a discriminatory atmosphere in schools.Thus, educators should acknowledge the GSD that learners bring into the classrooms and respond to this form of diversity accordingly.
This study correctly echoes the literature regarding teaching topics related to GSD during Life Skills lessons.The current findings concur with findings by other researchers (i.e., Adekola & Mavhandu-Mudzusi, 2021;Chitiyo & Dzenga, 2021;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b) that teachers were unwilling to teach some topics on sexuality due to religious and cultural beliefs.The Namibian constitution recognises all religions and beliefs equally; thus, no religion is considered more important than the others (GRN, 1990).Refusing to teach specific topics due to religious beliefs is, therefore, a violation of the Namibian constitution on the provision of education to children.Literature (Breshears & Lubbe De Beer, 2016;Cardinal, 2021;Daniels et al., 2019) highlights the importance of schools being places where learners learn about their fundamental human rights in society.Moreover, learners understand their membership in communities and their relationships with others through opportunities provided to them in schools (Brown, 2022;James, 2020;Johnson, 2022).Hence, it is clear that schools influence learners' outlook on the world and their relation to others.Appropriately, the inclusion of GSD in school policies and the teaching content of GSD in the classroom could promote recognition of diversity in schools and realise inclusion for all in the Namibian education system.This study concurs with research (i.e., Brown, 2022;Lees, 2017;Prajapati et al., 2017) that when teachers teach all topics under sexuality education in detail, educators and learners can better understand GSD.However, these findings indicate a possibility that the Life Skills curriculum content does not contribute more to providing information on GSD and the promotion of inclusion at the school level.Giving learners opportunities to learn and understand the complex diversity of sexuality and gender identities is believed to help learners function effectively in society and develop respect and acceptance towards other people's differences (MoEAC, 2016).However, these findings imply that although the Life Skills curriculum provides ample learning opportunities, the teachers do not use this content to allow learners to learn and understand their gender identities and sexuality.This study raises a concern regarding providing learners with relevant information on diversity.Each school in Namibia has one Life Skills teacher for all grades (MoEAC, 2016), hence if the Life Skills teacher refuses to teach topics on sexuality, all learners in that particular school might not get chances to learn this content.Therefore, this study concludes that some learners do not get chances to learn about their gender differences and diverse sexual orientations.
The current study revealed that there is a provision of psychological support to learners at the school in addition to psychological support offered at regional levels.The literature (i.e., Powell & Menendian, 2016;Spivak, 1985;Tajfel & Turner, 1979) maintains that social rejection occurs once the society perceives any behaviour different from the norm as a threat to the social order.Hence, diverse characteristics from the perceived ideal lead to exclusion (Spivak, 1985;Stryker, 1977;Tajfel & Turner, 1979), which leads to mistreatment and discrimination.When this rejection occurs in schools based on GSD, learners could suffer from several psychological problems, such as depression.Thus, it is commendable that the Life Skills teachers provide learners with psychological support.Through psychological support, learners could learn skills to cope with emotional stress.Further, psychological support could promote the development of skills needed for positive social interaction between learners and teachers to prevent bullying and enable emotional security for learners, as research (i.e., Brown, 2016;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022b) states.Therefore, this study concurs with the literature (Hogg et al., 1995;McLeod, 2019) by acknowledging the role of psychological support for learners in preventing the effects of social categorisation such as the internalisation of discrimination-related stress, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of worthlessness.

Conclusions and implications for inclusion in the Namibian education system
This study focused on the inclusion of GSD in the Namibia education context.While several studies have focused on the experiences of gender and diverse learners in different countries, only a few studies have been conducted on the school experiences of these learners in the Namibian context.Notably, the literature search revealed that no studies focused on including GSD in Namibian education.The findings of this study bring forth crucial implications for inclusion practices in education systems.Including GSD in the education system is crucial to realising education for all in Namibia and beyond its borders.The researcher draws several conclusions about the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system in light of the current findings.This study concludes that there is a need for improvement in the Namibian education system to include GSD.Thus, there is a need for national educational frameworks that address GSD.Addressing GSD in the national frameworks will provide schools with a legal stand on including appropriate measures in school rules to prevent bullying based on GSD and establish school policies that promote GSD.This study points to a need for practical inclusion in schools to support the efforts made by the MoEAC to respond to diversity by establishing policy documents that address diversity and include content on GSD in the school curriculum.The study demonstrates a need for proactive measures against homophobic bullying in schools.The lack of proactive measures against homophobic bullying bears implications for the safety of all learners in schools.The study argues that inclusive school policies could contribute toward ensuring a safer school environment for all learners.
The lack of GSD content in teacher training programs raises concerns regarding teacher knowledge and ability to address GSD among learners.Teacher training offers teachers the necessary skills to respond to diversity among learners.Therefore, there is a need for the institutions of higher learning and the MoEAC to include GSD topics in the teacher training program as well as provide training to teachers on these topics.
Teaching Life Skills at the school level is one of the best educational responses to GSD among learners holistically.The curriculum content of this subject could help young people to understand their identity and sexuality, to function effectively in society, and to develop respect towards other people in all spheres of life (Brown, 2022;MoEAC, 2016).However, this study reports a need for more evidence on teaching the topics of GSD in schools.Failure to cover GSD content has implications for the inclusion of GSD in the education systems.Hence, governments should monitor and ensure teachers teach GSD topics intensively.
Educators need to recognise that the inclusion of GSD in the education system will benefit all learners by preventing discrimination and promoting learners' well-being and academic performance.In agreement with the literature (i.e., Brown, 2019;Haitembu & Maarman, 2022a), this study highlights the absence of GSD content in the teacher training programs, the lack of teaching all sexuality education topics, and the lack of school rules to curb homophobia as a failure of the Namibian education system to include issues regarding GSD fully.
The findings of this study call for further research on the inclusion of GSD at the school level.Therefore, given the minimal inclusion of GSD at the school level, there is a need for future research to focus on the in-service and pre-service teachers' perception of affirming GSD in schools and classrooms.Soliciting teachers' views on affirming GSD in schools and classrooms could shed light on more factors contributing to the minimal inclusion of GSD in schools revealed in this study.Moreover, future research might consider including teachers in rural areas, learners and parents to gain a broader view of the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system, especially at the school level.

Limitations
This study had limitations, especially concerning the participants' views of GSD in the Namibian education system.The data in this study are collected from a cohort of participants who lived in and close to towns.Inferring from the findings in this study, people living in towns have a different understanding of GSD from those living in rural areas.Therefore, since the participants in this study live in and near towns, they might have presented a different view on the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education context based on their understanding of the importance of inclusion in terms of GSD.Thus, these findings need to include the voices of the teachers in rural areas.Hence, these findings might not reflect a broader view of the inclusion of GSD in the Namibian education system.
education officers and teachers have different opinions on the content of the in-service training offered by the MoEAC for Life Skills teachers.The education officers believe that the training provided to teachers includes GSD.They further indicate that the institutions of higher learning are contributing to the MoEAC's efforts to respond to diversity by training student teachers interested in specialising in Life Skills as a subject.Education officer Martha said: The education department is responding to all learners by first empowering Life Skills teachers to help learners through workshops, training, and meetings.The institutions of higher learning are also on par now with the ministry as they are training student teachers in Life Skills as a subject.However, teachers had a different opinion on the training offered by MoEAC and the institutions of higher learning.Even though teachers are offered training, the findings of this study presented a concern regarding the learning and training content of the teacher-training program in terms of GSD among learners.The teachers indicated that the training offered by the education officers and institutions of higher learning do not include GSD content.The following verbatim elaborates more: