MEANTIME - A BRIEF PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A TRANS* TEACHER

Oct 15, 2026

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Explores trans* exclusion in Alberta public education through a brief personal narrative structured around two analytical moments labeled “Meantime One: The Administrator” and “Meantime Two: The Student.” The author contrasts professionalism with lived practice, describing unexpected fear and confusion when administrators involve unions and lawyers due to concerns about entering the “wrong washroom.” The text frames these incidents as distortions of time, prompting physiological and intellectual reactions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: Meantime as Analytical Moment

Meantime One: The Administrator

Meantime Two: The Student

MEANTIME: A BRIEF PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A TRANS* TEACHER Jan Buterman, University of Alberta In the context of Alberta public education, teachers should not expect discrimination on the basis of gender identity. However, in practice, exclusionary behaviours towards people whose gender identity is different than the sex they were assigned at birth are frequent and may encompass any and all connected to the school environment including legislators, administrators, and students. In this brief personal narrative, I explore some unexpected moments of trans* exclusion, a gap between professionalism and practice that I describe as the “Meantime.” Introduction: Meantime as Analytical Moment The word meantime can be used as a noun, adverb, and, rarely, an adjective. As a noun, it is the “time intervening between one particular period or event and another”; its adverbial use is similar to the noun,“during or within the time intervening between a particular period or event and a subsequent one; while or until a (specified) period or event occurs”(“Meantime,” 2015) . While reflecting on these two moments of trans* 1 exclusion, I was struck by how such moments are poised together as a distortion of time and a complex rush of physiological and intellectual response, a profound sense of being between, being neither here nor there. In the context of this personal narrative, meantime also involves a play on words, where mean involves an action of unkindness during a particular moment or time. I do not suggest that the actions giving rise to a 1 Trans-identities are increasingly commonly described by using the word trans along with a wildcard asterisk (*), which is indicative of the many possible identities that may be associated with the word trans. For more information on the history of this orthography, see Ryan (2014) . Meantime are inherently intended to be unkind, rather that the outcome or consequence of the Meantime is not predictable at the moment of its occurrence. Meantime One: The Administrator Imagine, if you will, the scene: a manager's office complete with a large desk, a small side table, three chairs. During your brief lunch break with your colleagues, your manager calls you to his office. You take the lone empty seat. Sitting around the table is you, the manager, and his assistant. You're a diligent, hard worker. When the manager called you in, you thought you'd made a positive impression. Maybe the manager was prepared to praise your work, perhaps even offer you a longed-for promotion. But the presence of the assistant manager confuses you. You realise you’re in the middle of the room, management between you and the door. But, you reason, the meeting can’t be about anything too serious. After all, you’re in this office together yet you are alone; no one from the union is there to represent you. Then the manager speaks. “I don't like to beat around the bush,” he says, beginning to beat around the bush.“I’ve called the union and our lawyer, but we haven't heard anything back from the union about the situation.” Your stomach knots and the blood in your veins turns to ice. Union? Lawyer? Why are you here, and why is the union not here with you? What have you done? You know you are a good worker. You have never been in trouble with the law, but the manager is talking about a lawyer. You know that whatever is going on must be a mistake. How can the manager be talking about a lawyer? Why does the management believe they need to talk to a lawyer and the union before talking to you? What could be the matter? Why is this happening to you? You have this conversation with yourself in less than a heartbeat, or perhaps your heart has actually stopped just as your breath has caught, unable to draw or expel. Your thoughts race, circling around and around, trying to make things—anything—fit. Trying to make sense of the senseless. The manager mentions “the situation” several more times, each statement

FAQs

What does “Meantime” mean in the narrative?

It draws on the word “meantime” as intervening time, while also using a wordplay connection to “mean,” framing moments of unkindness that are not predictable at the time they occur.

What happens in “Meantime One: The Administrator”?

The trans* teacher is called into a manager’s office with an assistant, while union and legal involvement is discussed, culminating in the claim that the concern is about transgendering.

What concern triggers the exclusion described by administrators?

A co-worker is described as being “concerned” about the teacher entering the “wrong washroom,” which leads management to call the union and lawyer and then call the teacher in.

Oct 15, 2026

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