Knowledge of Young People

Going Along with Trans, Queer, and Non-Binary Youth by Sam Stiegler
State University of New York (SUNY Press), March 2026

What becomes visible when educators stop asking young people to explain their lives and instead walk alongside them? In Going Along with Trans, Queer, and Non-Binary Youth, Sam Stiegler challenges dominant, adult-centered narratives that politicize trans, queer, and non-binary youth and constrain what counts as “appropriate” knowledge about childhood. Drawing on a mobile “go-along” research methodology (a qualitative method in which the researcher accompanies participants through their everyday environments while listening to and talking with them, allowing insights to emerge from lived experience, movement, and place in real time), Stiegler accompanies eleven youth as they move through New York City. The interviews in motion reveal how safety, belonging, and survival are negotiated in real time, especially for those marginalized by housing insecurity, gender nonconformity, and social uncertainty. By following youths through subways, parks, and neighborhoods, Stiegler uncovers complex navigation strategies, including choosing longer routes to avoid exposure and carving out temporary refuges in public spaces where invisibility becomes a form of protection. These self-made territories allow youths to endure long, unstructured days while managing risk and self-care. Throughout, Stiegler presents these realities with notable sensitivity, foregrounding participants’ dignity while remaining reflexive about his positionality as a white, cisgender researcher. The book centers lived experiences often excluded from qualitative research, especially those of queer and non-binary youth of color. For independent and international school educators, this book reframes how knowledge of young people is understood. It calls for deep listening, relational humility, and a rejection of deficit-based assumptions, urging educators to recognize the complex, context-bound realities students navigate beyond institutional walls.