In/formal sex education: learning gay identity in cultural and educational contexts in Mexico

This paper addresses how educational and cultural contexts incorporate lessons around sexuality, particularly sexual and gender identity, and how these contexts impact on identity construction of gay men in Mexico City. We analyse the experiences of 15 gay men reported through semi-structured in-depth interviews and how they incorporate sexuality through socialisation with primary social institutions in Mexico's contemporary educational political context. The sample was divided into three generations, and was selected through maximum variability. Results show that men incorporate negative meanings around same-sex sexuality, and themselves from institutions such as school and family. Men are able to deconstruct these meanings through interactions with educational tools such as the Internet and interactions with gay friends. These results are discussed using post-structuralist perspectives to understand how identity is fluid and changing constantly, as well as the need to incorporate stigma-free curricular content in educational contexts.     

Vernacular knowledge and critical pedagogy: conceptualising sexual health education for young men who have sex with men

Over 30 years after HIV was first recognised in the USA, the epidemic continues to pose a disproportionate threat to vulnerable and marginalised populations. Increasing HIV incidence among young men who have sex with men has spurred debate around the content and approach to HIV prevention interventions directed towards this vulnerable population. A comprehensive model for conceptualising the content of sexual health education is described, which can be tailored to the unique needs and experiences of young men who have sex with men through the application of social theory. Vernacular knowledge is incorporated as a manner of nesting sexual health messages within the shared understandings of young men regarding same-sex sexual practices, gender roles and expectations, community mores and conventions and other shared knowledge of sex and sexuality. Critical pedagogy is then discussed as a way of guiding one’s pedagogical approach during intervention design and implementation that is most conducive to both individual empowerment and community solidarity. The paper concludes with strategies for turning the corner from theory to practice, beginning with formative research that culminates in the design of relevant, community-based sexual health education programmes for young men who have sex with men.     

Lesbian and gay teachers and sex/uality education policy enactment in schools

ABSTRACT

This paper examines lesbian and gay teachers’ identities and experiences in schools in the context of school policies relating to homophobia and to sex and sexuality education. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 lesbian and gay teachers working in English and Welsh schools, and using the concept of ‘policy enactment’, I analyse the ways in which school policies around homo/bi/transphobic bullying and sex/uality education and their enactment are perceived by lesbian and gay teachers. The article examines teachers’ personal experiences in relation to sexuality in school, and then broadens out into related issues for pupils and a discussion of the varied approaches to sex and relationships education in the schools. I argue that the enactment of these policies is not straightforward, and that they could be better supported by a more inclusive and comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.     

Early life emotional neglect and HIV risk taking among men using the Internet to find other men for unprotected sex

Purpose: Using a Syndemics Theory conceptual model, this study examines the relationship between emotional neglect experiences during childhood and/or adolescence and involvement in HIV risk taking in a sample of adult men who actively seek partners for unprotected sex via the Internet. Methods: The study was based on a national random sample of 332 MSM who use the Internet to seek men with whom they can engage in unprotected sex. Data collection was conducted via telephone interviews between January 2008 and May 2009. Structural equation analysis was undertaken to examine the specific nature of the relationships involved in understanding HIV risk practices. Results: Emotional neglect was highly prevalent among the men participating in this study. Emotional neglect experiences were not found to be related directly to involvement in HIV risk taking in adulthood. Emotional neglect, was found to be an important variable in the overall structural equation. Its effect on HIV risk taking was indirect, operating principally by having a negative impact upon self-esteem, which in turn had a negative effect on attitudes toward condom use, which in turn were related strongly and directly to risk taking. Conclusions: Childhood experiences with emotional neglect are relevant to understanding HIV risk practices among MSM in adulthood, but the relationship is not as simple as usually conceptualized. Rather, emotional neglect appears to impact risk taking indirectly, through its effects on mental health functioning, which in turn affects risk-related attitudes.     

Diversity and inclusivity at university: a survey of the experiences of lesbian,gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) students in the UK

The extent to which UK universities are ‘gay friendly’ has received some attention in the press. Whilst there are a number of published studies exploring campus climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) students and/or staff, these are primarily localised studies undertaken in State Universities and Baccalaureate Colleges in the US. The present study is a nationwide UK study of campus climate, based on survey data collected from a sample of 291 LGBT students from 42 universities across the UK. The findings show that despite the increased implementation of an equality agenda (e.g. equal access; widening participation) in UK Higher Education, homophobia on campus is still a significant problem and therefore universities are not perceived nor experienced by LGBT students as ‘safe spaces’ in which to be open about sexual orientation/gender identity. The implications of the findings for university policy and practice in relation to LGBT (and indeed all) students is also explored.     

The transformation of school-based sex education policy in the context of AIDS in Ireland

While AIDS was neither the initial nor the sole factor, it had a profound impact on the development of school-based sex education policy and practice in 1980s Ireland. Attempts to introduce a national programme of sex education on foot of increasing rates of crisis pregnancy pre-date the AIDS era, but these efforts had been vociferously opposed by conservative Catholic interests. The fear generated by AIDS prompted a shift in what political theorist, John Kingdon terms, the 'national mood' that? coupled with the singular determination of then Minister for Education, Mary O’Rourke, who faced down intense opposition from conservative groups and the Catholic Bishops, created the conditions needed to introduce the AIDS Education Resource – a forerunner to the Relationships and Sexuality Education programme – in post-primary schools throughout Ireland in October 1990.     

A content analysis of lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender topics in multicultural education textbooks

This research examines the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) topics in 12 popular multicultural education textbooks. Following a line‐by‐line analysis of each textbook, the findings report the extent to which LGBT topics were included in each text and the themes that became apparent in how LGBT topics were treated. The authors conclude with a discussion of the texts’ contents and the suggestion that texts do more to include LGBT topics and provide more complex and complete representations of LGBT identities. This analysis sets a basis for comparison for future studies to gauge how levels of LGBT inclusion have changed both quantitatively and qualitatively.     

‘Kasi curriculum’: what young men learn and teach about sex in a South African township

ABSTRACT

Sex education within the formal bounds of school curricula or clinic consultation is traditionally conceived as age-appropriate and accurate information, delivered by a sanctioned adult such as a nurse or teacher. This article explores another kind of curriculum – taught and learned among young men themselves in the kasi (township) in which they live. Findings are based on primary data gathered during interviews and research workshops with boys and young men (aged 14–22), including focus group discussions and participatory research exercises. In exploring young men’s sexual ideas, practices, hopes and fears, it focuses on three themes: (i) consent and coercion; (ii) pleasure and risk; and (iii) advice and authority. We examine diverse perspectives on these themes, and trace the tensions and ambiguities that surface within young men’s accounts. We focus in particular on contradictions between what is learned about sex through formal curricula, and what is learned through peers and older men, including within ulwaluko (a rite of passage of traditional initiation and circumcision for Xhosa men).     

Zina and the enigma of sex education for Indonesian Muslim youth

Sexuality and sex education cannot be divorced from the moral values of the societies within which we must negotiate our sexual identities and relationships. Rather than pandering to the moral panic that is too often associated with the provision of sex education in non‐secular societies where religion is more visibly active in shaping sexual ideals and norms, this article takes up the challenge of investigating a relationship that is often represented as being innately contradictory. It explores the Islamic notion of zina (illicit sex) in relation to the provision of comprehensive sex education for Muslim youth in contemporary Indonesia. The article initially establishes the demand for sex education among Indonesian youth from the overlapping perspectives of health, human rights and Islam. It then explores the notion of zina in detail and exposes how Islamic stipulations against premarital sex are not necessarily in conflict with the provision of sex education. The final section of the article refines the argument in favour of utilizing Islam as a framework for developing religiously appropriate sex education and describes a suitable approach and content for Islamic sex education curricula for Indonesian youth.     

Chastity for democracy: Surplus repression and the rhetoric of sex education

Moving from opposition to participation, the Adolescent Family Life Act (1981) and the development of abstinence education marks the conservative movement's pivot to a rhetorical strategy of tolerance that enabled it to coopt the public culture of sex discourse. Working from Herbert Marcuse's theory of “surplus repression,” I argue that the New Right seized the liberationist argument for open public discourse about sexuality to sublimate libidinal desires into a national project of familial (re)productivity. The AFLA is significant in the rhetorical history of sex education because it demarcates the transition to a productive form of biopolitics that sought to manage sexuality by instrumentalizing rather than censuring bodily desire. Conservative sex talk illustrates how Eros—transgressive, creative, and erotic desires—is channeled into the discursive production of hyper-functional subjects invested in their own subjugation.     

Understanding parental views of adolescent sexuality and sex education in Ecuador: a qualitative study

Parents' contribution to sex education is increasingly receiving research attention. This growing interest stems from recognition of the influence that parental attitudes may have both on young people's sexual attitudes and behaviour, and on school-based sex education. Studies regarding parental attitudes towards sexuality are, however, still rare. The two main objectives of this study were to explore parental views about sexuality and to understand parental attitudes towards sex education. Four focus group discussions were conducted with parents from high schools in Cuenca, Ecuador. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study revealed that parents held a restricted view about sex education, grounded in traditional religious ideas about sexuality, which led parents to understand it as a morally and physically dangerous activity. Although parents expressed a willingness to make good quality sex education available to their children, they reported having insufficient personal resources to fulfil that objective. The results of this study provide important information about the need to develop and adapt sex education to each specific cultural context, thereby confirming the importance of knowing about the cultural traditions and religious beliefs that may form obstacles to effective sex education for young people in Ecuador.     

宁德师范学院在校生性健康教育现状调查与思考

为了解宁德师院在校生的性健康教育现状,采用整群抽样的方法,对500名在校生进行问卷调查,为建立针对性和实效性的高校性健康教育模式和开展性健康教育干预措施提供理论依据.调查显示,72.2%学生未修过性健康教育课程;80.7%以上学生觉得自己对性知识了解程度不足,性知识主要来源于互联网和报刊杂志;80%以上学生认为课堂讲授、观看教学录像是获得性健康知识的最佳形式;98%学生要求开设性教育课程且希望开设心理咨询中心.学生对在校期间谈恋爱及婚前性行为多持＂接受＂态度.结果表明,师院在校生的贞操观相对淡薄,性观念较为开放,而性知识匮乏,并且获取性知识的途径不佳.为了学生的身心健康,建议普及性健康教育课程,家庭、学校、社会多方配合,以纯洁教育为主旨辅以安全教育.     

The role of teachers in sex education and the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

Research was undertaken to assess the role of primary school teachers with regard to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Structured and semi‐structured questionnaires were responded to by 210 teachers drawn from primary schools in Eastern Nigeria (with pupils aged 6–15 years). These were supplemented by focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The findings show that the teachers have a reasonably high knowledge of the modes of HIV transmission, the behavioural risk factors and modes of prevention. The teachers, however, are reluctant to teach this because of socio‐cultural and religious factors, lack of teacher training in delivery of sex education as well as poor motivation. The motivation and participation of primary school teachers in the prevention of HIV in Nigeria are very low. This calls for serious and urgent policy intervention to remedy the situation and increase the role of primary school teachers in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.     

Learning about sex in later life: sources of education and older Australian adults

This paper examines the preferred sexuality education sources of older Australian adults in later life. Drawing on findings from qualitative interviews with 30 men and 23 women aged 60 years and older, we consider the sources that participants currently use, or would like to use, in seeking information about sex. Where relevant, we examine participants’ experiences of learning about sex in later life using different sources, and the impact these had on their sexual expression, pleasure and well-being. Preferred sources of information include the Internet, the media, health care providers, books and workshops or discussion groups. A substantial number of participants did not actively seek information on sex. For those who had, these educational endeavours could profoundly shape their sexual practices. As such, learning about sex should be viewed as a lifelong endeavour. Our findings carry important implications for the development and delivery of sexuality education for older adults.     

The knowledge gap: examining the rhetoric and implementation of peer education for HIV prevention in Myanmar

In this paper, I report on an examination of the rhetoric and implementation of peer education in Myanmar. I demonstrate that while there was widespread consistency on interviewees' views of what peer education should involve, there was a significant gap between this rhetoric and the ways in which peer education was implemented, particularly in relation to the training of peer educators. It is my argument that this gap occurred because of failure to utilise, or even recognise, a particular form of knowledge: knowledge as phronesis, which is most commonly translated as ‘practical wisdom’ and incorporates factual, emotional and experiential knowledge. Instead, as I show, the pedagogic processes in use in peer education practice in Myanmar drew on an (unexpressed) understanding of knowledge as episteme: a form of knowledge that is facts-based, technical and presumed objective.     

部分国家中小学性教育改革的动向及特征

中小学是青少年性教育的重要阶段,中小学性教育是基础教育改革的重要内容。在全球基础教育改革方兴未艾的背景下,部分国家顺应新世纪中小学性教育实践需求,积极推进中小学性教育改革,改革呈现目标体系更加多元均衡、起始年限更加提前、支撑体系更加完善的崭新动向及特征,从中折射出全球中小学性教育发展趋势。这为推进我国中小学性教育改革提供了深刻启示。     

浅论高校思想政治教育如何帮助大学生树立马克思主义信仰

在经济全球化、政治多极化、文化多元化的持续影响下,大学生出现了信仰问题。树立大学生的马克思主义信仰,被摆在了突出位置上,我国宪法和中国共产党的党章明确规定了马克思主义是我们党和国家的指导思想。思想政治教育要努力帮助大学生树立马克思主义信仰,培养中国特色社会主义建设的合格建设者和可靠接班人。     

Towards a transnational model of critical values education: the case for literature education in Singapore

Once regarded as the most essential subject in the national curriculum vital for civilizing the public, English Literature has now lost its place of prominence. In this paper, I focus on Singapore where the subject was a core aspect of the colonial curriculum and where it is currently facing declining enrolment at the national examinations. In the first part of the paper, I discuss how Literature initially functioned to propagate colonial values education in Singapore and how, following Singapore's independence, its goals were overtaken by a nation-state model of values education. Limitations of this model provide the grounds for a transnational model of critical values education that, as I argue in the second part, may be powerfully conveyed through Literature. It is Literature's capacity to facilitate transnational critical engagements with values and explorations of identity especially involving highly sensitive aspects related to gender, race, and religion that represents the strongest justification in the light of its present demise. What Literature offers is the possibility of engaging with values beyond the confines of Empire or nation by grappling with essential questions about what it means to be a cosmopolitan as opposed to a nationalistic citizen inhabiting the world.     

思想政治教育在预防职务犯罪中的价值功能

思想政治教育是我们党的优良传统之一,面对职务犯罪的高发态势,单纯依靠法律的惩治和威慑已不足以遏制和有效预防职务犯罪的蔓延。应充分发挥思想政治教育的优势,强化道德品质、政治素养、权力观念、法律意识的预防内涵,运用思想政治教育在预防过程中的价值功能,即外迫功能、导向功能、转化功能、重构功能、警示功能和评价功能,注重从科学化、制度化、技术化和社会化的角度,对国家工作人员的思想修养、政治素质、道德水准和法律意识进行教化,从而实现关口前移,从思想上筑牢预防职务犯罪的廉政防线,提高思想政治教育的实效性。