‘A lot more to learn than where babies come from’: controversy,language and agenda setting in the framing of school-based sexuality education curricula in Australia

Sexuality education in Australian schools continues to struggle in its ability and willingness to address many of the broader social issues associated with sexuality, such as the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) students. Studies involving teachers have demonstrated that a reticence on their part to teach GLBTIQ-inclusive sexuality education is driven by a lack of training in handling ‘sensitive’ issues, a fear of backlash and confusion over their obligations under relevant departmental policies. This reticence may, in part at least, stem from a commonly held inference that the inclusion of queer sexualities is inherently ‘controversial’. There appears to be a tendency for curricula and government directives to ‘juggle’ principles of social justice for marginalised sexualities with ‘risk management’ policies, which seek to screen course content for potential ‘controversy’. Much of this controversy has its roots in the language and rhetoric used to describe and discuss issues dealt with in sexuality education curricula. The paper demonstrates, through the process of ‘languaging’, how the language and rhetoric of controversy and sexuality can be exposed so that they may be better addressed through policy and government directives.     

Comprehensive for who? Neoliberal directives in Australian ‘comprehensive’ sexuality education and the erasure of GLBTIQ identity

At present, Australian sex(uality) education curricula aim to equip students with information which facilitates ‘healthy’ sexual choices as they develop. However, this is not neutral information, but rather socially and culturally regulated discourse which encodes a normative binary of sexuality. The largely US-focused sexuality education literature tends to categorise curricula as belonging to either ‘comprehensive’ or ‘conservative’ factions, consisting of progressive, secular approaches or religious- or abstinence-based programmes, respectively. Neither of these factions, however, appear to be able to cater for the integration of issues relevant to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) students nor does this binary conceptualisation represent the reality of Australian sexuality education policy and practice. This paper argues that contemporary sexuality education has a fundamentally neoliberal focus, which aims to assimilate GLBTIQ people into existing normative frameworks (economic and social), rather than challenge them. Such an approach does not foster critical student understandings of oppression, power or morality. The development of critical literacy around sexuality is regarded as essential to meaningfully address the complex needs of GLBTIQ students. The paper explores missing queer discourses within Australian teaching resources. The inclusion of these would benefit GLBTIQ students by bringing previously silenced issues to the fore.     

Navigating the relationship between policy and practice: competing discourses of fear and care in teachers’ sense-making about the FAIR Education Act

In this article, I examine the relationship between large-scale social discourses and local, school discourses as it plays out in conversations about gender and sexuality with and among teachers, specifically in the context of the passage of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act in California. Grounded in feminist poststructural theories of discourse, I discuss qualitative data from a year-long study at one public middle school in Southern California where I provided professional development. I examine what happens when teachers are given opportunities to make sense of their roles in attending to topics of gender and sexual diversity, through conversations and dialogue. The following research questions guided my analyses: What themes arise in teachers’ conversations about their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of the FAIR Education Act? (How) are these themes produced in relationship with large-scale social discourses about gender and sexual diversity in schools? I argue that examining this relationship provides key insights into the ways teachers make sense of equity-focused policies that are meant to shift sociopolitical paradigms, and their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of such policies.     

Responsibilities,tensions and ways forward: parents’ perspectives on children’s sexuality education

Abstract

Children’s sexuality education continues to be plagued with tensions and controversies. In consequence, children’s access to sexuality education is severely compromised, especially in terms of the time dedicated to this topic, the content addressed, how it is taught and by whom. Based on a study of 342 Australian parents of primary school aged children we explore: (i) parents’ perceptions of the relevance and importance of sexuality education to their primary school aged children and the discourses that inform their perspectives; (ii) parents’ views on who should be responsible for the sexuality education of young children; (iii) whether there are certain aspects of sexuality education considered more appropriate for the family to address with children; and (iv) what the implications of these findings are for sexuality education policy and practice in Australian primary schooling. Despite the controversial nature of the topic, the majority of parents in this study believed sexuality education was relevant and important to primary school children and that it should be a collaborative approach between families and schools. However, some parents/carers acknowledged that while that they believed that some topics should only be addressed at home they also indicated that this often does not happen.     

Sexuality education： Analysis of Moroccan teachers＇ and future teachers＇ conceptions

Conceptions are analyzed as being the emergences from interactions between three poles： scientific knowledge （K）, values （V） and social practices （P）. The teachers＇ beliefs and values have a direct influence on the way of understanding and teaching a topic. These beliefs must be taken into account in the content and strategies of the teacher＇s formation. In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of studying and analyzing these conceptions and present the results of the research on teachers＇ and future teachers＇ conceptions about sexual health education. In this topic, the conceptions could be deeply rooted not only in scientific knowledge but also in value systems and social practices, because teachers often refuse to teach the ethical, psychological, economic and social issues not strictly reducible to biology, such as sexuality health. The authors used a questionnaire prepared jointly within the European project Biohead-Citizen.     

‘It's not bullying’, ‘It's just a joke’: Teacher and student discursive manoeuvres around gendered violence

Threats or harassment related to the enforcement of gender norms remain largely unchallenged in many schools. Possibilities for meaningful interventions have been undermined by an over-reliance on individual, psycho-pathologised understandings of ‘bullying’ and a reluctance to examine contextual and socio-cultural mechanisms of power. Poststructural feminist approaches offer an alternative view of gendered violence and its responses—one that focuses on the meanings that individuals and groups constitute through discourse around gender, violence and ‘bullying’. This article examines focus group data from teachers and students from one Australian school that experienced a significant event of gendered violence referred to as ‘Kick a slut in the head day’. Results demonstrate that participants minimised or dismissed the ‘seriousness’ of this event through employing particular ‘discursive manoeuvres’ drawn from hegemonic discourses of ‘bullying’. Teachers utilised essentialist discourses to illustrate that the incident was ‘not bullying’, while students suggested that it was a ‘joke’ or that the girl/s were deserving of the treatment. These findings suggest that ‘discursive manoeuvres’ are a helpful indicator for understanding contextual resistance to addressing gendered violence.     

‘We understand better because we have been mothers': teaching,maternalism, and gender equality in Bolivian education

This article explores Bolivian schoolteachers’ attitudes and practices surrounding gender in the context of a national educational reform law that mandated gender equity. Teacher interviews and primary school classroom observations indicate teachers’ discourses and practices reflect a sometimes paradoxical blend of advocacy for gender equality and reinforcement of existing traditions of patriarchy. Specifically, long-standing cultural assumptions that essentialise women's maternalism were common within schools and supported by both teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices. While this served to reinscribe gender inequality and women's subordination, teachers’ discourses also drew upon ideals of maternalism as a basis of women's strength and empowerment in opposition to sexism. In this article, we explore the tensions that arise as teachers negotiate their own staunch support for girls’ rights alongside their assumptions about gender differentiation.     

Primary schools and the delivery of relationships and sexuality education: the experience of Queensland teachers

Primary school provides an appropriate opportunity for children to commence comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE), yet many primary school teachers avoid teaching this subject area. In the absence of teacher confidence and competence, schools have often relied on health promotion professionals, external agencies and/or one-off issue-related presentations rather than cohesive, systematic and meaningful health education. This study examines the implementation of a 10-lesson pilot RSE unit of work and an accompanying assessment task in two primary schools in South-East Queensland, Australia. Drawing predominantly from qualitative data, the research explores the experiences of primary school teachers as they engage with RSE curriculum resources and content delivery. The results show the provision of a high-quality RSE curriculum resource grounded in contemporary educational principles and practices enables teachers to feel more confident to deliver RSE and minimises potential barriers such as parental objections and fear of mishandling sensitive content.     

‘She’s not a slag because she only had sex once’: Sexual ethics in a London secondary school

The premature sexualisation of young people is a source of intense public anxiety, often framed as an unprecedented crisis. Concurrently, a critical scholarship highlights problematic assumptions underpinning this discourse, including a positioning of young people as morally compromised passive subjects, and a disconnect between the reductionist framework and the complexity of young peoples’ lived experiences. Drawing from ethnographic research in a London school, in this article I argue that by attending to the everyday lives of pupils, a more nuanced picture of moral and sexual change and continuity emerges. Using the framework of ‘ordinary ethics’, which identifies ethics as pervasive in speech and action, I demonstrate the multiple ways by which young people define and act according to what they consider sexually good and right. In this way the analytical focus is shifted from passivity to activity and we can appreciate how young people today are evincing a sexual ethics of force and efficacy.     

Technology and sexuality – what's the connection? Addressing youth sexualities in efforts to increase girls' participation in computing

To date, girls and women are significantly underrepresented in computer science and technology. Concerns about this underrepresentation have sparked a wealth of educational efforts to promote girls’ participation in computing, but these programs have demonstrated limited impact on reversing current trends. This paper argues that this is, in part, because these programs tend to take a narrow view of their purpose, ignoring important factors that shape girls’ identities and education/career choices – not least broader narratives around gender, race, and sexuality. This paper focuses on the issue of sexuality – that is, how sexuality discourses are shaping a diverse range of girls’ experiences with technology, their perceptions of themselves, and their ultimate educational and career choices. The paper makes the case for considering these important connections, bringing together research in two disparate areas: (1) sociological research in gender, diversity, and technology and (2) critical cultural studies research in youth sexualities and schooling.     

Agency in action – young women and their sexual relationships in a private school

Agency among young women is often understood as fleeting in nature, and studies rarely offer insights into how agency could become a more sustained position. Using data from 54 young women discussing their sexual and intimate relationships, this paper suggests a new way of understanding agency beyond that found in work which stresses agentic practice as resistance or the challenging of dominant expectations and understandings. Instead, through the notion of ‘agency in action’ we begin with young women’s conceptualisations of power. In this study, power was viewed as a resource that is shared between partners, but also a capacity of the self. These conceptualisations offer two new ways of understanding agency in intimate relations – either through ‘reacting into action’ and taking power back; or by ‘starting from’ a powerful position. Central to an understanding of young women’s agency is the role of emotions and recognition of these as motivators for change.     

Counseling as a Critique of Gender: On the Ethics of Counseling Transgendered Clients

This paper examines the responsibilities of mental health professionals, particularly counselors, to those who identify or might be identifiable as “transgendered.” There are two main objectives. The first is to describe the critical reflection necessary to deal with gender-variant clients in an ethical and effective manner. The second is to discuss a psychotherapeutic model that is likely to be effective in integrating such reflection into the clinical process, and to make counseling recommendations on that basis.     

Teachers’ perceptions of bullying among youth

A series of 48 vignettes of bullying was constructed by crossing (a) four kinds of social contact (physical aggression, verbal aggression, relational aggression, and non-aggression) with (b) male and female bullies, (c) male and female and victims, and (d) reaction of the victim (aggressive, passive, and no reaction). Teachers rated vignettes for seriousness. Physical aggression was perceived as more serious than any other kind of bullying, and vignettes that depicted female bullies and male victims were perceived as least serious across all kinds of bullying. Results are discussed in terms of applied implications for teachers in school settings and directions for future research.     

战后澳大利亚对华移民政策的演变(1945-1995)

澳大利亚是一个移民国家,移民政策一直是其重要的基本国策之一。由于历史、政治、社会和文化背景等方面的原因,在100多年来澳大利亚对华移民政策史上,以种族歧视为核心的“白澳政策”长期占据主导地位。第二次世界大战结束以来,澳洲政府逐步调整对华移民政策,其间经历了一个从逐步调整、渐进改革到彻底废除“白澳政策”;从以引进非技术移民为主到鼓励商业移民和独立技术移民赴澳的历史演变进程。澳洲政府最终废止白澳政策的基本原因主要是:二战促使澳洲人对种族歧视问题进行了认真反思;战后反种族歧视的世界进步潮流的推动;华人素质的改变和中国国际地位的提高,以及改变对亚洲关系和开发澳洲、发展经济的需求。