Something more to tell you: gay,lesbian or bisexual young people's experiences of secondary schooling

How do young people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (lgb) experience secondary schooling? How do they feel that questions of sexuality are dealt with in the curriculum and do they find this treatment helpful? This article presents the findings of a project that replicated Trenchard and Warren's 1984 study, Something to tell you. The findings are analysed and some suggestions are made as to changes in lgb‐identifying people's experiences of schooling from 1984 to 2001. Finally, the article considers these changes in relation to the question of the ‘effect’ of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.     

Identity Politics and the Queering of Art Education: Inclusion and the Confessional Route to Salvation

In this article I discuss the relationship between theories of identity and making practices in secondary art and design. Of particular interest is the way students are invited to explore identities in relation to a sense of self and the extent to which this is informed by schools' concern to make diversity visible through multicultural celebration, thus framing and possibly limiting exploration. It is notable that non‐heternormative sexual identities remain largely invisible in the official curriculum and I examine the disjunction between this absence and their hypervisibilty in the mass media and its culture of confession/exposure. I revisit Michel Foucault's discussion of the history of sexuality as a way to understand the development of confessional discourses in modern culture and to provide an alternative and ambivalent reading of the power relations implicit in work exploring identities by art and design students. Specifically, I look at the position of gay and lesbian students and teachers, and ask whether their sexuality can figure within the injunction ‘explore your identity’. Given the heteronormative culture of schooling, I end by recommending that individuals should be wary of outing themselves in the name of self‐expression but that art teachers could use strategies of distancing to engage students with issues of sexuality and join with others to counter homophobia by queering the curriculum.     

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.     

‘Due to all this fear,we’re getting less freedom’: young people’s understandings of gender and sexual violence in New Delhi,India

This paper explores young people’s understandings of gender and sexual violence in New Delhi, India, based on multi-method research conducted with young people (aged 15–17) in three co-educational secondary schools. Fieldwork took place shortly after the 2012 Delhi gang rape that sparked widespread debates about violence against women in India, and so sexual violence became an important frame for students’ discussions around gender and sexuality. Young people’s understandings are considered within gender narratives – of ‘can-do’ and ‘vulnerable’ girlhood, and of ‘hero’ and ‘good boy’ masculinities – which already shaped their day-to-day experiences of schooling. Findings suggest that tensions arising from these often contradictory narratives led to frustrations among girls, while the dominance of conversations about sexual violence led to confusions in both girls’ and boys’ understandings of sexuality. Reflections are offered on ways schools can better support young people as they learn about gender and sexuality from diverse and contradictory sources.     

‘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.     

Poles apart? Gender differences in proposals for sexuality education content

Are young women and men’s preferences for sexuality education content poles apart? This article explores gender differences in senior school students’ suggestions for issues sexuality education should cover. Findings are analysed in relation to debate about mixed and single sex classrooms and boys’ perceived disinterest in lessons. It is argued that young women and men’s content preferences were largely similar on items that a majority selected for inclusion. Topics less than half of participants named revealed a greater number of gender differences. Employing theoretical insights from feminist post‐structuralism, responses are also examined for how they position young people as sexual subjects and whether these conform to or deviate from perceptions of ‘conventional heterosexualities’. This examination enables an understanding of how young people view themselves as sexual and whether this matches their constitution within sexuality programmes. The implications of students’ content preferences and the way these position them as sexual subjects are considered for the possibilities they present for programme design and delivery.     

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.     

Preface: ‘Anything You Can Do’: Proposals for Lesbian and Gay Art Education

This preface introduces the themes of this special edition: the contribution that lesbian and gay individuals make to the development of the discipline. These include a non‐heteronormative perspective, and an emphasis on irony within parody. Second, this preface considers the experience of LGBT students and teachers dealing with sexuality within the school curriculum. Third, the current approach to civil rights within the school is considered especially in the context of homophobia, bullying and physical danger. Finally, areas of specifc curriculum advance are noted particularly within art history, media education and teacher education. Irving Berlin's witty little song ‘Anything you can do’ [ 1 ] epitomises the taken‐for‐granted assumption that relationships between people are always adversarial and that personal achievement always involves outperforming the opponent. The song title in full runs ‘Anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you.’ The second stanza underlines the theme ‘I'm superior, you're inferior, I'm the big attraction you're the small.’ The rest of the song develops the theme but it constantly expands a tongue‐in‐cheek ironic infection. The lyrics serve to subtly undermine the master narrative by showing the ridiculousness of empty boastfulness. I suggest that there is a strong analogy between this adversarial parody and that between ‘heteronormative’ culture [ 2 ] and its disdain for gay perspectives and experience [ 3 ]. One of the major propositions in this collection is that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender (‘LGBT’ throughout this volume) people bring great benefits to all in our efforts to explore and develop an increasingly inclusive art and design agenda [ 4 ]. My argument in this introduction has four interrelated themes. First, I outline what I think are the legitimate claims that LGBT people can make for their contribution to the development of the discipline. It is important to start here because, as will be come clear, there are several significant issues that LGBT teachers and students have to face in education. These issues should not distract us from the positive impact we have made throughout the art and design curriculum. The second theme is one that I take from Andrew Sullivan's title Virtually Normal [ 5 ]. The ambiguity built into his oxymoronic title is worth exploration. The LGBT experience of growing up has particular paradoxical features that are singular and significant. I consider some of these features for their salience to the general argument. The third theme that is particularly pertinent internationally is what is termed a civil rights agenda. Many educators are using this concept as a basic building block in the construction of an equality programme into which LGBT fits as a significant beneficiary. It is in this context that the issue of bullying is considered. Undeniably, bullying is a major issue confronting probably every young LGBT person on a regular basis. But I, and other authors in the collection, argue that relying solely on this equal rights approach has some major drawbacks in the promotion of an LGBT agenda. The fourth theme, which is developed by the authors of the papers throughout this volume, is that a specifc LGBT art and design curriculum can be developed away from a civil rights approach. This curriculum can provide what we all lack currently, material that reflects and expands the learning of LGBT students, provides opportunities for Continuing Professional Development for LGBT and LGBT‐friendly staff, and thus enriches the whole art and design curriculum by embracing new ideas from within and outside the discipline. At the moment there is a gaping empty space in the art and design curriculum that badly needs flling. I conclude this introduction by considering such innovation in relation to Swift and Steers' Manifesto for Art in Schools which still seems to me an excellent benchmark against which to measure change and progress [ 6 ].     

Transgender young people’s narratives of intimacy and sexual health: implications for sexuality education

Abstract

Sexuality education as pedagogy is often fraught by the perceived requirement to balance the informational needs of young people with an investment in notions of childhood ‘innocence’. Nowhere is this perhaps more evident than in sexuality education that seeks to be inclusive of transgender young people, often resulting in the failure of such education to address the needs of such students. In an attempt at addressing the relative dearth of information about what transgender young people would like to see covered in sexuality education, in this paper we explore transgender young people’s accounts of intimacy and sexual health and consider what this means for school-based sexuality education. To do this, we analyse discussions of intimacy from the perspectives of transgender young people as narrated in a sample of YouTube videos. We conclude by advocating for an approach to sexuality education that largely eschews the gendering of body parts and gametes, and which instead focuses on function, so as to not only address the needs of transgender young people (who may find normative discussions of genitals distressing), but to also provide cisgender young people with a more inclusive understanding of their own and other people’s bodies and desires.     

‘The 5 cm rule’: biopower,sexuality and schooling

This paper explores ‘the 5 cm rule’, a regulation around student contact discovered during an investigation of the sexual culture of schooling with 16–19-year-olds in New Zealand. Implemented to stem ‘inappropriate and unwanted’ touching, it stipulates that students must maintain a physical distance of 5 cm at all times. It is argued this rule represents a contemporary type of biopower which forms part of the sexual culture of schooling. As a technique of corporeal regulation it is characterised by a ‘loose’ exercise of power, that allows for student resistance while producing subjects’ ‘docility-utility’ (Foucault, 1980). The paper contends that the rule contributes negatively to ‘the sexual culture of schooling’ by constituting student sexuality as ‘unruly’ and ‘problematic’. This stipulation also prescribes a set of gender relations that are inhibitive of mutually negotiated and pleasurable corporeal experience.     

‘It was as useful as a chocolate kettle’: sex education in the lives of same‐sex‐attracted young people in Australia

Sex education is a contested site in the school curriculum as communities grapple with who should teach young people about sex and how it should be taught. In this paper we ask whether same‐sex‐attracted young people are being exposed to appropriate and relevant sex education at school, and if they are not whether it is necessary that sex education be inclusive of sexual difference. In the second Australian survey of 1749 same‐sex‐attracted youth of 14–21 years old, we ask young people about sex education classes at school, how useful they were for them, their sources of information regarding gay and lesbian relationships and safe sex, sexual behaviours and incidence of sexually transmissible infections and pregnancy. We find from the data that most of these young people found sex education to be useless because it was not inclusive. In comparison with normative studies, these young people were, on average, sexually active earlier, had higher rates of diagnosed sexually transmissible infections and at least as high an incidence of pregnancy. We conclude from the data that there is a need for sex education in schools to be inclusive of the sexuality of all students, not just those who are attracted to the opposite sex.     

‘Where do babies come from?’ Barriers to early sexuality communication between parents and young children

‘Where do babies come from?’ ‘Why do boys have willies?’ ‘What does gay mean?’ Probably all parents have faced such ‘innocent’ questions from young children, and many have found them challenging to answer. Access to sexuality education at an early age is frequently considered controversial; however, there are strong indications that early and open communication can impact positively in terms of sexual safety and outcomes. Using focus group discussions with parents of 3–7 year olds in the UK, this study explores some of the challenges parents report in dealing with early sexual socialisation as well as the reasons they cite for restricting young children's sexual awareness and access to knowledge. Thematic analysis reveals a number of barriers to communication: the need to protect childhood ‘innocence’, suitable timing and age appropriateness of explanations, personal discomfort, and fear of criticism and judgement.     

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: how children of lesbian mothers ‘learn’ about sex/uality

Sexuality is something that children experience from an early age. It may be a cause of individual concern and anxiety, but is seldom, if ever, deconstructed at any stage of a child's education. Institutionalized fear and misunderstandings of Section 28 (1988) have effectively removed discussion of sexuality, homosexual or otherwise, from the English school curriculum. This structural silence on sexuality is all too frequently repeated at home. In this article I interrogate how children from lesbian parent households ‘learn’ about sexuality, looking at the effects of their parents' (homo)sexual orientation on their ‘sexuality education’. I consider how sex education is taught in schools; what children traditionally ‘learn’ about sexuality. I then look at whether sexuality education is any different for children from lesbian parent families; whether these children have greater sexuality knowledge, and, if so, how this has been ‘learnt’. I suggest that it may be the ambient presence of sexuality—as both a topic of conversation and mothers' unspoken sexual identity—that means lesbian parent families offer a distinctive form of sexuality education. This article draws on empirical research on sexuality and lesbian parent families with lesbian parent families who lived in the Yorkshire region, UK.     

The art of self-making: identity and citizenship education in late-modernity

Taking the English National Curriculum as its main example, this article argues that an overly nationalistic, normative and ‘fact-based’ citizenship education curriculum is failing to engage the dimensions of young people’s identities which they experience as deeply meaningful. There is thus a chasm – albeit a false one – between official discourses and pedagogies of citizenship and what young people consider to be their ‘real’ selves. I argue that citizenship education must develop a more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of how identities are formed and performed, especially in light of globalisation and increasing migration. I also make a somewhat unorthodox argument for conceptualising ‘relating-to-otherness’ in the same way that we think of music consumption. This has implications for how we experience, interpret, value and create ‘others’. The article also makes some recommendations for how these ideas can begin to be implemented in educational settings.     

Sexuality education in South African schools: deconstructing the dominant response to young people’s sexualities in contemporary schooling contexts

ABSTRACT

South African schools are tasked with providing sexuality education through the Life Orientation curriculum as a means of challenging continued high rates of HIV, unwanted pregnancy and gender-based violence. While in theory schools are well positioned to provide appropriate knowledge for reproductive health and navigating sexual challenges within a gender justice framework, research on sexuality education in South African schools indicates that this is not the reality in practice. This paper draws on a growing body of qualitative studies, with both educators and learners in South African schools, to understand the issues undermining the goal of a critical and social justice pedagogy of sexuality in Life Orientation classrooms. We argue that sexuality education has been deployed to regulate and discipline young sexualities, reinforce and perpetuate gender binarisms and heteronormativity, re-establish global northern family values of the nuclear family within a pro-family discourse, and represent continued assumptions of adult authority in a civilising mission over young people. We suggest that the failure to make critical use of Life Orientation is linked to the dominance of ‘expert’-based didactic pedagogy, and argue the possibilities of sexuality education as a productive space for young people’s active participation and agency in making meaning of gender and sexualities.     

‘Sent out’ and Stepping Back In: stories from young people ‘placed at risk’

This paper invokes the voices of young people who had been separated from mainstream schooling because they were positioned as ‘disengaged’ and ‘at risk of failing’. The authors argue that streaming students out of schooling needs serious questioning as an escalating number of young people are framed as non-performers within a globally competitive educational market. Throughout the paper we use critical ethnographic slices to expose the experiences of the 24 young people interviewed who together with mentors shared personal insights whilst attending a re-engagement programme in Australia in the year 2010. Their responses unearth a ‘wickedness’ and a preoccupation during their schooling with performance and school improvement. In response, we privilege student interpretations of their own marginalisation as an activist form of ‘speaking back’ to the social and economic conditions and limitations dominating their lives.     

Sexuality Sensitive Schooling

American schools, especially their physical education and sport programs, provide some of the most hostile social geographies in all of society for gay youth. With the aim of transforming schools toward more democratic and sexuality sensitive institutions, this paper reviews the literature on sexuality and education. In the review, three themes, critical for educators pursuing sexuality sensitive change in schools, are presented. These themes include the following: cultural experiences of gay and lesbian youth in the home, community, and school; consequences of sexuality-based victimization; and the role that physical education teachers and sport coaches can play in fostering sexuality sensitive schooling.