Session Information
27 SES 12 B, Peer Assesment in Writing, Evaluative Language in Science Tests and Critical Norms in Sex Education
Paper Session
Contribution
This classroom-based study, among 17-18 years old upper secondary students in Sweden, seeks to illuminate the significance of teaching with an aim to develop norm critical thinking in sex education.
What should sex education in Europe be in the 2010th s?
WHO the Europe and Federal centre for Health Education, BZgA, claim a ”new need” for sex education due to social changes such as globalization, the ubiquitous use of the internet and a strive for gender equity and equal rights for LGBTQ (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2010). In Europe, sex education programmes have often been “comprehensive sexuality education” with a strong focus on reproduction and contraceptives and a risk perspective on sexuality (ibid.) The call is now for a more holistic sexuality education which includes not only personal growth and empowering, “to respect sexual diversity and gender differences and be aware of sexual identity” but also “gender roles and to reflect on sexuality and diverse norms and values with regard to human rights in order to develop one´s critical attitudes”( p.27, Ibid).
Some efforts have been made to implement programs that aim for sexual and gender equity, but their effects have been questioned. For example research from Spain shows that the young people tend to uncritically reproduce patriarchal dimensions of sexuality in spite of a new sex and relations curriculum (Venegas, 2013). Research conducted in England shows how an “anti-bullying” approach to strengthen LGBTQ young is too limited and tends to re-create the image of queer youth as vulnerable victims (Formby, 2015). With exception from very few investigations, studies made of practical implementation of sex education are still limited (Kontula, 2010). This study is a contribution to this field.
Scandinavian countries have clear demands in the curriculum that sex education should include gender equity and tolerance of homosexuality (National authority of education 2011, Utdanningsdirektoratet 2006). Yet studies have shown that in the classroom, gender inequalities and the norm of heterosexuality tend to become reproduced (Orlander Arvola 2015, Bang-Svendsen 2012, Lundin, 2014).
Critic of norms
A central concept for this paper is norm critic of the “normal” or taken for granted norms in question of human sexuality. Rosenberg (2008) explains how acting regarded as “normal” gives one a feeling of safety, and how this normalin its normativity includes social and moral rules, a kind of standard, categories of correctness in human behaviour. These are rules that people sustain, disturb or change through their activities. The life is full of norms, which at its best make living easier, but at its worst exclude behaviour and people which do not fit in to the norm.
The latest Swedish curriculum for upper secondary school emphasize both a scientific perspective and discussions on norms regarding human sexuality (National authority of education 2011). One of the concerns in this study is to investigate how to develop teaching in line with the curriculum, avoiding unreflective ways of reproduction of norms in sex education excluding groups of young people. Our aim is to develop sex education in school to be more inclusive and to challenge current norms regarding gender and sexuality.
The purpose is to analyse classroom situations and to discuss meanings that are constructed in the encountered relations when working with the theme ‘norm critical investigation about human sexuality’. The questions are:
- What kind of meaning making becomes possible when students work with norm critical investigations about human sexuality from a scientific perspective?
- What kind of questions are students interested in to investigate?
- What possible impact does the norm critical work have on the students?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Angelides, P. (2001). The development of an efficient technique for collecting and analyzing qualitative data: The analysis of critical incidents. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 14(3), 429-442. Bang-Svendsen, S.H (2012) Elusive sex acts: pleasure and politics in Norwegian sex education. Sex Education, 397-410. Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of “sex”. New York: Routledge. Butler, J. (1997). The psychic life of power: theories in subjection. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press. Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York, NY: Routledge. Biesta, G. (2006). Beyond learning: democratic education for a human future. Paradigm Publisher USA. Formby, E. (2014) Limitation of focussing on homophobic, biphobic and transphobic “bullying” in order to understand and address LGBT young people’s experiences within and beyond school. Sex education. 626-640 Foucault, M. (1993). Diskursens ordning: installationsföreläsning vid Collège de France den 2 december 1970 [The Discourse on Language] (M. Rosengren, Trans.) Stockholm; Stehag: B. Östlings bokförl. Symposion. Foucault, M. (2002). Vetandets arkeologi [Archaeology of Knowledge] (C. G. Bjurström, Trans.) Lund: Arkiv. Kontula, O. (2010) The evolution of sex education and students’ sexual knowledge in Finland in the 2000s, Sex education, 10(4), 373-386 Lenz Taguchi, H. (2004). In på bara benet: en introduktion till feministisk poststrukturalism [Down into bare bone. An introduction to feminist poststructuralism]. Stockholm: HLS förlag. Lundin, M. (2014). Inviting queer ideas into the science classroom: studying sexuality education from a queer perspective. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 377-391. National authority of education (2011). Syllabuse in Science studies in Upper secondary school in Sweden. Orlandr Arvola (2015) “So what do men and women want? Is it any different what animals want?” Research in Science Education On line first DOI: 10.1007/s11165-015-9481-y Rosenberg, T. (2008). Locally queer. A note on the feminist genealogy of queer theory. Graduate journal of social science, 5(2), 5-18. Todd, S. (2003) Learning from the other : Levinas, psychoanalysis, and ethical possibilities in education. State University of New York Press Albany, USA. Tripp, D. (1993). Critical incidents in teaching: developing professional judgement. London: Routledge. Utdanningsdirektoratet (2006). Curricula for subjects in primary and secondary school. Oslo: Utdanningsdirektoratet [The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training]. Available from www.udir.no. Venegas, M. (2013). Sex and relationships education and gender equality: recent experiences from Andalusia (Spain). Sex Education, 573-584. WHO Regional Office for Europe (2010). Standards for sexuality Education in Europe. Cologne: Federal Centre for Health Education, BZg
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