What is it about?

Recent changes in government legislation has made it statutory for English primary schools to teach about gender equalities and sexual diversity. However, little is known about how new generations respond to these changes. Through research with 120 primary school students we found a majority adopted a dominant liberal attitude we term ‘inclusive sexualities’; a minority were resistant to change, occupying a residual position cemented through local labouring traditions; and some occupied an emergent culture invoking queer, non-binary and trans youth dispositions with a focus on destabilizing sex/gender categories.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This is one of the first studies to explore how children and young people respond to the UK government's new teaching on Sexuality and Relationships Education (RSE) (2020). The new legislation must engage with issues of sexual equality and LGBTQ+ rights. However, little is known regarding how children make sense of these perspectives.

Perspectives

Adopting Raymond William's framework we identify dominant, residual and emergent perspectives taken by young people with regard to gender identity and sexual learning. We use ethnographic and creative methodologies to showcase young people's engagement with policy, pedagogy and practice on LGBTQ+ equalities.

Anoop Nayak
Newcastle University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Sexualities and Social Justice: Young People and the Doing of Gender and Sexual Equalities in a Former Ship‐Building Community, Antipode, April 2022, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/anti.12835.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page