In this article Surtees, N. highlights the initial findings from a qualitative research study regarding exploring the discursive production of children’s sexuality in early childhood education. The article draws attention to instructor public lecture about and around sexuality. Drawing from heteronormative, developmentalist and biological treatment and discourses of children as asexual and innocent, this article show that such talk acts to patternize or minimize children. Teacher resistivity towards and silencing of sexuality, the functions the silences serve and the ways in which silences mark the borders of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ are uncovered. The article suggests that the marking of borders jeopardizes teacher acknowledgment and solemnization of difference and diversity. …show more content…
Normally,teachers talk within these sites may act to normalize, disorder, disarrange and rearrange savvy of sexuality. To suggest otherwise is to overlook the role that teachers and their talking invariably play in the formation of both their own and children’s understandings of sexuality. While deciphering the unwritten codification and fashioning real, in practice, the inclusive aspirations of Te Whäriki and the Revised Statement of Desirable Aim and Practices is doubtless challenging, it is a worthwhile challenge that will ‘unveil unthought-of possible action for all of us’. Unveiling such possibilities, in today’s rapidly changing world, is surely an important expression of the role of the teacher in early puerility
My chosen academic journal article is Contesting silence, claiming space: gender and sexuality in the neo-liberal public high school by Susan W. Woolley. This article examines how educational institutions and its actors introduce and reinforce a heteronormative binary ideology, and reject any non-normativity that may occur. Through this deep-rooted theoretical framework, high school students struggle to freely explore individual interpretations of sexuality and
Is power necessary? Everyone wants power. People with power want to keep it and people with no power want to get it. Power is having control over one’s life and the lives of others. Power is very important in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird “by Harper Lee. In the novel the story is set in Maycomb, Alabama. The central conflict of the story is a rape trial between a black man named Tom Robinson and a lower class white woman named Mayella Ewell. Although Mayella is powerless when it comes to class and gender, but her race ultimately makes her powerful.
Pascoe begins by pointing out ways in which the school as an institution plays a crucial role in the formation of masculinities. She often noticed teachers routinely ignored homophobic and sexist comments made by students. Students were never really punished for using words like “fag,” “gay,” or “dyke”. What are less obvious and more upsetting than the criticisms of the sex-ed program are the varied examples of the ways that “Heterosexual discourses were embedded in the physical environment of the classroom, teachers’ instructional practices, and students’ classroom behavior” (p. 39). From the pictures of boy/girl pairings on the walls, to the homophobic jokes between male students and male teachers, the schools’ complacency with heterosexism becomes undeniable. In one instance a boy and girl left the Winter Ball early, two vice principals joked “You two going to a hotel or what”? I feel that if two male students walked off that the administrators would have reacted in a different manner.
It's Elementary takes a look as to whether or not gay issues should be discussed in schools and how such issues should be treated. Its not often that adults get the chance to hear what children think about homosexuality. When asked to respond to the discussion the school children responded in a frank and earnest manner, some especially in the younger grades with an instinctual sense of fairness and democracy towards homosexuals, particularly those facing adversity. Unlike opposing teachers and parents who thought discussion would expose alternative lifestyles and encourage homosexual sex, the children in the video were far more interested in name-calling, non-traditional families, and gay/lesbian stereotypes. The film also focused on how
It was only in late Stage 3 that the topic of sexuality was approached – through intensive
From the moment a child is born, the society in which they are born into begins to teach the child what is normal, and what is not. If the aforementioned child has a vagina, they will be labeled a girl and assumed to be heterosexual, and the same principle applies if the child has a penis. Yet the human world is not as simple as this established gender binary. For example, there are people who identify with a gender other than the sex assigned at birth.1 There are also people who are not sexually attracted strictly to the opposite gender, or at all. Such diversions from societal normality are more often than not greeted with opposition, as what is considered normal is also deemed right. The LGBT community has had to deal with fierce societal
After reading week 13’s article by Coiser (2009) I agreed with the teachers who were served that said they would intervene if a queer student felt a problem was arising at school. The sad thing is that Coiser (2009) states that students from queer families do not feel confident that their teachers would intervene if a problem arises. This made me think back to my previous comment about how I am unaware of the queer families at
Whether a parent in question is for or against the censorship of And Tango Makes Two, they have the best interest of their child in mind, and are encompassing what they believe to be their “parental rights” (Magnuson 12). In The Courier’s article, Bengu Tekinalp, a Drake University professor and parent fighting to keep the book on the shelves argues that the message given out with censorship is that, “it's not OK to be different, it's not OK to be unique”. Although Tekinalp is not explicitly advocating the normality of homosexuality, she is emphasizing on promoting acceptance of differences and diversity to her 3-year-old daughter, rather than preaching discrimination. However, the main concern for those adamant on censorship is that parents wish to be able to decide when it is appropriate for their children to be introduced to controversial material and content, such as homosexuality. Whether a parent believes that homosexuality is too mature of a topic, or if they simply consider any non-heterosexual relationship to be wrong due to religious beliefs, it is still in their best interests to protect their children from being what they believe to be ‘wrongfully
Human sexuality can be fascinating, complex, contradictory, and sometimes frustrating. Sexuality is interwoven into every aspect of being human; therefore, having knowledge about sex is as essential as having education about human anatomy. However, it is highly recommended to pay close attention when sex education is delivered to youths. (Donatelle 171)
In Canadian society, there are certain things that are expected to happen. Any type of public hatred against the LGBTQ+ community, or any other cultural, or religious group, is completely not acceptable. As well as sexual education is to be taught in the school system. Beginning September of 2015, the Ontario school system implemented an upgrade to the province’s sexual health education curriculum. The updated curriculum contains a more progressive outlook than the old curriculum, which had not been updated since 1998 Today’s society is sexually explicit, and because of this, Ontario has tapered their sexual education towards this fact. This essay will explore the differences in how the curriculum has been received, and how the sexual education
There are a number of discourses surrounding women’s sexualities that make sexual agency difficult to achieve. I will discuss how sexist norms make practices of sexual assertiveness difficult in relation to the double standard of women’s sexuality, the LGBTQ community, and educational institutions. The following aspects demonstrate this: first, a double standard exists for women’s sexualities in the way that both “slutty” and chaste behaviours are judged and punished. Second, while women’s bisexuality is exploited for men, heteronormativity and a gender binary remain expected in relationships. Third, educational institutions use a number of tactics (e.g., victim blaming) to keep sexist norms in place. These pervasive sexist norms must continue to be questioned and systematically dismantled for both men and women to enjoy sexual autonomy.
This assignment will look at the services that promote sex and relationship education. It will identify the current health issues on promoting and teaching children about sex and relationship education in schools at a young age. Sex and relationships education has been a highlighted topic for over time which is being highly debated about whether it should taught to young children. There are mixed views on how sex and relationship education is taught, statistics show ‘Most parents (65%) believe that sex education should encourage young people to delay sexual activity’ (Kaiser Family Foundation in 2000). Whereas some parents disagree as they think their children are too young to know about sex and relationships, this essay will look at the
I think it is safe to say that no two words elicit more feelings of concern, anxiety, and anger in parents, and stirs up more controversy and debate than the words “sexual education”. This especially true with the implementation of the new, revised sexual education curriculum in Ontario schools. Consequently, this controversy has strongly divided individuals, families, and organizations between those who approved of and those who opposed and protested against school-based programs that providee sexual health education to children. But why so much opposition? This is due to the significant changes made to the sexual education curriculum and the sensitive nature of the topics being taught to children regarding sexuality as a whole, changes which are seen as both radical and “even more explicit and more age-inappropriate than before…” (“Ontario’s Radical,” n.d.).
The focus on this issue comes from how HIV prevention education is usually taught in a heterosexual viewpoint, rather than any other sexual orientations. According to the author, policy changes to the way schools tackling issues of sexuality can provide teens and young adults more awareness of the benefits of maintaining a good sexual health. Australia has encountered problems with sexual education policies, where the curriculum hasn’t adjusted their framework to be more inclusive of other religions or sexual preferences. Nevertheless, the article fails to cite ways to ensure that the policy changes that should happen to Australian school curriculums can be made possible with the support and what kind of support should be seen in order for sex education to transform into something
Sex. It is everywhere. We see in television shows. In magazines. On the Internet. But sex is still seen as a taboo subject in our society. I believe that being educated about sexuality is vitally important to one health. Understanding one’s body and how it impacts your life. To understand how your beliefs about sexuality and sex have developed one needs to look back over the years and how your beliefs were engrained in your life. This essay will be based on my reflection by looking back on my sexual history on how and what have significantly impacted my development of sexuality. The focus will be on my reflection of answering the sexual history questions and how I have changed and developed over the years. It is important to analyze and reflect to understand how I came to be today, that the past has created my ideas and beliefs about sex and sexuality that have shaped me.