Gender, reputation and regret: the ontological politics of Australian drug education

ABSTRACT

This study explores the role of gender in the constitution youth alcohol and other drug consumption in Australian drug education curriculum. Drawn from an analysis of contemporary classroom drug education documents, it is argued that current drug education reproduces unethical and harmful accounts of femininity and masculinity. These enactments of gender primarily arise in three ways. First, drug education currently positions young women's consumption practices as intrinsically more problematic than those of young men. Second, drug education works to position young women's consumption practices as a problem of spoiled reputation and regret. Third, drug education works to responsibilise young women for potential danger and harm they experience while intoxicated without any consideration of the illegal actions of young men. Working with Annemarie Mol's notion of ontological politics, this article argues that Australian drug education enacts gendered realities of youth consumption that work to reproduce, rather than reduce, a range of social harms, ‘drug-related’ or otherwise.

KEYWORDS:

• Drug education
• gender
• regret
• responsibility
• ontological politics

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Suzanne Fraser and Renae Fomiatti for insightful feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers from Gender and Education whose comments helped strengthen the article.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

1. The Internet searches for these documents were performed using Google's standard search field. Search terms: ‘drug education’, ‘drug education resources’, ‘drug education resources for teachers’, ‘secondary drug education’, ‘drug information’, ‘drug info’, ‘harm reduction drug education’, ‘harm reduction resources’, ‘harm minimisation education’ and ‘harm minimisation resources’. As stated, once the initial searches were performed I selected resources produced by Australian state and federal government departments, such as the Commonwealth DET (formally Commonwealth Department of Education, Science, and Training).

2. Victorian state government drug education policy and resources are available at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/Pages/drugedulearn.aspx#H2N1002E (accessed, 26 November 2015). The recommended resource In Tune (2006) is analysed in this article. New South Wales state government policy and resources are available at: http://www.itcouldnthappentome.com.au/syllabus (accessed, 26 November 2015). The recommended resource L.E.A.D (2005) is analysed in this article. Western Australia state government drug education policy and resources are available at: http://www.det.wa.edu.au/sdera/detcms/navigation/drug-education/resources/ (accessed, 26 November 2015). Queensland state government drug education policy and resources are available at: http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/alcohol-drug-education/index.html (accessed, 26 November 2015). Tasmanian state government drug education policy and resources are available at: http://www.den.org.au/schools (accessed, 26 November 2015). The recommended resource ‘Get Ready' (2013) is analysed in this article. Australian Capital Territory discusses drug education as part of ‘student well-being’ but, unlike the other states and territories, does not provide resources (http://www.det.act.gov.au/teaching_and_learning/curriculum_programs/student_wellbeing) (accessed, 26 November 2015). The Northern Territory discusses drug education as part of the Priority Action Area, but, like the Australian Capital Territory, does not provide resources (http://www.health.nt.gov.au/alcohol_and_other_drugs/) (accessed, 26 November 2015).

3. Full resource freely available: https://ncpic.org.au/static/downloads/workforce/making-the-link/teacher-manual-and-classroom-activities.pdf (accessed, 1 September 2015).

4. It is important to point to the exclusively heterosexual nature of all the problem scenarios analysed in this article. Future research is needed to develop a deeper understanding of these dynamics in Australian drug education.

Additional information

Funding

This work forms part of a Ph.D. research project supported by an Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing scholarship awarded to Adrian Farrugia by the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University. Ph.D. project supervisors are Suzanne Fraser and David Moore. The National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund.