Sexuality education: (re)producing ethnic boundaries in the school-migrant parents relationship

ABSTRACT

In recognising sexuality education as a socially divisive topic in Canada and other national contexts, this article addresses the issues encountered at the elementary level in a multi-ethnic context regarding the implementation of the 2018 Quebec’s sexuality education program, through the lens of the ethnic boundaries framework. The findings come from the analysis of virtual asynchronous written focus groups conducted with migrant parents and elementary school SE educators in Montreal. The analysis highlights the (re)production of an ethnic boundary between the school and migrant parents and its impact on actors’ experience of SE in school. The discussion points out avenues for improving the SE pedagogy among other things, in terms of culturally responsible pedagogy and to recognise the legitimacy of migrant parents as partners of the school.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality education
• ethnic borders
• national identity
• Quebec
• culturally responsive education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample of migrant parents (n = 11).

2. Table 2. Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample of SE educators (n = 4).

3. Some participants didn’t report certain information. Therefore, some categories do not have an n equivalent to the total number of participants for each group.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabrielle Morin

Gabrielle Morin is a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Louisa Allen and Dr Moeata Keil in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Her research interest is toward sexuality education in school context, particularly in how cultural Otherness is (re)produced or negotiated in the pedagogy of sexuality education and in education in general. Her research focuses on how student culturally engage with sexuality education pedagogy, critical pedagogies, and school-family-community relationship. She has also worked on different pedagogical tools to support the work of educators in this regard.