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Abstract
This paper elaborates possibilities and limitations for sex education in schools by mapping the consequence of introducing the topic ‘sex’ within a range of scientific and informal discursive settings. The organising and regulating structures of the school maintain the boundaries between common‐sense and scientific discourses. Bernstein made a distinction between vertical discourse and horizontal discourses. Vertical discourses characterise scientific discourses that are coherent, explicit and systematically principled structures. Horizontal discourses characterise common‐sense discourses that are local, segmented and context‐dependent. The implications for teaching sex education through vertical discourses such as science, English and art as opposed to personal and social education, which is a horizontal discourse, are discussed. Yet, all discourses are unstable, and the notion of a ‘tipping point’ is introduced to demonstrate the potential for sex education when vertical discourses collapse.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Katie Featherstone and William Housley for comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Notes
1. Examples are drawn from classroom observations undertaken as part of two funded research projects: ‘Assessing Quality in Cross Curricular Contexts’, ESRC Project Directors Prof. G.J. Whitty and Prof. P. Aggleton (1991–1993) (example from science lesson), and ‘Investigating Teaching and Learning in Single Sex Classes’, Open University Project Directors Patricia Murphy and Gabrielle Ivinson (1998–2000) (examples from English, art, PE and PSHE lessons).