Culture and sexuality in Finnish health education textbooks

Abstract

In Finland, Young people’s sexuality education has not been examined from a multicultural perspective, with the exception of a few policy-oriented papers. This paper examines how cultural diversity is addressed in chapters on sexuality and sexuality education in Finnish health education textbooks. The analysis is based on material contained in textbooks used in grades 7–9 and upper secondary schools. Findings suggest that cultural diversity is included in textbooks in one of two ways: either to demonstrate the uniqueness of liberal, emancipated and progressive ‘Finnish’ sexuality; or as a way of distancing Finland and Finnish values from the rest of the world. In these textbooks, culture is understood as belonging to non-Finnish ‘others’ and a culture that itself as not being Finnish. This somewhat tendentious treatment of cultural diversity leaves teachers with limited tools with which to promote anti-discriminatory education. The textbooks also overlook the diverse backgrounds of young people growing up in Finland today.

Keywords:

• Sexuality education
• multiculturalism
• textbooks
• sexuality
• young people
• Finland

Notes

1. This definition of sexuality and sexuality education is informed by the work of Allen and Rasmussen (2017), who do not equate sexuality education with safer sex education and who stress the fact that the assemblages of sexuality education are never clearly defined but are in constant flux.

2. In Finland, about 4–6 lessons are set aside for sexuality education in grades 7–9. A health education teacher or the school nurse is primarily responsible for the teaching. Visitors from outside of the school may also be used to provide the education (Kontula and Meriläinen 2007).

3. By the term multicultural I mean a perspective which aims to take into account the way in which sex education should reflect pupils’ different cultural backgrounds and the way in which the multicultural nature of society should be evident in teaching in schools.

4. In order to conduct the analysis, I contacted all textbook publishers in Finland and asked them to send me copies of their most recent health education textbooks. In addition, I borrowed additional textbooks from libraries and checked with the publishers that my material included the majority of textbooks used in Finnish schools at this moment. The Finnish National Agency of Education used to keep a list of all the textbooks used in schools but stopped doing so in the 1990s.