Imagining a curriculum beyond compulsory heterosexuality in South African education

Abstract

There is a critical need for sex, sexuality and relationships education to be LGBTQI inclusive. Numerous studies, internationally and in South Africa, highlight this need but what constitutes an inclusive curriculum has not been sufficiently addressed. This paper seeks to advance this conversation by imagining a curriculum beyond compulsory heterosexuality and considers what knowledges and practices are necessary for the South African context. To do this, the authors consider the corpus of research about how sexualities are characterized in schooling generally and in the teaching of sexuality education specifically. Using the theoretical tools offered by Freire and hooks on critical consciousness, three arguments are made. First, the authors argue for the theoretical and empirical contributions of the sociology of gender and sexualities which are social constructions informed by history, social relations and power. Second, there is a need for a curriculum to recognize the intersectionality of learners and how identity knowledges shape the way that youth sexualities are understood and experienced. Finally, the teaching and learning of an LGBTQI inclusive curriculum will steer away from moralistic and didactic instruction in favor of more participatory pedagogies that acknowledge young people as agents and legitimate sexual beings.

Keywords:

• Sex
• sexuality and relationships education
• critical consciousness
• LGBTQI
• curriculum
• South Africa

Notes

1 Schooling in South Africa is still marked by racialization and inequality. Schools in suburban areas are largely formerly white and therefore well-resourced. This stands in stark contrast to the demographics and resources of schools in rural or township areas.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dennis A. Francis

Dennis A. Francis is a former dean of Education and currently a professor of sociology at Stellenbosch University. His research, located in the sociology of education, focuses on how educational structures, discourses and practices reproduce cisheteronormativity and social inequality in schools. He is the author of Troubling the Teaching and Learning of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in South African Education (2017), published as part of the Palgrave Macmillan Queer Studies and Education.

Kylie Kuhl

Kylie Kuhl is a graduate student in Sociology at Stellenbosch University. Her work focuses on gender, sexualities and schooling, with a focus on participatory social justice research with young people.