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Wirephd2019.Pdf This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. Sex education, gender and sexualised behaviour in the primary school: a qualitative analysis of parent, teacher and pupil perspectives Tracey Wire PhD October 2019 Keele University i Abstract This thesis compares teachers’ and parents’ views concerning content and delivery of KS1 Sex and Relationships Education with children’s lived experiences and understanding of gender and sexuality. Data was gathered through 18 focus group interviews drawn from a Midlands primary school. These revealed the hegemonic nature of heterosexuality within the primary school and family. Parents’ expectations of their own children were underpinned by assumptions of heterosexuality and innocence. Likewise, teachers assumed heterosexuality but drew more upon a professional discourse of appropriate pedagogy and maturity. Most adult participants highlighted the need to educate children for the world they encounter and were keen to promote tolerance and understanding of the assumed Other. What became evident among the adults was a lack of confidence in their own abilities as educators and a lack of certainty about what might be appropriate. Children’s expressions of gender and sexuality were firmly rooted within a largely stereotypical binary framework, as were their articulated “romantic” aspirations. Children’s attachment to traditional views about female and male were evident in some of the ways they policed gender and sexual identities and in discussions that covered play, future employment and children’s girlfriend/boyfriend relationships (involvement in which enhanced children’s status among their peers but were ignored or dismissed by parents). Despite moves to make Relationships Education statutory, this remains a sensitive subject, treated uniquely within the curriculum. I propose that it should be rooted in children’s prior knowledge and understanding of the world and themselves rather than on that assumed or hoped for by adults. Adults, I argue, must talk to and observe children, acknowledging that their lives carry authentic meaning. They need to educate real rather than imagined children. Teachers should critically examine how school structures affect children’s active construction of their gender and sexual identities and how they view others. i ii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ i Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Personal motivations for this qualitative study ................................................... 1 1.2 Research context: the public debate ..................................................................... 3 1.3 Research context: The curriculum ......................................................................... 5 1.4 Purpose of this qualitative study ......................................................................... 10 1.5 Chronology .............................................................................................................. 13 1.6 Conclusion and structure ...................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2: Literature Review ....................................................................................... 19 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 19 2.2 Gender identities and theory ................................................................................ 20 2.3 Growing up too soon: the public and political discourse of commercialisation and sexualisation ........................................................................ 35 2.4 The vulnerable child and the paranoid parent ................................................... 43 2.5 A question of innocence: sexuality and gender identity .................................. 47 2.6 Children at play ....................................................................................................... 52 2.7 The sex education debate ..................................................................................... 58 2.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 65 Chapter 3: Research Design ....................................................................................... 67 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 67 3.2 Feminist poststructuralism ................................................................................... 69 3.3 The setting ............................................................................................................... 70 3.4 My role as a teacher-researcher in the research ............................................... 72 3.5 Research with children .......................................................................................... 77 3.6 Ethical issues .......................................................................................................... 80 3.7 Focus group methodology .................................................................................... 89 3.8 Teacher focus groups ............................................................................................ 92 3.9 Parent focus groups ............................................................................................... 95 3.10 Children’s focus groups ...................................................................................... 98 3.10 Conducting the focus group interviews and analysis .................................. 101 3.11 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 104 Chapter 4: Teachers’ views on teaching about sex and relationships ................. 105 iii 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 105 4.2 Teachers’ prior experiences and attitudes to teaching SRE ......................... 107 4.3 Biology and the rejection of pleasure ............................................................... 121 4.4 Educating children for future success: teenage pregnancy and class ....... 135 4.5 What makes a family?: teachers’ views on teaching about diversity .......... 145 4.6 The heterosexual classroom ............................................................................... 155 4.7 ‘It’s so gay’: promoting diversity and tackling homophobia ......................... 163 4.8 Professional considerations of gender and maturity ..................................... 170 4.9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 174 Chapter 5: Parents’ views about sex and relationships education for young children........................................................................................................................ 177 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 177 5.2 Do parents want school-based SRE for their children? ................................. 179 5.3 Too much too young?: Parents’ attachment to the discourse of childhood innocence ..................................................................................................................... 185 5.4 Relationships and Families: experiences and values ..................................... 199 5.5 Heteronormativity and gender stereotypes ...................................................... 207 5.6 Biology ................................................................................................................... 213 5.7 Parents’ experience and confidence ................................................................. 222 5.8 A partnership approach and confidence in teachers ...................................... 228 5.9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 233 Chapter 6: The world of the children ........................................................................ 236 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 236 6.2 What is a family?: Children’s experiences and understandings .................. 238 6.3 What’s a girl? What’s a boy?: How children identify and negotiate gender difference ...................................................................................................................... 248 6.4
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