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Sexuality Education and New Materialism pp 1–16Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Sexuality Education Matters

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Part of the book series: Queer Studies and Education ((QSTED))

Abstract

This chapter proposes that sexuality education research and practice is caught in a cul-de-sac of predictable questions and answers that have constrained its development as an innovative curriculum area and field of research. It argues that this field’s most enduring and pertinent issues are often articulated in a series of regulating binaries such as ‘Is content appropriate/inappropriate?’ or ‘Are programmes effective/ineffective?’ These binaries produce a number of stalemates in sexuality education between, for instance, secular and religious perspectives, that fail to satisfy either group. The theoretical paradigm of new materialism, employed throughout the ensuing chapters, is introduced as a way to think differently about sexuality education’s current challenges. The research methodology undertaken in the book is also introduced.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I deliberately meld the use of queer here as human identity, a radical deconstructive theoretical tool, and a more general invocation of ‘odd’ and ‘troublesome’. This usage corresponds with the chapter’s mobilisation of ‘queer’ as ‘an array of critical operations’ (Cohen, 2008, p. 372). In the last line, sexuality education is queered further, by turning it into a person, rendering it a ‘queer subject’ that blurs boundaries between queer as an identity and this curricular area.

  2. 2.

    I borrow the term ‘representational’ from MacLure (2013) to acknowledge a humanist research approach against which a feminist new materialist paradigm is set (for purposes of this discussion only). For a detailed discussion of characteristics of representational thoug ht, see Maclure (2013).

  3. 3.

    Aotearoa-New Zealand is the name given to New Zealand throughout this book. Aotearoa is the Maori word for New Zealand. Placing it before New Zealand recognises Maori as the indigenous people, who preceded Pakeha (non-Maori of European descent) in making this country their home.

  4. 4.

    Years 12 and 13 are the last two years of secondary schooling in Aotearoa-New Zealand.

  5. 5.

    In Aotearoa-New Zealand, decile rankings indicate the extent to which a school draws students from low socioeconomic communities, with decile 1 schools containing the highest proportion of these students and decile 10 the lowest (Ministry of Education, 2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Louisa Allen

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  1. Louisa Allen
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Allen, L. (2018). Sexuality Education Matters. In: Sexuality Education and New Materialism. Queer Studies and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95300-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95300-4_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95299-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95300-4

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