Multiple femininities in a'single sex'school: re-orienting Life Orientation to learner lifeworlds
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Date
2015
Authors
Mthatyana, Andisiwe
Vincent, Louise
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
Life Orientation sexuality education in South Africa faces many pedagogical
challenges, not least among which is that it is sometimes perceived as irrelevant to
learners’ real interests and concerns. Learners report that the content is repetitive
and that they learn more from peers than from the reiterated lessons of risk and
disease avoidance that permeate sex education messages. In this article we describe
the world of the study site – a ‘single sex’ school – as consisting of diverse informal
student sexual cultures in which repertoires for the development of learner sexual
identities are developed, negotiated and transmitted. The study is based on detailed
ethnographic immersion in the study site which generated rich data drawn from
in-depth interviews, focus groups, observations and solicited narratives. We argue
that even the enlightened, tolerant ‘best practice’ form of sexuality education that
takes place at the study site fails to take diverse learner identities, lifeworlds and
experiences seriously as a pedagogic starting point, but rather tends to homogenise
learners and to impose on them what they need to learn. A more empowering form of
sexuality education would take seriously how young people understand themselves
as sexual subjects located in unequal (‘raced’ and classed) social contexts.
Description
Keywords
Sexuality education, Student sexual cultures, South Africa, Life Orientation, Pedagogy
Citation
Mthatyana, A., & Vincent, L. (2015). Multiple femininities in a'single sex'school: re-orienting Life Orientation to learner lifeworlds. Perspectives in Education: Life Orientation sexuality education in South Africa: gendered norms, justice and transformation, 33(2), 49-62.