This article responds to encouragement to remember the wonder in gender and sexualities education. Specifically, it addresses gender and sexuality in a variety of contexts, from mediated forms to how gendered sexual expectations are socially constructed and conveyed through cultural scripts, particularly in heterosexual contexts. According to…

Educating young people about sexual consent aims to help them develop healthy relationships and prevent sexual harm. Yet, there remains no consensus on how to define consent nor the connection between consent and sexual harm. This article discusses findings from qualitative research conducted with young people in England that has explored issues…

In this essay I extend Chicana/Latina feminist pedagogies to demonstrate using testimonio pedagogy to teach Chicana lesbian fiction: "Gulf Dreams" and "What Night Brings" opened up dialogical spaces for students as pensadores to critically examine the impact of racialized gender and sexual normativity within Chicano culture.…

Critically reflecting on a "pedagogy of tenderness", this essay delineates how to build a liberative community of learning in the undergraduate classroom of sexual ethics. The learning community aims to help students understand religion's complex roles in shaping sexual ethics in society, challenge heteropatriarchal sexual ethics through…

The lived experiences of queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) youth are significantly influenced by the various environments they navigate -- including but not limited to their families, schools, neighborhoods, communities, and workplaces. QTPOC youth -- or queer and trans youth who identify as Asian American, Black/African American,…

This Equity Tool is for educators who want to offer comprehensive and inclusive age-appropriate sex education to students, and are wondering how. This tool delineates what must be included (and excluded) in curricula and appropriate pedagogies at various grade levels; discusses how to navigate conservative backlash teachers might encounter; and…

"A growing body of research shows that unconscious bias is not only common, but it's also a condition of being human," writes Fiarman. In this article, she argues that implicit biases about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other aspects of identity can overshadow even the best of intentions. Citing examples from her own practice as…

There is growing community and policy interest in educational efforts among children and young people to address pornography. Education on pornography increasingly is seen as a necessary strategy in the context of young people's widespread exposure to pornography and the potential shifts in young people's sexual and gendered lives and relations…

The purpose of this article is to provide teachers and students useful methods for utilizing the power of comic books as literacy sponsors in ELA classrooms. Given the continued boom in the popularity of comics in popular culture, this provides a relevant way to introduce students to visual and critical analysis. Engaging in meaningful analysis of…

A central project of feminism has been raising awareness of the role cultural formations of sexuality play in women's inequality (Ritzenhoff and Hermes). Feminists who regularly include discussions of sexuality in their teaching are familiar with the pedagogical challenges of the subject as well as its importance. This article is intended for…

Although many students at Barnard College, Columbia University select the elite, women's liberal arts college because of its feminist legacy, students often report that their understanding of gender and sexuality evolves during their time on campus as they become more knowledgeable of feminist discourse and queer theory. As a result, courses open…

Classrooms reflect and contribute to normative sex, gender and sexuality categories in school culture, rules and rituals. Texts, materials, curriculum and the discourse we employ as educators perpetuate the pervasiveness of these categories. This paper explores some of the less visible ways in which sex and gender categories are constructed in US…

This lesson plan is designed to help students become more aware of how advertisements play a role in shaping societal attitudes about gender and sexuality and how these messages effect their own beliefs. This lesson plan will outline how to effectively accomplish this goal in any course focusing on gender and/or sexuality.

This article elaborates on three themes related to Szymanski, Moffitt, and Carr's major contribution aims. First, the article describes the promise of objectification theory as a grounding framework in research and practice, outlining how this theory integrates key aspects of several other important theoretical models. Second, this article…

How might teachers help students investigate the relationship between gender and homophobia? This article describes an exercise that uses fingernail polish to do just that. The authors uses anecdotal evidence to describe the exercise in which students pair with someone of the opposite gender and paint each other's fingernails. Additionally, the…