In 2020, the New Zealand Ministry of Education updated "Relationships and sexuality education: A guide for teachers, leaders and Boards of Trustees." Rejecting reductive 'sex education' (which is limited to biology), sexuality education also attends to children's changing sociocultural contexts. The "Guidelines" include a…

In Aotearoa/New Zealand, sexuality education is one of seven key areas of learning in the Health and Physical Education (HPE) subject area within The New Zealand Curriculum. Since 2015, sexual diversity (lesbian, gay, bisexual identities and perspectives) and gender diversity (transgender; non-binary gender) have been explicitly included in the…

Researchers often experience difficulties recruiting hard-to-reach populations. This is especially so for studies involving those who have been historically stigmatized, such as individuals who challenge heteronormative expectations or people who experience mental ill health. The authors aimed to obtain the views of sexual minority adolescents (n…

The nature of sex/ualities, genders and schooling has changed considerably over the last 20 years, with global political, social and cultural shifts bringing the lives of queer youth to the fore. Trans youth are now more visible and various kinds of support groups in schools (such as diversity support groups, queer groups and gay-straight…

Young people may face conflicting and confusing messages about what it means to respond well in relation to homophobia and transphobia. Consequently, we ask--What might it mean to respond well to homophobia and transphobia? This strategy, inspired by Anika Thiem and Judith Butler, is recognition of the ambivalent conditions which structure…

A literature search reveals minimal New Zealand and international research during the past 20 years with a specific focus on young bisexual women at school. This study addresses this paucity through acknowledgement of young bisexual women aged between 16 and 24 years and their experiences of being bisexual at secondary school in New Zealand. The…

Drawing on data from an Aotearoa/New Zealand study of more than 230 secondary students, this article evaluates the potential of a 60-min gender diversity workshop to address bullying and promote positive environments for learning. Students completed pre- and postworkshop questionnaires. The authors used descriptive statistics to summarize results…

This article is concerned with interrogating what has evolved as "normal" representations of the schooling experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in literature concerned with social/sexual justice. It argues that these representations necessitate understanding LGBT within a binary of either…

Purpose: Previous research examining the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) youth in schools suggests that schools are not inclusive places for non-heterosexual students. Some scholars, however, suggest that a continued focus on how these young people are marginalised is itself a problem, and that research should also…

The experiences of lesbian, gay, trans (The use of trans with an asterisk avoids the use of transsexual or transgender and promotes recognition of the inadequacy of such labels), bisexual and intersex (LGBTI) student teachers were recently investigated at a New Zealand faculty of education. Student teachers studying in early childhood education…

"Leisure Matters: The State and Future of Leisure Studies" updates and expands Jackson and Burton's "Mapping the Past, Charting the Future" (1989) and "Leisure Studies: Prospects for the Twenty-First Century" (1999). The need to do so was driven by the significant new developments in the leisure studies field and the…

This article provides a critical account of conducting focus groups with gay and lesbian youth. Drawing on the insights of queer theory it attempts to reframe issues around sexual diversity by examining the heteronormalizing processes at work during these focus groups. This analysis is undertaken through a "study of the limits" of the…

As globalization proceeded, the rights of sexual minority groups have become one of the human rights that cannot be ignored. However, recognizing sexuality as a human right and promoting educational practices which affect human rights policies, have been implemented mainly in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. For example, the…