The purpose of this study was to explore Swedish natural science sexuality education as a material-discursive practice. More specifically, we sought to investigate ways in which the phenomenon of "oskuld," which in Swedish means sexual innocence or to be without guilt, comes into being among 17-18-year-old students. The study, conducted…

The aim of this grounded theory study was to explore late-adolescents' process of sexual development along with their information- and support-seeking behaviors in a Swedish context. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews with late-adolescents aged between 18 and 21 years in high schools in central Sweden. The results showed that…

Desexualized heteronormativity saturates most educational spaces. Thus, research on LGBTQ teachers tends to focus on the precarious and vulnerable work conditions produced by this norm. The aim of this article is to contribute to a shift in the tale(s) about LGBTQ teachers so that they are presented as subjects rather than victims. Three…

Focusing on children's play, the present article explores how 3- to 6-year-old children (re)produce, (re)negotiate and challenge heteronormativity in a Swedish Early Childhood Education setting. The article is based on ethnographic data, focusing on (re)production of heteronormativity in a particular kind of idealized, often feminine-coded and…

This article examines the tactical (counter) politics of inclusive and 'norm-critical' approaches in Swedish sex education, focusing on the enactment of this critical agenda in sex education practices and how teachers interpret and negotiate the possibilities and pitfalls of this kind of work. The analysis draws on participant observation in sex…

The condom plays a vital part in safe sex, the ideal outcome of mainstream Swedish sex education. As researchers have pointed out, however, the condom is not a neutral object; rather, it plays a part in shaping, in different ways, both sexual practices and the idea of what sex is. This paper focuses on sex education television programmes produced…

This paper sets out to queer education's normative human-centric assumptions and to de-centre the straight and narrow vision of the child as only ever becoming an autonomous individual learner. It re-focuses upon the more-than-human learning that takes place when we pay attention to queerer aspects of children's, as well as our own, entangled…

Science education has been pointed out as fact-based and built on reliable knowledge. Nevertheless, there are areas that include other aspects. Sexual education is, according to the Swedish syllabus, such an example and it involves aspects as love, sexuality and relations. These aspects suggest a possible tension between the biological and…

This article sets out to outline how prevailing gender structures can be challenged in physical education (PE) by exploring queer potentials in an event that took place during a dancing lesson in an upper secondary PE class. The event and its features were documented through video recording and post-lesson interviews with the teacher and some of…

The opinion among Swedes is that there is a higher commitment and a higher responsibility among those having been married for a long time than among those having been married for a short time. These data point toward existence of a renewed or perhaps a new courtship and marriage pattern. (Author)

This fact sheet explores attitudes in Sweden toward sexuality and childbirth from a historical perspective. After describing the strict social control over abortion and contraception in place 100 years ago, and the gradual easing of those controls in response to the low birth rate, the paper goes on to discuss the 1974 Abortion Act, which…

Describes efforts to address the problem of teenage pregnancy in Sweden, which has a much lower adolescent fertility rate than the United States. Discusses compulsory sex education; school gynecological clinics and youth centers; the easy availability of the pill and condoms; and cultural and attitudinal differences regarding abortion and…