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ERIC Number: EJ1333289
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Dec
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0256-0100
EISSN: N/A
Intersections of Class and Gender in Learners' Conceptualisations of Sexuality Education at a Private, All-Girls School
Kuhl, Kylie
South African Journal of Education, v41 suppl 2 Article 2016 Dec 2021
In this article I explore the role that class, and its intersections with gender, play in shaping the way that learners at a private, all-girls school in South Africa conceptualise their sexuality education. Drawing on data from focus group discussions with 2 friendship groups of Grade 10 learners, the evidence reveals the multiple, intersecting and contradictory ways in which middle-class young women navigate class and gender. Firstly, learners, in drawing on a discourse of middle-class excellence, reproduced class difference in their discussion of attending a private school. Secondly, they drew on this class capital to position themselves as immune to many of the issues dealt with in sexuality education, particularly teenage pregnancy. Finally, a discussion of the gender exclusivity of their school revealed that this class capital was not always available to them, as they prioritised a discourse of heterosexual desirability over middle-class excellence in speaking about their interactions with boys. The findings reveal the complex and changing ways in which young middle-class women discursively reproduce, resist and navigate the intersecting classed and gendered systems of power that shape their particular schooling context.
Education Association of South Africa. University of Pretoria, Centre for the Study of Resilience, Level 3, Groenkloof Student Centre, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, George Storrar Road and Lleyds Street, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. Web site: http://www.sajournalofeducation.co.za/index.php/saje/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 10; High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A