Deconstructing Heterosexualities within School Arenas

This paper explores the continuing silence around the issue of sexuality within English schools. It is suggested that we are only beginning to understand the complex articulation between schooling, young people's cultural formations and sexual/gender identity formation. More specifically the paper argues that there is a need critically to examine dominant forms of heterosexualities. There is an exploration of recent empirical and theoretical work on sexuality, highlighting the interconnections between sexual diversity, complexity and power relations. These accounts suggest the need to bring together social, psychological and psychodynamic explanations of the way sexualities are lived out in schools. It is further suggested in this paper that the study of sexuality education may serve to aid the reconceptualisation of the fundamental values currently underpinning the curriculum.