Gender and Education Conference, Australia

Jean Allen and Hayley McGlashan, delivered a presentation titled “How do we
decolonise and de-homogenise relationships and sexuality education?” at the Gender and Education Conference, Australia. In this presentation, they drew on findings from two critical ethnographic studies across multiple secondary schools in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Both studies examined the experiences and lived realities of students in both curriculum based and wider school Health Education.

While the critical ethnographies canvased a range of topics, they focused on the empirical findings specific to exploring how relationships and sexuality education as a key learning area within Health Education, continues to privilege western, cis-heteronormative understands of sex, gender and sexuality. They shared student narratives and observations of classroom practice which demonstrate the strength of cis-heteronormativity and normative power relations. Drawing on queer, indigenous and intersectional understandings of gender and sexuality they offered examples of how schools can challenge the dominance and pervasiveness of colonial understandings of sex, gender and sexuality in an attempt to decolonise and de-homogenise relationships and sexuality education.

Jean and Hayley’s presentation contributed to the growth of knowledge around queer and postcolonial understandings of sex, gender and sexuality by acknowledging how lived experiences can give voice and activism for change for the greater good in overcoming inequality by decolonising and de-homogenising relationships and sexuality education policy, practice and culture in schools.