Reiss, M;
Ji, Y;
(2022)
Cherish Lives? Progress and compromise in sexuality education textbooks produced in contemporary China.
Sex Education: sexuality, society and learning
10.1080/14681811.2021.1955670.
(In press).
Preview |
Text
Ji & Reiss 2021 SexEd Cherish Lives - Progress and compromise in sexuality education textbooks produced in contemporary China.pdf - Published Version Download (18MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This article examines a set of sexuality education textbooks used in a selection of primary schools in Beijing. These textbooks, under the overall name of 珍爱生命 (Cherish Lives), embody a comprehensive sexuality education approach with content designed on the basis of the UNESCO International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, we explore these books from three angles: the challenge of engaging with children as sexual subjects, given adult hegemony around sex; confusion about efforts to break the presentation of gender as a binary; and the contradiction between reproducing the myth of universal heterosexuality and attempting to present an education sensitive to LGBT issues. We show that while these textbooks demonstrate progress in sexuality education, they also manifest compromise. Despite this compromise, the books have recently been withdrawn and it is unclear whether their publication heralds a new, high quality approach to primary school sexuality education or not.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cherish Lives? Progress and compromise in sexuality education textbooks produced in contemporary China |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/14681811.2021.1955670 |
| Publisher version: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
| Keywords: | Sexuality education, China, gender, feminism, patriarchy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10136012 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
