NAVIGATING AND NEGOTIATING THE DIGITAL DILEMMAS OF SEXUALITY EDUCATION

Back to Page Authors: Tracy Clelland

Keywords: sexuality, digital world, education, parents

Abstract: The main aim of this study was to explore how New Zealand parents with young people aged 11-14 understand and experience their role in sexuality education. Sexuality education is often framed as foremost a parental, family and whanau responsibility. However this is problematic as it fails to consider the feelings and emotions deeply embedded in adult engagement, and silence, around sexuality education. Furthermore, it continues to perpetuate a public/private, home/school divide that fails to engage with the complexities of sexuality education and learning in the digital age. Adults are often haunted by their own sexuality education experiences and continue to try and protect young people from the complexity and irrationality inherent in relationships. Rather than opening up discussion around the broader determinants of sexuality and relationships, this protection often shuts down the opportunity to critically engage with young people about their experiences of living in a digital age. Utilising a feminist poststructural theoretical framework, the study aimed to explore the underlying discourses that informed participants talk about their role in sexuality education and their practice. 56 participants were recruited and 12 focus groups were used to capture data. Data were analysed through a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis. Preliminary findings from interviews highlighted key themes that have important implications for all educators. Themes included: the affective hauntings of sexuality education; parental feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy about their role in sexuality education; tensions around the construction of pleasure and the role it plays in learning; and navigating the dilemmas of the digital world. This final theme will be discussed in this presentation. The data obtained from this study have implications for all educators as it highlights a range of pedagogical practices that open up possibilities for thinking differently about sexuality education. The findings provide an opportunity for adults, now living with tech-savvy children, to explore other orientations to knowledge, and to foster strategies that enhance communication around sexuality and relationships in the digital age. If we are to think differently about what sexuality education is, what it can do, and what young people really need, then we must tune into young people and adults’ lived experiences. In contemporary times this includes how adults are navigating and negotiating the digital world, a world that adults need to recognise offers a wide range of learning possibilities.