Interrogating the subject: queering elementary education, 10 years on

Author: Sears, James

Source: Sex Education, Volume 9, Number 2, May 2009 , pp. 193-200(8)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This paper provides an overview of the contributions to this special issue in the context of a wider argument about the notion of queering elementary education. When Queering Elementary Education was published 10 years ago there was very little writing or research on matters related to primary education, and just finding experienced educators to contribute and allaying the concerns of our publisher proved to be challenges. The book was met with considerable opposition, and angry reactions to challenging established norms in terms of family, marriage and sexuality have continued to follow work addressing sexuality in primary settings to the current day. Nevertheless, under the guise of protecting children we actually put them at risk for becoming bullies, being bullied and failing to realize their full humanness as gendered and sexual beings. In this book we proposed a critical sexual pedagogy, an interrogative approach I continue to advocate for the exploration of gender and sexual assumptions. Queering elementary education means interrogating our institutions as well as our own complicity in regimes of truth that ill-serve young people.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14681810902829653

Publication date: 2009-05-01

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