Performing Gender. An example from Life Competence Education

Life Competence Education (Sw. Livskunskap) has developed as a new school subject in Swedish compulsory schools. It lacks national curricula or guidelines, leaving schools with a wide range of interpretations and aims. However, Life Competence Education is commonly interpreted as a way of contextualizing sex and relationship education, in which topics such as gender, friendship and health are explored. The aim of this paper is to analyze what discourses children use to perform gender within Life Competence Education. The study is part of a thesis in progress, in which an ethnographic approach and video recordings are used, in order to develop an understanding of schools as normative and regulating practices