Sex Education 101 : Constructing Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in the Revised Swedish High School Curriculum. An Intersectional Critique

In February 2021 the Swedish government announced the revision of curricula in every educational level, to correspond to the Sexuality, Consent and Relationships knowledge field. The purpose of this research is to explore the ways the Swedish high school curriculum, with the support of Skolverket’s webpage, has integrated notions of a) gender and sexuality, b) body in connection to sexuality and c) ethnicity, concerning students. This paper begins with the historical context of sex education in Sweden, reaching the current situation. Then, with a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach, it attempts to answer the research questions, based on theories from both pedagogical and gender studies to set the basis for the research analysis. The major finding of this research is that the curriculum addresses to large extent issues of inclusivity around gender and ethnicity, with a focus on gender-based violence and consent in relationships. On the other hand, the human body is not actively present in that process, while students’ sexuality is presented as more passive than active. Finally, the language of this new curriculum works in many cases in a cisnormative way while there are parts where language is more inclusive. Τhis research suggests that Swedish educational policies rethink issues of identity in relation to sex education and that they imagine a more active role for students in their own sex education