This thesis highlights the complex nature of students’ experiences in the sexuality education classroom. It seeks to provide insight from the perspectives of Year 10 students in two classes on their experiences of a particular sexuality education programme. The purpose of this study was to ‘give voice to’ and explore the experiences of asmall group of nine Year 10 students in their compulsory co-educational sexuality education programme. To this end, the main source of data was focus group interviews with student participants. Students were asked to participate in focus group interviews part way through the unit of work and invited to share their thoughts, feelings and perceptions of the programme. The data analysis generated themes that describe student’s experiences in relation to course content, pedagogy and classroom organisation. The analysis of students’ talk in focus group interviews also showed that gender relations and emotional safety were important features of the students’ experiences of their sexuality education programme. More particularly, it was found that students valued their exposure to this subject and felt that school was a good place to learn about sexuality education. They enjoyed social constructivist teaching approaches that were student-centred and interactive. The students expressed some dissatisfaction with the way in which their sexuality education programme was organised and being delivered. In addition, there was evidence of both male and female students being influenced by traditional, hegemonic constructs of masculinity and femininity, and also a heteronormative culture within the classroom. The findings present implications for sexuality education teaching in relation to programme development and classroom practice. They suggest that sexuality educators may need to consider the way in which their classrooms are organised, as well as the pedagogical approaches they use, as it appears these aspects have significant influence on the emotional safety of students, on relationships within the classroom and on the student experience of sexuality education as a whole.

Regardless of the changes in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa No. 108. of 1996, in terms of the acceptance of individuals irrespective of their sexual orientation and the prohibiting of discrimination against anyone on the grounds of their sexual orientation, the concept of homosexuality in the workplace is still a relatively unexplored phenomenon in South Africa. Limited research studies focus on the perspectives of homosexual individuals regarding their perception and attitudes towards their working environments. Culture can affect the way in which individuals act due to the dominance of certain behaviours, beliefs, and norms that are accepted as the 'standard' way of living. Within companies, the employees are on average expected to be productive and effective, and to present fruitful behaviour to benefit the organisation. Individuals can also at times be tacitly encouraged to portray images according to the general norm in the organisation, whether or not this image is true to the individuals themselves. This type of accepted standard norms and behaviours are therefore wordlessly conveyed to the employees as the cultural accepted standard in the organisation. Heteronormative cultures are described as the instance when the accepted standard of male and female behaviour is viewed in terms of masculine men and feminine women. Individuals who do not fit these specific descriptions may experience either explicit or implicit discrimination. The reactions that employees can have because of organisational culture are referred to as affective reactions and can have adverse costs for the organisation as employees may engage in less productive behaviour. The purpose of this research was to assess the relationship between a heteronormative culture and the affective reactions of homosexual employees working in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Work engagement and job satisfaction of the individuals were assessed in relationship to heteronormativity. Research done for this study includes the various aspects of the academic topics related to the study. Given the limited amount of empirical research on the topic, a mixed method study was conducted. Quantitative questionnaires instigated the research, designed to measure the following concepts:<ul> <li> Organisational culture, in terms of heteronormativity.</li> <li> Two affective reactions of employees - work engagement and job satisfaction.</li></ul> Explanatory qualitative interviews followed the questionnaires with the intention of understanding the results found during the quantitative phase. A purposefully selected sample of one hundred and sixty four homosexual employees working in Johannesburg and Pretoria completed the quantitative questionnaire, and a sample of eight homosexual individuals were selected out of the original sample to participate in the qualitative interview stage. Previously developed instruments were used to measure heteronormativity, work engagement and job satisfaction. The results indicated that homosexual employees within Gauteng do experience the culture of their respective organisations to support the perceptions of heteronormativity. Two hypotheses were tested which indicated a significant but small correlation between perceptions of heteronormativity and work engagement and job satisfaction. The qualitative results provided insight into how homosexual employees experienced heteronormative cultures in the workplace as well as how they react to the cultures encountered. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted