This research is based on a case study of young people's identities, practices and discourses, and takes sexuality as a focus for interrogation. It aims to reveal the issues and processes that impact on young people's conceptions of self (both current and future) by looking at private and public realms of experience. In so doing, social lives, home lives and schooling (particularly sex education), are explored to reveal how far they operate in young people's interest. Lack of acknowledgement of young people's authentic lives in mainstream debates and practice forms a main focus of my critique. I adopt a qualitative methodology that is congruent with feminist principles for research, and am committed to exposing the knowledge creation process. Data are deployed from observations and interviews with 15 - 16 year old, African-Caribbean, Pakistani, Somali and white, secondary school students. Data from other sites provides corroboration and comparison. The thesis challenges the various critiques and representations of youth and argues for a dynamic model of understanding based on appreciating the connectedness between 'concrete' and 'generalised' constructs of identity and practice. The theoretical base is provided through a reading of Foucault, Giddens, Smith, Habermas, and Benhabib. Concepts of 'expert systems', 'colonisation' (Habermas 1986, 1987), 'fabrication' (Ball 1997), and 'fateful episodes' (Giddens 1991) have been given specific scrutiny. The resulting analysis is used to make recommendations for practice, policy and research in sex education.

Building upon feminist and sexual health research, this dissertation shows how the positioning of women in various discourses as somehow ‘lacking’ actually constrains what researchers are able to hear in their sexual stories. Using interviews with 26 heterosexually active young women, I seek to upset traditional approaches to understanding young women’s sexual stories and theorizing heterosexuality. To analyze the interviews, I first employ a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis that focuses on the power that circulates through discourses and our positioning within them. Our positioning in various discourses both enables and limits various courses of action, understandings and experiences. This power of discourse is illustrated by an emergent hybrid discourse that is apparent in young women’s sexual narratives. I discuss what I call the ‘competent feminine sexuality’ discourse and show how this discourse smoothes over contradictions between liberal and gendered discourses. Secondly, I show how psychoanalytic insights allow us to explore the processes of subjectification by which young women constitute themselves as (hetero)sexual women. Specifically, this dissertation explores processes of abjection, disavowal and ambivalence in participants’ narratives. In conclusion, the dissertation outlines the practical implications for sexual health education in Canada.

Building upon feminist and sexual health research, this dissertation shows how the positioning of women in various discourses as somehow ‘lacking’ actually constrains what researchers are able to hear in their sexual stories. Using interviews with 26 heterosexually active young women, I seek to upset traditional approaches to understanding young women’s sexual stories and theorizing heterosexuality. To analyze the interviews, I first employ a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis that focuses on the power that circulates through discourses and our positioning within them. Our positioning in various discourses both enables and limits various courses of action, understandings and experiences. This power of discourse is illustrated by an emergent hybrid discourse that is apparent in young women’s sexual narratives. I discuss what I call the ‘competent feminine sexuality’ discourse and show how this discourse smoothes over contradictions between liberal and gendered discourses. Secondly, I show how psychoanalytic insights allow us to explore the processes of subjectification by which young women constitute themselves as (hetero)sexual women. Specifically, this dissertation explores processes of abjection, disavowal and ambivalence in participants’ narratives. In conclusion, the dissertation outlines the practical implications for sexual health education in Canada.

Building upon feminist and sexual health research, this dissertation shows how the positioning of women in various discourses as somehow ‘lacking’ actually constrains what researchers are able to hear in their sexual stories. Using interviews with 26 heterosexually active young women, I seek to upset traditional approaches to understanding young women’s sexual stories and theorizing heterosexuality. To analyze the interviews, I first employ a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis that focuses on the power that circulates through discourses and our positioning within them. Our positioning in various discourses both enables and limits various courses of action, understandings and experiences. This power of discourse is illustrated by an emergent hybrid discourse that is apparent in young women’s sexual narratives. I discuss what I call the ‘competent feminine sexuality’ discourse and show how this discourse smoothes over contradictions between liberal and gendered discourses. Secondly, I show how psychoanalytic insights allow us to explore the processes of subjectification by which young women constitute themselves as (hetero)sexual women. Specifically, this dissertation explores processes of abjection, disavowal and ambivalence in participants’ narratives. In conclusion, the dissertation outlines the practical implications for sexual health education in Canada. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Sexual health education (SHE) in Canadian schools is a controversial subject. Thirty years have passed since the government mandated that SHE be taught in Canadian schools, yet the subject still struggles to secure its place in education as curriculum design remains stagnated. In British Columbia, the 2016 - 2018 curriculum update relocated health topics, specifically SHE, to physical education (PE), the subject now known as physical and health education (PHE). To date, little research is available on the implementation of SHE curriculum within Canadian schools. This qualitative case study examined how major stakeholders (district, administration, and teachers) are implementing SHE in one school district within British Columbia. Data collection methods included interviews with district staff, administrative staff and teachers as well as district documentation analysis. Data were analyzed using content comparison. Three resulting themes explicated how the school district utilized components of a top-down implementation approach, identified deficiencies in the sustainability of SHE and factors that supported and hindered the implementation of SHE. Comments from all three stakeholders highlighted the value of SHE delivery in schools but where and how to best intergrade this topic remains unclear. / Graduate

High school youth in Grades 9-12 who are in public schools without comprehensive sexual health education (CSHED) are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors and have higher rates of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases than are their peers in schools with CSHED. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the statistical relationship between the consistent implementation of CSHED, before and after the enactment of the Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) sexual health education policy, and the sexual risk behaviors of Chicago high school youth in Grades 9-12. The study was based on Antonovsky's salutogenic model of health and wellbeing. CPS students' sexual risk behaviors were analyzed using data obtained from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) for the years of 2007 and 2013. Logistic regression was used to estimate prevalence and odds ratios of each sexual risk behavior. The findings showed a complex pattern of and variances across the sexual risk behaviors analyzed. The prevalence of sexual behaviors among all students remained relatively stable. The prevalence estimates for students who drank alcohol or used drugs before the last sexual encounter and who were never taught about AIDS or HIV increased from 2007 to 2013. The likelihood of not using birth control pills before the last sexual intercourse encounter decreased among Black students; the likelihood that Hispanic/Latino students ever had sex, and had sex with 4 or more people in their life, decreased. The decrease of sexual risk behaviors indicates a positive influence by CSHED, while the increases indicate continuing challenges to the promotion of healthy sexual behaviors. These findings show the need for legislators and school administrators to increase support for the enactment of CSHED policy to help mitigate the sexual risk behaviors of high school youth.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

School-based sexual health education is commonly used to promote the sexual health of young people and guide them in their relationships. This thesis reports on research that aimed to provide evidence-based recommendations to optimise the effectiveness of school-based sexual health education in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA). There are six chapters in the thesis. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis, Chapters 2 to 5 consist of four empirical studies, and Chapter 6 provides an overall discussion and looks at the strengths, limitations, and implications of the findings. Chapter 2 is a systematic review and meta-analysis of school-based sexual health education in sSA. It provides some evidence of the interventions in promoting self-reported condom use. However, it shows there are no harmful or beneficial effects with respect to sexually transmitted infections (STI) as evidenced by biomarkers. It highlights the paucity of evaluated interventions using biomedical markers, and reports on the process of evaluation, which limits our understanding of why interventions work or do not work. Features associated with effective interventions are noted. Chapter 3 is a case study involving MEMA Kwa Vijana, an adolescent sexual and reproductive health intervention implemented in Tanzania. This study highlights the influence of structural factors in schools and wider environmental factors on the effectiveness of school-based sexual health interventions. Furthermore, it identifies the social and cultural factors that influence young people’s sexual behaviours and that must be addressed beyond the education and health sectors. Chapter 4 is a multiple case study of seven school-based sexual health interventions implemented in five sub-Saharan African countries. It 4 identifies the design, implementation, and evaluation features that differentiate between effective and ineffective interventions. Chapter 5 is a qualitative study of researchers’ experiences of school-based sexual health education in sSA. This study extends previous work by generating a set of valuable recommendations based on researchers’ experiences of interventions that could improve future interventions in sSA. Overall, this research project demonstrates the potential of school-based sexual health education in promoting sexual health and preventing STIs in sSA. It provides a series of recommendations for the design, implementation, and evaluation of school-based sexual health interventions.