This thesis explores the love/sex relationships of 117 young people (aged 14 to 24) of diverse sexualities from rural and urban Victoria. Drawing significantly on the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu and engaging with postmodern feminist and gender theorists, young people’s negotiation of sexual consent is examined. In-depth interview and focus group data depict a world of unwritten and persistent, but not unchangeable, ‘rules’ regarding sex, love and consent. For the young people participating in this research, the negotiation of safe and consensual sex means navigating these multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings. Young people are simultaneously positioned within social structures and in relation to gendered discourse, resulting in varying opportunity for active reflection and communication of what they and a partner might want from a sexual encounter. This thesis argues for reform of policy and educative responses to youth sex and sexual violence, in order to reinforce young people’s ability to actively negotiate safe and consensual sex.

School-based sexuality education (SBSE) is an important and debated part of the sexual socialization of young people in the US. While existing literature addresses the sociological implications of SBSE at the policy and curriculum-level, little was previously known about the ways instructors carried out and made sense of sex education in their classrooms. In this study, I examine the relationship between how sex education instructors make sense of sex education and their understandings of youth and sexuality. I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with sex education teachers in Mississippi public schools and used an inductive analysis approach to determine themes from the data. I find that teachers depart from the prescribed curriculum, or go off-script, to address their functional and ideological concerns in the classroom. Where teachers translate their own ideologies about youth and sexuality into instruction, these ideologies serve to reproduce social inequality by gendering, racializing, and classing instruction.

The decades following the Second World War witnessed a number of important developments affecting young people’s relationships and sexual lives, including the expansion of sex education initiatives and access to reliable contraception. The period has been heralded by some as one of ‘sexual revolution’, led by a rebellious youth whose views and practices were markedly different from those of their parents. This thesis examines the perspectives of young people growing up through these changes in Scotland, uncovering personal perceptions of their impact, or lack thereof, on their own emerging sexual lives. Whilst extant historical studies of sexuality in Scotland have focused on official perspectives and sexual governance, this thesis contributes to a history of sexuality ‘from below’, exploring the experiences of an untapped majority during a time of great change in heterosexual culture. Drawing on a series of oral history interviews with men and women growing up in various regions of Scotland between 1945 and 1980, evaluated alongside memoirs and contemporary surveys of sexual and contraceptive behaviour, this thesis examines the meanings and significance these developments held for young people in practice. These highly personal and subjective sources are key to understanding how young people learned about sexual matters, developed their ideas of appropriate conduct, and managed their early relationships and sexual behaviour. This research uncovers a piecemeal process of sexual learning against an atmosphere of mystery and shame, where educational initiatives and conversations on the topic were not necessarily comfortable or informative. Though growing numbers of young people were engaging in sexual activity outwith marriage, the illicit atmosphere they absorbed while growing up impacted on their perceptions of acceptable behaviour, and their ability to manage risk effectively and experience sex without anxiety. This was a time of flux for Scottish youth, who had to negotiate a path between traditional and liberal pressures, with resilient continuities evident in the form of rigidly gendered scripts defining appropriate behaviour, which continued to inform young people’s courtship practices and sexual experiences throughout the period. Interviewees detailed ongoing practical difficulties, for instance in obtaining contraception, alongside longstanding cultural concerns including the importance of reputation. Risk and fear of pregnancy remained preeminent throughout, despite the arrival of new options for young women in the form of the pill (latterly made available to the unmarried) and legal abortion. Gender, class, religion and region were all potentially significant in determining one’s experience of these issues. In all, the sources analysed here challenge conventional depictions of ‘sexual revolution’ and a confident, rebellious youth, with many interviewees feeling that the ‘Swinging Sixties’ was something that happened elsewhere. Changing patterns of behaviour were evident, but this was neither sudden nor revolutionary, and conventional attitudes to sex and relationships still held remarkable currency for many young people, with a clear separation of sex, marriage and childbearing only gaining ground from the later 1970s.

HIV/AIDS continues to challenge prevention, care and treatment efforts and presents an increasingly urgent threat to population health. In the context of prevention, this fatal sexually transmitted infection (STI) underscores the importance of providing youth (the fastest growing risk group) with adequate information, motivation, behavioural skills, and access to resources that support the achievement and maintenance of sexual health across the lifespan. However, youth have proven to be a difficult audience to reach, particularly with educational programs that approach adolescent sexuality from an adult frame of reference, one that often stresses the negative aspects of human sexuality. Yet many of the tasks associated with a successful transition into adulthood and social integration depend upon the ability to initiate and maintain long-term, intimate sexual relationships. Using a case study methodology, this research—which was conducted in British Columbia, Canada—investigated the potential effects of an innovative theatre-based, peer-led HIV prevention/sexuality education program on four groups of high school students and the peer leaders. The potential of theatre-in-education was examined to determine if this format would engage youth audiences—and keep them engaged—and if it would have a positive impact on self-reported confidence in performing risk-reduction behaviours. The results from the four case studies strongly suggest that peer-led theatre presented in conjunction with peer-led discussion has the potential to not only engage youth between 12 and 17, but to also increase self-reported confidence in their ability reduce risk. In two of the cases, engagement was high and constant; while the two other cases demonstrated that the format has a strong potential for drawing more reluctant audiences into discussions over time. In all cases, confidence reportedly increased. Further to this, audiences reported gains in knowledge, improvements in behavioural and communication skills, and increased motivation to use condoms and to access sexual health care. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, there were reports of increased communication about sexual health issues, the development of greater compassion and tolerance, along with the desire to avoid stigmatizing HIV-positive individuals and sexual minorities. The peer leaders reported comparable effects. Given that stigma has been identified as the most persistent barrier to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment, embedding peer-led theatre programs—focused on sexuality and HIV prevention—into currently existing theatre arts curricula within the public school system offers a powerful and cost-effective means of providing comprehensive sexual health education. It would be shrewd (from both a social and economic perspective) for education ministries and school districts to capitalize on the positive aspects of adolescent peer networks and youths’ natural tendency to learn from one another. This research, while based on informed judgment, adequacy and plausibility rather than on the gold standard of a randomized control trial, arguably provides initial evidence that the theatre-in-education format is worthy of implementation on a wider scale. Investing in the set-up, maintenance and rigorous evaluation of peer-led theatre-in-education programs which focus on sexuality has the potential to normalize safer sexual practices and improve population health, for this generation and generations to come.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:16:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Telma Veronica Silva Calsavara.pdf: 1818849 bytes, checksum: 89f3b21088a61eaaa5a0d5ba64a032a1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-15 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This study focuses on the assumptions and social work intervention possibilities in education, in face of emerging issues in the classroom about youth sexuality in elementary school, according to National Curriculum Parameters - NCPs, provided for LDB. The interest in the subject arose from the referral to Social work of situations related to sexuality by teachers of a municipal school in Cordeirópolis, which emerged in the classroom or in contexts within the school. From the analysis of the historical construction of sexuality, we identified the main demands installed in the debate about sexuality and the place of treatment of this subject in the educational project of elementary school supported by the Education Policy. The study also merited a reflection about the accumulated debate in the profession about the tasks of the social worker in the area of Education, and an indication of the assumptions and social work intervention possibilities from the demand around issues of sexuality particularized to the social condition of students. In addition to texts of various authors addressing this issue, we analyze the reference documents such as the Federal Constitution (CF / 88), the Law of Education Guidelines and Bases (LDB / 1996), the National Education Plan (PNE / 2001) and the National Curriculum Parameters (PCNs / 1997). Empirical research, exploratory and qualitative, focused on data collection with teachers of fifth grade students from public schools in Cordeirópolis, a small town in the State of São Paulo, in order to analyze the expression of sexuality ways demand; the experiences of the subject involved with the theme; understanding about the relation to sexual orientation and sex education; the place of the debate on sexuality in the curriculum and educators to discuss the issue in the classroom. As a result, it was revealed from this study that it is urgent to re-read the proposal of the PCNS, considering the precarious reality of many schools. For the sexual orientation work can be effective, it is necessary that the different beliefs and values, doubts and questions about the various aspects of sexuality find place to express themselves. Education can be the space for effective, more effectively, the ethical-political project of Social Work, which sees the full citizenship of the person in development. With this perspective, we understand that the issue opens a fertile opportunity for the professional of social worker, by responding to a demand load of taboos, stigma and prejudice, as in case of sexuality at school; it is a challenge about think of strategies intervention towards reality / Este estudo tem como foco os pressupostos e as possibilidades de intervenção do Serviço Social na área da educação, frente às questões emergentes na sala de aula acerca da sexualidade juvenil no ensino fundamental, segundo os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais PCNs, previstos na Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação -LDB. O interesse pelo tema surgiu a partir do encaminhamento ao Serviço Social de situações vinculadas à sexualidade por parte dos professores de uma escola municipal de Cordeirópolis, que emergiram em sala de aula ou em contextos dentro da escola. A partir da análise da construção histórica da sexualidade, identificamos as principais demandas instaladas no debate acerca da sexualidade e o lugar do tratamento desse tema no projeto pedagógico do ensino fundamental amparado pela Política de Educação. O estudo também mereceu uma reflexão acerca do debate acumulado na profissão acerca das atribuições do assistente social na área da Educação, bem como a indicação dos pressupostos e às possibilidades de intervenção do Serviço Social a partir da demanda em torno das questões da sexualidade particularizadas à condição social dos alunos. Além de textos de vários autores que tratam do tema, analisamos os documentos de referência como a Constituição Federal (CF/88), a Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação (LDB/1996), o Plano Nacional de Educação (PNE/2001) e os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (PCNs/1997). A pesquisa empírica, de caráter exploratório e qualitativo, incidiu na coleta de dados junto aos professores da quinta série do ensino fundamental das escolas públicas de Cordeirópolis, no interior do Estado de São Paulo, com o objetivo de analisar as formas de manifestação da sexualidade como demanda; as vivências do sujeito envolvido com o tema; a compreensão em relação à orientação sexual e à educação sexual; o lugar do debate acerca da sexualidade no currículo e a dos educadores para tratar o tema em sala de aula. Como resultado, foi possível perceber com este estudo que é urgente uma releitura da proposta dos PCNS, considerando a realidade precária de muitas escolas. Para que o trabalho de orientação sexual possa se efetivar, é necessário que as diferentes crenças e valores, as dúvidas e os questionamentos sobre os diversos aspectos ligados à sexualidade encontrem espaço para se expressar. A educação pode ser o espaço para efetivar, com mais eficácia, o projeto ético-político do Serviço Social, que vislumbra a cidadania plena da pessoa em desenvolvimento. Com essa perspectiva, entendemos que a temática abre uma possibilidade fértil para o trabalho do assistente social, pois responder a uma demanda carregada de tabus, estigmas e preconceitos, como é o caso da sexualidade no espaço escolar, é um grande desafio para pensar em estratégias de intervenção frente à realidade

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / O objetivo deste trabalho à compreender como as culturas sexuais e culturas juvenis vivenciadas por alguns jovens homossexuais sÃo traduzidas no exercÃcio da prevenÃÃo do HIV/Aids. E de que forma seus direitos sÃo exercitados nesta perspectiva. E ainda, como determinadas polÃticas de prevenÃÃo tÃm considerado essas questÃes para levar adiante propostas de contenÃÃo da propagaÃÃo HIV, mais eficazes entre esses grupos, os quais, historicamente, tÃm sido os mais atingidos pela Aids. Para construir uma abordagem sobre esse processo, esta pesquisa traz um panorama geral sobre a epidemia de Aids no mundo e um breve histÃrico social dos percursos da doenÃa no Brasil. Aborda ainda alguns apontamentos sobre a polÃtica de controle e enfrentamento do HIV/Aids em Fortaleza, principalmente em relaÃÃo aos grupos gays e outros Homens que fazem Sexo com Homens. Para entender de que maneira o exercÃcio de prÃticas preventivas se relaciona com as experiÃncias desses jovens, procuro reconstruir, a partir de suas narrativas, roteiros sexuais que me permitam interpretar o modo como as identificaÃÃes que constroem de si, a sociabilidade e as prÃticas envolvem culturas juvenis e culturas sexuais para pensar as possibilidades que configuram sexualidades e polÃticas de prevenÃÃo do HIV/Aids / The aim of this study is to understand how certain trials related to the experience of sexuality for young gays, in Fortaleza - CearÃ, relate to the prevention of HIV/AIDS. To build an approach on this process, this research provides a general overview of the AIDS epidemic in the world and a brief social history of the pathways of the disease in Brazil. It also addresses some issues about the politics of control and counter of HIV/AIDS in Fortaleza, especially in relation to gay groups and other Men who have Sex with Men. To understand how the prevention of STD/HIV/AIDS relates to the experiences of homosexual youths, I try to rebuild from sexual scripts and narratives brought by several young people interviewed and heard, how the identification, sociability and practices involve juvenile and sexual cultures to think of the possibilities that shape certain trials of sexuality and prevention