Deakin University
Browse

'The C Words': clitorises, childhood and challenging compulsory heterosexuality discourses with pre-service primary teachers

journal contribution
posted on 2009-05-01, 00:00 authored by G Curran, S Chiarolli, Maria Pallotta-ChiarolliMaria Pallotta-Chiarolli
This paper reports on accidental ethnographic research. It arose unexpectedly out of the everyday teaching of first-year pre-service primary teachers at an Australian university. Via narrative, self-reflexivity, and student responses, we explore the interwoven workings of heteronormative, gendernormative and misogynist discourses when a chapter from Queering Elementary Education in the Course Reader created controversy, moral panic and resistance among students. The paper then charts the implementation of various strategies and interventions by the three authors of the paper: Greg, the lecturer; Maria, the Reading's author; and Steph, the Reading's protagonist. While outlining the subsequent shifts in student responses and discourses, we also problematise particular aspects of the processes of intervention where they still point to the insidious power and overarching framework of heteronormativity and gendernormativity that require ongoing challenges.

History

Journal

Sex education

Volume

9

Pagination

155-168

Location

London, England

ISSN

1468-1811

eISSN

1472-0825

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2009, Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Publisher

Routledge