Sexuality education (SE) takes place in fields of tension where biology, legislation, norms, and values intersect. Drawing on Ahmed's phenomenological account of whiteness, this article examines how Swedish whiteness is constructed and reproduced within SE. In Sweden, SE is formalised as an overarching, subject-integrated knowledge area where the biology subject plays a crucial role in its delivery. To include a wide spectrum of SE, where both planned and unplanned aspects of teaching are considered, as well as tensions in the content, we have analysed eight semi-structured teacher interviews and five biology textbooks. Our analysis shows how Swedish whiteness is reproduced as a form of institutionalised orientation constructed by norms, social values, people, subject knowledge, policies, and legislation, all intertwined in a complex web. This web places SE, teachers, and pupils in a racial landscape that constructs and reproduces specific forms of Swedish whiteness by assigning each a position in relation to familiarity. This familiarity provides a taken-for-granted starting point in SE, where 'here' is constructed as a place of progression, openness, and possibilities for happy future sexual lives, while other places come to stand out as hyper-visible examples of the less familiar, less happy, and 'far away'. From this outpost, teachers and biology textbooks construct and reproduce Swedish whiteness through 'happy stories' of Swedish exceptionalism. Although these positive messages in SE may stem from good intentions, our findings show that a colourblind view of racial hierarchies in the rendering of 'happy stories, about, for example, gay rights, free abortion, and equality also contributes to reproducing whiteness and reinforcing ideas about race and Swedish exceptionalism in SE.

This thesis contemplates the complexity of sexuality education in schooling by focusing on how Swedishsexuality education has come to be organised, stabilised, and able to reproduce positions of privilege andmarginalisation while it, at the same time has been seeking to disrupt and emancipate. By utilizing SaraAhmed’s concept of orientation, this thesis discusses the contribution of four stand-alone articles to explorehow the body, gender, race, and sexuality are (re)produced in Swedish sexuality education, how sexualityeducation is conditioned, and how educators can navigate sexuality education to “do right”.

Article I analyses biology education textbooks and interviews with teachers. It shows that a particularform of Swedish exceptionalism prevails within contemporary Swedish sexuality education in the shape ofhappy stories, which, on the one hand, emphasise important progression in legislation concerning sexualand reproductive rights and, on the other, reproduces exclusion by marginalising or othering anything butthe happiness of the open, inclusive, and progressive Swedishness. Article II presents a hermeneuticreading of a Linnaean lecture from the 1700s called Om sättet att tillhopa gå [About the way to becometogether]. By discussing this lecture through other scholarly work on Linnaeus and conceptualisation of thebody, gender, race and sexuality, the article discusses the body was envisioned to be a holistic vessel. Through Article I and Article II, the thesis discusses how conceptions of the body have radically changedand how this has affected both sexuality education and actions in society.

Article III discusses the tradition and pedagogic culture of talking within Swedish sexuality education byanalysing interviews and observations of municipality actors working with in-service teachers’ professionaldevelopment. It suggests that talking in sexuality education is neither natural nor neutral, for it is a culturalperformance of pedagogic tradition and ideals in which teachers can embody ideals of professionalism. Toget more insight into the embodiment of ideals, Article IV focuses on teachers’ experiences of how gender,age and sexuality has conditioned their practices in sexuality education. The article highlights how,especially older women, “tanter”, become successful as they embody a heterosexual, yet desexualised, lifecourse. In contrast, men, both young and old, are conditioned to perform safe forms of masculinity.

Together, Article III and Article IV show how teachers’ efforts to disrupt and emancipate normativenotions of gender and sexuality simultaneously can reproduce positions of privilege.

To conclude, this thesis shows sexuality education to be not only complex but unfulfilling as it reproducespositions of privilege and marginalisation, even if it is seeking to disrupt and emancipate. However, byshowing this, the thesis delivers a compelling argument for why it is necessary to continue providing anddeveloping sexuality education in school, as it is an important instrument for understanding who we are,what we know and how we are going to be uniquely diverse in a shared reproductive future.

Den har avhandlingen begrundar komplexiteten i skolans sexualundervisning genom att fokusera pa hur den svenska sexualundervisningen har kommit att organisera, stabilisera och reproducera privilegium och marginaliseringar samtidigt som den har forsokt att stora normer och frigora individen. Genom att anvanda Sara Ahmeds begrepp orienteringar diskuterar denna avhandling bidraget fran fyra fristaende artiklar for att utforska hur kroppen, kon, ras och sexualitet aterskapas i svensk sexualundervisning. Avhandlingen syftar ocksa till att synliggora hur sexualundervisning ar villkorad och vad det kan innebara for larare "gora ratt" inom detta kunskapsomrade. Artikel I analyserar biologilarobocker och intervjuer med larare. Den visar att en sarskild form av svensk exceptionalism formedlas genom en mangd glada berattelser som framhaller Sveriges och svenskars progressiva varderingar och lagstiftningar nar det kommer till jamstalldhet samt sexuella-och reproduktiva rattigheter. Artikeln diskuterar hur de glada berattelserna i sexualundervisningen belyser viktiga framsteg, samtidigt som de aterskapar uteslutning genom att marginalisera eller forminska allt som inte ar den glada, oppna, inkluderande och progressiva svenskheten. Sexualundervisning har varit obligatorisk i Sverige sedan 1955, men dess historia stracker sig langre tillbaka i tiden. For att utforska orienteringar bakat i tiden presenterar Artikel II en hermeneutisk lasning av forelasning som pastas vara given av Carl von Linne nagon gang pa 1700-talet. Forelasningen som kallas Om sättet att tillhopa gå diskuteras genom att lagga ett sarskilt fokus pa hur kroppen, kon, ”ras”, sexualitet och reproduktion forestalls och vad det ar for kunskap som den tidens sexualundervisning kan tankas formedla. Genom att placera Artikel I och Artikel II i relation till varandra diskuterar avhandlingen hur uppfattningar om kroppen har forandrats och hur dessa ideer om kroppar har paverkat bade sexualundervisning och handlingar i samhallet. SAMMANFATTNING 15 Artikel III diskuterar hur den svenska sexualundervisningen uppbar en tradition och en pedagogisk kultur av att prata. I artikeln analyseras intervjuer och observationer av kommunala aktorer som arbetar med fortbildning for larare. Artikel diskuterar hur den pratande praktiken inom sexualundervisning varken ar naturligt eller neutralt, eftersom det blir en form av kulturellt framtradande av en ideal pedagogisk tradition. Genom att beharska pratet forkroppsligar larare idealen om professionalism. For att fa mer insikt om hur forkroppsligande av ideal inom sexualundervisning lagger Artikel IV fokus pa hur kon, alder och sexualitet villkorar larares undervisning. Artikeln lyfter fram hur kvinnor, och da sarskilt aldre kvinnor, sa kallade "tanter", blir ett framgangsrikt pedagogiskt subjekt eftersom de forkroppsligar en heterosexuell men avsexualiserad livsbana. Man, saval unga som gamla, ar daremot villkorade att genomfora sexualundervisning pa ett satt dar de forkroppsliga en trygg och ofarlig maskulinitet eftersom den manliga heterosexualiteten ar kodad som en aktiv sexualitet. Tillsammans visar Artikel III och Artikel IV hur larares anstrangningar att stora och motverka normativa forestallningar om kon och sexualitet i undervisningen blir genomforbara just for att de forkroppsligar normerande privilegierade positioner. Sammanfattningsvis visar denna avhandling att sexualundervisning inte bara ar komplex utan otillfredsstallande eftersom den aterskapar privilegierade och marginaliserade positioner, trots dess ansats att stora normer och frigora individen. Denna spanning utgor dock det grundlaggande argument till varfor det ar nodvandigt att fortsatta att tillhandahalla och utveckla sexualundervisning i skolan. For trots allt visar avhandlingen hur sexualundervisning ar ett viktigt instrument for att tillgangliggora kunskap for att kunna forsta vilka vi ar, vad vi vet och hur vi ska kunna vara unikt olika i en gemensam reproduktiv framtid.

What can a lecture on sex from the 18th century inform about contemporary sexuality education? 

One of the earliest accounts of sexuality education in formal education is provided by no less than the famous naturalist and botanist Carl von Linné (Linnaeus). In the lecture, Collegium Medicum - Om sättet att tillhopa gå [Regarding the way to come together] from the 1700s, Linnaeus allegedly provided a lively account on human sexuality. While sexual reproduction is necessary for all animals, Linnaeus distingued the human from other anthromoporfa species by the Greek motto Nosce te ipsum [know thyself] (Hoquet, 2014; Müller-Wille, 2014). Thereafter, he divided humankind into four racialized sub-groups. Over the course of 23 years and ten editions, Linneaus work and develop his classifications of man in Systema Naturae (1735-1758) and while his “races” sometimes shifted order, they remained (Linnaeus, 2023; Müller-Wille, 2014).

In this presentation I aim to address the normative force of sexuality education by engaging with Linnaeus lecture on human sexuality and reproduction and his racial account in Systema Naturae. Reading Linnaeus work in paralell with his lecture is key, for while his classifications in Systema Naturae are restrained, his lecture on sex offers vivacious explanations of the “natural” sexual constitution of the homo sapiens. To guide my readning, I ask how and what Linnaeus lecture on sexuality and human reproduction can inform about the “thyself” that the homo sapiens ought themselves to “know”?

Based on Müller-Wille (2014) epistemological understanding of “races” as mental tools, Linnaeus work and lecture are considered to be functional objects - anchoring points from which values, judgements, and consequences follows. I argue that Linnaeus sexuality education operates as a normative force as it provided a foundation for a particular biologization of the human body that naturalised distinction in both flesh and sensation. 

References

Hoquet, T. (2014). Biologization of Race and Racialization of the Human. Bernier, Buffon, Linnaeus. In N. Bancel, T. David, & D. R. D. Thomas (Eds.), The invention of race : scientific and popular representations. Routledge. 

Linnaeus, C. (2023). A General System of Nature. In G. G. Harpham (Ed.), Theories of Race. An Annotated Anthology of Essays on Race, 1684⁠–⁠1900. Geoffrey Galt Harpham. https://www.theoriesofrace.com/7 

Müller-Wille, S. (2014). Race and History: Comments from an Epistemological Point of View. Science, Technology & Human Values, 39(4), 597-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243913517759 

This paper illuminates how teachers are influenced by age, gender and sexuality in teaching about sex and relationships. In this analysis grounded in feminist theory, age, gender and sexuality are considered to be enacted as doings. Six interviews with teachers working with sexuality education in K-12 schools in Sweden were chosen from of a larger body of material consisting of 21 interviews with professionals engaged in school-based sexuality education. The six interviewees were selected because they explicitly addressed how teachers’ age, gender and/or sexuality come to matter in the classroom. Findings show how male and female teachers organise their teaching in relation to normative expectations of age, gender and sexuality. In sexuality education, the diverse life-courses of (hetero)sexual women offer a wide range of pedagogic possibilities for female teachers to address issues of sexuality, consent and relationships whereas male teachers are constrained to doing safe(r) forms of masculinity by directing attention away from their bodies and experiences. In understanding these results, I argue that the figure of the tant has been key in forming the pedagogic backdrop to Swedish sexuality education, hence embedding a normative ‘who’ in the ‘how’ to teach sexuality education.

The paper presents data from a larger thesis project that aims to explore how sexuality education (SE) take shape by interviewing teachers about their experiences of working with SE and observing a working group assigned to develop teachers’ practices concerning SE. In the teacher interviews I was surprised that some teachers began to talk about their own embodiments of age, gender, and sexuality to describe how they were able to teach and talk about sexuality and relationships with their students while others found it more difficult for the same reason. In this paper I ask, how do intersections of age, gender, and sexuality interfere teachers practises in teaching SE.

Using sexuality education (SE) to solve different social problems has become a defining discourse to explain what SE does. Since the late 19th century, SE has been a tool for combating and preventing social problems stemming out of venereal diseases, unintended pregnancies, low sexual moral, sexual deviance, low sexual- and reproductive health, gender inequalities, sexism, sexual exploitation, sexual violence, and a general lack of knowledge about the body and sexualities. Although SE has developed differently in various countries and taken on different directions, it continues to appear as a solution to prevent and solve a multitude of social problems. But if solving and preventing problems is the very core and purpose of sexuality education, I think it is suitable to ask how policies and educational programs ‘knows’ what problems to solve?

In response to this simple, yet important question, this paper, without denying the importance of SE, considers how the problem-solving ethos is discursively constructed and underpinned through problematisations. In this paper I use the WPR-approach to target the aftermath of policy. By departing from a policy that is already produced, I show how the Swedish Government first announced a policy reform and eight days later adjusted their message to correspond with public opinion. The empirical material consists of the announcement, a debate article by the Minister of Higher Education, and a selection of 20 newspaper articles published during the eight days in between. This paper provides an empirical example of how a problem-solving discourse underpins and narrates coherence between policy (solutions) and problems. In this paper I also consider how problematisations can work as a soothing technique of acceptance in which policy, as a solution, is in need for problems. 

The Nordic countries' progressive sexuality education (SE) has become synonymous with gender equality, sex-positive attitudes, and norm-critical awareness (Allen & Rasmussen, 2016; Bengtsson & Bolander, 2020; Zimmerman, 2015). In global comparison, Nordic SE is perceived to be a queer utopia regarding LGBTQ rights (Kjaran, 2017). Despite the prominence, feminist scholars argue it to cultivate forms of sexuality through notions of secularism and progressive pedagogy (Scott, 2018). According to Scott (2018) has Western sexual freedom represented the “fulfilling of natural inclinations of all women” (p. 157) in which sexual desire becomes a defining attribute of the human and a form of “natural law outside of history” (ibid). Svendsen (2017) argues the secular logic within Norwegian SE to be an ‘operating technology’, constructing a secular native and a religious Other. Similar constructions have been found by Honkasalo (2018) in Finnish textbooks, where culture is assigned to non-Finnish Others in contrast to liberal and progressive ""Finnish"" sexuality.  When seemingly neutral and depoliticized notions of sexuality, the human body, health, and morality are addressed in SE, it becomes crucial to think about how these notions affect educational practices. In this paper we continue the path of critique and explore Swedish SE to understand how ‘Nordic nativeness’ is constructed through educational practices. Our data consists of observations, interviews, and textbooks in which we highlight how ‘the native’ and ‘the Other’ are represented. In our paper, we use a thematic analysis to flesh out how positions of ‘nativeness’ and ‘otherness’ are represented in SE. Our preliminary findings support previous research but also present a paradox in which attempts of widening perspectives simultaneously re-construct and re-position nativeness and otherness. Although the empirical example is from a Swedish context, the paper’s results are of interest to a wider audience because it contributes to an understanding of how sexuality education is actively positions different ethical, social, political, and cultural values.