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'Happy Stories' of Swedish Exceptionalism Reproducing Whiteness in Teaching and Biology Textbooks in Sexuality Education
Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS). Malmö University, Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies (CSS).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3614-9603
Umeå Univ, Dept Sci & Math Educ, Umeå, Sweden.;Umeå Univ, Umeå Ctr Gender Studies, Umeå, Sweden..
2023 (English)In: Science & Education, ISSN 0926-7220, E-ISSN 1573-1901Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

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.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2023.
Keywords [en]
Sexuality education, Race, Whiteness, Teacher interviews, Biology textbooks, Swedish exceptionalism, Phenomenology
National Category
Educational Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-62642DOI: 10.1007/s11191-023-00454-3ISI: 001041269600001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85166334234OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-62642DiVA, id: diva2:1798011
Available from: 2023-09-18 Created: 2023-09-18 Last updated: 2023-11-21Bibliographically approved

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Fingalsson, Rebecka

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