RESOURCES: Review - The secrets and lies about sexuality inschools

The idea that sexualities are present in educational settings is a dangerous one. The school is often idealised as an arena free from sexuality and imbued with innocence. For the situation to be otherwise, moral traditionalists argue, would be fundamentally wrong. The equation for them is simple: sexualities plus schools equals danger. As a result, discourse concerning children and sexuality is often totally absent from popular discussions of young people's lives.

Yet, as the authors of Silenced Sexualities in Schools and Universities illustrate, young people in education constantly negotiate issues of sexuality.

The official "silence" about sexuality does nothing to help recognise the existence of all kinds of sexualities that pervade educational institutions. This book addresses the problem.

As the authors acknowledge in the introduction, the central theme of the book concerns the way that a particularly "straighter than straight" form of heterosexuality is sanctioned, normalised and made compulsory in different ways at each phase of education. As such, Silenced Sexualities draws directly on many themes from feminism, lesbian and gay studies, and the study of masculinities. Several short and engaging chapters show how "compulsory" heterosexuality shapes the lives of young people in primary and secondary schools and in universities.

The people represented in the research are diverse. Primary school children talk about "fancying" and "going out", while their teachers express fears about sex education lessons. Teenage Somali girls strive to cope with Western expectations of "normal" families, and gay men struggle with coming out at university. All share the task of navigating their own lives within the terms of an institutionalised, "normal" heterosexuality that centralises monogamous marriage and biological families. Successful participation in many areas of the curriculum and within friendship groups depends upon each individual conforming to sexual and gender norms. If this is not done, they are excluded.

This book has a liberal agenda that wishes to broaden sexual education and encourage debate. It invites readers to engage critically with an area of social and cultural studies that seeks to disturb the notion of the "hetero-normal" in a way that promotes tolerance and understanding.

Moreover, Silenced Sexualities will prove invaluable to teachers and youth workers as an introduction to the issues about sexualities in education.

- Silenced Sexualities in Schools and Universities; By Debbie Epstein, Sarah O'Flynn and David Telford; Published by Trentham 2003; Price 15.95; ISBN 1 85856 249 X.