Abstract:
The investigative aim of this thesis is to explore the role of language in the
construction of sexuality agency during a classroom-based sexuality education
programme for adolescents.
The thesis begins with an examination of the motivations behind the study of
agency in relation to sexuality. Overlapping research gaps in the fields of language
and gender/sexuality and sexuality education are identified. Scholars from both
fields have pinpointed difficulties with the accessing of agentive sexual subject
positions by young people (particularly young women) during conversation.
Investigations into sexuality education in New Zealand have suggested that
‘Discourses’ of sexuality in classrooms and broader school communities position
students as ‘sexual’ while simultaneously constructing them as innocent and childlike
(and thus non-sexual). These ‘large-D’ Discourses have been identified as
possible reasons for a lack of decline in the rates of pregnancy and sexually
transmitted disease amongst young people despite an overt focus on such topics in
sexuality education. The theory is that because they have not developed a sense of
agency in relation to sexuality, young people are ill-equipped to navigate the risks
of sexual activity. A question which remains is exactly how sexual agency is
negotiated through ‘small-d’ discourse (e.g. ‘talk’), by young people in classrooms.
This study focuses on language usage during classroom discussions of sexuality in
order to shed light on linguistic strategies that young people employ in order to
position themselves (or not) as sexual agents during sexuality education, and how
they respond to being similarly positioned, both by others and by their classroom
resources. In order to gain an understanding of the working dynamics of the school
and classroom, an ethnographic approach was employed. The researcher participated in classes for a period of time before the sexuality programme began in
order to observe relations between the participants, including the distribution of
power amongst teacher and students. These observations were essential to
comprehending the understandings that participants bring to the processes and
activities under study. This approach also permitted the tracing of the emergence of
a community of practice in this classroom.
Through close attention to language via poststructuralist discourse analysis, it has
been possible to demonstrate how interactants performatively lay claim to (or
avoid) sexual agency in this community of practice. By actively participating in
discussions of sexuality, the students, both boys and girls, experience being placed
in sexually agentive subject positions. They respond in various ways; sometimes
aligning, sometimes resisting, other times resignifying those positions in complex
interactions of masculinity, femininity, desire, and sexual identity.
Finally, the findings of this thesis are assembled in order to consider implications for
the study of language and sexuality as well as considering the importance of
discursive positionings (by teachers and classroom resources) for future student
possibilities in terms of sexual agency development.