From personal sexuality bias to the life orientation classroom: bridging the gap with cultural intelligence

Abstract

The emotive nature of teaching sexuality and culture is widely acknowledged. However, a working model to promote the teaching of sexuality with sensitivity to both learner needs and community social norms is required. This paper proposes to position cultural intelligence as a means to promote the active, as opposed to reactive, nature of teaching sexuality within a multicultural environment. Specifically, cultural intelligence's components of knowledge, mindfulness and behaviour seem particularly pertinent to a pedagogy which aligns with the active change of modern sexualities.

Investigating sexuality education in South African schools: A matter of space, place and culture

“…This itself creates little space for learners to converse and learn about differences, and further dichotomises gender as only being male or female. I challenge this method of separation, in line with Francis (2017), in that schools are often places of gender categorisation, thus suggesting that gender diversity beyond the spectrum of male and female falls silent (Swanepoel & Beyers 2015).…”

“…Educational spaces are salient spaces of socialised gender expectations and gender-specific triggers. This is visible in the division of single-sex-based schools and mixed-gender schools (Swanepoel & Beyers 2015), each carrying specific challenges and norms by which school ethos is realised. Gender and sexuality serve as strong regulators of how power manifests and is exerted within educational spaces (Carrera, DePalma & Lameiras 2012), especially at secondary schooling level, with the onset of adolescent puberty and sexual exploration and experimentation.…”

“…This need for the flexibility of adaptable knowledge to the 21st century paradigm to shift from static knowledge is further intensified by globalisation (Jonck & Swanepoel 2015). This requires a multicultural space where knowledge is mediated, which is not only curriculum and policy-based standardisation, but also culturally acceptable across the spectrum of culturally diverse learners characteristic of South African educational spaces (Swanepoel & Beyers 2015). The classroom is thus highly underpinned by South Africa's sociopolitical context, and this complicates the manner in which content is taught, as knowledge should, ideally, be dynamic and continuously re-constructed in such a rapid manner that educators need to constantly re-imagine the space and place within which their pedagogical practice takes place (DePalma & Fancis 2014).…”