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‘Sexual Orientation’ in Swedish Preschool Policy—What Is the Problem?
Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9407-577X
2020 (English)In: Genealogy, E-ISSN 2313-5778, Vol. 4, no 1Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The present article focuses on how ‘sexual orientation’ is represented and produced in a Swedish preschool policy document regarding discrimination and equal treatment. ‘Poststuctural policy analysis’ is employed, in line with Foucault) and Bacchi. The results show that ‘sexual orientation’ is represented as a matter for families, but for parents rather than children. In the plans for equal treatment, visualizing different families stands out as the goal of working preventively against discrimination based on ‘sexual orientation’ in preschool, and the active measures planned for are reading books and spontaneous conversations. The article argues that the discrimination perspective represented in the documents, together with discourses on childhood innocence, establish certain conditions for how ‘sexual orientation’ is produced in preschool.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. Vol. 4, no 1
Keywords [en]
sexual orientation; discrimination; childhood; sexuality; heteronormativity; poststructural policy analysis
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-200577DOI: 10.3390/genealogy4010028OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-200577DiVA, id: diva2:1833006
Available from: 2024-01-31 Created: 2024-01-31 Last updated: 2024-02-21
In thesis
1. Barbiebröllop och Homohundar. Barn och barndomar i relation till queerhet och (hetero)normativa livslinjer
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Barbiebröllop och Homohundar. Barn och barndomar i relation till queerhet och (hetero)normativa livslinjer
2021 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This dissertation investigates relations between sexualities, children and childhoods by examining the following questions: How are heteronormativity and normative life courses repeated, negotiated and challenged by children? How are norms of age, children and childhood given significance in relation to heteronormativity and queerness? How is the child featured in contemporary discourses regarding sexualities, normative life courses and possible futures? The study is based on the discourse analysis methodology of Foucault (1972, 1980, 1993, 2002) and inspired by Marcus’ (1995, 1998) ’multi-sited ethnography.’ Children’s play and meaning-making during the school day are studied using participatory observations. Preschool policy documents are analyzed to investigate in what way ‘sexual orientation’ is discussed in relation to discrimination and equal treatment, and teachers are interviewed on the subject of working with lgbtq certification and norm criticism in preschool. Sources within children’s culture, showing representations of same-sex love, provide another entrance for investigating how queerness is presented, and how this is discussed among adults. Critical perspectives from queer theory and childhood studies, where sexuality and age are considered simultaneously discursive, material and performative (Butler, 1990, 1993; Castaneda, 2003, Foucault, 2002; Lee, 2001), are combined theoretically. How age (childhood) norms and sexuality norms interact is investigated using queer-temporal theories (Ahmed, 2006; Dyer, 2014; Edelman, 2004; Halberstam, 2005; Stockton, 2009). The results of the included articles indicate that children normalize heterosexuality by (re)producing heteronormative family and couple discourses in their family play and wedding play. This emerges as age-coded heteronormativity, where norms of children and adults become visible through the way in which heteronormativity is repeated. At preschool, representations of ‘sexual orientation’ are primarily focused on families and family constellations, rarely mentioning interactions among the children. Queerness in relation to childhood emerges, at the same time, as something that is demanded and questioned. The child is used as a space for negotiation of society values, disguised as the question of what is good or bad for children. A conditional queerness emerges, at the intersection of lgbtq+ questions, as an increasingly desirable symbol of a democratic, modern and urban society, and as the expected absence of childhood sexuality, particularly queer sexuality. Queerness is made conditional through, for instance, desexualized love and family discourses. Age norms, in this case norms of children and childhoods, are significant for how, when and with which arguments queerness is represented.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Göteborgs universitet, 2021. p. 133
Series
Gothenburg Studies in Educational Sciences, ISSN 0436-1121 ; 454
National Category
Educational Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-200912 (URN)978-91-7963-053-9 (ISBN)
Public defence
2021-02-05, Online, 13:00
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2024-02-21 Created: 2024-02-19 Last updated: 2024-02-21Bibliographically approved

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