Gender, Sexuality and Violence in South African Educational Spaces


Book Description

The book focuses on the ways in which gendered and sexualised systems of power are produced in educational settings that are framed by broader social and cultural processes, both of which shape and are shaped by children and young people as they interact with each other. All these nuanced features of gender and sexuality are vital if we are to understand inequalities and violence, and fundamental to our three-ply yarn approach in this book. Focusing on the South African context, but with international relevance, the authors adopt the metaphor of the three-ply yarn (Jordan-Young, 2010): these being the cross-cutting themes of gender, sexuality and violence. Subsequently, the book illustrates the intimate ties that bind gender and sexuality with the social and cultural dimensions of violence, as experienced in educational settings.




Gender and Childhood Sexuality in Primary School


Book Description

This book is an ethnography of teachers and children in grades 1 and 2, and presents arguments about why we should take gender and childhood sexuality seriously in the early years of South African primary schooling. Taking issue with dominant discourses which assumes children’s lack of agency, the book questions the epistemological foundations of childhood discourses that produce innocence. It examines the paradox between teachers’ dominant narratives of childhood innocence and children’s own conceptualisation of gender and sexuality inside the classroom, with peers, in heterosexual games, in the playground and through boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. It examines the nuances and finely situated experiences which draw attention to hegemonic masculinity and femininity where boys and girls challenge and contest relations of power. The book focuses on the early makings of gender and sexual harassment and shows how violent gender relations are manifest even amongst very young boys and girls. Attention is given to the interconnections with race, class, structural inequalities, as well as the actions of boys and girls as navigate gender and sexuality at school. The book argues that the early years of primary schooling are a key site for the production and reproduction of gender and sexuality. Gender reform strategies are vital in this sector of schooling.




Combating Gender Violence in and Around Schools


Book Description

Violence in and around schools is a global phenomenon, but the gender dimension has been largely ignored. This is the first a comprehensive account of the nature and scale of gender violence in school settings across the world. The book will increase awareness and understanding of gender violence in school settings but it also presents innovative strategies to address it. Many chapters focus on participatory methodologies for working with young people on reducing violent and abusive behaviour in school, including through curriculum development and teacher education. Other chapters deal with gender, youth, and sexuality in the context of HIV/AIDS.




Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa


Book Description

This book—Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa—is structured around four major themes: gender and sexuality diversity; love, pleasure and respect; gender, sexual violence and health; and sexuality, gender and sexual justice. Chapters in this book analyse sexuality in relation to recent developments in the Southern African region and what this might mean for contemporary theory, policy and practice. Sex, sexuality and sexual health are often viewed through a narrow biomedical lens, ignoring the fact that they are profoundly social and historical in character. The contributors in this book bring to light the entanglements of sexuality with respect, recognition, rights and mutual respectful pleasure. Authors draw attention to partnerships, allyships and feminist, queer and trans coalitions in the pursuit of sexual health and justice in the region. The book will be of interest to final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and activists as well as those working in Women and Gender Studies, Critical Sexuality Studies, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Development Studies, Public Health, Psychology, Education, Sociology and Anthropology.




Gendered and Sexual Norms in Global South Early Childhood Education


Book Description

This volume examines gendered and heteronormative norms embedded within early childhood education (ECE) in the Global South, including Brazil, China, Pakistan, South Africa, and Vietnam. In this book, the contributors explore how gender, culture, religion, masculinity, sport, and conservative politics intersect to perpetuate and resist gendered and sexual norms. The book presents a range of possibilities for disrupting and challenging these norms within early childhood educational contexts. Grounded in colonial and postcolonial discourses, the book emphasises the entanglement of gender and sexuality in ECE with legacies of colonisation and surrounding social and cultural dynamics, highlighting our responsibility to address gender inequalities and injustices. The book will appeal to researchers, faculty, and teacher educators with interests in gender and sexuality in education, international and comparative education, and early childhood education.





Book Description




Love, Sex and Teenage Sexual Cultures in South Africa


Book Description

Love, Sex and Teenage Sexual Cultures in South Africa interrupts the relative silence around teenage constructions of love in South Africa. Against the backdrop of gender inequalities, HIV and violence, the book situates teenage constructions of love and romance within the wider social and cultural context underwritten by the histories of apartheid, chronic unemployment, poverty, and the endless struggle to survive. By drawing on focus group discussions with African teenage men and women, the book addresses teenage Africans as active agents, providing a more nuanced picture of their desires and their dilemmas through which sexuality and love are experienced. The chapters in the book conceptualise desiring love, material love, pure love, forced love and fearing love. It argues that love is intrinsically linked to cultural practices and material realities which mold particular formations of teenage masculinities and femininities. This book will be of interest to academics, undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in sociology, HIV, health and gender studies, development and postcolonial studies and African studies.




Childhood Sexuality and AIDS Education


Book Description

Primary schoolchildren are frequently shielded from education on sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases in an effort to protect their innocence. In countries like South Africa, where AIDS is particularly widespread, it is especially important to address prevention with younger boys and girls as active social agents with the capacity to engage with AIDS as gendered and sexual beings. This volume addresses the question of children’s understanding of AIDS, not simply in terms of their dependence but as active participants in the interpretation of their social worlds. The volume draws on an interview and ethnographic based study of young children in two socially diverse South African primary schools, as well as interviews conducted with teachers and mothers of young children. It shows how adults sustain the production of childhood sexual innocence, and the importance of scaling up programs in AIDS intervention, gender and sexuality. It makes significant contributions to the global debate around childhood sexualities, gender and AIDS education.




Urban Geography in South Africa


Book Description

This book embraces South Africa and its place in the Global South, providing a succinct theoretical and empirical analysis and discussion of urban issues in the country. There have been sporadic calls from the Urban Geography community for the development of an overarching and comprehensive text that explores contemporary processes and practices taking place in urban South Africa and, more widely, the Global South. This is an edited collection of chapters by leading urban theorists and practitioners working on various themes within urban South Africa and serves as a base for scholars and students interested in urban perspectives from countries in the Global South.




Children’s Work in African Agriculture


Book Description

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Millions of children throughout Africa undertake many forms of farm and domestic work. Some of this work is for wages, some is on their family’s own small plots and some is forced and/or harmful. This book examines children’s involvement in such work. It argues that framing all children’s engagement in economic activity as ‘child labour’, with all the associated negative connotations, is problematic. This is particularly the case in Africa where many rural children must work to survive and where, the contributors argue, much of the work undertaken is not harmful. The conceptual and case-based chapters reframe the debate about children’s work and harm in rural Africa with the aim of shifting research, public discourse and policy so that they better serve the interest of rural children and their families.