Conceptions of Sexuality, Culturality and Gender in Higher
Education
Graziela Raupp Pereira1
Amanda Rabelo2
Maria Amélia Reis3
António Gomes Alves Ferreira4
Maria do Rosário Pinheiro5
Abstract
This paper presents a research project under development in the area of Educational Sciences in
Portugal and Brazil, which aims to understand which concepts of gender, sexuality and cultural rights,
must be integrated in higher education towards an emancipatory and holistic teaching practice,
through data that reveal: which representations of gender, sexuality and cultural changes are there in
the training and teaching practices, which influences of teachers’ construction as sexual subjects,
influence their teaching practices, which training needs these teachers have concerning these issues,
what is the efficiency of a proposal for training in these topics. We also aim to raise the awareness of
both countries’ educational systems for the need to invest on training and retraining of teachers,
particularly in the area of gender and sexuality education, in order to build a systematic process for
reflection and debate on contemporary issues and facts that have become a constant concern of the
families and the state.
Keywords: Sexuality, Culturality, Gender and Health Education.
1
Post-doctorate student in Education, under contract do the University of Aveiro/Portugal, the University of the State of Santa
Catarina and the University of the State of Rio Janeiro/Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
Post-doctorate student in Education, in Coimbra University. E-mail: [email protected]
Post-doctorate student in Education, in Coimbra University. E-mail: [email protected]
PhD in Educational Sciences by the University of Coimbra. E-mail: [email protected]
PhD in Educational Sciences by the University of Coimbra. E-mail: [email protected]
2
3
4
5
1
Introduction
The gender equality, the sexual and reproductive health, the right of access to contraception, the
promotion of a responsible and aware motherhood and fatherhood, the spread of family planning and
the assurance of a non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, are today essential so as to
provide an answer to the society's concerns regarding the limited improvements in the area of public
policies and investments in recent years. These changes are needed to promote an effective solution
to face these issues, and to focus on training as a way of students having an intentional sex
education.
Studies show that prejudice against homosexuals is lower in individuals who have a higher level of
education. Thus, a investigation about Brazilian Youth present that: "The percentage of young people
th
who had completed the 4 grade of elementary school and do not want gays as neighbours is 68.3%
against 19.1% of those with higher education. Similarly, only 18.8% of the less educated are neutral,
far less the indifference of 50.1% of respondents with higher education "(CARA & GAUTO, 2007, p.
193).
Suggestions for the improvement of education and health care contained in the United Nations
Millennium Declaration (2000), supported at the Cairo Conference (1994) about population and
sustainable development, and reaffirmed in the Declaration of Yogyakarta (2006) about the Human
Rights in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, have emphasized the importance of the
issue surrounding this work by focussing on the following priorities of research and action: (i) gender
and sexuality and their plural ways of being, (ii) the culturality , as an act of intentional ethnoknowledge
and “ethnorecognition” (Reis, 2007) and as a way of understanding culture(s) as a movement and
dynamic process of symbolic interaction of individuals (Pretceille-Abdallah, 2001) and (ii) teaching
practices and teachers’ training as a means of overcoming the silence in the school curriculum and its
cultural ramifications, and (iv) Promotion and Education for Sexual Health towards a holistic and
emancipatory education (Reis, 2002).
Sex education also emerges as one of the most worrying concerns, which is almost always
intentionally neglected by the teacher. However, more and more educational institutions have been
convened to address the transformations of contemporary sexual practices, since its effects are
evident in the school routine. In order to reverse this situation, education institutions have been daily
confronted with an attempt to make the issue of an intentional sex education, as well as sexuality,
cultural and gender issues into something discussed, talked with ease, so that the human being can
better relate with himself and with others (Pereira, 2008; Crawford, 2008; Almeida, Silva and Cunha,
2005; CCPES, 2000).
It is essential to understand the issues of gender, sexual and cultural concepts to reinterpret logs
from a historical genesis in dominating myths, beliefs and taboos inherent to the historical process of
learning and understanding the world and life. The challenges to our working group come up with
assumptions that are needed here and that impose to be extended in order to provide more scientific
2
support to the issue under analysis. Thus, we refer to previous work done by the group that will be
reaffirmed in connection to this project.
If the educational practice is here understood considering its present socio-historical-materialist
side as "human practice", by the concept “practice” is not meant the social "entity" detached from the
theories it designed, it includes sex education. Our research refers to a practice always under
construction by combining the speeches narrated and impossibilities to envision it as detached from
their cultural origins and its plural contemporaneous sides. Under these epistemological aspects is
part of the work of Reis (2002, 2007a and b), Rabelo (2009), Pereira (2007a, 2007b), Pinheiro (2008),
asking what processes and experiences influence sexual individuals in construction and how they
have impact on their teaching practices, underlining the importance of training in sex education as one
of the ways through which we can build a new narrative for the teacher training, deconstructing old
behaviours.
The results of our previous research suggests the need for greater depth towards this analysis
and motivates us to go expand the range of our actions to further innovations in the fields of training
and sex education, such as: (a) the construction of a training model that is able to overcome the
functionalist and universalist thinking who perceive sexuality and health as neutral and ethnocentric
and thus detached from its
social, ethnocentric and cultural plurality, (b) to investigate the field of
research and intervention-action, and the researchers themselves, so as to understand their difficulties
when teaching this issue and the way they overcame them, (c) to promote an understanding of the
investigation about the concepts that shape their representations and how these affect their teaching,
so that they can define the conditions for better understanding themselves and others.
In relation to the size of our research, there is a suggestion which includes two studies and aim to
understand the conceptions of gender, sexuality and cultural identity, which must perceive teacher
training towards a holistic and emancipatory teaching practice in these themes. The first relates to a
survey of conceptions and representations of sexuality, gender, culturally, sex education and training
needs felt by teachers and future teachers in these areas. The second study focuses on training
evaluation, through a before and after training process, followed by a follow-up evaluation, reflecting
upon the monitoring of the impact of training on the transformation of conceptions of sexual, cultural
and sexual health promotion and reproductive health in order to improve teaching quality.
Relying mainly on qualitative methodologies, it is through instruments such as interviews and
focus groups, that we will collect the stories and memories of teachers and future teachers in training.
Thus, we will focus on the quality of the assessment tools for the collection of qualitative and also
quantitative data (Hill & Hill, 2008) so that we can triangulate the information and relate the variables
to gain an understanding of the phenomena under study.
With this suggestion, taking into account the political and pedagogical reasons cited above, we
make a correlational and longitudinal study on teacher education and its impact on educational
practice and curriculum development, comparing the Brazilian and Portuguese realities.
It is noteworthy that the great challenge of this research is: (a) to investigate teacher training for
sex education can become effective in the school curriculum as a form of right to life, (b) to propose a
3
training model that is linked to sexuality and culturality (c) to focus on a less studied group concerning
the sexual-cultural relationship, as they are the future teachers of different areas.
The methodology to be implemented in this research is grounded on the basic assumption of the
investigation-action, and longitudinal correlation. In each country we select two public universities that
have agreed to participate in the study. However, we do not want to do an exhaustive survey of the
subject involved, but to develop a research providing us information to characterize the teaching of
initial teacher training in sex education in greater depth than in extent. We chose a comparative study
between Brazil and Portugal considering the differences in the social, historical and cultural context.
Our sample consists of student teachers (university students in teacher training) attending courses
for the Degree of Education, with an intentional sample of 400 individuals in each country, making a
total of 800 individuals.
The choice of this target audience is an innovative aspect, because there is a gap noted by several
authors (Reis, 2007; Azevedo, 2005, Melo et al. 2006; Pereira & Pereira 2008a, Pereira 2007a) in the
initial and future training, because they lack the curricular proposals to fill in the issues of gender and
sexuality, perceiving culturality.
As we have already done in previous studies, we propose an action research with teachers and
students of teacher training courses for Higher Education, in order to move forward in the discussion
of the contents of the investigated area, beyond history biologism that ignores the elements connected
to the emotions, the feelings, the different sexual orientations, and the several ethnic and cultural
differences.
References
ABDALLAH-PRETCEILLE. Education et Communication Interculturelle. 2e éd. Paris: PUF, 2001.
BRASIL. Secretaria de Educação Fundamental. Parâmetros curriculares nacionais: pluralidade
cultural, orientação sexual/ Secretaria de Educação Fundamental, Brasília: MEC/SEF, 1997.
HILL, M.; HILL, A. Investigação por Questionário, Lisboa: EdIções Silabo, 2008.
MELO, S. M. M. Et al.. Uma contribuição à formação de educadores: a inserção curricular da
disciplina educação e sexualidade no curso de pedagogia, modalidade à distância, no CEAD/UDESC,
2006.
PEREIRA, G. R.; et al. O Currículo em Educação Sexual de Portugal e do Brasil: algumas reflexões
sobre as orientações. In VIII Colóquio sobre Questões Curriculares - IV Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro
sobre Questões Curriculares, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil (in press). 2008.
PEREIRA, G. R.; PEREIRA, A. HIV/AIDS Teaching and Learning Necessities. In: Muñoz, M.; Jelinek,
I.; Ferreira, F. (orgs.). Proceedings of the IASK International Conference: International Association for
the Scienfic Knowledge. Aveiro, 2008, p.608-613.
PEREIRA, G. R. Desenvolvimento de um Programa de Intervenção Psicopedagógico de Suporte à
Criança Infectada pelo VIH. 286p. Tese deDoutorado em Ciências da Educação, Universidade de
Aveiro, Aveiro, 2007.
PINHEIRO, M.R. (, Abril). Sexualidade e Educação: O que é que uma coisa tem a ver com a outra?.
Comunicação apresentada no II Encontro SOS Estudante - Em linha com a sexualidade. Coimbra:
Instituto Superior da Juventude, 2008.
4
PROJECTO DE LEI Nº 660/X/2009. Diário da República 5 | II Série A - Número: 071 | 19 de
Fevereiro, Portugal. Disponível em http://app.parlamento.pt. Acesso em: 16 de abril de 2009.
RABELO, A. A figura masculina na docência do ensino primário: Um “corpo estranho” no quotidiano
das escolas públicas “primárias” do Rio de Janeiro-Brasil e Aveiro-Portugal. Tese de Doutorado em
Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, 2009.
REIS, M. A. (Re)invenção da Escola Pública: sexualidade e Formação da Jovem Professora. Tese de
Doutorado em Educação. Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brasil, 2002.
REIS, M. A. Ethnic-Knowledge towards an Ethinic-Acknowledgement the importance of differentiated
Education to the construction. Athens Institute for Education and Research. Athens, 2007a.
REIS, M. A. Nexus & Sexus in the formation of the future young educator: a comparative study it
points questions to debate. Athens Institute for Education and Research. Athens, 2007b.
5