Cultures of schooling/cultures of sexuality

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Abstract
This paper explores the ways in which children in Early Years and primary education (aged 3‐11 years) construct themselves as girls and as boys. It argues that these constructions assume and reinforce heterosexuality as the key matrix through which gender is understood by the children themselves and by teachers and other adults active in the school context. Based on in‐depth observation of and interviews with children in schools in central England and north London, the paper shows how (hetero)sexuality becomes part of the stuff of everyday in playgrounds and classrooms in a number of ways. The paper pays particular attention to the myth‐making which developed in one classroom around the teacher's decision to come out as gay to his Year 5 class (9‐10‐year‐olds) and the lessons that might be learned from this experience.

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