STUDENTS WANT TO KNOW, BUT TEACHERS CANNOT TEACH: IS AN EDUCATION WITH NO GENDER NOR SEXUALITY DESIRABLE?

Abstract

In Brazil, the relationship between gender and sexuality and school oscillates between two extremes. We have explicit proposals for school approach, as was the case of Sexual Orientation, an interdisciplinary theme within the National Curriculum Guidelines. We have rejection of its teaching, as was recently the controversy under the label of “gender ideology” when many municipalities and states withdrew from their education plans the discussion on gender and sexuality. There is clearly a political dispute within Brazilian society between groups which are against schools approaching it and others which argue passionately that these subjects must be taught explicitly. Based on the ethnography of school scenes, this text shows that classrooms are highly gendered spaces crossed by issues of sexuality. The approach to these themes serves the purpose of both scientific literacy and numerous other ones in education concerning how one should be prepared for life in the republican public space.