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Heteronormativity In Quebec's Sex Education Curriculum

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Heteronormativity In Quebec's Sex Education Curriculum
Antoinette Gentile: 260537380
EDEC 248: Multicultural Education
Professor Donna Lee Smith
Teaching Assistant: Sarah Mustafa-Kamel
McGill University
April 16th, 2013

Heteronormativity in Quebec’s Sex Education Curriculum

The idea of incorporating sex education into the school curriculum has generally been considered a controversial issue in terms of what material should be included and what material should be disregarded. It is essential that we as teachers address sexual diversity in sex education so that we can encourage all of our students to be accepting of others, regardless of his or her sexual preference. Heterosexism is present in many high school sex education curriculums and my argument focuses specifically on how homosexuality is lacking in Quebec’s curriculum. Heterosexism as defined by Buston and Hart (2001) is the belief that heterosexuality is the only natural form of sexuality. Although Buston and Hart (2001) are basing their conclusions on their observations of Scottish sexual education, their concepts also apply to Quebec schools. In this paper, I intend to argue that the sex education curriculum in Quebec is heteronormative …show more content…
For example, a common heterosexist topic in sex education is the instructional method of how to put on a condom. Therefore, the teacher is assuming that intercourse takes place between a man and a woman as or between at least one man and another partner (Buston & Hart, 2001). Keeping this in mind, we can see that the teacher fails to consider the alternative, being that condoms are not needed for two women to be having sexual intercourse. This teacher’s method of sex education instruction is heterosexist due to the fact that they are simply implying that sexual intercourse occurs between two heterosexual human
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