Be yourself: class, race, gender and sexuality in South African schoolchildren's accounts of social relations

Abstract

The article examines understandings of class, race, gender and sexuality in the writings of secondary school students in two working-class schools in Durban. The analysis of students' questions and responses to a problem page ‘agony aunt’, indicate how class and race come to be expressed through accounts of sexuality. In the letters many children highlight the importance of family relationships and their belief in schooling. These themes, while not surprising in themselves, contrast with the neglect of these issues in the literature on the sociology of education in South Africa, which has mainly been concerned with class and race inequalities.