Abstract
In this conceptual piece I use two pedagogical texts or moments—a preschool/kindergarten diagram representing body parts, and an adult dance class—to explore gaps in curricula and practice with respect to the treatment of young children's sexual curiosity. Looking first at social constructs of children's sexuality and sexual curiosity, and at some of the ways dominant educational discourses, particularly developmentally appropriate practice discourse, respond to them, I argue that complications and ambiguities arise when such constructs collide with the inner lives of teachers and learners. I propose that psychoanalytic theory offers helpful ways to think about these complexities, and call on concepts of pleasure and unpleasure, repression and defence against curiosity to reflect on how education might at times invite and even insist upon the curiosity it seems to be trying to avoid.
Published Version
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