Sexual Cultures in Aotearoa New Zealand Education

Abstract

Alexandra C. Gunn and Lee A. Smith (eds.) (2015) Sexual Cultures in Aotearoa New Zealand Education Dunedin: Otago University Press.Reviewed by Allison KirkmanIt is with a sense of deja vu that I have read this book. There is now a wellestablished body of social science research from the 1970s onwards that explores the experience of being LGBTQ in general and specific institutional settings - although in the 1970s the focus would have been on gay or lesbian experience and not extending to or inclusive of bi or transgender. In sociology these institutional settings have included education, health, religion, the military and law and order environments to name just a few. Admittedly, the research focusing on bisexual and transgender experience is much more recent, but it is also growing. So what does another collected edition focusing on sexual cultures in educational settings add that is new to this body of work?The editors, Alexandra Gunn and Lee Smith, set the scene by clearly identifying the book's contribution to sexuality studies in their introduction. In the first paragraph they point to the progressive social legislation in New Zealand which has resulted in the perception of a 'gay friendly' society. In 2014 the Lonely Planet travel guide rated New Zealand the second most 'gay friendly' country in the world and in the year preceding this we had the changes to the Marriage Act which was extended to same-sex couples. However, the editors contend that this apparently inclusive social climate is not always reflected in educational settings and their book sets out to demonstrate the pervasiveness of a culture of heteronomativity and how this diminishes the inclusion of gender and sexual diversity within educational settings. How this lack of inclusion can be challenged is a feature of the book. The explicitly action focused nature of the book is signalled with the claim that the 'chapters in this book are intended as a tool for raising awareness and a call to action' (2015: 9). The chapters are written by an eclectic group of writers all with a commitment to, and engagement in, the provision of inclusive practices in educational settings. Some are students, some are researchers (within educational institutions or independently), some are educators and some work in the community. Here is how the editors describe their contributors: 'the book includes research on, with and by queer students, queer and trans* academics, community workers and heterosexual allies' (2015: 10). The asterix at the end of trans is used in the book as a signifier for 'a number of distinct, yet connected non-normative gender identities' (2015: 10). Using * at the end is to remind us that a number of words might follow it (for example, feminine, masculine, gender, sexual). While the introduction begins with reference to 'gay' it quickly moves to 'queer' as the dominant descriptor, and this usage is explicitly discussed in the terminology section. It is helpful to have this section on terminology as for those new to sexuality studies the terms used will not all be familiar ones. Included here are definitions of queer, homophobia/heteronormativity, cisgender and cisnormativity as they are being used in the book. As these are contested terms this explicit discussion of how they are used is useful to readers.The fourteen chapters in the book range from small individual research projects, mainly qualitative in methodology, through to the analysis of popular cultural texts and policy documents, and sometimes a blend of several methods. These different methods are illustrated by the chapters contributed by the two editors with Lee Smith's chapter on school formais incorporating interviews and focus groups with senior management staff and students at three New Zealand secondary schools and by Alexandra Gunn's chapter which argues that a deep analysis of the early childhood curriculum framework document, Te Whariki, demonstrates that heteronormativity is able to be challenged by those working in the early childhood classroom. …