Teachers need to be confident, unembarrassable and acknowledge their own personal feelings around sex. They must also teach in a way that acknowledges your experience of being taught. You don't get into adult hood unscathed by the relationships and sex education experience you've had am so you need to make a real effort not to bring that into the class room. It focuses more where you are and how comfortable you are. If you're not comfortable, then you're not going to teach well.
In this episode, Hannah is joined by Alison Wiggins, who is Subject Leader for the PGCE in Social Sciences and PGCE Psychology programmes at University College London. Alison discusses how she works with teachers to remove their own personal experiences and beliefs around sex when working with students, and the importance of listening to young people and providing what they themselves tell us that they need. Alison and Hannah talk about the crossover of anti-racism work and sex education, why Alison believes primary school isn’t too early to talk about gender roles, and why Alison tells teachers to watch the Netflix show Sex Education! Hannah and Alison discuss how to create a more LGBTQ+ inclusive space in RSE for students and teachers, and why the RSE you deliver in your school won't have any impact unless the culture of your school as a whole reflects the values of equality and safety that you are teaching. Finally, they explain why we should centre pleasure (not just safety) in sex education and uphold it as an important valid reason why people have sex!
CW: brief mention of suicide, mentions of sexual harassment and violence
MORE ABOUT ALISON WIGGINS
Alison Wiggins is the Subject Leader for the PGCE in Social Sciences and PGCE Psychology programmes at IoE-UCL and leads work across ITE on PSHE, RSE and Anti-racism. She is also a tutor on the MA Education programme and contributes to the Understanding Research and Feminist Pedagogies and approaches to education modules. Until earlier this academic year, she was also a part-time Psychology and Sociology teacher in a London Secondary school and sixth form and has been teaching for the last 14 years. She is vocal and active feminist and is passionate about building an equitable Education system and using Education and Social research as vehicles for Social Justice. Her research interests are focused on issues of Race and Gender equity, and she is currently working with the Equality and Inclusion team in her department to develop our use of Anti-racist practice and pedagogy and is working on the creation of a new module for the MA Education focused on ‘Decolonialisation’ in education through curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. This year, she will also be working with colleagues on cross-institutional research projects focused on the racialised experiences of Minority Ethnic student teachers and is developing an RSE specialism for all PGCE students though her collaborative work with the School of Sexuality Education. She hopes that one day she will get around to beginning her PhD!
- Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ally_wiggins- School of Sexuality Education:
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