WERA IRN Human Rights Education 2022 Webinar Series: Webinar 2

Examining relationships and sex education through a child rights lens: an intersectional approach Francesca Zanatta, Univ East London, UK

Wed, 6 April 2022

10:30 – 11:30 CDT

Register here

Examining relationships and sex education through a child rights lens: an intersectional approach

Francesca Zanatta, Cass School of Education and Communities, University of East London, UK.

In this presentation, Francesca Zanatta examines how teaching and learning about rights in an intersectional way can inform the topic of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), drawing on her experiences of teaching an undergraduate child rights module. The module, designed for future educators, intersects elements of children’s rights education with the theoretical positions of queer studies and critical pedagogy. Drawing on data from two focus groups, consisting of students following the programme, she analyses students’ views and attitudes to RSE, using Foucault’s overarching concept of problematisation and the concept of sites of struggle. Data analysis reveals tensions and potential clashes between the students’ professional selves, their personal values, and elements of the theoretical framework adopted in the course. These tensions are nevertheless constructive, highlighting the potential of children’s rights education to contribute to transformative human development. The author’s full paper is Zanatta, F. (2021). Examining Relationships and Sex Education through a child rights lens: an intersectional approach. Human Rights Education Review, 4(1), 49–69. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3991

It can be accessed at: https://humanrer.org/index.php/human/article/view/3991

Webinar recordings can be viewed on the YouTube Channel 

About the organizers

The WERA IRN on Human Rights Education was established in Spring 2019 and launched in London in June that year. The coordinators are Professor Audrey Osler (USN, Norway, University of Leeds, UK ) and Professor Hugh Starkey (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, London, UK). The two pillars of the IRN are Human Rights Education Review and UCL’s International Conference on Education and Democratic Citizenship (ICEDC) conference.