The aim of the study is to discuss and problematise notions of femininity and masculinity constructed in teaching situations among 16-year-old upper-secondary students studying science. The empirical examples originate from a teaching session with the theme of ‘sex and relationships’. The analysis is focused on metaphors inherent in a lesson that has its origins in the animal world. The findings show that the lesson ‘sex in the animal world’ is full of anthropomorphism, metaphors that humanise animal behaviour. Teachers and students compare the animals’ sexual behaviour with human behaviour, with the result that the animal world can be perceived as representative of natural sexual behaviour. The survey illustrates problems with how the examples are permeated by cultural values in the presentation of the animal world and how these examples form constructions of femininity and masculinity in the classroom.

The purpose of this study is to discuss notions of femininity and masculinity in situations of argumentation among Swedish upper-secondary students who are studying Natural Science. The empirical material is drawn from an ethnographic inspired study, where I followed a group of students in all of their science teaching throughout a semester. This study includes three classroom situations where the students are given a task to play roles where they either argue for or against nuclear power and where they are asked to argue for or against genetically engineered organisms. The students also asked to defend the position of one country in negotiations to limit greenhouse gas emissions in an international climate conference. This study will focus on relational situations at the micro level that are related to masculinities and femininities at the macro-level. The results show how the constructions of argumentation in the role playing tasks are based on an economic terminology and rationality, which can be said to represent a masculine approach. In contrast, the discussions that followed the role playing allowed for affective presentations, which are often regarded as feminine. This study discusses how a critical perspective can contribute to the awareness of the logic of these rendered performances.

Why did we write this book and why should it be of interest to our readers? ‘We’ refers to a community of scholars coming from the Nordic countries, including Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Our readers, those who we anticipate, are scholars like us with their work relating to science education but also those in teacher education and of course anyone who feels attracted and hopefully inspired by our vexations. The community of writers who contributed to this work are diverse, intersecting and questioning science education teaching, learning and teacher professional development from different angles and with different agendas. Amongst our community were a number of problematic issues regarding scientific inquiry, socio-materialism, the science lab, private enterprises in schools, outcome of teacher professional development, citizenship, norms and values that we agreed on, and that became the driving force for writing this book.

This chapter highlights how ethical norms concerning human sexuality manifest when we explore teaching through different lenses. We present a study which emanates from a conversation in an upper secondary school biology classroom in which students were assigned the task of identifying and discussing taken-for-granted societal norms concerning different aspects of human sexuality. In order to highlight norms present in teaching we use the metaphor of the lens. Thus, by highlighting three depths of fields (DOF) we can zoom in and out on what takes place in different classroom encounters and facilitate a discussion on the ethical implications for research. The first lens focuses on the transactions taking place when each student is given the opportunity to challenge common contemporary assumptions about specific content relating to sexuality and relationships. With the second lens we focus on what happens in the immediate exchanges between the classmates. Finally, the third lens focuses on what becomes visible when highlighting the transactions and exchanges in relation to the historical and societal context within which these take place and what, from a research ethics perspective, becomes important to take into consideration.

Sex och samlevnad är ett undervisningsområde som kan väcka utmanande frågor. Frågor som kommer nära det privata och lärarens uppgift blir att ömsom sätta gränser och ömsom utmana. Området engagerar många elever medan andra förblir ointresserade. Ja, finns det ett roligare, mer intressant och utmanande ämnesområde att undervisa i än sex och samlevnad?

In this chapter we seek to challenge positivist and traditional ways of conducting research in the field of science education by turning to posthuman approaches in order to analyse the data. Feeling trapped when completing research where objects are regarded as having inherent boundaries and fixed properties, we have read data with and through a feminist materialist lens. We are curious to understand how posthuman approaches can be mobilised using Karen Barad’s and Donna Haraway’s theories of diffractive reading. Our aim has been to open up the data to diffract for new images and thereby to trouble the human centred and objective perspectives of carrying out research. Instead of taking a distance from our objects of research, this diffractive reading approach has meant that we have infiltrated the data, a student text and an excerpt from a classroom observation. We have allowed the data to influence us as well as the other way around and thus regarded the research objects as equivalent to ourselves in terms of agency. What resulted from this way of working with the research material is partly a different view of ourselves as scientists and the realisation that research objects can have agency, as well as a more intrinsic, emotionally influenced, ethical and embodied view. The research process in this chapter troubles the human centred perspective, as well as the view of research process as something objective, logical and rational. A perspective that is based on binary thinking and a dichotomous framework.

Kunskapsområdet sexualitet och relationer skapar engagemang, både i skolan och i samhället. Det är också ett område som ständigt är aktuellt – inte minst då både skola och lärarutbildningar har fått stärkta mål. Denna bok syftar till att stödja lärarna i detta uppdrag.

Boken beskriver sexualitet och relationer i ett samhälleligt sammanhang och kunskapsområdets historiska utveckling fram till nutid. Dessutom diskuteras både skolövergripande och mer undervisningsnära aspekter samt hur sexualitet och relationer ingår i skolans värdegrunds- och kunskapsuppdrag. Med utgångspunkt i didaktiska frågor om vad, hur och varför undersöks hur kunskapsområdet kan behandlas i den praktiska undervisningen och hur utmaningar kan bemötas. Vidare betonas hur samarbete mellan lärare, elever, elevhälsa och skolledning kan bidra till ett produktivt utforskande av kunskapsområdet.

Boken riktar sig främst till lärarstudenter men också till verksamma lärare och skolledare inom samtliga årskurser men med tyngdpunkt på grundskolans senare år

Vad händer med skolans verksamhet när en styrningsform som den nationella timplanen tas bort? Vilken skolverksamhet skapas i en mål- och resultatstyrd skola?

Under fem år har ca 900 grundskolor haft möjlighet att, inom ramen för försöksverksamheten Utan timplan – oförändrat uppdrag, arbeta utan den nationella timplanen. Konsekvenserna av detta studeras inom projektet Timplanelösa skolors miljöer för lärande. I den här delrapporten fokuseras skolarbetets organisering och innehåll i relation till skolornas traditioner men också till trender i samhället. Genom att analysera hur lärarna i fem arbetslag organiserar och talar om sin timplanelösa verksamhet urskiljer författarna vad lärarna ser som sin främsta uppgift – att alla elever når målen. Uppnåendemål och betygskriterier får en central betydelse för lärarnas arbete. Kravet på att alla elever ska nå målen uppkom med införandet av nuvarande betygssystem. Timplanelöshetens möjligheter används av lärarna för att öka individualiserande och ämnesövergripande arbetssätt. De förändringar som ägt rum i skolan tycks ge begreppet likvärdig utbildning en delvis ny innebörd.

Rapporten vänder sig till alla som är intresserade av trender i dagens skola och av frågor om vad som styr lärares arbete. Den kan användas i lokalt utvecklingsarbete och inom lärarutbildningen.

Vad kännetecknar olika klassrumspraktiker i en timplanelös verksamhet? Hur är undervisningen organiserad och hur genomförs den? Vilket erfarande erbjuds eleverna och vilka förmågor kan de utveckla? Vilka blir konsekvenserna för frågor om likvärdighet om någon av undervisningspraktikerna dominerar?

Konsekvenserna av försöket med slopad timplan studerades inom projektet Timplanelösa skolors miljöer för lärande. I denna slutrapport fokuseras konsekvenserna för elevernas lärande. Genom att analysera datamaterialet, omfattande drygt 70 dagars klassrumsobservationer i fyra skolor, har sex olika undervisningspraktiker urskiljts. Tre av de kategoriserade undervisningspraktikerna – självregleringen, redovisningen, sammanhanget – är utformade som alternativ till den läroboksstyrda undervisningspraktiken. Den baskunskapstränande undervisningspraktiken berör ett fåtal elever i varje klass/årskurs även om den i någon form förekommer inom alla arbetslag. Demokratifostrande praktiker iscensätts skilt från arbetet med att få eleverna godkända. Elevers eget ansvar för sina studier framträder som en tydlig tendens och elever som inte klarar av vanlig undervisning erbjuds enklare innehåll. Studien visar att olika elever erbjuds deltagande i skilda undervisningspraktiker, vilket medför olika förutsättningar för och möjligheter till lärande.

Rapporten vänder sig till alla som är intresserade av tendenser i dagens skola. Den kan användas i lokalt utvecklingsarbete och inom lärarutbildningen.

This mini-symposium aims to stress issues about how pedagogical models like e.g. SSI, science for girls and ESD construct who fits in or not in the science classroom. These models are developed from a good intention of including "all" students, opening up possibilities for them who often are seen as outsiders in science culture. But we claim that these seemingly democratic pedagogical models fabricate desirable and undesirable subjects. Often, the norms for fitting in can be understood in terms of images of gender, ethnicity and social class.

A movement in science education research highlights the importance of making science knowledge “useful” for "everyone" in "everyday life". The aim with these efforts is to let students develop scientific literacy, which often is talked about as “necessary” for citizenship. Different practices carry strong ideas of designing the future, and emphasize the need of competences that are inscribed in the concept of “future citizen”. These competencies are often described in terms of problem-solving, critical thinking and making rational decisions to contribute to a sustainable world. In relation to this image, those children that don’t want to make decisions, solve problems become constructed as failures. In a wider perspective, they can be seen as threatening the intentions of science contribution to a sustainable world.

In this symposium we would like to raise critical issues about what norms that are constructing individuals, from different social categories, as desirable or non-desirable in science classroom. These issues will be discussed in relation to six examples from empirical studies which are problematizing the construction of the desirable science student. These examples are: 1) PISA construction of the science student; 2) Social class in science class; 3) Narratives of females and science; 4) Gender, sexuality and normality; 5) Who is the democratic citizen?; 6) Who is the sustainable citizen?

This thesis takes its departure in 15-year-old students’ learning about the human body. During a semester I followed most of the sciences taught in one class of grade 9 students. I have chosen to illustrate lessons and analyse using the influence of feminists perspectives different situated actions in this science classroom practice, thereby raising a number of didactic questions focusing on the limits and possibilities of school science teaching. With the help of different analytic tools I have made close readings of transcribed situations presented in four studies.

The results show ways in which science content becomes relevant to students’ experiences, but also how students’ unique voices may shift focus from the expected science content. Overall, the results show how some discursive performances that are often taken for granted in science education are filled with explicit and implicit norms about how things should be for example in relation to femininity and masculinity. These performances may affect how students come to regard themselves and the world around them. However, the results also point out opportunities for changing these discursive performances. One way of doing this, which emerges from my results, is to create possibilities for acts in situations of equal subject positions, where different kinds of positions are welcomed. This is an approach where the content of science education involves and transforms the experiences of students’ social lives, where students’ actions in encounters with the differences are regarded as an important part of meaning making. Therefore, I suggest that ongoing negotiations in teaching should be taken into account, be regarded as a significant part of the learning processes and, through this, open up new possibilities of widening what kind of meaning making becomes available for the students. This, in turn, may create a space with unimagined ethical opportunities by paying attention to disparities, i.e. to others who may act from a different logic than we are used to, in other words: welcoming and involving differences.

This paper explores what happens in the encounters between presentations of ‘‘basic facts’’ about the human genitals and 15-year-old students during a biology lesson ina Swedish secondary school. In this paper, meaning making was approached as relational,context-dependent and continually transacted. For this reason the analysis was conductedthrough a series of close readings of situations where students interacted with each otherand the teacher in opening up gaps about alternative ways of discussing gender. Drawing on Foucault’s theories about the inclusion and exclusion of knowledge and the subsequent work of Butler and other feminist researchers, the paper illuminates what gendered relationsremain tacit in the conversation. It then illustrates possible ways in which these tacit gendered meanings could be made overt and discussed with the students when making meaning about the human genitals. The paper also shows how the ways in which human genitals are transacted in the science classroom have importance for what kind of learning is made available to the students.

This paper approaches learning as a response instead of the acquisition of something previously expected. More specifically, it describes a process of argumentation on socioscientific issues in a classroom situation in school science amongst 15-year-old students in Sweden. The analysis of an argumentation on abortion in a science classroom highlights how science content becomes relevant to students’ experiences, but also how the students’ unique voices shift focus and cause displacement of the science content. The analysis demonstrates some of the tensions and possible conflicts that may lead to the exclusion of different voices. This paper argues that focusing the research or education on questions that argumentation brings to light creates interesting educational opportunities to identify and incorporate the students’ experiences in the classroom. The results indicate, however, that students’ spontaneous acts lead to some difficulties in finding a point of contact with the rational discourse of science education.

This article approaches learning as a response to something. It illustrates what happens when the voices of the rational discourse of science education meet the voices of the unexpected. More specifically, it describes a process of argumentation on socio-scientific issues in a classroom situation in school science among 15-year-old students in Sweden. The analysis of an argumentation on abortion in the science classroom highlights the deliberative educational questions present, and identifies occasions where students’ unique voices and displacement of content are welcomed. The analysis also demonstrates tensions and possible collisions that may lead to the exclusion of different voices. This paper argues that focusing on the deliberative educational questions in research and education on argumentation creates interesting educational opportunities to meet the unexpected. The results indicate, however, that students' spontaneous acts lead to some difficulties in finding a point of contact with the rational discourse of science education.

This article illuminates the significance of images of femininity and masculinity in everyday school practice. Specifically, we examine role-plays concerning inter-relational dilemmas performed by 15-year-old students as a part of their work regarding the human body in science education. The results showed that the portrayal of girls, homosexuals and others who do not fit the masculine norm were presented as fragmentary in comparison with the characterisations of heterosexual boys. The images were reflections of boys’ actions and feelings. Our purpose is to discuss the possibilities that exist in order to re-symbolise and re-imagine femininity and masculinity. 

This is a study of teaching about the human body. It is based on transcribed material from interviews with 15-year old students and teachers about their experiences of sex education and from recordings of classroom interactions during a dissection. The analysis is focused on the relationship between what students are supposed to learn about the biological body and their expressed experiences and meaning making of bodies in the schoolwork. The results indicate that the negotiations associated with the encounters between the bodies of the classroom (student, teacher, and animal bodies) are important for what directions meaning making takes and what students are afforded to learn about bodies, biologically as well as in terms of values. We suggest that these negotiations should be taken into account at schools, be regarded as an important part of the learning processes in science education and in that way open up for new possibilities for students’ meaning making.

This book presents a collection of critical thinking that concern cultural, social and political issues for science education in the Nordic countries. The chapter authors describe specific scenarios to challenge persisting views, interrogate frameworks and trouble contemporary approaches to researching teaching and learning in science. Taking a point of departure in empirical examples from the Nordic countries the collection of work is taking a critical sideways glance at the Nordic education principles. Critical examinations target specifically those who are researching in the fields of science education research to question whether conventional research approaches, foci and theoretical approaches are sufficient in a world of science education that is neither politically neutral, nor free of cultural values.  Attention is not only on the individual learner but on the cultural, social and political conditions and contexts in science education. The different chapters review debates and research in teacher education, school teaching and learning including when external stakeholders are involved. Even though the chapters are contextualized in Nordic settings there will be similarities and parallels that will be informative to the international science education research community.

This study was conducted among a group of Swedish teachers and a class of 14–15-year-old students and explored pornography education as part of secondary school sexuality education. Data were generated using mixed methods including teacher-researcher meetings, participant observation in class, student interviews, and teacher evaluation meetings, and were documented in the form of audio-recordings and notes. Donna Haraway’s work on string figuring was used to trace the threads constituting pornography education. A four-threaded string figure materialised how Swedish schools’ gender equality stance could provide a sound foundation for engaging with pornographic material. However, a gender-neutral approach to teaching frustrated these aims. The figure also foregrounded how normative societal debate makes it troublesome to acknowledge other than negative perspectives in teaching, problematised the engagement of students and a focus on pornography. Finally, the figure showed a discrepancy between the curriculum’s overall aim and the goals of subject-specific syllabi, making it troublesome to link the topic of pornography to specific school subjects. In summary, pornography education came into being as a complex figure in relation to adolescent sexuality and the school’s mission to provide a form of sexuality education that both problematises gendered sexual scripts and dominant norms with regards to pornography.

In this study, we investigate the phenomenon of Swedish Natural Science sexuality education. These classes tend to provide factual knowledge, focus on the negative outcomes of sexuality, be heteronormative and include little time for discussion—like much school sexuality education across the world—and this study aims to contribute ideas about new becomings of Natural Science sexuality education. Baradian theorising was used to explore how materialities and space and time travels within the classroom can challenge often-dominant perspectives. Data were produced in a secondary school and consist of teacher-researcher discussions and participatory observations in class. A futuristic case introduced students to spaces, times and materialities that not only helped the group move beyond a medical focus but also made the sexuality education more student centred. The participating teachers suggested imaginary lust-oriented scenarios for the 15–16-year-old students as an entrance to more preventive messages in teaching. A taken-for-granted heterosexual premise was also challenged with gender-neutral words and pronouns, an exercise on how to use both condoms and dental dams, and a time travel into future possibilities for reproduction and parenting. The acknowledgement of spacetimematter intra-activity in teaching thereby enabled new becomings of Swedish Natural Science sexuality education. However, although this study suggests how dominant medical and heterosexual perspectives can be challenged, it also made visible the absence of cultural, religious, asexuality and disability perspectives in Swedish sexuality education. 

The school responsibility for teaching pornography has been discussed in the Swedish media and various political and non-political contexts. The debate has resulted in changes in the curricula. What teaching about pornogrpahy can include and how it can be expressed is a question requiring further exploration. This study concerns a group of high school teachers' discussions about how to address pornography, from a subject-specific and an interdisciplinary perspective. With a posthumanist starting point, we see how the school's teaching of pornography is intertwined with the prevailing societal debate about (in)equlity, normalization and consumption - affecting how teaching is implemented. The preliminary results also show subject didactic dilemmas and challenges resulting in the teaching being carried out within the mentoring assignment instead if being linked to one or more specific school subjects.

The purpose of this study was to explore Swedish natural science sexuality education as a material-discursive practice. More specifically, we sought to investigate ways in which the phenomenon of oskuld, which in Swedish means sexual innocence or to be without guilt, comes into being among 17–18-year-old students. The study, conducted in two upper secondary school classes for eight and six weeks respectively, involved in total 53 participating students. Field notes and audio-recordings were used in data construction. With a grounding in Baradian theory we explore how space, time and matter – spacetimematter – intra-actively enact notions of virginity within students’ conversations. Findings show that a physiological knowledge base as well as the opportunity for students to encounter their own notions are crucial in overcoming the reproduction of norms related to the phenomenon of virginity.

Sverige införde redan 1955 och som första land i världen obligatorisk sex- och samlevnadsundervisning. Enligt en Folkhälsomyndigheten (2017) så är 49% av ungdomarna nöjda med skolans undervisning och anser att den ger trovärdiga kunskaper. Dock anser de sig få för lite undervisning om genus, relationer och jämställdhet, normer och HBTQ-perspektiv, vilket också en granskning av Skolinspektionen (2018) bekräftar. Tidigare forskning visar på svårigheten med att engagera elever i diskussioner om sex och relationer (Senior & Chenhall, 2017) och att eleverna efterfrågar ämnesövergripande diskussioner, utan givna svar.

Sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen har av tradition varit no- och biologilärarnas ansvar men ämnesområdet inkluderas numera i flertalet ämnes- och kursplaner. Den aktuella studien har genomförts inom ramen för ämnet Naturkunskap och innefattar elev-reflektioner kring oskuldsbegreppet. I studien deltog sammanlagt 53 elever vid det samhällsvetenskapliga programmet på två olika gymnasieskolor. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av fältanteckningar och ljudinspelningar av både elevsamtal och lektionsgenomgångar under sammanlagt tjugofem lektioner. Ämnet oskuld, ett återkommande samtalsämne i de båda klassrummen är i fokus för analysen. Analysen har vidare skett med en diffraktiv metodologi (Barad, 2007), vilket innebär att både mänsklig som icke-mänsklig agens beaktas i materialet. En diffraktiv analysmetod innebär även att det förgivettagna i elevernas samtal kring oskuldsbegreppet utmanas. Det preliminära resultatet visar att elevernas samtal rör sig kring fyra olika framställningar av begreppet oskuld, vilka kan sammanfattas i frågorna; Vem är oskuld?, Varför ska man vara oskuld? När är det viktigt att vara oskuld? och Kan oskuld erfaras kroppsligt? De fyra framställningarna av samtalsämnet visar att eleverna ofta uppfattar sex- och samlevnad som ett sammanhållet kunskapsområde baserat på deras egna frågor, kroppar och erfarenheter. Frågor som för eleverna är en sammanflätad verklighet hålls dock isär i skolans struktur och ämnesuppdelning och resultatet visar på vikten av att elevernas frågor bearbetas ämnesövergripande.

Sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen ingår sedan läroplansreformen 2011 i flertalet ämnes- och kursplaner. Kunskapsområdet som av tradition varit no- och biologilärarnas ansvar har dock fortfarande ofta en anatomisk och reproduktiv ansats (Bredström et al., 2018). Studien syftar därför till att utforska gymnasieelevers syn på olika preventiva metoder. Studien, som genomfördes inom ramen för gymnasieskolans naturkunskapsämne, utforskar elevsamtal om traditionella och hormonella preventivmedel i relation till det digitala preventivmedlet Natural Cycles. Elevernas samtal innefattar även frågan om ansvar gällande preventiva metoder. Studien som genomfördes med hjälp av fältanteckningar och ljudinspelningar omfattar både elevsamtal och lektionsgenomgångar från sammanlagt tolv lektioner i en och samma gymnasieklass. Med en teoretisk utgångspunkt i Haraways (1991) cyborgteori och Foucaults (1980) biopolitik analyseras de mänskliga och icke-mänskliga relationer och spänningar som uppstår i elevernas samtal sinsemellan och i elevernas mötet med preventiva metoder på sociala medier. De preliminära resultaten visar att naturvetenskapliga fakta om mänsklig reproduktionen är viktig för elevens förmåga att navigera mellan fördelar och nackdelar hos de olika preventiva metoderna. Elevernas samtal överskrider dock en traditionell och heteronormativ ingång i sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen, där skydd från oönskad graviditet och sexuellt överförda sjukdomar, såväl historiskt som idag är en central del av den svenska och internationella sexualundervisningen (Bredström et al., 2018; Ringrose et al., 2019). Studien visar vidare att lärarens normkritiska ansats och sexualhistoriska tillbakablick tillhandahåller eleverna  med möjligheten att diskutera såväl ansvarsfrågor som heteronormativa antaganden relaterade till preventivmedel. Studien visar också på ett ifrågasättande av användningen av hormonella preventivmedel (till fördel för digitala preventivmedel), som ofta är kopplade till olika biverkningar hos användaren. Foucaults (1980) biopolitiska begrepp ger vidare en möjlighet att lyfta blicken från elevernas klassrumssamtal och analysera den svenska sex- och samlevnadsundervisningens fostransuppdrag ur ett mer övergripande perspektiv och som en tradition med rötter i 1700-talet. 

Engaging students in discussions about sex and relationships is hard, and the task is even more hampered by sexuality education interacting with and being framed by religiosity and secularism (Rasmussen, 2017). Yet, the sexuality education is by 49% of the Swedish youth (16-29-year old) considered as sufficient. The school provides reliable knowledge, but the young find themselves to have limited knowledge about gender, relationships, gender equality, norms and LGB perspectives (Public Health Agency of Sweden, 2017). Sexuality education is by tradition taught by biology teachers. Therefore, the area often has a physiological, natural scientific and secular outset (Bredström, Bolander, & Bengtsson, 2018), even though it nowadays is included in several other subjects. The Nordic sexuality education is often producing a distinction between disciplinary knowledges where knowledge in biology education is treated as scientific facts, whereas knowledge situated in the social sciences and ethics curricula is treated as topics of discussion. There is a need to challenge an existing separation of a biological sexuality education from its political, moral and religious context (Svendsen, 2017). 

The study aims to contribute to the field of sexuality education by identifying and exploring students’ conversations on virginity in upper secondary sexuality education. In the study, conducted in two classes of 17-18-year-old student’s, virginity was a recurring topic of conversation. With an outset in Baradian (2007) theory figurations of virginity appearing in the student conversations were explored, as well what the figurations enabled and produced in entangled material-discursive relations. The analysis of student conversations were also performed as a diffractive reading, which consisted of several readings of theoretical concepts in relation to the student conversations to construct ‘a process of thinking with the data and with the theory’ (Mazzei, 2014, p. 744). 

In the result the five figurations of virginity appearing in the student conversations indicate an educational need to address the phenomenon virginity from a broad range of perspectives. The result further explicate a need amongst researchers as well as practitioners to acknowledge both secular, cultural and religious perspectives in the production of natural scientific sexuality education. 

In this study we examine upper secondary students’ notions of contraceptive methods, as human reproduction and contraception are common content in sexuality education in Sweden and worldwide. Our data were constructed during an extensive educational sequence in natural science sexuality education and include audio recordings of 17–18-year-old students’ stories. Since the main body of the stories was about hormonal and digital contraception and contraceptive responsibility, these stories are the focal point of our analysis. Our study further aims to problematize, challenge, and develop education on contraceptive methods, and Donna Haraway’s theoretical perspectives have been particularly useful. We have in the analytical process linked Haraway’s cyborg image with her later work on tentacular thinking. Our result shows that scientific facts about human reproduction are important for the students’ ability to navigate between the advantages and disadvantages of various contraceptive methods. However, sexuality education turns out to not only be a matter of scientific facts. This study accentuates how natural science, historical, political, cultural, and market-oriented intertwinings affect students’ notions of contraception—and thereby also the construction of natural science sexuality education. 

How mathematics and science curricula connect to democracy and justice is understood through the examination of different perspectives of mathematics and science education as political. Although frequently conceived of as neutral, these school subjects have been central in recent modern education for governing the making of rational, science-minded citizens who are necessary for social, political, and economic progress. Three main perspectives are identified in the existing research literature. A perspective of empowerment highlights the power that people can acquire by learning and using mathematics and science. A perspective of disadvantage focuses on how the pedagogies of mathematics and science intersect with categories such as ability, gender, class, ethnicity, and race to generate and reproduce marginalization. A perspective of subjectivation examines the effects of mathematics and science curricula within the context of historical and cultural processes for the making of desired modern, rational, and techno-scientific types of citizens, thus creating categories of inclusion and exclusion. All together, these perspectives point to the ways in which mathematics and science, as privileged forms of knowing in contemporary school curricula, simultaneously operate to include or exclude different types of students.