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.

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. 

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.