Welcome to a seminar where Gustav Ekström, doctoral student in sociology, presents and discusses his thesis with the working title ‘Emotions, Inclusion and Exclusion in SSR Education: An Ethnographic Study of How Upper Secondary Students Navigate Landscapes of Normality in Teaching about Pornography and Consent’.
This dissertation project aims to ethnographically explore how exclusion and inclusion manifest within upper secondary schools stemming from the emotional and social processes enacted in the teaching of pornography and consent. While pornography and consent have been part of Swedish sex education, to varying extents, since its mandatory position in 1955, these topics have gained renewed attention with the revision of the latest curriculum (Gy11/22) and the introduction of the new knowledge domain, Sexuality, Consent, and Relationships (SSR). Drawing from a critical perspective and utilizing a sociological framework of emotions, the project seeks to investigate the emotional regimes that govern interaction rituals within SSR teaching, and the formation and direction of epistemic emotions surrounding pornography and consent. Through student interviews and classroom observations conducted over a school year, the study will gather data on how students navigate and position themselves along the boundaries of normality that emerge from the intersection of SSR education and discourses on sexuality.