The Sexuality Curriculum and Youth Culture

The book aims to change the conversation about sexuality education for adolescents, making it consistent with a democratic cultural politics that is attuned to changes in youth and popular culture. Traditional sex education is nearly obsolete; sexuality curriculum is now primarily learned through popular culture and youth culture, which teach young people what it means to be a man and a woman, gay and straight, white, black, and Latino, rich and poor – and what sexuality has to do with it. Ultimately, this book conceptualizes democratic sexuality education as a commitment to the idea that sexuality education should affirm the right of all young people to construct their own sexual selves and relations as much as possible, so long as they are non-exploitive, consensual, and informed.

Dennis Carlson is a professor of cultural studies of education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and is Director of a Ford Foundation grant project, Re-framing Sexuality Education. He is the author of a number of books and co-edited volumes focusing on the meaning of democratic education in new times, and on the intersections of youth culture, popular culture, and the curriculum.
Donyell L. Roseboro is an assistant professor of secondary education and foundations at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She holds a PhD in curriculum, teaching, and cultural studies from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and has recently published journal articles in Equity & Excellence in Education, The Journal of Educational Foundations, Teaching & Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice, and Learning for Democracy.