Gender and Sexuality in High School

Abstract

Schools are organizers of gender and sexual practices, identities and meanings. Boys and girls learn from school rituals, pedagogical practices, and disciplinary procedures that heterosexuality is normal and natural. In tandem with school-sanctioned forms of masculinity and femininity, young people themselves construct adolescent cultures that normalize heterosexuality and normative forms of gender, which in turn intersect with other axes of identity like race and class to produce varied and disparate experiences for students of different backgrounds. Though education is often cited as an equalizing force, schools promote gender differences between boys and girls that can result in gender inequality. This happens through both formal and informal schooling processes. More research is needed on sexual and gender minorities in school, as most of it has focused on heterosexual and cisgender students and gender inequality.