Teacher positioning on the teaching of sexual diversity in South African schools

This paper reports on research with 11 high school teachers in Durban and draws on positioning theory to raise important questions on the teaching of issues relating to homosexuality and bisexuality within sexuality education. Using data collected from classroom observations and in-depth interviews, it demonstrates that issues related to sexual diversity were in most cases ignored or avoided by teachers and when teachers did include aspects of homosexuality, they took up positions that endorsed the idea of 'compulsory heterosexuality'. I conclude by paying attention to ways we can deepen the teaching of homosexual and bisexual issues.