ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates possibilities and limitations for sex education in schools by mapping the consequence of introducing the topic ‘sex’ within a range of scientific and informal discursive settings. Insights from S. Moscovici’s work on common-sense knowledge and B. Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourse are used to argue that one potential source of sex education lies in juxtaposing discourses that frame ‘sex’ in different ways. One requirement of sex education is to provide young people with information about biological and social functions. The chapter considers the potential of a range of scientific discourses for sex education. Sex education potentially involves exploring of the connection between physical and mental life. The degree of insulation between scientific discourses and common-sense discourses provides opportunities for sex education. Bernstein’s analysis of the pedagogic device describes instructional discourse as embedded within regulative discourse, where regulative discourse relates to the moral order of the school.
