Negotiating relationships and sexuality education in Further Education
A feminist post-structuralist analysis of young people’s and lecturers’ perspectives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19516236 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emma Noble (0009-0001-7299-4169, University of the West of England, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-17 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sex Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-1811 • E-ISSN: 1472-0825 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14681811.2026.2686972 |
| OpenAlex | W7164199216 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
This article explores how young people and Further Education (FE) lecturers in Wales construct, negotiate, and resist Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) within a devolved and uneven policy landscape. Drawing on feminist post-structuralist theory and Foucauldian discourse analysis, the study analyses interview and visual-elicitation data from 19 FE learners and 8 FE lecturers across South-East Wales. The analysis identifies three intersecting discursive constructions: risk and regulation, vulnerability and silence, and participation and negotiated voice. Across these constructions, RSE emerged as shaped by institutional, moral, and affective logics that governed what could be said, recognised, or addressed within FE contexts. Young people described previous experiences of risk-focused and often irrelevant RSE, while calling for more dialogic and relational approaches that reflected their digital and everyday realities. Lecturers described tensions between pastoral care, institutional accountability, workload pressures, and limited training or policy direction. The findings highlight FE as a distinctive but overlooked site within Welsh RSE reform, where relational education is constrained by non-statutory provision and wider cultures of performativity. The article contributes to debates on post-16 RSE by positioning sexuality education as a relational and institutional practice shaped by power, care, and participation
Dialogic · Discourse analysis · Higher education · Human sexuality · Negotiation · Qualitative research · Sexuality education · Welsh · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
What do young people think about their school-based sex and relationship education? A qualitative synthesis of young people's views and experiences
Datafied at four
Sexuality Education and Desire
Transcending the Boundaries of Law
Department for Education Statutory Guidance for Relationships and Sex Education in England
‘Say everything’
Faith-sensitive RSE in areas of low religious observance
Teachers’ perspectives on relationships and sex education lessons in England
Bearing witness
Visual methodologies, sand and psychoanalysis
Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies
Tensions and potentials of involving young people in discourse analysis
Intersectionality
UnboXing relationships and sexuality education with a phEmaterialist arts-activist praxis
Theorising Relationships and Sex Education (rse) as a Children’s Rights Issue Using A Foucauldian Lens
The cultural politics of constructivist pedagogies
Transformative approaches to student voice
Enacting whole‐school relationships and sexuality education in England
The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity
Getting Personal
Emerging data infrastructures and the new topologies of education policy
Participatory' visual research revisited
Plugging One Text Into Another
| Highly cited | No |
|---|