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In this article I explore the role that class, and its intersections with gender, play in shaping the way that learners at a private, all-girls school in South Africa conceptualise their sexuality education. Drawing on data from focus group discussions with 2 friendship groups of Grade 10 learners, the evidence reveals the multiple, intersecting and contradictory ways in which middle-class young women navigate class and gender. Firstly, learners, in drawing on a discourse of middle-class excellence, reproduced class difference in their discussion of attending a private school. Secondly, they drew on this class capital to position themselves as immune to many of the issues dealt with in sexuality education, particularly teenage pregnancy. Finally, a discussion of the gender exclusivity of their school revealed that this class capital was not always available to them, as they prioritised a discourse of heterosexual desirability over middle-class excellence in speaking about their interactions with boys. The findings reveal the complex and changing ways in which young middle-class women discursively reproduce, resist and navigate the intersecting classed and gendered systems of power that shape their particular schooling context.

There is a critical need for sex, sexuality and relationships education to be LGBTQI inclusive. Numerous studies, internationally and in South Africa, highlight this need but what constitutes an inclusive curriculum has not been sufficiently addressed. This paper seeks to advance this conversation by imagining a curriculum beyond compulsory heterosexuality and considers what knowledges and practices are necessary for the South African context. To do this, the authors consider the corpus of research about how sexualities are characterized in schooling generally and in the teaching of sexuality education specifically. Using the theoretical tools offered by Freire and hooks on critical consciousness, three arguments are made. First, the authors argue for the theoretical and empirical contributions of the sociology of gender and sexualities which are social constructions informed by history, social relations and power. Second, there is a need for a curriculum to recognize the intersectionality of learners and how identity knowledges shape the way that youth sexualities are understood and experienced. Finally, the teaching and learning of an LGBTQI inclusive curriculum will steer away from moralistic and didactic instruction in favor of more participatory pedagogies that acknowledge young people as agents and legitimate sexual beings.