Promoting gender equality through sexuality education with primary-aged children in China

How UCL research is listening to children's voices and perspectives to enhance educational design around gender equality, inclusion and diversity in the Chinese context.

Gender inequalities in education have been widely discussed, with more recent work acknowledging the limitations of viewing gender as binary and assuming one gender is always advantaged. The literature on promoting gender equality through education is mainly from the Global North, while there is a growing number of gender education programmes for children in China which are often part of sex education lessons. However, there is a lack of research on how such programmes may influence children's understanding of gender and promote gender equality in the Chinese context.

In China, attempts at gender education in schools are influenced by historical patriarchy and strict state control on societal norms. Gender issues are as sensitive in China as they are in England, making intercultural communication on sexuality education valuable. The UCL team conducted a blend of knowledge-exchange and research activities to facilitate discussion about education as a way to promote gender equality. The project's aims were to:

1. Understand gender through children’s eyes in the Chinese context and include children’s voices in the transnational conversation of sexuality education for/with children.
2. Explore ways to promote gender equality through sexuality education for children in China.

Overcoming research challenges

One challenge faced was the difficulty of finding a typical school in which to conduct the workshops with children. Due to strict governmental control of the curriculum in China, it was difficult to find public schools that would offer space and time to conduct the workshops, especially as these workshops were intended to address the topic of gender.

Another challenge was the concerns of some of our invited speakers, who worried about the potential (negative) political impacts of these activities. One speaker expressed concern about the ‘sensitivity’ of the seminars, as they contain topics of gender and are launched by an ‘overseas’ organisation. Since some invited speakers – both in China and in the UK – had previously experienced stigma caused by controversial discussions on gender topics in education, they were concerned that contributing to the seminars might have negative consequences for their careers, or even their personal safety.

Building a safe and inclusive environment

To undertake the workshops in a local school, the UCL team collaborated with Protect Doudou, a Chinese partner, to conduct the workshops in a school with which they had already worked – an international primary school in Wuxi, which had more autonomy around curriculum delivery and school timetables. The workshops went well, as children in this school already had experiences of sexuality education delivered by Protect Doudou; the specificity of this school’s context will be analysed and discussed in the research work.

To ensure speakers felt safe during the seminar discussion, the team built a safe and inclusive environment by excluding public access and ensuring the recordings were only used for research within the project team. Before sessions, attendees were informed that seminar recordings would only be available to attendees and materials used (PowerPoints) would not be shared outside the seminars. Building an inclusive environment ensured that both seminar attendees and speakers felt safe when presenting or contributing to discussions.

Understanding children's perspectives of gender

The team successfully conducted three face-to-face workshops with primary-aged children in China, engaging 20 children per session. These workshops proved to be instrumental in understanding how children in Chinese primary schools perceive and understand gender and how gender works in their everyday lives. By incorporating children’s voices into the conversation on gender and education, the team enriched the discourse on delivering school-based sexuality and gender education in China. These workshops served as an important attempt to include children’s voices into educational design around gender equality, inclusion and diversity.

Four online seminars were held, each attended by 30 local Chinese teachers and 4-7 speakers from China and England. These seminars heightened awareness of gender equality in education and facilitated discussions on researching and teaching gender and sexuality education to children. They also established a crucial dialogue between researchers and practitioners, helping to create a network of professionals dedicated to promoting gender equality in educational settings in China.

During the 20th Gender and Education Association Conference, held in Australia in June 2024, the team presented their study and findings, which continued the theme of intercultural communication on dealing with gender issues in education with researchers and practitioners from across the world.

Future work

In the future, the team aim to develop a comprehensive toolkit on approaches to gender equality in primary school education in China. This resource will serve as a valuable guide for educators and policymakers for dealing with gender issues in Chinese primary schools. By fostering intercultural communication on gender equality, they aim to build a global ‘Network of Education for Gender Equality’ that will help combat gender bias, stereotypes, and discrimination, ultimately promoting a more inclusive, equal, and sustainable society. Additionally, they hope to extend the research scope to the Global South and undertake externally funded projects on gender education in primary and secondary schools in China and England.

Image

Xiaosheng, with permission from the project team.