Secondary Education and Class Stratification: Understanding the Hierarchy of Sexuality Education in a Chinese Vocational High School

Abstract

The discussion of sexuality education has a long history in China since the onset of modernisation in the early 20th century. Sexuality education has also existed in China’s educational system for a long time but in various forms. However, the discussions regarding students’ experiences and the influence of social stratification in China’s particular social context are still limited. From March to September 2019, the author visited an academic high school (pugao) and a vocational high school (zhigao) in Tianjin, China, to gain first-hand data to understand young people’s sexuality education experiences. In this paper, the author specifically paid attention to China’s social class, a rarely discussed topic in China’s society. She also tried to listen to the voices of young people and schoolteachers and help them to be heard. By presenting the insights from schoolteachers, students, as well as the materials from a nationally approved textbook, the author conducted a thematic analysis about how social class influences young people’s sexuality education experiences in secondary education in China.

Chinese young people’s diverse experiences with heterosexual romantic relationships in various high school contexts

“…Therefore, in this article, educational stratification will be used to refer to such class stratification that happened in Chinese high schools. However, previous youth studies in China rarely pay attention to vocational high school students, though few studies have tried to investigate the intersection of sexuality education and educational stratification (Fang et al, 2022; Liu, 2022). Therefore, through interviews with high school students and schoolteachers in an academic high school and a vocational high school in Tianjin, China, this article will contribute to filling such gap by providing information on how Chinese young people deal with their excitement, curiosity and concerns about sexuality and heterosexual romantic relationships in their high-school ages.…”

“…As a result, generally, young people in China only get limited comprehensive and evidence-based sexuality education from schooling. For instance, there is no national-approved evidence-based sexuality education curriculum (Liu, 2022). Abstinence sexuality education and similar programs only focus on some specific topics directly link to sexual and reproductive health.…”

“…China’s academic and vocational high schools could be a good example. For instance, vocational high schools and academic high schools would teach students different values about sexuality (Liu, 2022). Andreas (2016: 27) summarised that, before 1978, China’s education system, like its social structure, had also been shaped to be a pyramid with limited places at the top and a range of difficulties surrounding social mobilities.…”

“…To a certain extent, it explains why young people nowadays can still receive mixed values regarding sexuality, even though, at the same time, comprehensive and evidence-based sexuality education is increasingly promoted in China's society (Aresu, 2009;Guo, 2004;Liu, 2011). For example, sexuality education has been added into the newly revised Law of the PRC on the Protection of Minors (Liu, 2022). However, evidence-based sexuality education still has not been included in China's national curriculum.…”