Browsing by Author "Ukkola, Hilma"

Tiedekunta - Fakultet - Faculty Educational Sciences Tekijä - Författare - Author Hilma Ukkola Työn nimi - Arbetets titel Seksuaalisen suuntautumisen ja sukupuolen moninaisuus yläkoulun terveystiedon oppikirjoissa Title Sexual orientation and gender diversity in middle schools' health education textbooks Oppiaine - Läroämne - Subject Educational science Työn laji/ Ohjaaja - Arbetets art/Handledare - Level/Instructor Master’s Thesis / Liisa Tainio Aika - Datum - Month and year 05/2024 Sivumäärä - Sidoantal - Number of pages 49 pp. Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Aim of the study. Previous studies have shown that young people who are part of sexual and gender minorities experience more challenges related to well-being and health, as well as discrimination, compared to other young people. Although equality and, for example increasing knowledge and understanding of gender diversity have been highlighted in the curriculum of primary school, this goal is not yet fully realized even in health education materials. This master’s thesis examines how sexual orientation and gender diversity are presented in middle school health education textbooks. There are two research questions: how the diversity of sexual orientation is presented in middle school health education textbooks, and how the diversity of gender is presented in middle school health education textbooks. Methods. The study material consists of three health education textbooks series, Voimaa 7-9, Vire 7-9 and Syke 7-9. The study was conducted using qualitative methods. Data driven content analysis was used as the analytical method in the study. Expressions referring to sexual orientation and gender were sought from the material. The expressions were classified into different subcategories, categories, and finally into two main categories. Both texts and the images and their captions in the textbooks were analyzed in the study. Results and conclusions. The study revealed that the presentation of sexual orientation diversity in health education textbooks was minimal. Particularly, in the images and their captions, sexual orientation was portrayed very heteronormatively. There was also a scarcity of terms describing sexual orientation, which lacked diversity. Furthermore, the perspective of gender diversity was minimal in both the texts and the images and their captions. In one textbook, it was almost entirely omitted. Gender diversity was hardly visible in the analyzed images throughout the entire dataset.