Browsing by Author "Pesonen, Heli"

Sexual violence in school has been actively studied since the 1990s. Sexual violence is de-fined as an act that contains sex or sexuality as a tool for violence. Sexual violence can be used in different forms: verbal, physical, psychological or visual. With this study, I will find out what kind of sexualized violence can be seen in our schools. Secondly, I will examine sexual violence used towards teachers. I wrote my study as a literature review. Studies that I used are based on different sciences, such as educational, social and gender studies. I used studies both from Finland and abroad considering sexual violence. Speaking about sexual violence in school context is problematic because usually it has only been an adult problem. Secondly, it is difficult to recognize and name situations that contains sexual violence and it is easily mixed with other kind of bullying happening in schools. Recognizing the sexualized base of the violence is crucial so schools fulfill their duty as an educator of skills like respect, responsibility and equality. Men and boys use sexual violence more often than women and girls, per studies based on schools. Women and girls are also victims of the sexual violence more usually than men or boys. This is connected to heteronormativity, which schools reproduces along with other in-stitutions in our society. Curriculums, pedagogy and pupils’ sexual cultures are part of the system that keeps heteronormativity in schools. Hegemonic masculinity theory has also been used to explain sexual violence in schools considering both pupils and teachers. Connection between sexuality and school is strong but still often ignored. The truth is, we must understand it so we can recognize and prevent sexual violence in school.