Educating for Consent: Beyond the Binary

Whittington, Elsie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2421-1251 and Thomson, Rachel (2018) Educating for Consent: Beyond the Binary. In: Critical Pedagogy, Sexuality Education and Young People Issues about Democracy and Active Citizenry. Adolescent Cultures, School, and Society . Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. ISBN 1433134632

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Abstract

Within the fields of sex and sexuality research and education, consent is an important and contested term. Consent can operate as a signifier of good, ethical sexual practice and establishing its presence, or obvious absence, is central to legal definitions of rape or sex. This chapter will give some context to how the discourse of consent has developed within the UK and how it is broadly understood and taught about within sex education. Our aim is both to document and problematize the term including the messages that consent education commonly delivers. The chapter will end by considering how different terminologies and pedagogies for teaching and learning about consent might equip young people with a critical and realistic understanding of sexual consent and negotiation.