Folkhälsopolicys om yngre barn, sexualitet och professionella förhållningssätt: potentiella effekter för förskola och barnhälsovård
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63310/edu.2025.4.58911Keywords:
barnhälsovård, förskola, sexualitet, WPR-analysAbstract
From a professional perspective, sexuality is often regarded as a sensitive and challenging issue, particularly when it comes to young children. The aim of this article is to analyse how online resources for professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and child healthcare, discursively problematize young children, sexuality and professional approaches. To do this, we have used an analytical method for policy analysis that focuses on governance and discursive problematizations (WPR). The analysis reveals differences between policy for ECEC and policy for child healthcare in how they describe and address sexuality, as well as in what they consider to be valid sources of knowledge. The material targeted at ECEC constructs children as innocent and in need of protection from harmful adult sexuality. In contrast, the material directed at child healthcare present children as sexual subjects. We interpret the more cautious approach to children's own sexuality in ECEC as stemming from its more ambiguous professional role, compared to the clearer role defined within child healthcare.
References
Bacchi, C. (2009). Analysing policy. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Bacchi, C., & Goodwin, S. (2016). Poststructural policy analysis: A guide to practice. Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52546-8
Balter, A. S., van Rhijn, T. M., & Davies, A. W. (2016). The development of sexuality in childhood in early learning settings: An exploration of early childhood educators' perceptions. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 25(1), 30-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.251-A3
Balter, A. S., van Rhijn, T., & Davies, A. W. (2018). Equipping early childhood educators to support the development of sexuality in childhood: Identification of pre-and post-service training needs. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 27(1), 33-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.2017-0036
Balter, A. S., van Rhijn, T., Gores, D., Davies WJ S., & Akers, T. (2021). "Supporting the development of sexuality in early childhood: The rationales and barriers to sexuality education in early learning settings." The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 30(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.2021-0034
Bengtsson, J. (2021). “Stopp! Om barn, kropp, sexualitet och gränser.” I: Normer i förskolan, red. J. Bengtsson, E. Reimers, & A. Hellman (95–116). Gleerups.
Bergström, H., Westberg Broström, A., & Hulth, M. (2022). Samtycke, känslor och möjligheter att agera: barnsyn och barns aktörskap i sexualbrottsförebyggande litteratur för förskoleåldern. Barn–forskning om barn og barndom i Norden, 40(4). doi: 10.23865/barn.v40.5108 DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/barn.v40.5108
Brante, T. (2009). Vad är en profession? Teoretiska ansatser och definitioner. I L. Maria (Red.), Vetenskap för profession (s. 15-34). Högskolan i Borås.
Egan, R. D., & Hawkes, G. (2009). The problem with protection: Or, why we need to move towards recognition and the sexual agency of children. Continuum, 23(3), 389-400. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310902842975
Goncalves de Sousa, R., & da Silva Nogueira, N. A. (2023). Gender and sexuality in Brazilian early childhood education. I: Gendered and Sexual Norms in Global South Early Childhood Education (ss. 67-83). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003211600-5
Hulth, M. (2024). ‘It can be an abuse, even though both have consented’: Swedish preschool practitioners' discussions about teaching (sexual) consent to preschoolers. Children & Society. doi: 10.1111/chso.12883 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12883
Hulth, M. (2025). ”Vi pratar ju inte om det”: Barns och pedagogers handlingsutrymme i förskolans sexualpedagogiska diskurser. [Doktorsavhandling, Stockholms universitet].
Hulth, M., Lindgren A-L., & Westberg Broström, A. (2023). Child sexuality and interdependent agency in sexuality education texts for Swedish preschool practitioners 1969− 2021: three discourses on children’s sexual play. Sex Education, 24(5), 678-693. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2023.2261382
James, A., Jenks, C., & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizing childhood. Polity Press.
Leander, E. M. B. (2022). Children’s sexuality and nudity in discourse and images in a danish education and care journal over 50 Years (1970–2019): The emergence of “the child perpetrator of sexual abuse” in an international perspective. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1-30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02421-5
Liang, J. Y., & Bowcher, W. L. (2019). Legitimating sex education through children’s picture books in China. Sex Education, 19(3), 329-345. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2018.1530104
Menmuir, J., & Kakavoulis, A. (1999). Sexual development and education in early years: A study of attitudes of pre‐school staff in Greece and Scotland. Early Child Development and Care, 149(1), 27-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0300443991490103
Plymoth, B., & Reimers, E. (2015). A historical overview: Care and education intersecting with status and class in Swedish childminder education 1975-2011. Nordisk barnehageforskning, 9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7577/nbf.641
Rexvid, D. (2024). Förskolans möte med hederskulturen. Länsstyrelserna Gävleborg och Norrbotten.
Robinson, K. H. (2012). ‘Difficult citizenship’: The precarious relationships between childhood, sexuality and access to knowledge. Sexualities, 15(3-4), 257-276. doi: 10.1177/1363460712436469 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460712436469
Robinson, K. H., & Davies, C. (2017). Sexuality education in early childhood. The Palgrave handbook of sexuality education, 217-242. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_11
Sajaniemi, N., Apter, D., Ingman-Friberg, S., Cacciatore, R., & Kaltiala, R. (2020). An alternative term to make comprehensive sexuality education more acceptable in childhood. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 10(1), 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v10i1.857
Sasono, B., Sunhaji, R., Rohmad, R., & Aufik, M. R. (2022). Media integration of islamic sex education for early childhood. Jurnal Obsesi: Jurnal Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini, 6(5), 3825-3835. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31004/obsesi.v6i5.2272
Skolverket (2018). Läroplan för förskolan: Lpfö 18. Skolverket.
Stańczyk, E. (2018). Cartoon characters, equality nurseries and children’s ‘best interests’: On childhood and sexuality in Poland. Sexualities, 21(5-6), 809-824. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717699781
Sparrman, A. (2020). “Children’s sexual citizenship: changing notions of the sexual child.” Changing Childhoods, 22 September. https://changingchildhoods.com/childrens-sexual-citizenship
Empiriskt material
Elevhälsoportalen https://www.elevhalsoportalen.se, hämtad 2025-01-02
Elevhälsoportalens hälsoområde Kroppslig integritet och relationer för förskolan presenteras av Desirée Lichtenstein: https://youtu.be/fWoz6ErB3YI
Rikshandboken: barnhälsovård för professionen. Avsnittet ”Barns sexualitet” (reviderad 2020-12-03) https://www.rikshandboken-bhv.se/, hämtad 2025-01-02
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Westberg Broström, Helena Bergström
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
