ABSTRACT
My interest in writing this book has developed over many years and has arisen from my professional experiences in several different and complementary contexts. It is based largely on a body of research I have undertaken over the past 15 years or so that has focused on children and sexuality issues. This body of work has involved multiple projects conducted either individually or collaboratively with colleagues, and has examined the various discourses, practices and policies associated with childhood, childhood and sexuality, childhood innocence, the sexualization of childhood, children’s access to sexual knowledge, and children’s early education around diversity and difference more generally. Each of these research projects was conducted in Australia, in regional, rural and metropolitan contexts, and included numerous interviews, focus groups and surveys with early childhood educators, parents, youth and children from a broad range of cultural, linguistic and socio-economic class backgrounds. The research projects can be grouped around three main foci. The first was an examination of early childhood educators’ perspectives, pedagogical practices, workplace policies and curricula which regulate children’s access to knowledge associated with diversity and difference, including a focus on sexuality and the inclusion of same-sex families. This research was conducted with my colleague Criss Jones Díaz (Robinson and Jones Díaz 2000, 2006). The second area of research involved a New South Wales state-wide survey of early childhood educators’ perspectives, pedagogical practices, workplace policies and curricula specifically focusing on children and sexuality issues that I conducted with a colleague, Anthony Semann. The third research focus explored the socio-cultural construction of childhood and its intersection with sexuality through identifying the historical, socio-cultural and political discourses that operate in relation to children and sexuality, and children’s access to sexual knowledge and sexuality education, as well as exploring children’s perspectives and knowledge of sexuality and relationships. This research was conducted with my colleague, Cristyn Davies (Robinson and Davies 2008b; Davies and Robinson 2010).
