Abstract

Education shapes the power relations in society. Foucault’s concept “discursive formation” has strengthened analyses of the ways in which institutions establish orders of truth and, specifically, reinforce certain identities or subjectivities in matters of sexualities and status. The present study addresses discursive formation by interrogating the relations between sexuality education, diversity, and self-formation in Hong Kong’s higher education institutions. There are two general components of the study. The first concerns the extent to which “critical pedagogy,” adopted in gender and sexuality curricula, fosters diversity and challenges the dominant discourses on sexuality perpetuated in higher education institutions, and how this pedagogy differs from the “school-based” sexuality education advocated in primary and secondary schools. The second component of this study will focus on student-initiated activities as well as youth perspectives relative to sexuality and identities. Interviews were conducted with university and college students between the ages of twenty and twenty-eight. The interviews addressed the potentiality of student-initiated activities (e.g., workplace practicum, sexuality- or gender-related gatherings) in cultivating students as critical and conscious subjects through a more informal and contextualized form of sexuality education. The findings suggest that there is an urgent demand for sex-friendly and diverse spaces where students may continuously, exploratively, and honestly reflect on sexualities.