Between norms and reality – : Swedish upper secondary social studies teachers’ opportunities and obstacles in teaching about sexual violence

Every day, 80 sexual crimes are reported in Sweden, making sexual violence a significant societal issue. Schools play an important role in preventing and addressing this, and the purpose of this study is therefore to examine the obstacles and opportunities social studies teachers face when teaching about sexual violence. The study also explores how the topic is currently addressed in the classroom and the strategies teachers employ. Using norm criticism as a theoretical framework, this study investigates how social science teachers handle the topic of sexual violence and the norms that influence their teaching. Norm criticism provides tools to challenge the norms and beliefs that sustain harmful power structures. The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods through a digital survey, which collected data from 29 teachers. The survey included both closed and open-ended questions and provided a broad picture of teachers' experiences and views. The main findings show that sexual violence is often treated in a superficial and sporadic manner in education. The reasons for this include a lack of professional development, uncertainty about the sensitive nature of the topic, and a lack of clear guidelines and support from school leadership. Despite these challenges, many teachers consider the topic to be very important and have developed their own strategies for addressing it in the classroom. These strategies include creating a safe classroom environment, adapting the teaching to the student group, and using methods to create distance from the topic. The conclusions emphasize the need for increased professional development for teachers and that schools and school leadership must develop clearer guidelines and structures for handling sexual violence in education. To make the work effective, a greater focus on norm-critical pedagogy and stronger support from school leadership is needed to create more inclusive and equitable teaching.