Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4833-3061

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Hagerman, Margaret A.

Committee Member

King, Sanna

Committee Member

Leap, Braden

Committee Member

Rader, Nicole

Date of Degree

12-9-2022

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Sociology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Sociology

Abstract

Schools are a critical site of socialization in which young people learn both formal curricular materials and informal lessons about social structure, agency, and inequality. This study examines the meaning making patterns of teachers and students in sex education classrooms and considers how these patterns reflect the structure and agency relationship between people and the institutions in which they are embedded. Through a series of interviews and using qualitative thematic analysis, I identify themes in how students and teachers discuss their experiences, how these themes relate to broader patterns of social hierarchy, and how sex education can act as a site for the reproduction (and sometimes disruption) of structural patterns of inequality.

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