What English Can Contribute to Understanding Sexual Identities.

I m curriculum space for young people ^EEEEEEEEmA to learn about sexuality, to develop a sense of their identity as sexual beings, and to understand the importance of equality and social justice. If all that sounds dangerously close to espousing a view of English as an occasion for something that John Dixon and others described as "personal growth" something about which we in the English teaching community of the UK have been taught to be suspicious then I make no apology. Personal growth in terms of conceptual development, criticality, imagination, sociability, empathy, morality, and ethics may be presently an unfashionable phrase but it persists as an ideal for the institution of schooling, and English has an important role to play in pursuit of this goal. In terms of growth of understanding about sexuality and identity, I would argue, its contribution is vital.