Social representations of homosexuality between teachers from public schools: continuities and ruptures

Abstract

This text presents research results about the homosexuality perception, based on the analysis of answers to a questionnaire with open questions applied to sixty-seven participants of the Group of Studies on Sexual Education (GSSE) of the State University of Londrina, made up by public education teachers. The content analysis was carried out based on the organization of the material in meaning nuclei which denoted reference values and behavior models concerning homosexuality. The thematic categories used were the innate and the acquired. The first one includes the homosexuality perception as something a priori, of biological nature, pulsional or behavioral; the second one implies perceiving homosexuality as resulting from the “environment”, the “family education” or as an “option” of the individual. Besides these categories, it was also used the concept of long, lived and short time to analyze the historical construction of social meanings attributed to homosexuality.

Key words – Homosexuality. Sexual education. Social representations.