Empathic Activists in Education: Exploring Emotion and Affect in Non-Formal, Peer-led Sexuality Education in Portugal

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of the inclusion of emotion and affect in educational practices. It looks at the case study of the Portuguese NGO Rede Ex Aequo, and their educational initiative “Projecto Educação LGBTI.” I engage with this case study in the context of the need for schools in Portugal to outsource sexuality education to external experts, in the country’s current socio-political and educational landscape. The thesis focuses on Rede Ex Aequo’s non-formal, peer-led approach to sexuality education, whose work with the topics of sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions emphasises the visibility of LGBTQ+ experiences. The thesis also emphasises the importance of incorporating attributes of non-formal educational practices within the traditionally strict formal education system, as a means of engaging teachers and students more personally, emotionally, and politically in education. Finally, in dialogue with the volunteer educators from Rede Ex Aequo, my project highlights the role of empathy to their pedagogical approach, emphasising its contribution to simultaneously improve the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth, as well as to help combat anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in school spaces. By bringing to the forefront of the sexuality education debate the volunteer educators’ varied forms of emotional and affective labour, my thesis advocates for an improvement of the social and financial recognition of the passion and endurance required by these types of unpaid, outsourced educational practices performed by LGBTQ+ activists.