Paper Short Abstract:

Based on ethnographic research conducted in Czech schools (2021-2024), this paper examines the implementation of feminist-inspired sexuality education reforms and their complex interplay with embodied knowledge. While current Euro-American reforms advocate for student-centered teaching methods, this study reveals persistent tensions between abstract knowledge and embodied meaning-making in educational practices. Through analysis of teacher trainings, classroom observations, and public discussions, the research demonstrates how sexuality education, even when attempting feminist transformation, often defaults to traditional modes of knowledge production centered on rationality and efficiency. Drawing on anthropology of ethics, the study shows that ethical positions emerge not through rational deliberation alone but through visceral, intersubjective experiences. By examining the situated nature of ethical engagement across the educational landscape, including the researcher's positionality, the paper argues for reconceptualizing sexuality education as a relational practice rather than mere transmission of universal truths. This approach not only reveals how educational practices may inadvertently reproduce the epistemological frameworks they seek to challenge but also suggests new methodological possibilities that acknowledge the complex relationship between embodied experience, ethical engagement, and knowledge production in sexuality education.

Paper Abstract:

Drawing from ethnographic research on sexuality education in Czech schools, this paper examines how teachers, students, and the researcher herself navigate between feminist-inspired educational materials and lived experiences that shape understandings of sexuality, gender, and embodiment. Current Euro-American reforms in sexuality education advocate moving from prescriptive to student-centered teaching methods. This study examines the implementation of feminist-based sexuality education policies in the Czech Republic (2021-2024). Through a detailed analysis of teacher trainings, classroom observations, public round tables and researcher's field notes, it reveals complex tensions: abstract knowledge still tends to dominate and legitimize educational practices while marginalizing embodied meaning-making. The research highlights that the ethical positions emerge not through rational deliberation alone, but through visceral, intersubjective experiences, and employs anthropology of ethics to illuminate how sexuality education falls back on traditional modes of knowledge production centered on rationality and efficiency, even when attempting feminist transformation.

By examining the situated, embodied nature of ethical engagement across the educational landscape, including the researcher's own position, the paper argues for understanding sexuality education as a relational practice rather than transmission of universal truths. While this theoretical approach reveals how both research and practice can inadvertently reproduce the very epistemological frameworks they seek to challenge, it also offers new methodological possibilities for both educational practice and anthropological research that acknowledge the complex interplay between embodied experience, ethical engagement, and knowledge production.