Addressing gender and sexuality in drug education
Summary report of project publications, recommendations, and an audit tool for educators, researchers and other professionals
Addressing gender and sexuality in drug education: 
Summary report of project publications, recommendations, and an audit tool for educators, researchers and other professionals
This report presents a summary of findings and recommendations from an Australian Research Council–funded project examining how gender and sexuality inform the design and delivery of drug education in Australia and how related issues shape young people’s perspectives on drug education and experiences of alcohol and other drug consumption.
While the necessity of drug education is commonly accepted, debates about the merits of prevention or harm reduction goals and effective forms of delivery continue. Despite these debates, policymakers and researchers continue to position classroom-based programs as central to efforts to reduce alcohol and other drug-related harm among young people.
By analysing in-depth interviews with young people about their alcohol and other drugs and/or drug education experiences, this project produced novel insights the relationship between the gendered and sexual dimensions of youth substance consumption and drug education responses. Also interviewing drug education professionals and examining contemporary drug education curriculum resources, this project made the field of drug education itself the focus of analysis.
Overall, the findings suggest that while gender and sexuality play an important role in shaping young people’s understandings and experiences of alcohol and other drugs, drug education responses often struggle to adequately address this relationship. Responding to this, the report includes a tool that provides practical strategies for ensuring drug education curriculum resources address several key issues in an effective and, importantly, ethical manner.
Associated publications
Everyday intoxications: A qualitative analysis of young people’s alcohol and other drug consumption
Adrian Farrugia, Mats Ekendahl, Helen Keane, Mary Lou Rasmussen, Contemporary Drug Problems
Agency, sex and drug education: Examining the response-ability of education responses to consumption, sex and harm
Adrian Farrugia, Health
Narcofeminist affects: Gender, harm and fun in young women and gender diverse people’s experiences of alcohol and other drug consumption
Adrian Farrugia, Kiran Pienaar, Fay Dennis, The Sociological Review
‘Something serious’: biopedagogies of young people, sex and drugs in Australian drug education
Adrian Farrugia, Pedagogy, Culture and Society
Drug education as a site of sexuality education
Adrian Farrugia, The Palgrave encyclopedia of sexuality education
Under pressure: The paradox of autonomy and social norms in drug education
Adrian Farrugia, International Journal of Drug Policy
Researcher
Partners & funding
The research is funded by a DECRA grant from the Australian Research Council (DE220100028).