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ABSTRACT New statutory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) guidance for schools in England was published in 2019. One of the major revisions since the preceding version has been the new inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities and relationships. Some groups in the UK have recently protested against this inclusion of positive teaching about LGBTQ+ identities and relationships, suggesting that, although there is overwhelming support for the new guidance, there are still groups in society who are opposed to democratic teaching about this dimension of equality. Focusing on publicly-available video recordings of the protests, this article firstly critically analyses the key discursive strategies deployed by the anti-LGBTQ+ protest groups to produce discrimination and denial. I then compare the language used by the protest groups against the language used by other UK groups who support and continue to campaign for LGBTQ+ inclusion in RSE. Positive discourse analysis, as a progressive dimension of critical discourse analysis, is used to examine how the language used by these groups functions to resist the discriminatory discourse used by the anti-LGBTQ+ groups analysed in the first part of the article. Analysis of the discourse used by the two sets of groups reveals conflicting discourses around what is perceived to constitute 'democracy' and 'equality' in the context of LGBTQ+ inclusion and schools, suggesting that these are fragile concepts in the current British political climate.

New statutory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) guidance for schools in England was published in 2019. The RSE guidance was revised following heavy criticism, as well as a need for RSE to incorporate relevant legal changes in the UK such as the Same-Sex Marriage Act (2013) and the Equality Act (2010). One of the major revisions since the preceding version has been the new inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities and relationships. Some groups in the UK have recently mobilised against this inclusion of positive teaching about LGBTQ+ identities and relationships. Groups have, for example, held public protests outside schools in Birmingham. The protests suggest that although there is overwhelming support for the new guidance, there are still groups in society who are opposed to democratic teaching about this dimension of equality. This paper firstly analyses the key discursive strategies deployed by the anti-LGBTQ+ protest groups to distort progressive views of gender and sexuality within the UK school context. I conduct a discourse analysis of talk in some of the publicly-available video recordings of the protests, as well as associated press reporting of the protests. The discursive practices are analysed using Van Dijk's (1992) and Marlow's (2015) critical discourse analysis frameworks for analysing discriminatory discourse and denial strategies. I then compare the language used by the protest groups against the language used by other UK groups who support and continue to campaign for LGBTQ+ inclusion in RSE. The groups focused on are Schools Out (an education charity focused on making schools safe for LGBT communities) and Imaan LGBTQ (the UK's leading LGBTQ charity). Positive discourse analysis (Bartlett, 2012; Hughes, 2018; Martin, 2004), as a progressive dimension of critical discourse analysis, is used to examine how the language used by these groups functions to resist the discriminatory discourse used by the anti-LGBTQ+ groups analysed in the first part of the paper. Analysis of the discourse used by the two ...

There is a general agreement that receiving appropriate and timely careers guidance enhances the likelihood of an individual's participation in post-compulsory education. However, little is understood about how careers guidance influences the choices of learners. This paper explores the educational journey of learners' who enrol within the Further Education sector in Wales, analysing whether the receipt of careers guidance is in anyway associated with these outcomes. This study utilises the linked database of school and pupil records, combining information from the Welsh National Pupil Database (NPD) with individual learner records from the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR) for young people who are registered at post-compulsory education providers, combined with anonymised client information held by Careers Wales. Data for two cohorts of Year 11 pupils (2012/13 and 2013/14) who subsequently enrolled in courses within the FE sector during the following academic year is analysed. Multivariate analysis reveals that, as expected, there is a strong link between GCSE attainment and learning aims at FE. However, the analysis also suggests that receipt of careers guidance may encourage learners to make choices at FE that are more commensurate with their abilities. Those with higher levels of attainment are also more likely to enrol on higher level learning programmes if they have also been in receipt of careers guidance. Likewise, those with low levels of attainment at GCSE are more likely to enrol on learning programmes with lower qualification aims if they have been in receipt of careers guidance. Receiving careers guidance through interviews increased the likelihood of registering on WBL programmes. Furthermore, learners on WBL programmes who have received careers guidance are less likely to withdraw from their courses early. The study offers important insights as to the role of career guidance in supporting young people in their transitions to post-compulsory education.