In this article, Lois Weis and Michelle Fine introduce critical bifocality as a way to render visible the relations between groups to structures of power, to social policies, to history, and to large sociopolitical formations. In this collaboration, the authors draw upon ethnographic examples highlighting the macro-level structural dynamics…

Nearly twenty years after the publication of Michelle Fine's essay "Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire," the question of how sexuality education influences the development and health of adolescents remains just as relevant as it was in 1988. In this article, Michelle Fine and Sara McClelland examine the…

Using equal status contact theory, three school communities are examined, one in which racial differences and racist discourse are unquestioned, one that attempts to support youth in a community of difference by working the authority boundary, and one that moves toward communities of difference through bold pedagogies. (Author/SK)

The author combines a literature review with results from her school-based research to argue that the anti-sex rhetoric surrounding sex education and school-based clinics inhibits the development of sexual responsibility and subjectivity in female adolescents. Current practices lead to increased victimization, teenage pregnancy, and dropout rates.…