‘Janet and John’: Intersex Invisibility in the New Zealand Education Curriculum

Abstract

When I entered the New Zealand schooling system, we only learnt about a social system including ‘Janet’ and ‘John’—female and male. As far as the curriculum went, nothing else existed. Though the education system now includes ‘rainbow education’ under ‘health’ (sometimes tied into the physical education part of the curriculum), it does not extend beyond that. It continues to enforce Intersex as a pathology, an anomaly. Outside this very small component, Intersex does not exist. The Western education system has excluded Intersex and transgender existence and belonging in society even though historically they were part of society and still exist today, though largely invisible. The chapter will first explore the right to education and the importance of representation in the curriculum as a sense of belonging. After that it sets out how Intersex people have been restricted in the inclusion and predominantly are invisible in the curriculum overall. Later it will consider ways to improve how intersex can be better represented and included within the curriculum.