The places and not educational places of identity building in homosexual adolescents: pedagogical reflections

Abstract

Sexual identity is the outcome of an elaborate construction process in continuous evolution, which has, above all, a social and relational nature. That process is made possible through interaction and exchange of symbolic contents between the subject and the environment in which s/he is immersed. It acquires some spe-cial pedagogical relevance in certain important evolutionary periods, such as adolescence. These considerations focus on the methods of that construction and particularly on places, intended not only as physical spaces in which one can exchange ideas and socialize, but al-so as opportunities to self-reflect on one’s own subjectivation path; places through which that process takes place. The point of view propo-sed here, from which one should look to the places of adolescence, is that of a social peda-gogy and a pedagogy of the difference, which may suggest considerations on the growth pa-ths, based on the difference as a value for the subject and the social context.