Search

Addressing sexting in sexual health education classrooms is one way of supporting young people to become good sexual citizens and to emphasise respect and consent in their sexual practices and in their lives. While a fair amount of research has worked with youth to understand their motivations for sexting, less research has been conducted with in-service teachers to understand their perspectives, pedagogical approaches, and beliefs regarding young people and sexting. Set in this context, this paper discusses findings from interviews with Canadian teachers who were teaching a new Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum that included discussions of sexting. Our findings suggest that many teachers are still engaging discourses of risk, shame and blame when they talk to their students about sexting. Likewise, longstanding gender norms and stereotypical sexual scripts are evident in the ways in which many teachers both understand and teach sexting. Some teachers, however, are engaging in more promising pedagogical practices that frame sexting as having a range of uses, outcomes, and purposes, painting a more holistic picture of young people's sexting landscapes. Findings from this paper may be useful for educators and policymakers creating sexting curriculum for young people in educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores relationships and sexuality education (RSE) in New Zealand secondary schools. After conducting a nationwide survey of teachers and producing a report on the challenges reported by RSE teachers, we began to develop a paper exploring the perennial issues faced by RSE teachers as they enact curriculum policy. Given that these issues endure, we considered how else we could approach the paper: in particular, what different questions could we ask of our data; and what alternative analytics offer potential for thinking in new ways about the perennial issues, and move us beyond telling the same old story? Asking these questions led us to Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be? (approach to policy analysis. Using data from our survey to focus our attention on key issues for teachers, we work with extracts from national government guidance for schools and teachers on RSE to apply this approach. Under five headings developed through the data analysis, we present five ‘provocations’ – or deliberately provocative proposals for the future of RSE in New Zealand. We hope the ideas in this paper may spark different ways of thinking about RSE policy and practice, with the ultimate aim of delivering meaningful and responsive RSE in secondary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politically expedient approaches to difficult knowledge about sexual violence have included educational practices that create conditions for 'safe' spaces, such as announcing content in advance, trigger warnings and other pedagogical practices that make care allowable and smooth out the sharp edges of violence that can knowingly invoke trauma. This paper is about the power of curricular materials charged with violence in educational practices that cannot guarantee safety. I draw from feminist new materialisms to analyse the thing-ness of clothing in an art installation that was curated as a sexual violence prevention curriculum at my university. I consider the clothing as mattering as the substance of affect and thought. The starting point is that pedagogies of affectively charged encounters in education produce relations of danger and repair with important implications for victims' and survivors' knowledge, memory and trauma. The goal is to question the hope for pedagogical guarantees concerning difficult knowledge and understand what more precarity might mean for pedagogical responsibility in sexual assault curricula. The paper concludes by considering the curricular possibilities of difficult affective knowledge for a kind of queer healing and collective attention to sexual violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior publications on sexuality education experiences have often focused on cisgender students. Few have studied transgender students' experiences, particularly in East Asia, and none have addressed these issues in the Hong Kong Chinese context, where transgender human rights are a hotly debated issue, and injustice towards trans youth persists. Using the concepts of transprejudice and rights-based sexuality education, this paper identifies the non-inclusive and inclusive sexuality education experiences of Chinese transgender students as reported in data from qualitative interviews with eight trans students aged 16–20 years from secondary schools and a community college. We identified the following themes: 1) Left Out – being omitted and silenced; 2) Terrified and Distressed – being misgendered and misinformed; 3) Outraged – being pathologised and bullied; 4) Empowered: connecting trans-Inclusive and rights-based education; 5) Affirmed and Supported – engaging in trans-inclusive dialogue. The paper argues that rights-based gender diversity content needs to be included in the sexuality education curriculum to reduce transgender students' feelings of marginalisation. It also speaks to the need for advocacy for non-prejudiced and inclusive sexuality education in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on findings from a survey conducted within a larger collaborative project, working with primary school teachers and parents to normalise conversations about LGBTQ+ issues in four English primary schools. Survey data from 96 teachers and parents highlight different perspectives on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ issues. Existing research shows teachers are often reluctant to address such issues, signalling various concerns, including fear of a negative parental reaction. Using quantitative analysis of Likert items combined with a qualitative analysis of open-ended comments, the study shows differences in perceptions between teachers and parents, and among participating parents. The findings show teachers are willing to address LGBTQ+ issues within the primary school curriculum with support from the majority of parents. Parental opposition to teaching about LGBTQ+ issues appears to be associated with some parents’ religious views and limited engagement with members of the LGBTQ+ community. Parents’ concerns largely focused on notions of childhood innocence and perceptions of age-appropriateness for teaching about/engagement with LGBTQ+ issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities have the right to access appropriate and comprehensive sexuality and relationship education (SRE), but face a long history of exclusion from SRE in the USA due to myths about the sexuality of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, biases against people with disabilities, and segregationist educational policies. Additionally, people with autism/autistic people are more likely to report having an LGBTQIA+ identity, and need comprehensive SRE content to become socially competent members of their communities. Teachers and other practitioners are often placed in the uncomfortable position of addressing many SRE topics while feeling unprepared, trying to stay aligned with educational policies, managing caregiver expectations, and providing scientifically accurate fact-based information in an increasingly politicised social climate. This paper provides recommendations on how to teach about LGBTQIA+ issues to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities including recommendations for modifying existing SRE curricula, identifying effective instructional strategies, and outlining a process for including LGBTQIA+ identities in SRE content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To gain an understanding of how students perceive the messages they receive in their K-12 school-based sex education (SBSE) courses, it is important to talk with students who have recently taken these courses. This paper explores the curricula, messaging and environments of sex education courses delivered in schools in Ohio through twenty in-depth interviews with undergraduate college students. Three main themes became apparent from the data: (1) sex negativity in the messages being communicated to students, (2) the unique experiences of LGB students, and (3) missing pieces in the curriculum that students must fill in on their own. SBSE was found to impact cultural norms concerning sex and sexuality which had an effect on students' interpersonal and intrapsychic sexual scripts. We discuss the implications of students' experiences for how policy and practice change, particularly in Ohio, can move towards ensuring that school-based sex education is more inclusive, sex positive and thorough for the next generation of students and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based sex education has been a controversial issue in the province of Ontario, Canada. When an updated sex education curriculum was introduced by the provincial government in 2015, the media heavily covered negative reactions to the curriculum, and one distinct genre of reporting became modestly popular: the fact-checking article. These listicle-style articles presented and debunked common misunderstandings surrounding the curriculum and while they tried to appear as a neutral response to misinformation, fact-checking articles are no less value-laden than other responses to the curriculum. By examining two examples of these 'fact-checking' and 'myth-busting' articles published in The Toronto Star in 2015, I argue against the assumption that simply exposing the facts of a curriculum's content is enough to dispel the deep anxieties that surround sexual values in a pluralistic democracy like Canada. This paper instead suggests that the reassurance provided by fact-checking obscures the ways that conflict and uncertainty might present opportunities rather than obstacles to creating and sustaining inclusive comprehensive sex education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex and sexuality curricula in the USA should acknowledge the structural conditions racialised young people navigate to make sense of their sexual experiences and more explicitly recognise the political power of gender and sexuality. This paper suggests educators use women of colour feminism and decolonial studies to offer a historicised approach to understanding and engaging with gender and sexuality. Such an approach acknowledges how European colonisation has constructed white middle-class masculinity, femininity and heterosexuality as normative and pathologises other forms of gender and sexuality expression. It encourages educators to address state investment in colonial hierarchies by foregrounding how national legislation and associated discourses support the institutionalised pathologisation of racialised sexuality. Using a feminist of colour and decolonial approach, the article examines how US national policy further disciplines racialised sexuality by employing discourses of 'anchor babies' to justify the passing of new laws. It draws on the author's experience as an educator of colour to show how historicising gender and sexuality can teach racialised students there is nothing pathological about their sexuality. A transformed sex and sexuality curriculum is proposed to teach students about the political power they wield, and what critical understanding and action they can achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While consent forms part of the Health, Wellbeing and Relationships strand of the New South Wales (NSW) Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) curriculum in Australia, it is not consistently or effectively delivered within schools. The recent e-campaign, Teach Us Consent in NSW, drew attention to the alarmingly high rates of sexual assault experienced by young women during their school years or shortly after. The campaign called for mandatory, inclusive and comprehensive consent education in schools. This paper presents research from a case study of an elite, same-sex, Catholic boys' school in NSW, Australia, examining the types of knowledge and attitudes young men and their PDHPE teachers had about sexual consent and the types of consent pedagogies mobilised. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the five male PDHPE teachers, and a focus group was conducted with five Year 11 male students (aged 16–17). The findings highlight that while participants recognised the importance of sexual consent in intimate relationships, consent pedagogies were grounded in individualising discourses of risk, responsibility and care, which rearticulated hegemonic gender norms. Findings from this study contribute to discussions of how schools approach consent education, and the limitations presented by outsourcing relationships and sex education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationships and sexual health education is an accepted part of the school curriculum to support adolescent development. In recent years, the nature of this education has expanded to include topics encompassing a social model of health (e.g. with a focus on gender roles). There has, however, been limited exploration of student views about the inclusion of these topics. This paper presents student feedback on South Australia's Relationships and Sexual Health Programme, a state-wide curriculum produced by the state's major sexual and reproductive health organisation. The findings are drawn from an annual survey conducted from 2006 to 2017, involving 29,533 secondary school students aged 12–16 years. Regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between the year the survey was conducted and student ratings of the programme ('good/excellent' vs 'poor/satisfactory') and, separately, the individual topics students' considered most important. There was a positive association between survey year and rating the programme as 'good/excellent' with regard to providing a 'safe and supportive classroom environment', and a small negative association between survey year and 'overall rating' as 'good/excellent'. Over time, there was an increase in the number of students selecting the topic 'consent' as the most important. These findings demonstrate student support for the inclusion of a range of social health topics in relationships and sexual health education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While educators, curriculum authors and policy makers alike are influenced by assumptions about parents' dis/approval of gender and sexuality diversity, both generally, as well as specifically in relation to this topic's appropriateness for K-12 classrooms, little empirical data is available to support these assumptions. What data does exist suggests that parents generally support the implementation of a comprehensive sexuality curriculum, inclusive of same-sex attraction, and view sexuality education as a school-parent partnership. Surveying a sample of Australian parents of children attending a government (public) school (N = 2093), whose responses were weighted to produce nationally representative estimates, this study sought to expand on previous findings by exploring the complexities of parents' attitudes in relation to gender and sexuality diversity and its place within relationships and sexual health education. This paper provides a descriptive overview of parents' ideas about the purpose of relationships and sexual health education and their views on the importance of including gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive content within related curriculum areas. Notably, over 80% of parents supported the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity-inclusive relationships and sexual health education topics across primary and secondary government schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed growing acceptance of gender and sexuality diversity in Australia; yet, its inclusion in the school curriculum remains contentious. Despite evidence to the contrary, there is a commonly held belief that parents consider the inclusion of such topics inappropriate. In the light of this, this paper focuses on an analysis of three qualitative items from an Australian national survey of parents of children attending government-funded schools. Informed by the responses to these questions, we sought to better understand the concept of age-appropriateness present in the discourses deployed by a (minority) number of Australian parents who did not support gender and sexuality diversity-inclusivity in the curriculum. Thematic data analysis identified three key themes used by parents to warrant gender and sexuality diversity curriculum exclusion based on age inappropriateness: namely, inclusion is ‘confusing’; children are too ‘immature’; and children are too ‘easily influenced’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on findings from an integrative literature review of evaluation studies undertaken into sexual health promotion preparation programmes aimed at professionals with a sexual health promotion remit. Using a pre-defined search strategy, inclusion criteria and PRISMA guidelines, databases were systematically searched. Studies were screened and those included were quality assessed. Twenty-seven relevant studies were identified. Thematic analysis showed programmes were diverse in terms of how they had been developed, the content included, approaches to evaluation and outcomes identified. Evaluations showed participation in a training programme encouraged participants to feel more comfortable and confident to discuss sexual health within their role and more likely to introduce sexual health into client discussions. The types of programmes and evaluation approaches were diverse making direct comparison between them challenging. There should be agreed core outcome impact measures for sexual health education programmes in the areas of knowledge, comfort, skills and changes to practice, to allow for more direct comparison in future evaluation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well documented that the most effective sexuality education programmes employ a whole-school learning approach. More specifically, when schools and their leaders and teachers embrace such an approach, they view student learning in the context of the whole experience of being at school – from the classroom, to the home and the partnerships schools form with the local community. In parallel to this, people born with intersex variations report the lack of a systematic and broad approach to recognition and inclusion of intersex variations in schools due to strong 'normativity' messaging, including that pertaining to the body. Similarly, schools fail to engage mindfully with contemporary content that promotes a positive and diverse understanding of intersex in educational spaces, guidelines, policies and the curriculum. In line with community expectations outlined by the Darlington Intersex Community Consensus Statement, peer-led intersex rights-and-health-advocacy, and intersex-affirming scholarship, this paper advocates for and seeks to offer recommendations on how schools might enact a whole-school approach for sexuality education that is inclusive, affirming, visible and supportive in promoting and upholding the rights and health of students with intersex variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive school environments have been shown to improve educational outcomes, retention, mental health and overall wellbeing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students. Anti-bullying approaches have been common strategies used in schools to promote safety for all students, yet a well-established critique among scholars and educators suggests such approaches by themselves are insufficient. Little research exists investigating the spatial aspects of forming LGBTQ-inclusive school cultures. This article reports on an Australian study exploring teachers' and school staff understandings of how space influences inclusion and how they negotiateed or established 'safe spaces' for LGBTQ students. Drawing on the work of Edward Soja, we explored how participants constituted safety in conceived and perceived spaces, and how this informed the ways in which physical environments were established in the lived space to promote inclusion. We reveal the role of physical, discursive and curriculum spaces in everyday schooling activities and practices to promote LGBTQ inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a set of sexuality education textbooks used in a selection of primary schools in Beijing. These textbooks, under the overall name of 珍爱生命 (Cherish Lives), embody a comprehensive sexuality education approach with content designed on the basis of the UNESCO International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, we explore these books from three angles: the challenge of engaging with children as sexual subjects, given adult hegemony around sex; confusion about efforts to break the presentation of gender as a binary; and the contradiction between reproducing the myth of universal heterosexuality and attempting to present an education sensitive to LGBT issues. We show that while these textbooks demonstrate progress in sexuality education, they also manifest compromise. Despite this compromise, the books have recently been withdrawn and it is unclear whether their publication heralds a new, high quality approach to primary school sexuality education or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the experiences of counselling students engaged in an online sexuality course to better understand how to prepare multiculturally competent future clinicians. A phenomenological approach was adopted which reports on findings from 5 student participants enrolled in an online class. Data for the study were collected through course dairy entries in course modules and follow-up face-to-face semi-structured interviews with all participants. Four themes were identified to reflect how the researchers interpreted student's experiences of the course. These were: the importance of early life experiences; the significance of pre-course later life influences; experiences of the course; and timing. Each of these themes carried implications for the future provision of the sexuality education and training provided as part of counsellor education programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational efforts to reduce global rates of adolescent pregnancy vary widely with a significant deficiency in the domain of sex education facilitator training. In this study, we sought to establish a pilot approach to comprehensive sex education facilitator training in Riobamba, Ecuador. The approach was aligned with UNESCO recommendations for training facilitators using an adapted version of the U.S.-based Big Decisions curriculum. Four internationally recruited bilingual instructors led a six-day (27-hour) intensive training-of-facilitators programme with twenty trainees using the Big Decisions sex education curriculum. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted using various approaches: anonymised and pre/post-self-assessments, daily feedback surveys of self and instructors, and facilitation practice evaluations. Responses to anonymised surveys indicated improved self-perceived confidence in teaching each curriculum section. More objective pre- and post-teach-back evaluations showed improved ability to teach randomly assigned lessons as assessed by trainers. The pedagogy of facilitator training in comprehensive sex education seeks to combine evidence-informed and culturally appropriate approaches to training facilitators under unique local conditions using adapted assessment tools. This project identified important culturally relevant insights relevant to the future training of comprehensive sex education facilitators working within culturally conservative communities, and Latin America in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, the US state of Mississippi mandated its school districts to adopt a sexuality education curriculum. Approximately half of districts chose a more comprehensive abstinence-plus curriculum over an abstinence-only curriculum. To understand this outcome, we conducted a logistic regression analysis of school district curriculum choice among Mississippi's school districts using data from 2012 when districts made the initial curricular decision, and from 2019, to assess continuity of findings. At both time points, poorer districts were more likely to adopt abstinence-plus curricula, despite the associated costs. Urban districts were also significantly more likely to choose abstinence-plus curricula, as were districts connected to Mississippi First, a local non-profit organisation that linked school districts to federal funding for abstinence-plus curricula. Despite the connection between political and sexual liberalism, political liberalism had limited predictive power over district sexuality education curriculum choice. Furthermore, one-third of the districts that adopted abstinence-only curricula were very similar to those that adopted abstinence-plus curricula in terms of poverty, religious adherents, rural location, political liberalism, gonorrhoea burden and racial composition. These findings indicate the importance of state mandates for sexuality education, federal funding for evidence-based curricula, and the presence of supportive local organisations to advance the adoption of more comprehensive sexuality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sex education has been found to improve young people's sexual and reproductive health, no formal programmes exist in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to assess the views of stakeholders on the need for sex education programmes for adolescents in Saudi Arabia, suggested forms of provision, and views on the information provided in Science and Religion curricula. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy-makers, healthcare providers, teachers and religious scholars. Thematic analysis was undertaken. Unanimity was expressed on the need for school-based sex education programmes. When asked who should deliver them, stakeholders differentiated between who should be in charge of designing the programmes and who should deliver them. Tension was evident on the role of religious scholars within these two phases of implementation. The inclusion of information that might seem to 'encourage sinful' premarital sexual experience was contentious. Although scientific and religious messaging strategies were viewed as non-contradictory, opinions differed as to which messaging strategy to focus on. Information in the 2013 curricula was criticised by some as inaccurate, promoting an 'othering' of Westerner and inciting fear. However, more recent curricula have omitted several of these criticised passages and may provide an opportunity to expand the focus on sexual health-related topics within the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can help adolescents acquire crucial knowledge and skills to achieve their full potential, particularly in low- and middle-income countries with higher rates of negative sexual and reproductive outcomes. While many low- and middle-income countries have developed CSE curricula, little is known about how these are implemented in the classroom. This multi-country mixed-methods study analysed challenges to the implementation of national CSE curricula in schools in Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Guatemala, based on surveys of secondary school principals, teachers and students aged 15–17 years, and in-depth interviews with central and local government, NGOs and youth organisations. In all four countries, inadequate teacher training remained a major hurdle to effective implementation, manifesting in teacher discomfort and inaccurate messaging. This was compounded by a lack of comprehensive teaching resources. CSE classes were focused mainly on biology at the expense of contraception, gender and rights, despite students' desire for greater coverage of these topics. Teaching methods lacked interactive activities necessary to develop skills and values. Findings offer useful lessons to improve school-level implementation in these and other countries facing similar challenges. Increasing teacher training and distributing comprehensive CSE materials responsive to adolescents' needs remain priorities in all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]