Understanding Sex and Relationship Education, Youth and Class

A Youth Work-Led Approach

S. Elley

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780230278868
• eBook ISBN: 9781137316646
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice
• Index: Social Sciences

This book sets out an original Youth Work-based SRE programme and explores how a range of socioeconomic, cultural and sexual norms, values and attitudes differently shape decision-making on sex, intimacy and future plans across different contexts.

1

An Introduction to Young People and Sex and Relationship Education

1.1 An overview

Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in the 21st century has not simply been a story of progress ‘out of darkness and ignorance into light and freedom’ (Hall, 1995: 51). Globally, the adversarial nature of debates is based upon contested understandings of family change, ‘appropriate’ sexual behaviour and the proper relationship between the state, parents and children (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 2009). Combined with questions about youth, adolescent sexuality has been treated as a particular cause for concern. Questions about youth are usually ‘what to do with them’ (Kelly, 2006: 25). Concern centres on how to educate, regulate, home and employ those under 25, and prevent them from simultaneously being ‘at risk’, ‘in risk’ and ‘of risk’ to themselves and others (Muncie, 1999; Kelly, 2006). The 1990s particularly saw burgeoning public and moral fears over adolescent sexuality caused by the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), ‘alarming’ rates of unplanned teen pregnancies and concerns over underage sex, absent fathers and welfare dependency. SRE is considered by many industrialised countries to be a policy solution that contributes to tackling these concerns.

In line with other countries’ successes, the UK government launched a national decade-long ‘Teenage Pregnancy Strategy’ (1999 onwards) to address teen pregnancy and adolescent sexual behaviour. This was linked to a wider agenda to increase teenage parents’ participation in education, employment and training to reduce the risk of long-term poverty and social exclusion (Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), 1999). Alongside other initiatives, improved and robust SRE in state schools was central to reaching government targets. Despite mixed reviews, many SRE programmes are shown to meet with relatively little or no success in increasing safer sexual behaviour (see Kirby, 2001a, 2007 for the US; Henderson et al., 2007 for the UK), and this book asks why? To answer, an in-depth qualitative study was designed to explore young people’s intimate relationships, social identities and circumstances as well as future orientations through the lens of SRE.

Nationally and internationally, there is a call to better understand ‘outside’ specialists who are increasingly providing a model of ‘best or promising practice’ (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 2000; Wight and Abrahams, 2000) and greater investment in Youth and Children’s Service-led initiatives and SRE programmes delivered by external specialists (Capuano et al., 2009; MacDonald, 2009; Parker et al., 2009; Limmer, 2010; Papadopoulos, 2010). This book is about young people’s lives and how teens engage with SRE provision and messages. It explores the experiences and views of young people aged 15–21 involved in a cutting-edge Youth Work-based SRE programme delivered in comprehensive schools, and how SRE messages relate to the social and contextual conditions of teens’ lives. A wealth of research exists about school- and teacher-based SRE (see Strange and Oakley, 2003; Buston and Wight, 2004; Strange et al., 2006; Allen, 2011), and this study uniquely offers an account of Youth Service SRE provision which should connect with adolescents and teen sexual health concerns in significant ways compared to other practitioners and ‘the school’.

Giving accounts of youth workers’ views on youth and working with teens, this book questions and rethinks what is visualised as a ‘gap’ between what teens learn during SRE and what they do in practice (Allen, 2001, 2011). It seeks to explain why SRE has mixed success and why interventions have not been as successful as anticipated. It explores how some teens continue to engage in risky sexual practices while others practise ‘responsible’ sex according to SRE messages. To do this, the study draws on past and current SRE research and policy across nations, and describes the empirical data from interviews with teens and SRE educators in the UK. Of particular interest is how class-related practices and gendered heterosexuality shape adolescent experiences of sex and intimacy, values, expectations and orientations, and the consequences of these for informing successful SRE provision. This book focuses on these interconnections rather than other contextual and identity specifics such as ethnicity, disability or, say, alternative sexualities to ‘normative’ heterosexuality. This is not to underplay the importance of these dimensions, but simply because one book cannot reasonably do justice to all of the interrelated factors as well as the workings of class, gender and heterosexuality.

This book describes how a range of socioeconomic, cultural and sexual norms, values and attitudes differently affect young people’s decision-making about sex, intimacy and future orientations across diverse contexts and relationships. Key themes throughout the book are family and friendship networks, education and employment aspirations and personal and romantic relationships. The book considers broader gendered heterosexual and classed contexts, as well as the micro-relations in which sexuality is experienced and lived. It is crucial to understand the diverse contexts and circumstances in which young people are embedded if we are to understand their orientations, their propensity to engage in (non)risky sexual behaviour and the relevancies of SRE messages.

Unlike previous studies, a fresh perspective on young people’s experiences shows these to be mediated by diverse meanings and values linked to gender, sexuality and social class. This is timely because of the recent call for a return to a better understanding of material practices in our daily lives (Jackson, 2008; Plummer, 2008a, 2008b) and the intersections of sexuality, gender and class (Taylor, 2008, 2011; Jackson, 2011) and the move away from, for some commentators, theorising these through cultural discourses alone where ‘the person is absent’ (Bottero, 2004, 2005; Irwin, 2005), as well as arguments around better capturing intra-class diversity (Savage, 2000; Devine, 2004).

The important factors shaping adolescents’ sexual behaviour explored in this book are childhood and adolescence experiences, socioeconomic circumstances during youth and early adulthood, peer values and norms, parent–child communication and relations, and teens’ future expectations. It is argued that class and education, via class-related aspirations and social norms, influence how teens engage with SRE messages and shape their sexual identities. Linked to SRE, some teens construct their biographies in line with SRE whereas others feel disconnected from the messages which fail to connect to their lives. These findings are applicable to other industrialised countries outside the UK and are set within international debates about dealing with youth, adolescent sexuality and SRE policy responses, to demonstrate the importance of understanding social and cultural contexts, gendered heterosexuality and social class. The rest of this introductory chapter provides an overview of the key factors associated with teen sexuality and behaviours and SRE programmes, and details the empirical study to provide the reader with background knowledge and put the following chapters into context.

1.2 Introducing contemporary SRE: The international and national context

Adolescent sexuality is a global concern which often invokes moral, social and political anxiety and debate. The socially constituted nature of sexuality as ‘private’, ‘sensitive’ and ‘dangerous’ makes it, to varying degrees, highly controversial everywhere (Allen, 2011), with sexual matters frequently seen as embarrassing or vulgar across many countries (Forsberg, 2007; UNESCO, 2009). Throughout the world, effective SRE is still not available due to perceived or anticipated resistance from public and political misunderstandings about the nature, purpose and effects of SRE (UNESCO, 2009). SRE in the UK is considered to be relatively underdeveloped compared with other countries, and different UK authorities have developed their own version of SRE based on their interpretation of government guidelines and other countries’ successes in dealing with youth sexuality. While SRE is culturally specific, and does not exist in isolation, there is much to be gained by comparing different countries whilst keeping in mind the difficulties in collecting comparison data and the multitude of influences on adolescent sexual health.

Teaching about safer sex in SRE remains a key strategy for reducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS, STIs and teenage pregnancies across many industrialised countries. It is often part of their integral Sexual Health Strategies and national school curricula. Most developed countries adopt some form of SRE in schools, ranging from reproductive biology to more comprehensive SRE which locates sex within the broader context of interpersonal relationships. Heated controversy, however, surrounds debates about whether to promote morally based sexual abstinence programmes, as in the US, or a pragmatic and consistent approach which acknowledges emerging adolescent sexual identities, as in the Netherlands. In the UK, SRE messages about teen sexuality are often confusing and inconsistently address youth sexual health as in some countries compared to others. What is incontestable though is how teen pregnancy rates remain high in the UK and other industrialised countries (for example, the US) compared to other nations (the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden) despite countless efforts to reduce them.

There is no single reason for the high rates of poor sexual health, teenage pregnancy and early parenthood found in some countries compared to others. Associated factors include socioeconomic disadvantage, disrupted families and poor communication, low educational achievement, aspirations and employment prospects, as well as sociocultural and sexual norms, values and attitudes (Kirby, 2001a, 2007; Blum and Mmari, 2006; Ingham, 2006; Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2007a); Imamura et al., 2007; UNESCO, 2009; Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), 2010) and are quite similar across nations and cultures. Kirby’s (2007) review of studies in the US, for example, found that a good performance at school, positive future plans and strong connections to family, school and community all reduced teen pregnancy and birth rates, echoing evidence found in the UK (see DfES, 2007a), although both countries still have high rates of teen pregnancies, terminations and STIs compared to other countries’ low rates. How youth sexuality is generally dealt with across family, youth and educational contexts and policies, as well as SRE school provision and practice, also has different outcomes for teens across nations.

Countries with a longer and more coherent history of ‘high-quality’ SRE, such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden in comparison to the UK and US, are shown to have low teen pregnancy and STI rates (UNICEF, 2001; UNESCO, 2009). These countries are generally considered liberal, permissive and pragmatic in dealing with adolescent sexual health consistently across different contexts such as the school, the family, the media and teen sexual health services. Often, as well, these countries are considered less socioeconomically polarised with lower income disparities across the population with compulsory post-16 youth education, and employment and benefit systems which reward delayed parenthood (see Arai, 2009; Reed, 2011). Drawing on this, the UK government launched its ‘Teenage Pregnancy Strategy’ (TPS, 1999 onwards), explaining teenage pregnancy as a consequence of adolescent sexual ‘ignorance’, ‘mixed media messages’ and ‘low expectations’ amongst teens (SEU, 1999), and recommended improving the quality of SRE in schools, parent–child communication about sexual issues and tackling teen poverty and social exclusion in line with other countries. Since the strategy began in the UK, steady progress has been achieved with conceptions rates of under-18s falling by 13.3 per cent, and under-18s birth rates down by nearly 25 per cent (DCSF, 2010), although not in line with the original ambitious target of a 50 per cent reduction. In part, SRE programmes have not been as successful as anticipated in reaching targets due to the persistent, contested nature of youth sexuality; continued ambivalence about discussing sex openly in schools and the home; and the way such programmes are dealt with in SRE school provision and practice.

How SRE in schools in the UK has developed is a matter for particular debate. Presently, it is compulsory to teach all pupils aged 5–16 biological facts, procreation and contraception, including STIs, HIV and AIDS, within the National Curriculum Science (usually in biology). Other aspects of SRE such as sexuality, sexual diversity, feelings and attitudes are dealt with in the Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) curriculum in conjunction with other curriculum subjects and based on government guidelines (DfEE, 2000; Ofsted, 2002). SRE policies, the amount and context of SRE, are left to the discretion of individual school governors, teachers and parents and are open to wide interpretation. This means the quality of SRE across different schools is highly variable. Government inspections of PSHE in 165 maintained schools in England found that SRE was no more than satisfactory in a third of schools (Ofsted, 2010). This was confirmed by a survey carried out by the UK Youth Parliament (2007), with 21,602 young people aged 11–18 years old responding to being asked about their experiences of SRE in schools. It was found that 40 per cent judged school-based SRE to be ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’, with a further 33 per cent rating SRE as ‘average’. Other key findings included 43 per cent claimed not being educated about personal relationships, and 55 per cent of 12- to 15-year-old and 57 per cent of 16- to 17-year-old women had not been taught how to use a condom. This is confirmed by the Sex Education Forum’s (SEF, 2008b) survey, with 1,709 young people aged 16–25 describing SRE as ‘too biological’, ‘too little’ and ‘too late’ with ‘better practice needed’ (UKYP, 2007; SEF, 2008b; UNESCO, 2009).

Teaching wise, the SEF’s (2008a, 2008b) consultation with young people found that adolescents wanted better-trained teachers that were well informed and felt comfortable discussing issues. Research on ‘what works’ in SRE in schools has led to several critics designing theoretically and methodologically informed SRE programmes delivered in some parts of the UK (see Strange and Oakley, 2003; Wight and Buston, 2003; Buston and Wight, 2004; Strange et al., 2006). While successfully increasing adolescent sexual knowledge and teacher comfort in delivering SRE, these programmes are less successful at increasing safer adolescent sexual behaviour (see Henderson et al., 2007).

Often adolescents allege that SRE is irrelevant to their real lived experiences. Other commentators note that SRE reinforces some of the inequalities within society and remain concerned to challenge the dominant normative discourses of gendered heterosexuality which underpin SRE policy and practice (Holland et al., 1998; Allen, 2007a, 2007b; Coy et al., 2010). How class intersects with gender and sexuality is a less often considered issue in SRE research and practice, which also means programmes construct behaviours somewhat unconnected from teens’ social circumstances. This includes how decisions, actions and consequences about risky sexual behaviour may make sense on their own terms in local cultures and localities. Class practices are marginalised in SRE research, yet Crucially impact on the relevancy of SRE messages to adolescents’ lives.

1.2.1 Understanding youth, heterosexuality, class and SRE messages

The ‘gap problem’ (Allen, 2001) between gaining SRE knowledge and practising unsafe sexual behaviour has mostly been theorised as arising from the heteronormative assumptions embedded in SRE and played out in teens’ lives, leading to unsafe sexual encounters (Holland et al., 1998; Allen, 2001, 2007a, 2011; Hird and Jackson, 2001; Coy et al., 2010; Powell, 2010). Extending gender debates, SRE messages are also less successful than hoped due to how gendered heterosexual practices and pressures intersect with class-related processes and aspirations in teens’ lives and sexual encounters.

Research studies have highlighted that though teens have contraceptive knowledge imparted through SRE, pressure, coercion and expectations about engaging in ‘proper’ sex mean they struggle to negotiate safe sex. Masculinity is shown to be associated with active heterosexuality, penetrative sex and sexual conquests (Holland et al., 1998; Hird and Jackson, 2001; Maxwell and Aggleton, 2009; Coy et al., 2010). This includes how the ‘heteronormative’ discourses and assumptions in gendered heterosexual relationships privilege masculine meanings and desires, reproducing inequalities in the process. Men’s reputations can promote risk taking and amassing sexual experience (Thomson, 2000; McDowell, 2003; Nayak, 2006). In contrast, femininity is sometimes defined by its passivity, absence or ‘contained’ sexuality. This makes it difficult for some young women to negotiate safe sexual encounters despite SRE messages. Linking class practices and SRE, Limmer (2010) also shows how SRE has less relevancy for boys disengaged from education and the schooling process, and Thomson (2000) particularly shows how adolescents’ values about sexuality and parenthood generate ‘a logic of sexual practice’ across different social contexts as linked to SRE messages.

Mediated by class and gender, different contexts generate different heterosexual meanings and outcomes for teens despite discourses of safe sexual practice promoted in SRE messages. Thomson (2000) shows how, for working-class teens, there is value gained from sexual reputations and the status of parenthood in the present. In comparison, middleclass teens investing in the future and education, it is argued, find much to lose through the risks associated with sexual activity. So, the effects of intersections of class and gendered heterosexuality profoundly effect how particular young men and women engage with SRE. This includes how the values and assumptions about sexuality, relationships and normative behaviours embedded in SRE may be more consistent with middle-class biographies, values and higher education aspirations. For example, SRE is underpinned by assumptions about rational responses to the benefits of delaying early parenthood and extending educational trajectories. SRE interventions worldwide are mainly ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. An Introduction to Young People and Sex and Relationship Education
• 2. Rethinking the Intersections of Class, Gender and Heterosexuality
• 3. An International Comparison of Adolescent Sexuality and SRE Policies
• 4. Locating Young People within SRE and Research: Turning UK Policy into SRE Practice
• 5. Youth Workers’ Views about Youth and SRE: Provision and Practice
• 6. Young People’s Views on Sex and Relationships in SRE
• 7. Parent and Peer Communication about Sexuality and SRE in the Family and Friendship Context
• 8. SRE, Heterosexual Identities and Educational Expectations
• 9. Young People’s Gendered and Classed Heterosexual Identities and Practices
• 10. Conclusion: Addressing the Gap between SRE and Young People’s Lives
• Bibliography
• Index