Global Perspectives and Key Debates in Sex and Relationships Education

Addressing Issues of Gender, Sexuality, Plurality and Power

V. Sundaram, H. Sauntson, V. Sundaram, H. Sauntson

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781137500205
• eBook ISBN: 9781137500229
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Educational Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

There is a great variety of sex and relationship education in the global North and South and this book draws together the global perspectives and debates on this key topic. Issues including gender-based violence, pornography, sexual consent, sexual diversity and religious plurality are all discussed with reference to cutting-edge research.

1

School-Based Sex and Relationships Education: Current Knowledge and Emerging Themes

Felicity Thomas and Peter Aggleton

Sundaram, Vanita and Helen Sauntson, eds. Global Perspectives and Key Debates in Sex and Relationships Education: Addressing Issues of Gender, Sexuality, Plurality and Power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. DOI: 10.1057/9781137500229.0006.

Introduction

It is widely accepted that children and young people have the right to education for sexual health, with these rights being enshrined in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).¹ According to WHO (2010), knowledge and information provided through sexual health education is essential if people are to access their sexual rights and be sexually healthy. Education for sexual health – called variously sex education, sexuality education or sex and relationships education (hereafter, SRE) – involves the acquisition of information and the opportunity for young people to explore and develop their attitudes, beliefs and values as they relate to gender and sexuality, sexual and gender identity, relationships and intimacy. Sexual health education also aims to develop young people’s knowledge and skills to make informed choices regarding their behaviour, and in so doing, limit their risk and vulnerability to sexual ill-health through factors such as unwanted pregnancy, unwanted, abusive and exploitative sexual activity, unsafe abortion and STIs, including HIV.

Sexual health programmes can be delivered in a range of contexts including schools or workplaces or in the community. This chapter examines what is known globally about effective approaches to SRE in schools. After assessing current understandings of effective styles of work, we discuss where the gaps lie in existing knowledge and point to areas where empirical data relating to gender, sexuality, plurality and power discussed elsewhere in this book can usefully inform understanding and ongoing debate.

The school’s role in sex and relationships education

Schools offer a particularly important and influential context within which to provide young people with education to promote sexual health. As well as offering a reasonably safe environment, teachers can help normalise and legitimate understandings of, and concern for sexuality, both among young people and in the wider community (Ingham and Hirst, 2010). Schools are also important in enabling educational programmes to reach large numbers of young people from diverse backgrounds before they become sexually active, offering opportunities to encourage young people to delay the onset of sexual activity and providing ongoing and supportive education as they begin to engage in sexual activity (Kirby et al., 2006a).

Kirby et al. (2006a) identify a number of advantages regarding the use of sexual health curriculum-based programmes in schools. First, these tend to be more intensive and consistently structured than those offered outside of the school syllabus. Second, it is also more likely that they will be based on research and prior programme evaluation and that they will have been pilot-tested and endorsed by the appropriate authorities. This can help ensure that teachers and other educators contributing to them are guided and well informed, and it may also help to alleviate or overcome any personal prejudices or limitations in teachers’ skills.

Non-curriculum-based programmes have, however, also been used in education for sexual health and include activities sometimes used in curriculum-based approaches, such as drama, quizzes and posters, as well as activities such as health fairs and one-to-one counselling. In some cases, peer-education programmes have been widely advocated as alternatives to, or alongside, teacher or other adult-led education. These types of intervention have been praised for their ability to relate to young people and to motivate them to participate (WHO, 2010). However, reviews have raised concerns about the knowledge levels of peer educators and the costs of training as new cohorts of trainers are required on a regular basis (Kirby et al., 2006a).

There exists continuing debate about whether SRE should be taught as a stand-alone subject, integrated within an existing mainstream subject such as health or biology, delivered across several other subjects (e.g. citizenship (or civic) education, biology and health) or included as part of more general student guidance and counselling. In countries such as Australia and the UK, actions to promote sexual health in schools have been linked to broader attempts to develop a more health promoting and supportive school environment. Under the labour administration of Tony Blair in the UK, the Every Child Matters agenda was launched in 2003 and involved raising the profile of schools in relation to health-related outcomes. It was accompanied by initiatives such as the National Healthy Schools Programme in England that sought to use schools as a means of promoting individual and community health. As Aggleton et al. (2010) explain, recent years have seen a shift in the focus of such health interventions, at least rhetorically, toward a more holistic ‘whole school’ approach, which recognises that health promotion requires engagement with both the formal and less formal aspects of the curriculum, works within the broader context of young people’s lives and requires the involvement and commitment of a wide range of staff beyond just those specialising or trained in personal development and health promotion.

Importantly, whole school approaches to SRE recognise the need for a supportive institutional policy framework within which the school operates. This encompasses factors such as school policies and rules, approaches to bullying (particularly on the grounds of gender and sexuality), the resources and learning materials that are made available and the prevailing discourses of sexuality inherent within the institution (Ingham and Hirst, 2010). Research has consistently found that strong leadership and support by head teachers, school governors and parents is crucial for the successful integration of sexual health into educational settings (UNESCO, 2009a). At the same time, demonstrating that the provision of high quality SRE is a matter of institutional policy rather than the personal choice of individuals can help to alleviate tensions that may exist over the implementation of such programmes within schools.

Effects of sexual health education in schools

Most experts believe that children and young people want and need education for sexual health as early and comprehensively as possible (UNESCO, 2009a). However, in many countries throughout the world, it remains unavailable. Even in countries where SRE exists, programme delivery is often reported to come too late for many young people (WHO, 2010). Teaching is also reported to be patchy and inconsistent and to place too much emphasis on biological issues, often at the expense of social and emotional concerns such as feelings and relationships (Ingham and Hirst, 2010). While this may be due, at least in part, to a lack of resources, it is often also attributed to the perceived or anticipated resistance that results from misunderstandings regarding the nature, purpose and effects of sex education (UNESCO, 2009a). Integral to this is a belief that such initiatives will generate promiscuity among young people (Grunseit et al., 1997; Stone and Ingham, 2006).

The sensitive and at times controversial nature of sex education has meant that, in some countries (most notably in parts of the USA), programmes have been limited to a focus on abstinence-only approaches. Such programmes teach and encourage young people to remain abstinent from sexual activity until after marriage as the only method to reduce their risks of STIs, HIV and unintended pregnancy, and they provide little or no information about contraception or safer sex practices.

In recent years, a significant amount of research has taken place, particularly within the USA, to establish the effectiveness of abstinence-only programmes in comparison to more comprehensive programmes (sometimes called ‘abstinence-plus’ programmes), which educate young people about a wider range of safe sex practices. One particularly rigorous evaluation of four US federally funded abstinence-only programmes found that young people in the abstinence-only programme group were no more likely after 4–6 years to have abstained from sex than those enrolled in the control group. Among those reporting having had sexual intercourse, the young people receiving abstinence-only education reported similar numbers of sexual partners and similar timing of sexual debut to those in the control group (Trenholm et al., 2007).

Such findings align with those from other studies which conclude that the majority of abstinence-only programmes do not reduce the risk of HIV (as measured by self-reported outcomes), do not delay initiation of sexual activity, do not reduce frequency of unprotected vaginal sex, do not reduce the number of sexual partners, do not increase the return to sexual abstinence among sexually active young people and do not impact on condom use (Underhill et al., 2007a; Institute of Medicine, 2008; Kirby, 2008; UNESCO, 2009a). Some research even suggests that abstinence-only programmes increase the risk for STIs and pregnancy, since young people engage in sexual relations with little knowledge of how to protect themselves (Brückner and Bearman, 2005). Moreover, such programmes undermine the fundamental human rights of young people to health, information and life (Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2006). At the same time, a number of surveys (primarily in the USA) have found that the majority of parents do actually approve of sex education in schools (Kirby, 2006) and, indeed, are often opposed to abstinence-only programmes (Bleakley et al., 2006). Despite continued debate over their use, it is now generally accepted that sufficient evidence does not exist to justify the dissemination of abstinence-only programmes (Silva, 2002; Kirby, 2006, 2007, 2008).

More positive outcomes have been reported from comprehensive SRE programmes, with evaluation reviews finding that a number of such initiatives reduce the self-reported incidence and frequency of unprotected sex and the number of sex partners, increase reported condom use and delay the initiation of sexual activity among young people (Grunseit et al., 1997; Kirby, 2007, 2008; Underhill et al., 2007b; Institute of Medicine, 2008; UNESCO, 2009a). Evidence from the USA suggests that good quality comprehensive programmes work for both boys and girls, for all major ethnic groups, and for sexually inexperienced and experienced young people from a wide range of different backgrounds (Kirby, 2007). There is no reliable evidence to demonstrate that comprehensive education for sexual health leads to earlier or riskier sexual activity, and therefore, no evidence that the implementation of sexual health programmes in schools increases promiscuity among young people.

Characteristics of effective sex education

Much of the evidence regarding the effectiveness of SRE programmes paints a fairly positive picture. However, it is important to recognise that many programmes designed to reduce risky sexual behaviour are very modest in scale and, in themselves, do not offer a stand-alone solution to eliminating sexual risk taking (Ibid.). Agreement on how best to deliver SRE (as an isolated subject or integrated with other subjects) also remains open to debate. According to Ingham and Hirst (2010), the multifaceted nature of sexual behaviour means that it is unlikely that one intervention alone will have a clearly measurable impact. It is also vital to recognise that much of what is currently known about effective sex education is fairly limited in scope, with the majority of studies focusing primarily, and often solely, on heteronormative (and frequently reproductive) behaviours and identities. This is seriously unfortunate given the diversity of identities, practices and positionalities that characterise human sexuality and the importance of promoting the full inclusion of gender and sexual minorities in SRE.

Although recognition of such caveats is of vital importance, studies and reviews of SRE programmes globally have identified a number of characteristics found to be effective in terms of increasing knowledge, expounding positive values and attitudes, developing skills and impacting positively upon the sexual behaviour of young people. In particular, a number of characteristics relating to curriculum development, curriculum design and good practice in schools can be identified from recent reviews of these studies. Here, we will focus on findings from some of the most widely regarded authoritative reviews including the work of the late Douglas Kirby (Kirby et al., 2006b, 2006c, 2007; Kirby, 2007) and UNESCO (2009a, 2009b).²

Curriculum development

Experts in research on human sexuality, behaviour change and related pedagogical theory should be involved in the development and adaptation of curricula and make use of social learning theories as the foundation of programme development. Curriculum developers should understand the kinds of behaviours that young people actually engage in at different ages, the environmental and cognitive factors that affect these behaviours and the best ways of addressing these factors within the local context.

While there is commonality among young people in terms of their needs regarding sexuality (UNESCO, 2009a), there are also differences across and within communities, contexts and age groups in terms of young people’s knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and skills as they relate to sexual behaviour and risk taking. Understanding why young people act in certain ways is important for the development of effective education programmes for sexual health, as is the development of gender and sexuality sensitive programmes that are intended for both boys and girls and targeting students at different stages of development with relevant messages and appropriate goals.

Involving young people in the development of curricula also increases the effectiveness of sexuality education programmes. In the UK, for example, the involvement of the UK Youth Parliament in the process of reviewing sex and relationships education helped reveal major gaps in provision and influenced the decision of the government at the time to introduce compulsory SRE in 2008 (UNESCO, 2009a). More recently, acknowledgement that young people have played little part in defining their sex education needs to date has led to the University of South Australia and SHine SA³ launching a major research project to involve young people in designing and updating the educational resources used in South Australian schools (University of South Australia, 2014). Such initiatives are useful, not only in defining the needs and concerns of young people, but also in identifying their assets and providing an important base on which to build upon their existing knowledge and skills.

Effective SRE programmes in schools are often underpinned by a ‘logic model approach’ that specifies their h...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction: Global Perspectives and Key Debates in Sex and Relationships Education: Setting the Scene
• 1  School-Based Sex and Relationships Education: Current Knowledge and Emerging Themes
• 2  Postfeminist Media Panics Over Girls Sexualisation: Implications for UK Sex and Relationship Guidance and Curriculum
• 3  The Challenges, Contradictions and Possibilities of Teaching About Pornography in Sex and Relationships Education (SRE): The Australian Context
• 4  Where Does Violence Against Women and Girls Work Fit in? Exploring Spaces for Challenging Violence Within a Sex-Positive Framework in Schools
• 5  From no means no to an enthusiastic yes: Changing the Discourse on Sexual Consent Through Sex and Relationships Education
• 6  Discursive Silences: Critically Analysing the Presence/ Absence of Sexual Diversity in the Sex and Relationships Education Guidance for England and Wales
• 7  A Radical Plurality: Re-thinking Cultural and Religious Diversity in Sexuality Education in Aotearoa, New Zealand
• 8  I felt confused; I felt uncomfortable...my hair stood on ends: Understanding How Teachers Negotiate Comfort Zones, Learning Edges and Triggers in the Teaching of Sexuality Education in South Africa
• Index