Relationships and Sex Education 3–11

Supporting Children's Development and Well-being

Sacha Mason, Richard Woolley

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Academic
• Jahr: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781350080737
• Auflage: 2
• Thema: Éducation
• Thema: Enseignement de la santé et de la sexualité

'Where do babies come from?' The prospect of this age-old question is one that causes significant apprehension for many professionals working with children, but this isn't where the anxiety ends. This book argues that it is essential to have clear strategies to support children's questions about relationships, growing up and sex so that they are enabled to develop positive and confident views about themselves and those around them. It examines important concerns such as the role of media in children's lives in shaping their views on relationships and explores how issues of gender and sexuality are considered more fluidly. Whether working in an academy, free schools, faith schools, the independent sector or elsewhere this book supports you to help children to deal with a wide range of relationships issues, meeting the requirements of the new legislation on relationships education for primary aged children as a foundation for relationships and sex education. Drawing on research with teachers about their apprehensions about teaching the subject and children's experience of its delivery, the authors give a full picture of common concerns and difficulties and how to successfully meet them and support children from 3-11, and the transition to secondary school. Topics covered include platonic friendships, developing self-respect and respect for others, and enabling personal choice and safety. Sacha Mason and Richard Woolley explore issues surrounding notions of age and stage development. They discuss how children develop at different rates and that each child is unique in relation to learning in this area. They outline a distinct pedagogical approach to managing children's individual needs for relationships and sex education. They also look at supporting children with SEND when considering how to implement relationships education in primary schools. This second edition includes new chapters on children's development and needs, and developing inclusive relationships education. The book has been updated throughout with summaries of the latest research, case studies, ideas for developing practice and signposts to key websites and resources. The chapters provide all the support you need to confidently promote children's healthy development.

1

The historical context for Relationships and Sex Education

Helen, an experienced teacher, recalls her own school days and the sex education that was available:

I remember really very little about learning about sex, there was a small bit in the biology lesson about the reproduction of the earth worm and some sessions with the school nurse who talked to us about hygiene. The nurse was a matronly lady and not very approachable so we just giggled a lot when she talked about sanitary towels but to be honest that is all I can remember. I think that most of my sex education came from the playground and seeing pictures stolen from magazines, you know, from the top shelf. I remember being quite shocked at some of them as no one really told me much. They were mostly nude pictures of women in sexy poses, none of men. I lived in a mainly all-female house, with sisters, and my dad was always quite discreet about his body, so the first time I saw a totally nude man was on my wedding night, which was all a bit scary to be honest. I remember my mum telling me a bit about what I might be expected to do once I was married but the whole thing was a bit of a disaster and a disappointment. Luckily my husband and I had a really good relationship and we were able to talk about it and we have had fun finding out about it all since! We were just both so naive and I do think that children today get a much better education about sex, although sometimes I wonder if they know too much.

Chapter outline

Introduction

The concept of sex education

The historical context

1900–50

1950–80

1980–2000

2000 onwards

Being brave in developing practice

Summary of key approaches to support effective practice

Conclusion and summary of key learning points

Signposts Further reading References

Introduction

This chapter locates the current Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) policy in England in an historical context. It discusses the development of sex education from the early twentieth century to the present day, with reference to social and cultural influences that have impacted on government policymaking. The notion of relationships and values, both societal and personal, are raised in relation to this controversial and sensitive curriculum area. A pedagogical approach that introduces the concept of ‘bravery’ is also considered.

In England, sex education has been a long-established term for the teaching and learning of the biological aspects of human reproduction. It is only relatively recently (2000) that the inclusion of ‘Relationship’ in the title of government documentation has been made and very recently that ‘Relationships’ in the plural has been used (2018). The separation of relationships from sex is a complex process. It is, therefore, challenging for adults, in and out of the school context, when discussing the biology of sex with children and young people to not talk about or to set aside the dynamics of emotions, desire and intimacy in relationships.

The concept of sex education

The concept of sex education is defined by Wyness (1996: 98) as

the deliberate and intentional handling of knowledge about sexual matters.

This definition fails to acknowledge the links within a value’s framework. As Halstead and Reiss (2003: 3) argue, values ‘permeate every aspect of sex education in schools’. This claim makes clear that the transmission of values may, or may not, be conscious on the part of the teacher, in that the formal education system, and not exclusively RSE, is the overt and covert transmission of a value system. Therefore, no educational engagement or teacher–student relationship, whatever the subject content, can be value-free. This extends to informal educational settings where children and young people are exposed to a value’s framework, and this may, or may not, present different values to those within formal education. Children can experience a range of differing value systems with each attributed to the varied aspects of their lives: home, school and out-of-school. These values may be mixed, sometimes contrasting with those from other families through their peer groups and the wider community. It can be argued, however, that the value system that is transmitted through the school curriculum represents the most prominent influence on societal values with increasing central governmental control through the introduction of a National Curriculum by the Conservative government in 1989 and the continued agenda of centralization by subsequent governments, which is explored further in the chapter. Marxist theorists such as Althusser (cited in Barry, 2002: 164) claim that in an increasingly secular world where previous ‘ideologies’ were derived from religion, the power of the state has been extended and evolved through formal education. Education through compulsory schooling is a powerful social tool that establishes the framework to which society adheres – an ‘ideological state apparatus’.

This notion of the ability of the education system to change, or impose, the views of society places teachers, and those who lead them, in a potentially powerful and manipulative position. The idea of the power of teachers is now also extended to those beyond the school gates who work with children in extended provision: after- school clubs, early-years providers, childminders and the third sector. Increasingly, more parents and carers are working, leaving greater opportunities for children to engage with activities beyond the school day, which means that these potential influences on them widen. The need for a coordinated and consistent pedagogical approach to RSE between professionals working in these diverse sectors is emerging.

Reflect on the curriculum title Sex and Relationship Education used for many years in England.

Consider:

•What views do you have on the word order?

•What are the implications of relationship in the singular?

•What emphasis should be placed on provision in the primary phase of education?

The historical context

The inclusion of sex education and Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in the school curriculum developed significantly throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, under the centralized control of governments from across the political spectrum, to address wider societal issues which largely relate to the health of the nation.

1900–50

In the first half of the twentieth century the most prevalent focus within sex education was the hygiene aspects of sex, and this was not an uncommon focus in state-funded schools across the world (Zimmerman, 2015). This was deemed the most effective strategy to improve the ‘physical and sexual-moral health of “The Nation” ’ (Pilcher, 2005: 154). This particular focus of sex education was in response to the prevalence of venereal disease during the First World War, and government funding was made available to the National Council for Combating Venereal Disease for work with parents, youth leaders and teachers on sex education (p. 154). In conjunction with this funding, an initial series of handbooks for teachers (1928, 1933, 1939) were published to guide schools in their sex education programmes, which detailed the aspects of physical health to be taught, although the omission of the ‘human sexual and reproductive body [was] conspicuous by its absence’ (p. 156). The intention of the handbooks was to engage schools in the wider state agenda of improving and maintaining physical health, with the implicit message that sex education should not be taught. However, formal provision for sex education varied widely, and any programmes with secondary-aged children were addressed through the biology curriculum. Halstead and Reiss (2003: 157) propose an interesting perspective on the approach of not teaching sex education as they argue that a school cannot avoid sex education occurring. The notion of not discussing sexual relationships or reproduction when teaching English literature would be absurd; for example, it is difficult to read the story of Cinderella without stepping into the realms of different kinds of relationships, such as step family and intimate relationships. So too would the teaching of ‘geography without population studies, or history without the suffragette movement, or of religious education without consideration of the gender-specific roles of men and women’ (p. 157). Each of these aspects of the curriculum holds the potential to address the wider dimensions of sexual relationships beyond the biological basics and, therefore, presents the argument that schools cannot avoid teaching about sex education. This stance adopted by Halstead and Reiss (2003) regarding the formal curriculum also includes wider influences on children and young people, such as the media, families and peers, which present further challenges to those working with children. These issues will be discussed in greater depth in Chapter 2.

1950–80

The variety of provision for sex education largely continued until the 1950s when for the first time within the fourth edition of the Handbook (1956) a whole chapter was dedicated to sex education. This governmental shift heralded a different agenda in so much as the state guidance for addressing issues of human sexual reproduction ‘endorsed the instruction of sex as an integral part of health education’ (Pilcher, 2005: 160) and suggests that the then Conservative government acted in response to a rapidly changing post-war Britain (p. 160). This change in approach by the government arose from the earlier publication of an advisory pamphlet for schools by the Board of Education in 1943, which had been based on a survey of what school provided as sex education. The pamphlet noted that while parents maintained responsibility for educating their children about sexual matters, many parents felt unable or unwilling to do so and, as such, the responsibility then lay with teachers (p. 158). The historical significance of this pamphlet is worthy of note as it marked the first publication of curriculum advice for schools that included references to sex and reproduction. The government response endeavoured to redress loosening moral and social frameworks, although the 1960s and 1970s saw exceptional medical and social changes that were to stimulate the sex education debate once more (some of which are outlined in Chapter 2).

The advent of the birth control pill in the 1960s enabled greater sexual freedom, and the reference to oral contraception within the 1968 Handbook, along with a chapter on communicable diseases, suggested societal recognition that sexual activity outside the confines of marriage was more prevalent or at least more widely acknowledged. More explicit acknowledgement of the role of the school in addressing these values-based issues emerged through the 1970s when moral dimensions as part of the school curriculum came more sharply into focus (DfES, 1977).

1980–2000

During the timeframe between 1980 and 2000, evidence of a distinct change in the state approach to concerns in society emerged regarding the protection of children and the rights of the child, the health of the nation and the role of teachers as part of sex education in schools.

The notion of the protection of children had resonance in the Gillick case (BBC, 1983) after the House of Lords in 1985 established the legal position in England and Wales of children under sixteen with regard to medical advice and treatment. This flagship case of a mother taking a local health authority to court, on the grounds that contraceptives had been prescribed for her daughter without parental consent, identified a legal shift from parental rights to those of the child. In 1989 the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child heightened the increasing tensions between the rights of the state, the parent and the child, which, it could be argued, remain today. The 1980s also saw the escalation of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The World Health Organization in 1985 sought to address the HIV pandemic across the world and to initiate worldwide action. The rapid rise in the levels of infection among gay men in the West caused widespread concern and generated anxiety, particularly through the tabloid press in the UK (AVERT, n.d.), for heterosexual people. Newspaper headlines contributed to the increasing homophobic prejudice that suggested some gay men had brought the disease on themselves through high levels of promiscuity. In March 1986, the government launched a comprehensive public information campaign that featured somewhat sinister ‘tombstones’ and monochrome imagery intended to prevent cases of infection from rising in the UK. The campaign continued throughout th...