‘We’ve got a lack of family values’: an examination of how teachers formulate and justify their approach to teaching sex and relationships education
Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in England has been the focus of critical scrutiny on several occasions, but there has been little attention paid to how teachers formulate their provision, especially given their crucial role in determining what is taught in the classroom. While
current policy suggests that provision should be inclusive of sexual diversity, it simultaneously gives educators the scope to determine the form this takes. This is an important issue given the substantial impact that teachers’ views and discourses have on what is taught. Using a discourse
analytical framework, this study sought to examine how teachers of SRE formulate and account for their provision, with a particular focus on how their assumptions about young people’s sexual health needs underpin their actions. Initially, teachers sought to formulate their activities
in terms of an overall ethos, providing legitimacy for the key elements of their programme being aligned with official government health promotion strategy, as opposed to other areas such as pleasure and diversity. This was supported by their constructions of young people, particularly young
women and individuals from ‘at risk’ communities, as being particularly vulnerable.
Keywords: England; Sex education; curriculum; teachers’ justifications; young people
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK 2: Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
Publication date: 01 November 2016
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