School Based Sex Education: Attitudes and Conceptions of Teachers of Basic School
Author(s):
Zélia Caçador Anastácio (presenting / submitting) Susana Marinho (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
08. Research on Health Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

08 SES 04 B, Integrating Health and Sexuality Education in the Curriculum

Paper Session

Time:
2014-09-03
09:00-10:30
Room:
B102 Sala de Aulas
Chair:
Patricia Mannix McNamara

Contribution

According to Ingham and Hirst (2010) there are, at least, two major justifications for the inclusion of Sex Education within school curricula. The first is related to the rights of young people to adequate information and support to enable them to make informed decisions regarding their health. The other justification is that SE is effective in improving sexual health.  

According to the Portuguese Working Group on Sex Education (Progress Report, 2007), the option for the inclusion of sexuality in the health domain does not intend to reduce it to a mechanistic, biological and sanitarian view. Rather, it seeks to stress the phenomenological, holistic and cultural concept of comprehensive health, as proposed by the World Health Organization. Thus, Sex Education (SE) should seek not only to mitigate the risk behaviours such as unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, but also to promote the interpersonal relationships quality and intimacy experiences as well as their contextualization in cultural and socio-historical contexts.

However, as Anastácio (2007) regards, despite all the legal and ministerial guidelines, teachers continue to resist the approach of sex education in schools. According to Cohen et al. (2012) the teachers who demonstrate greater willingness to teach Sexuality and Health Education (SHE) are more likely to be teaching middle school, have less teaching experience, have received training to teach SE, feel more knowledgeable about sexual health, and view broad-based SHE as more important.

Buston et al. (2002) argue that when schools decide who should deliver sex education it is more important that they select teachers who feel comfortable with SE and have the requisite skills to deliver it. 

In this sense, our research question is: what are the attitudes and conceptions towards school based sex education of first, second and third cycle of Portuguese basic education teachers?

Method

To identify teachers' attitudes and conceptions about sex education at school we developed a questionnaire to be applied to teachers of first, second and third cycle of Portuguese basic education in Oporto schools. We chose to carry out our own questionnaire in order to fit it to our methodology and we validated it doing before a pilot study. They filled in the questionnaire online as well as the definitive convenience sample. Questionnaire had a total of twenty eight questions being six of sample characterization (gender, age, marital status, years in service, teaching department and cycle of basic education) corresponding to independent variables; three about specific training in health and sex education, four concerning previous development of sex education activities with students, one related with conceptions about sexuality, another one related to legislation about school based sex education and thirteen related to conceptions about sex education at school. The questionnaire was answered by 135 teachers (102 females and 33 males). The average age of the respondents was 41.79. Regarding the marital status 74 were married, 36 were single, 14 were divorced, nine of them were unmarried couples and two were widowed. The average of years in-service was 16.63 (minimum = less than a year; maximum = 37 years). Obtained data was processed with the SPSS statistical software (version 22.0). After a descriptive analysis, associations between variables were established with the Kruskal-Wallis non parametric test, when it originate more than two groups, and with the t-test for equality of means when we had only two groups to compare. The significant level we define to establish statistical differences was p<0.05.

Expected Outcomes

About specific training in health and sex education the majority of the teachers questioned had no specific training in this area (teachers with training for health education=35.6% vs 64.4% without training, p<0.0001; teachers with training for SE=36.3% vs 63.7% without training; p<0.0001 ). This factor has a strong influence in the willing to address this issue with the students, since trained teachers are more willing to address this issue with students. We also found that trained teachers feel more prepared to teach SE. Regarding the development of SE activities with students we verified that teachers with more training were those who responded that have already been engaged in SE with students. As so, the majority of the teachers questioned had never talked to their students about SE, although considering that this is an important area for the adolescents’ development. Regarding the appropriate age for the beginning of SE the majority of teachers questioned think that it should start at primary school and that it should be mandatory. Female and SE trained teachers are those who consider that SE should start earlier. Regarding the responsible persons by SE the majority of the teachers questioned prefers an element outside the school, like a doctor or a nurse (Mean=3.10), followed by the natural sciences teacher (Mean=3.02). About the partners of school based SE, teachers consider that the parents are the most important ones, followed by the health services. Regarding the SE obstacles, the majority of the teachers regards parents as an important obstacle to address SE with students, since the majority of them refers that their biggest fear concerning this issue is the possibility of parents adverse reactions. The lake of specific training in health and sex education is also one of the obstacles identified by the teachers questioned.

References

Anastácio, Z. (2007). Educação Sexual no 1º CEB: Concepções, Obstáculos e Argumentos dos Professores para a sua (não) Consecução. Dissertação de Doutoramento. Universidade do Minho. Buston, K., Wight, D., Hart, G. (2002). Inside the sex education classroom: The importance of context in engaging pupils. Culture, health & Sexuality, Vol. 4, N.º 3, pp. 317-335. Cohen, J. N., Byers, E. S. e Sears, H. A. (2012). Factors affecting Canadian teachers' willingness to teach sexual health education, Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, Vol.12, Nº3, pp. 299-316. Gerouki, M. (2009). “Innovations” on hold: sex education in the Greek primary schools”. Health Education, Vol. 109, Nº 1, pp. 49-65. Ingham, R. e Hirst, J. (2010). Promoting sexual health, pp. 99-118, em Aggleton, P., Dennison, C. e Warwick, I. (eds.), Promoting health and well-being through schools, Routledge: Abingdon. Martínez, J., Carcedo, R., Fuertes, A., Vicario-Molina, I., Fernández-Fuertes, A. e Orgaz, B. (2012). Sex education in Spain: teachers' views of obstacles, Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, Vol.12, nº4, pp. 425-436. Ramiro, L., Matos, M. (2008). Percepções de professores portugueses sobre educação sexual. Revista de Saúde Pública. 42 (4), pp. 684-692. Westwood, J. e Mullan, B. (2007). Knowledge and attitudes of secondary school teachers regarding sexual health education in England, Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, Vol.7, n.º2, pp. 143-159.

Author Information

Zélia Caçador Anastácio (presenting / submitting)
CIEC, University of Minho - Institute of Education, Portugal
Susana Marinho (presenting)
CIEC, University of Minho - Institute of Education, Portugal

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