The present Hungarian national core curriculum (prepared between 2011 and 2012) has no references to sexual diversity neither in the content nor in the pedagogical guidelines. In the light of this, it is interesting to examine whether gender or other sexual diversity issues would be present in the design and teaching practice of Hungarian primary school teachers. The Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development ran a participatory project from 2012 to 2015: 55 partner schools were involved in developing new curricula for all-day schools, in six strands. This presentation introduces research results from the science education program, which is the only one directly addressing gender inclusion in its pedagogical concept, and which has relevant research concerning sexual diversity. The research framework was built on the soft systems methodology (Checkland, Poulter, 2006), including a pre-intervention public Delphi research on the relevance of various concepts, enhanced by individual group interviews and deep interviews with teachers, and augmented by action research using convergent interviews (with 22 teachers in 8 schools, during a whole school year) and a post-intervention research using grounded theory. The Delphi research revealed a gap between industry and teachers in addressing (sexual) diversity, and the pre-intervention interviews showed the teachers’ lack of awareness to (sexual) diversity of students. After being exposed to awareness programs and learning about the priorities of the pedagogical concept (including gender parity), teachers designed and piloted with modular units. Still, in the design templates, they made no references of sexual diversity, and only 23 (out of 960) references were made to gender issues. However, action research revealed that 34 teachers (out of 44) regularly used teaching methods facilitating gender inclusion, and 8 of them addressed sexual diversity in 76 lessons (out of 480). This means that the ideas and methods infiltrated their practice. Despite the present political climate in Hungary, this new program provides training and mentoring for teachers that include awareness raising to inclusive approach to sexual diversity. Research results helped to enhance these programs, and also highlighted some future intervention points.

Checkland, P., Poulter, J. (2006). Learning for action: a short definitive account of soft systems methodology and its use for practitioner, teachers, and students. New York: Wiley.