Session Information
08 SES 05 B, Participation and Sexual Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Abstract
Sex and relationship education (SRE) in the UK is a required element of schooling for all students including children and young people with learning difficulties. (Sex Education Forum, 2004). SRE is cast as a human right and an entitlement in various Frameworks for Personal and Social Education (DfES, 2000; NAfW 2002; DELLS, 2007 ). Currently there is a growing concern about the sexual activity of young adults in England and Wales, with teenagers having unprotected sexual intercourse at an earlier age. The birth rate for 15-19 year olds in England and Wales is 41.9 per 1000 population compared to that of Sweden, which is only 6.1 per 1000 (WHO, 2004). Along with an increase in the rates of teenage pregnancy across the UK, the diagnosis of STIs (sexually transmitted infections) among 16-24 year olds is a major health concern with this group having the highest increase in diagnosed cases, even though they are only 12% of the population. Most worryingly 16 -24 year olds account for more than half of all STIs diagnosed in the UK, and 65% of all new cases of Chlamydia (NHS Direct 2010).
This paper provides evidence from inside post compulsory classrooms on the creative ways two individual teachers have interpreted the official frameworks and their students’ entitlements to Sex and Relationship Education.
The paper draws upon a range of qualitative data, including ethnographic fieldnotes made during classroom observations of sex and relationships lessons for students aged between 17 and 22 years. The ethnographic data was collected during field work undertaken across three Colleges of Further Education (FE) in South Wales; it illuminates teachers’ creative and resourceful approaches in Sex Education lessons. The specialist and non specialist props, artefacts, resources and samples used by teachers in these lessons combined with the narratives they shared with learners reveal highly effective participatory teaching and learning strategies. Sexual health messages were delivered in a powerful, and “inclusive” way by teachers working with both mainstream students and those students with special or additional learning needs (ALN). Humour typically permeated teachers’ expositions and punctuated the often serious and potentially uncomfortable and embarrassing discussions.
Teachers demonstrated a particular “ethic of care” towards the young people, often supporting them through difficult personal crises in their own non contact time(Jephcote and Salisbury 2008; Salisbury 2013) Evidence is presented which shows how the FE teachers in this post compulsory context were required to not only educate students about sexual matters and to guide them morally, (Blake 2002) but were required by line managers to also police and prevent students’ sexual activity on campus. ( Pilcher, 1996). Observational data collected by the ethnographer over the two year lifetime of the study depicts many teachers’ attempts to “regulate” what they consider to be inappropriate sexual activity at two separate campuses some 70 miles apart. Teachers’ inventive and inclusive teaching is celebrated in the paper which offers a close examination of two contrasting sex education sessions choreographed for two very different but typical student audiences.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
References Blake , S ( 2002) Sex and Relationship Education. London. David Fulton Publishers. Dept. for Education, Lifelong Learning and skills (2007) Personal and Social education Framework for 7-19 year olds in Wales. Cardiff. DELLS DfES (2000) Sex and Relationships Education in School. London.DfES Denzin, N. K. (1978) The Research Act. New York; McGraw -Hill. Jephcote, M. & Salisbury, J. (2008). Being a Further Education teacher in changing times. Research in Post -Compulsory Education 13 (2) pp163-172. NAfW ( 2002) Sex and Relationships Education in Schools.Cardiff: NAfW Ostrager, B. (2010) SMS. OMG! LOL! TTYL: Translating the law to ACCOMMODATE Today’s teens and the evolution from texting to sexting.Family Court Review.Vol. 48, (4), pp 712–726, Pilcher, Jane (1996) 'Gillick and After: Children and Sex in the 1980s and 1990s', in Pilcher, J. and Wagg, S. (eds.) Thatcher’s Children? Politics, Childhood and Society in the 1980s and 1990s (London: Falmer Press), pp. 77-93. Salisbury, J. (2012) Vocational education and training: sites for qualitative study. In Delamont, S. (Ed) Qualitative Studies in Education. Edward Elgar publishers. pp143-156 Salisbury, J. ( 2013 in press) Emotional labour and ethics of care in the work of further education teachers. In Gornall, L. Cook, C. Daunton, L., Salisbury, J. and Thomas, B. (Eds) Academic Working Life: Experience, Practice and Change . London: Bloomsbury/Continuum. Salisbury, J & Jephcote, M. ( 2010) Mucking in and Mucking out: Vocational Learning in Animal Care. Teaching and Teacher Education. Vol 23. pp71-81 Sex Education Forum ( 2004 ) Sex and relationships education (SRE) for children and young people with learning difficulties. Fact sheet 32. London. National Children’s Bureau TLRP (2008 ) Inside further education: The Social context of learning. Research briefing No 52. Swindon. ESRC/TLRP
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