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Addressing sexting in sexual health education classrooms is one way of supporting young people to become good sexual citizens and to emphasise respect and consent in their sexual practices and in their lives. While a fair amount of research has worked with youth to understand their motivations for sexting, less research has been conducted with in-service teachers to understand their perspectives, pedagogical approaches, and beliefs regarding young people and sexting. Set in this context, this paper discusses findings from interviews with Canadian teachers who were teaching a new Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum that included discussions of sexting. Our findings suggest that many teachers are still engaging discourses of risk, shame and blame when they talk to their students about sexting. Likewise, longstanding gender norms and stereotypical sexual scripts are evident in the ways in which many teachers both understand and teach sexting. Some teachers, however, are engaging in more promising pedagogical practices that frame sexting as having a range of uses, outcomes, and purposes, painting a more holistic picture of young people's sexting landscapes. Findings from this paper may be useful for educators and policymakers creating sexting curriculum for young people in educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing awareness of the negative school experiences of trans students, more schools in North America are working to support such students and create more inclusive educational environments. This paper analyses how 60 educators in British Columbia, Canada talked about the involvement of trans students in decision-making processes at their school. It focuses on a prominent narrative, the ‘student in charge’ narrative, which suggests that educators should follow the lead of the young trans person to best support them. By centering the expertise of trans student, this narrative has the potential to disrupt cisnormativity in schools and traditional understandings of youth as unreliable. However, educators have also to negotiate dominant discourses about undue adult influence, young age, safety and gender fluidity that tend to undermine their initial commitment to young trans people’s self-determination. This paper analyses the effects of these contradictions on how educators respond to demands for recognition by trans students, and discusses the limits of student-led change. It concludes by arguing for more systemic changes that do not require the presence of trans bodies and instead offer possibilities for educational spaces in which all students would experience fewer pressures of gender and sexual conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an examination of gay–straight alliance (GSA) members’ engagement with sex education, sexual health, and prejudice and discrimination in Canadian public high schools. It explores how five students’ (four straight and one gay-identifying) participation in GSAs served as a springboard for learning about and challenging stereotypes; prejudice; and discrimination directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people. Queer theory provided the theoretical underpinnings of the study, offering a lens through which to examine the heteronormative underpinnings of education, and a means to interpret how homophobic discourses circulate in school and society. Empirical data were obtained via observational notes from visits to nine GSAs and semi-structured interviews with the five GSA members. Findings suggest that straight allies can use their heterosexual privilege to address LGBTQ issues with their peers. Through GSA involvement, participants learned to interrogate and combat stereotypes about LGBTQ people and HIV-related myths, as well as to engage in queer discussion and political action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I draw on observations from sexual health workshops in an elementary school classroom in Vancouver, Canada and friendship pair interviews with four boys who attended the workshops. I examine how the educators organising the workshops constructed sexual health, highlighting their reliance on both a ‘gay is okay’ and a scientific discourse. I argue that by locating their discussion of homosexuality within a values framework and striving to depict gay relationships as acceptable, they simultaneously constituted homosexuality asrequiringacceptance. Likewise, by subsuming references to heterosexuality within their lesson on (hetero)sexual reproduction, they framed heterosexuality as an always already accepted scientific fact. Having set the scene in this way, I then explore the ways the boys both took up and deviated from these discourses when constructing their own narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the nature of the relationship between satisfaction with high school sexual health education and the pursuit of a post-secondary human sexuality course. In an initial study, first-year university students who received high school sexual health education in Ontario completed a questionnaire which assessed their satisfaction with sexual health education and asked whether students were pursuing or intended to pursue a human sexuality course in university. Students who were less satisfied with high school sexual health education and, in particular, those who did not rate sexual health education as contributing to their understanding of themselves as sexual beings, were more likely to pursue a university-level course. A second qualitative study investigated potential reasons underlying this correlation. Eleven first-year students enrolled in a human sexuality course were interviewed about (a) their satisfaction with their high school sexual health education and (b) their reasons for taking the course. The findings suggest that dissatisfaction with sexual health education may be a result of students perceiving they had not learned enough personally relevant information and/or received a biased education in high school. These factors, which seem to determine dissatisfaction, may motivate students to pursue additional education in university. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the process involved in creating a community-based training curriculum designed to build capacity and foster new knowledge in support of HIV/AIDS education. Highlighted are the challenges and triumphs incurred while working with community and academic partners to ensure the production of an adaptable curriculum designed to accommodate diverse teaching and learning styles. The curriculum provides teachers, community leaders and peer educators with knowledge and skills to competently deliver HIV/AIDS information, regardless of previous training in sexual health education. Educators are encouraged to adapt the curriculum according to community/classroom needs. Also highlighted is the need for creating further opportunities that enable teachers, community practitioners and researchers to collaborate around issues that influence learners' lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines factors associated with middle school students' perceptions of the quality of the sexual health education (SHE) they received at school. Participants were 478 predominately White young people (256 girls, 222 boys) in grades 6–8 who completed a survey assessing their demographic characteristics; dating and sexual experience; and perceptions of the content, delivery and quality of the SHE they had received. Boys and students in a lower grade and with less sexual experience rated the quality of their SHE more positively. After accounting for student characteristics, students who more strongly agreed that their SHE matched their interests and covered sexual health topics more adequately, as well as who viewed their teacher as being more comfortable talking about sexual topics and doing a better job answering questions, reported higher quality SHE. Students' perceptions of the adequacy of coverage of 10 sexual health topics were also positively correlated with their reports of higher quality SHE, although only two topics (correct names for genitals and puberty/physical development) contributed uniquely to the prediction of this variable. These results reinforce the need for a comprehensive SHE curriculum as well as adequate preparation of teachers if SHE is to be engaging to students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Young people's sexual health is a significant concern to parents, educators, health professionals and policy makers in Canada. However, challenges exist with respect to the nature of school-based sexual health education content and mode of delivery. These include the lack of attention paid to the impact of gender ideologies on the development and expression of youth sexuality, and the tendency to exclude boys and young men by focusing primarily on the sexual and reproductive needs of girls and young women. This article discusses findings from a participant observation and focus group study conducted with the facilitators of WiseGuyz, a school-based sexual health and healthy relationship programme, which involves boys aged 13-15 years in Calgary, Alberta. Findings suggest that the process of facilitation is as important as curriculum content in securing positive outcomes for young men. Implications for school-based sexual health education and further research in this area are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary sexual health curricula in Canada include information about sexual diversity and queer identities, but what remains missing is any explicit discussion of anti-racist sex education. Although there exists federal and provincial support for multiculturalism and anti-racism in schools, contemporary Canadian sex education omits crucial anti-racist work, and foundational anti-racist education frameworks are silent about the sex education curriculum. To show how race is discussed in sex education, a content analysis based on a keyword search of Ontario public secondary school health provincial curricula and federal sex education policy was conducted. English language curricula created within the same nine-year range (1999–2008) were selected from Ontario and Canada to maximise the congruency of politics and country of origin. Content analysis findings point to major deficiencies and provide the basis for future anti-racist sex education policy recommendations. As anti-racism critically examines the institution of education, and sexual health curricula are an increasingly politicised example of potentially transformative education, anti-racism must be incorporated into future sex education work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]