Framing Sexuality Education Discourses for Programs and Practice

Abstract

Professionals who engage with various fields - health, human services, family and youth community work, social work, psychology, or education - can be called upon to link youth into appropriate sexuality education programs. It may even be necessary for the professional to deliver or even develop these programs. A professional might easily assume in such circumstances that sexuality education is a fairly straightforward matter. That it merely constitutes whatever they themselves were exposed to growing up - perhaps the contents of a pamphlet on the mechanics of reproduction, or warnings about sexually transmissible infections (STIs). But sexuality education constitutes a highly ideological site, and its conceptual framing should not occur as an assumption or afterthought, but should be carefully considered during the preparation of programs or appropriate referrals. For this reason, it is essential for these professionals to understand that sexuality education can be grounded in wildly different constructions of sexuality - what it is, what it is "for," what is valuable, or what is even possible. There is no universally agreed undisputedly ideal approach that is "best" in all cases. Indeed, oftentimes, an approach has been deemed both "best practice" by one authority and "controversial" by others.