Teachers’ competence in holistic sexual education of children and adolescents

Teacher education in Norway need a stronger focus on how to prepare future teachers in kindergarten, primary- and secondary school to provide holistic sexual education for children and adolescents.

Background: In a standard for sexuality education in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) promotes a holistic sexual education, defined as ‘learning about cognitive, emotional, social, interactive and physical aspects of sexuality’ in the frame of secure guidance from competent teachers [1]. Various aspects of sexuality are important for developing a healthy body image and a confident identity related to gender and sexuality, which is central in the Norwegian governance document of kindergartens and the Norwegian national curriculum. Despite the fact that Norway is considered to have a liberal attitude towards diversity in terms of gender and sexuality, young people in Norway still experience sexual harassment [2]. Kindergarten and schoolteachers need sufficient competence in teaching and guiding children and adolescents in different aspects of sexuality, in order to meet these challenges and the expectations of the national governing documents and WHO’s standard for sexual education in Europe.

Methods: A qualitative study conducted at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences explored how kindergarten and schoolteachers experience their competence in providing holistic sexual education for children and adolescents. In the current study, 29 teachers working in kinder-garten, primary or secondary school responded to an online form with open-ended questions [3].

Results: Based on a thematic analysis of the data [4], the preliminary findings suggest that the teachers’ undergraduate education did not prepare them to support children/pupils in developing a healthy body image and a confident identity related to gender and sexuality. The teachers did not feel confident enough in their teacher role to be able to teach and talk about body image and sexual health with children/pupils and their parents.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that teacher education needs a stronger focus on how to prepare future teachers to provide holistic sexual education for children and adolescents.

References
1. European Expert Group on Sexuality Education (2016). Sexuality education: what is it? Sex Education, 16:4, 427-431
2. Fladmoen N and Nadim M. Erfaringer med hatytringer og hets blant LHBT-personer, andre minoritetsgrupper og den øvrige befolkningen [Experiences with hate speech and incitement among LGBT people, other minority groups and the rest of the population]. Institutt for Samfunnsforskning, Oslo, 2019.
3. Kvale S and Brinkmann S. Det kvalitative forskningsintervju [The qualitative research interview], 3rd ed. Gyldendal Akademisk, Oslo, 2015.
4. Clarke V and Braun V. Thematic analysis. J Pos Psychol 2017;12:297–298.