Preparing yourself

It is important that teachers feel supported to provide sexuality education with appropriate resources and are provided with opportunities to participate in professional development to enhance their skills and knowledge.

Schools need to ensure that students feel safe and comfortable to discuss sexuality with their teacher. This means that teachers need to be aware of their own attitudes and values about sexuality issues, reflect on their professional role and obligations. It is important teachers separate out personal attitudes and values to avoid imposing these on the students in their care.

Values

Inclusive sexuality education helps young people appreciate the diversity of values, attitudes and beliefs in a pluralistic society. It is essential that teachers avoid imposing their own personal values on students either implicitly or explicitly. The role of the teacher is to provide opportunities for students to examine the range of values relating to sexuality issues and to encourage students to discuss these issues at home. Teachers can encourage and uphold those common, core values shared by the community generally such as respect and honesty, as contained in the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005).

Parents/carers are the primary sexuality educators of their children. Children will acquire their beliefs and values from their parents/carers. It is a parent/carer’s right and responsibility to share their beliefs with their children.

For further information refer to:

• Values education for Australian schooling

Getting comfortable talking about sexuality with students

Won’t I lose credibility if I don't know all the answers or if I am uncomfortable with some sexuality issues?

If you are unsure about a question, be sure to find the correct answer and get back to the students. It is not important to know the answer to every questions, you just need to be askable and to let students know you value and respect their questions, and will find out the answer when you don’t know it.

Sexuality can be a sensitive topic for people to discuss. Acknowledging embarrassment can make teachers and students feel more comfortable. Knowing where to look for information is an important strategy to assist with feeling more comfortable. A sense of humour and positive attitude to sexuality are also useful. If you feel you are unable to comprehensively teach sexuality you might consider team-teaching with a colleague.

What about responding to students’ questions that don’t need to be answered?

Questions that might seem silly to adults can be very important to children and young people. It is important to consider every question to be a valid question. Responses need to be brief, positive and factual and answered in a level matching the age and developmental stage of the students. A question box allows students to ask question that might be embarrassing in front of peers.

Professional development for sexuality education

Providing sexuality education is a rewarding area for teachers to be involved in, but specific issues may need to be addressed in the school environment for teachers to feel confident to implement a program. There are many strategies to increase teacher confidence in providing sexuality education. Some suggestions are:

• teachers work in pairs or small teams to team teach, with a more experienced or confident teacher leading the program
• regular staff meetings to discuss the sexuality education program, share successes and experiences, problem solve and provide peer support
• use a question box in the classroom for students to ask questions, allowing the teacher to develop confidence in responding to more challenging questions
• plan a range of active learning strategies to engage students and ensure that different learning styles are provided for. Games, drama, scenarios, role plays, music, art, and quizzes all provide opportunities to both deliver and assess sexuality education

(Blake and Muttok, 2004)

FPQ offers training and support in the area of sexuality education. Professional development can develop knowledge, skills and promote comfort in discussing sexuality education topics.

References