Talking to Adults: Youth Perspectives on the Role of Teachers in School Sex Education

Background: Most American adolescents are exposed to some form of sex education, as it is taught in most public and private schools. Sex education can contribute to the development of healthy adolescents, who spend these years learning about their sexual selves. At the forefront of sex education are teachers. Although some research exists on sex education teachers, most focuses on specific information conveyed to students, behavioral outcomes of programs, and risk. As such, little is known about the effect of teacher tone or style in sexuality education. Additionally, with a few exceptions, little research exists investigating youth experiences of sex education in their own words. To address this gap, this research investigated youth perspectives on elements of their sexuality education programs, including experiences with teachers.

Method: Focus groups were conducted with an ethnically and racially diverse group of 34 undergraduates. Seventeen men and 17 women were divided into 6 focus groups of 5-6 students each at a large Midwestern university. Questions addressed participant experiences and perspectives regarding their sex education, including timing, content, and tone. Analytical memos were written after each focus group. Audio recordings were transcribed by undergraduate research assistants, and a process of open and focused coding was used to analyze these data, guided by the principles of grounded theory.

Results: Participants linked their experiences of sex education with characteristics of their teachers, and many identified teachers as setting the tone of their sex education learning. In some cases, they described the teacher as more influential than the information, or identified that the material they learned varied depending on their teacher. Another theme that emerged was a conflict or mismatch between the tone of the teacher and the material. Finally, participants discussed other influential adults at school as key components of their sex education experience. Adults such as athletic coaches also contributed to their learning about sex education, sometimes informally and outside of the classroom (and curricular bounds.)

Conclusion and Implications: Findings suggest that who delivers information to young people, and how they deliver it, is a critical component of sex education and needs to be considered beyond substantive information. Tone, often set by the teacher, is also important, and may vary how information is presented or interpreted. Although this is likely true of many classroom settings, it is especially significant in sex education, which can be particularly sensitive, raise potentially triggering issues for students, and have long-standing consequences in young lives. Two grand challenges emerge for social work: to increase standardization of sex education material and to increase teacher training, both of which should contribute to more consistent information delivery, as well as more confident and comfortable teachers. These goals can also generalize to other social work settings where practitioners may interact with adolescents, as well as policy and research initiatives. Sex education, both formal and informal, is critical for young people who are working to develop positive self-images and healthy and safe sexual identities, and social work should be a leader in this field.