2025 Theses Doctoral

Teachers’ Perceptions About How to Improve Pedagogy and Comfort in Teaching Sexual Health Education

Brichacek, Lisa

Human sexuality is an integral part of individuals’ identity and lifestyle, and nationally representative surveys repeatedly show that parents want schools to address this topic. In addition, rates of teen pregnancy, while lower than in the past, are still much higher in the United States than in other western, educated, high-income countries, and rates of sexual violence among adolescents in the United States remain very high, which have both immediate and long-term harmful consequences for individuals, families, and communities.

Despite the public health needs for sex education and public support for this kind of education, sex education in schools is generally not a priority and is not viewed as integral to educational goals. This study used a phenomenological approach to explore how a purposeful sample of sex educators have been prepared to teach about this subject, the topic areas that provoke the greatest discomfort, and the ways in which sex educators attempt to bolster their knowledge and skills.

A total of 36 sex educators were recruited through a popular Facebook social media professional group for school health educators, Health Teacher Central. Respondents had to be K-12 sex educators over the age of 18; of any gender, class, or race; members of the Facebook professional network group Health Teacher Central; able to communicate in English; and willing to provide consent to be interviewed and have the interview audio-recorded. Semi-structured interviews, with primarily open-ended questions, were conducted to learn about educators’ preparation, topics that presented the greatest discomfort, and how respondents pursued professional development to facilitate their teaching.

Most sex educators felt unprepared to provide instruction in the K-12 setting because they lacked preservice and in-service preparation and professional development. Practical experience helped but was often not enough to ensure that educators were well prepared to teach, especially some of the more challenging topics.

The topics that were associated with educators’ highest levels of discomfort included pornography, sexual violence, sexual orientation and gender identity. Another aspect of their work that created discomfort was that many educators described pushback or backlash from parents, which sometimes resulted in fears about their job security or being ostracized. A common experience reported by educators was feeling professionally isolated, because they were the only ones in their schools with responsibility for sex education. Consequently, some educators sought to expand their professional networks for collaboration and connection to improve comfort by connecting with other sex educators locally, regionally, through national professional organizations, or social media.

While the results from this study must be interpreted with consideration of the limitations—small sample size and non-probability selection method, cross-sectional design, self-reported nature of the data, and data collected and interpreted by a single researcher—these findings were consistent with prior research and warrant further attention. It is not reasonable to expect that teachers can help students learn knowledge and skills and make informed decisions about human sexuality if they are not well prepared, and this study indicated that is often the case. Sex educators especially need assistance and resources to cover complex topics such as pornography, sexual violence, sexual orientation, and gender identity. To the extent that it contains accurate and accessible teaching/learning materials and other resources as well as provides supportive opportunities for collaboration, social media can be an important resource to help fill gaps in the professional preparation of sex educators.