Local realities or international imposition? Intersecting sexuality education needs of Ghanaian adolescents with international norms

Bibliographic Data

ID15540464
AuthorsJoshua Amo-Adjei (0000-0001-8394-1874, University of Cape Coast, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume17
Issue6
Pages941-956
Publication date2021-03-11
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-1692 • E-ISSN: 1744-1706
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17441692.2021.1894588
PMID33705262
OpenAlexW3135550977
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited60

The content of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes is contested in many parts of the world, yet we know less about what primary beneficiaries (learners) consider as (in) appropriate school curriculum. I examined this phenomenon in Ghana. Data generated from focus group discussions suggests that, overall, participants used positive phrases to describe the need for sexuality education. The prevalent and recurrent needs of adolescents centred around personal reproductive health hygiene, pregnancy prevention, healthy relationships, reproductive infections and control, reproductive physiology and maturation, gender differences and sexual orientations, and sexual pleasure and pain. However, these needs varied in some ways between males and females and between early adolescents and older adolescents. The study shows that what adolescents seek to learn fall within international norms/standards on CSE. However, some of these concepts were not covered in the guidelines proposed for Ghana. The prevalent view among many opponents that CSE is not driven by local need may not be consistent with adolescents' own aspirations and realities. The voices of children and adolescents should constitute part of the discussions on the form and content of sexuality education

Curriculum · Developmental psychology · Environmental health · Focus group · Human sexuality · Pedagogy · Pleasure · Population · Reproductive health · Sex education · Sexuality education · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Gender Studies · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues

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