Sex Education

Bibliographic Data

ID22366806
AuthorsDebbie Epstein (corresponding author)
Year2017
Pages1-3
Publication date2017-09-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeOTHER
VenueThe Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss080
OpenAlexW4244616954
ISBN9781405165518
LanguageEN
References cited12

The term “sex education” covers a multitude of approaches, meanings, and pedagogical strategies. It is highly contextual, with localized cultures and understandings making significant differences to both the purposes and the practices involved. It is also often highly politicized. Sex education in both the United Kingdom and United States has its origins in what Frank Mort, among others, termed the “medico‐moral” discourses of the second half of the nineteenth century. However, the inclusion of sex education in the British school curriculum was controversial because children were seen as simultaneously innocent and easily corruptible (a theme that has persisted into the twenty‐first century). Serious concerns about the prevalence and spread of syphilis and gonorrhea, especially during World War I, propelled sex education into the school curriculum. The British government subsequently began to provide funding for the national council for combating venereal disease (later the British Social Hygiene Council) to carry out sex education in schools and also encouraged the introduction of lessons about sex hygiene and reproduction in biology lessons. This direct funding was withdrawn, and discretional funding for sex education devolved to local education authorities in the late 1920s which often chose not to provide such instruction

Epistemology · Human sexuality · Mathematics education · Multitude · Pedagogy · Physics · Sex education · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology