A Critical Analysis of Sexuality Education in the United States explores the development of sexuality education in North America and uses economic, legal, and psychological paradigms to identify and trace exclusionary programming and practices in schools. By analyzing legal and political documents, as well as state and private curricula, this insightful text considers the historical and contemporary experiences of adolescents in connection to the social structures of sexuality education. Challenging the current state of sex education in the United States, in terms of both content and delivery, the chapters succinctly illustrate how schools are failing to meet the developmental needs of all students. Student perspectives and evidence-based research demonstrate that an exclusionary curriculum is failing to equip students with the knowledge and understanding they require to undergo a process of empowerment about their sexuality, and engage in safe, informed, and consensual sexual activity. Finally, by employing a rights-based approach to sexuality education, the author offers important recommendations for change in state and federal curricula. Offering unique and comprehensive insight into the state of sex education in the United States, this text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, academics, researchers, policy-makers, and libraries in the fields of sexuality education, education policy and politics, sociology of education, gender studies, and curriculum studies.

Describes the political transformations, cultural dynamics, and affective rhetorics that together helped ignite the passionate conflicts over sex education on both the national and local levels in the United States.

This is the first book to provide a multidisciplinary and global overview of evidence-based sexuality education (SE) programs and practices. Readers are introduced to the fundamentals of creating effective programs to prepare them to design new or implement existing programs that promote healthy sexual attitudes and relationships. Noted contributors from various disciplines critically evaluate evidence –based programs from around the globe and through the lifespan. Examples and discussion questions encourage application of the material. Guidance for those who wish to design, implement, and evaluate SE programs in various social contexts is provided. Each chapter follows a consistent structure so readers can easily compare programs: Learning Goals; Introduction; Conclusion; Key Points; Discussion Questions; and Additional Resources. The editor taught human sexuality and family life education courses for years. This book reviews the key information that his students needed to become competent professionals. Highlights of the book’s coverage include: Interdisciplinary, comprehensive summary of evidence-based SE programs in one volume. Prepares readers for professional practice as a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) or sex educator by highlighting the fundamentals of developing and implementing SE programs. Exposes readers to evidence-based SE programs from various social contexts including families, schools, communities, and religious institutions. Considers the developmental context of SE across the lifespan along with programs for LGBT individuals and persons with disabilities. Critically reviews SE programs from around the world including the US, Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other developing countries. The book opens with an historical overview. Part I focus on general frameworks of sexuality education including UNESCO’s International Technical Guidelines. How to develop, deliver, and implement evidence based SE programs, including ethical concerns, are explored in Part II. Part III exposes readers to evidence-based programs in various social contexts--families, schools, communities, and religious institutions. Part IV considers the developmental context of SE from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood along with programs for LGBT individuals and persons with disabilities. Part V examines diverse global contexts from the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and other developing countries. The book concludes with future trends and directions. Ideal for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in sex education, sexual health, human sexuality, sex or marriage counseling, intimate relationships, family life education, or home, school, and community services taught in human development and family studies, psychology, social work, health education, nursing, education, and religion, and in seminaries and family clinics, the book also serves as a resource for practitioners, counselors, researchers, clergy members, and policy makers interested in evidence based SE programs, or those seeking to become CFLEs or sexuality educators.

This authoritative, state-of-the-art Handbook provides an authoritative overview of issues within sexuality education, coupled with ground-breaking discussion of emerging and unconventional insights in the field. With 32 contributions from 12 countries it definitively traces the landscape of issues, theories and practices in sexuality education globally. These rich and multidisciplinary essays are written by renowned critical sexualities studies experts and rising stars in this area and grouped under four main areas: Global Assemblages of Sexuality Education Sexualities Education in Schools Sexual Cultures, Entertainment Media and Communication Technologies Re-animating What Else Sexuality Education Research Can Do, Be and Become Importantly, this Handbook does not equate sexuality education with safer sex education nor understand this subject as confined to school based programmes. Instead, sexuality education is understood more broadly and to occur in spaces as diverse as community settings and entertainment media, and via communication technologies. It is an essential and comprehensive reference resource for academics, students and researchers of sexuality education that both demarcates the field and stimulates critical discussion of its edges. Chapter 2 is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

A Critical Analysis of Sexuality Education in the United States explores the development of sexuality education in North America and uses economic, legal, and psychological paradigms to identify and trace exclusionary programming and practices in schools. By analyzing legal and political documents, as well as state and private curricula, this insightful text considers the historical and contemporary experiences of adolescents in connection to the social structures of sexuality education. Challenging the current state of sex education in the United States, in terms of both content and delivery, the chapters succinctly illustrate how schools are failing to meet the developmental needs of all students. Student perspectives and evidence-based research demonstrate that an exclusionary curriculum is failing to equip students with the knowledge and understanding they require to undergo a process of empowerment about their sexuality, and engage in safe, informed, and consensual sexual activity. Finally, by employing a rights-based approach to sexuality education, the author offers important recommendations for change in state and federal curricula. Offering unique and comprehensive insight into the state of sex education in the United States, this text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, academics, researchers, policy-makers, and libraries in the fields of sexuality education, education policy and politics, sociology of education, gender studies, and curriculum studies.

List of Figures - Acknowledgments - Fida Sanjakdar/Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip: Critical Pedagogy and the Re-imaginings of Sexuality Education: An Introduction - Part 1: Sexuality Education, Ideologies and Socio-cultural Politics - Heather Shipley: Religion, Secularism and Sexuality Education: LGBTQI Identities in Education and the Politics of Ideology in Canada - Eduardo Mattio/Juan Marco Vaggione: Sex Education in Argentina: Ideological Tensions and Critical Challenges - Elsie Whittington/Rachel Thomson: Educating for Consent: Beyond the Binary - Ekua Yankah/Peter Aggleton: Reconceptualising Sexuality Education in the Wake of the HIV, Ebola and Zika Epidemics - Part 2: Sexuality Education and Institutional Settings - Pam Alldred: Sites of Good Practice: How Do Education, Health and Youth Work Spaces Shape Sex Education? - Lisa W. Loutzenheiser/LJ Slovin: Sexuality Education in Action: The Pedagogical Possibilities at a Youth Camp - Fida Sanjakdar/Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip: (Re)presenting Religion in Sexuality Education for a Democratic Society: An Interdisciplinary and Critical Discussion - Kyra Clarke: Nudity, Sexting, and Consent: Finding Opportunities for Critical Pedagogy in Tagged and Caitlin Stasey - Part 3: Sexuality Education, Identities and Practice - Pamela Dickey Young: Informal Sex Education: Forces That Shape Youth Identities and Practices - Mark Vicars: It's a Family Affair-Queering Relations: Closets, Communities and 'I' - Julia Hirst/Rachel Wood/Daisy Marshall: 'Boys Think It's Just a Hairless Hole': Young People's Reflections on Binary and Heteronormative Pedagogies in School Based Sexualities Education - Veronika Honkasalo: 'Waiting for the Big Talk': The Role of Sexuality Education from the View of Parents Living in Multicultural Surroundings - Contributors - Index