School of Higher Education Studies

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Browsing School of Higher Education Studies by Author "Botha, Maria Gertruida"

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    A Bourdieuen analysis of learners’ expectations of sexuality education: implications for teacher education
    (University of the Free State, 2014-07) Botha, Maria Gertruida; Francis, D.
    English: Much research has been done on Sexuality Education because of the importance of this topic. In South Africa Sexuality Education forms part of the Life Orientation curriculum and falls under the personal well-being outcome (Department of Basic Education, 2008:8). Life Orientation promotes the development of skills, knowledge and attitudes that learners can use to respond to life’s challenges. Learners should be taught what sexuality is, which includes their attitudes, values and beliefs regarding this topic. They should be assisted in understanding their attitudes towards sexuality and in taking control of their sexual behaviour. School-based Sexuality Education programmes are an effective vehicle to improve young people’s sexual health through the development of sexual competence. The effectiveness of these programmes depends largely on how comfortable and confident the teacher is with sexual learning content. During training LO teachers are not equipped to teach Sexuality Education with confidence, which influences the effectiveness of Sexuality Education programmes. It is widely recognised that not enough attention is paid to Sexuality Education in tertiary institutions because there exists no mandated national curriculum for Sexuality Education. Each tertiary institution decides to what degree it wants to include Sexuality Education in its pre- service training curriculum. To improve the efficacy of Sexuality Education programmes the voices of those being taught should be heard. The most significant and relevant background to sexual behaviour are the teenagers’ own sexual beliefs, attitudes and skills. Young people should be acknowledged as good judges of what content they need. This will empower them with the ability to make positive sexual decisions. Young people want Sexuality Education to move away from a sex-negative approach to a sex- positive one. In this regard numerous studies criticise the preventative slant of sexuality programmes and appeal for programmes that take learners’ needs into consideration.