Thesis points out mistakes in sexual education in schools


MARIA ALICE DA CRUZ

DAfter investigating 65 Brazilian productions, including dissertations and postgraduate theses, which deal with sexual education in the school environment, psychodramatist Regina Célia Pinheiro da Silva found that a large part of the professionals responsible for providing sexual guidance are unprepared and present difficulties both because of personal issues and the lack of information on the topic. The 65 works were objects of study for the master's thesis “Research on the training of teachers/educators to approach sexual education at school”, under the guidance of professor Jorge Megid Neto.

Lack of preparation is one of the problems raised

The works identified by Regina report an approach to sexuality, by educators, still at the level of common sense linked to organic sex, perpetuating values, concepts and prejudices. The productions that investigated pedagogical attitudes and practices, according to the researcher, state that, when approaching the subject, teachers/educators are based on their own values, with discriminatory conduct and attitudes that are not very reflective. “Retrograde, controlling and repressive attitudes towards sexuality were verified. It is worth noting that in my research I include, as educators, health professionals who deal with sexual education in the school space, or in higher education or high school prepared for this approach.”

Omission is also not the best way, in the researcher's opinion. “Even when teachers remain silent, refusing to address sexual education at school, they do so because of the unspoken.” She observed that when information reaches students, sexual education is generally taught through content linked to the human body, in which only biological aspects are focused. Left out, she states, are dimensions linked to sociocultural and political aspects. This form of approach leads to the reproduction of concepts and values ​​already established by society and assumed by the teacher as absolute truths. Treating sexual education in this way, she believes, even if it does not involve major repressions, will not contribute to making students more aware and happy adults.

Guidance based simply on biological foundations also does not meet the needs and curiosity of students and only focuses on the informative aspect. A specialist in public health, the researcher considers this reductionist and simplifying view of sexuality. “Furthermore, it is closely associated with the hygienist approach that reinforces the prevention of diseases such as STD/AIDS and teenage pregnancy, often through approaches that generate fear and lead to the discredit of teenagers, as if sexual education only referred to this”, he argues.

Regina emphasizes that students have the right to know everything related to human sexuality, including the issue of gender, the right to pleasure, forms of discrimination imposed by sex, and family planning. “It is issues like these that have a direct impact on the right to citizenship.”

It is still necessary to sensitize some educators to the approach to sexual education, but, from what the author of the dissertation was able to observe in the reports of the productions, several teachers are willing to overcome their limits, their difficulties and lack of preparation. Regina believes that media collaboration in disseminating experiences and research in the area would be very important for demystifying the work.

Some initiatives, according to the researcher, can be taken to make sexual orientation more efficient in schools. “Today, the National Curricular Parameters (PCNs) already make it possible to approach sexual education in schools, but there are no public policies that guarantee it.” Research also shows that the reflective process for training professionals has to be collective and continuous in order to enable the construction of bonds, the opening and recovery of dialogue in relation to the topic, and the work with everyday situations experienced in the school context. , which, above all, will certainly contribute to the review of the role of the teacher/educator and the recovery of their self-esteem.

In relation to initial training, Regina says that it is essential that in higher education colleges and universities take responsibility for the inclusion of sexual education in courses in which professionals are most directly involved with this approach: pedagogy, medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, biology. To achieve this, higher education teachers must be guaranteed space for continued training. And the inclusion also in high school, in teaching qualification courses and technical courses in the health area, since reality shows that the latter, when professionals, will be able to address the topic in schools and must also be prepared.