The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how health and relationship education teachers describe their teaching experiences with students learned cultural narratives and personal experiences while teaching health and relationship education in the public school classroom. The two main research questions were: RQ1: How do…

Curricular guidelines to prepare United States-based Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students to address sexual health do not exist. The literature about this topic is scant and does not describe how DPT faculty design and deliver educational content related to sexual health. The available literature does not link curricular design and delivery…

Parents typically serve as the primary sexuality educators for their children. This qualitative research explored the experiences of parents from Arkansas in providing sexuality education to their children with intellectual disabilities. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain the perspective of parents, followed by transcription and coding…

Pedagogy and content that disrupt existing heteronormative structures and curriculum with positive representations of LGBTQ people, history, and events are connected to more welcoming school experiences for all students. To understand elementary teachers' choices with regards to content and pedagogy that disrupt gender and sexuality norms, this…

This dissertation investigated relevant issues among undergraduate students at two institutions and how these issues could be incorporated into an introductory personal health course. By illustrating how these issues can attract student attention, relevancy, confidence, and satisfaction, educators can make these introductory personal health…

To date, there is very little existing research on the sexuality education of high functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) even though current research suggests that 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with ASD (CDC, 2014). Through group consensus of experts in ASD representing families, school-based professionals, and researchers,…

The following project uses both narrative and feminist poststructural lenses to consider how narratives operated in one undergraduate social foundations of education class purposefully designed around issues of social justice. These theoretical frameworks were useful in exploring the ways students and myself, the course instructor, were variously…

School-based HIV/AIDS science education has the potential to impact students when integrated into the science curriculum. However, this mixed method study shows that school-based HIV/AIDS science education is often not infused into career subjects such as science education but integrated into civics education and taught by teachers who lack the…

This study addresses how my freshman world history students come to understand controversial issues as provocative within the secondary social studies classroom, and in what ways does their engagement with provocative issues influence their understanding of the content and the world around them. In addition, this research study seeks to discover…

College students are at high risk of experiencing serious problems related to physical and social health issues that include binge drinking, sexual assault, and contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Despite research reporting that many of these incidents co-occur on campuses, university prevention programs have failed to present the…

The reality is that many adolescents are engaging in sexual activity. It is also a reality that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is high and continues to be a major problem. What are schools doing about this continued problem and the rise in STDs? More specifically, what are Northern California high schools doing to address this…

This dissertation examines the discourses around gender present among a cohort of preservice secondary social studies teachers (n = 25) and how gender discourses manifested throughout their preparatory year with particular interest paid to their thoughts about curricula, schools, and students. Using ethnographic study design, the author presents…

"The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don't Want to Know" is designed to offer both practical and theoretical grounding for leaders and teachers interested in effectively addressing racism as well as other oppressive constructs. The dissertation offers an overview of the role of western culture in maintaining…