Children in their childhood and teenage years can acquire either healthy or unhealthy lifestyles. Without proper guidance, unhealthy lifestyles (e.g. risk-taking, substance abuse, poor family planning) may negatively affect their psychosexual development (i.e. ability to make healthier sexual choices). Male and female teachers can be role models…

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning where learners are equipped with knowledge to cope with their developmental changes and risky sexual behaviors. Teaching and learning sexuality education has been seen as the responsibility for teachers only, however research indicate that it is a…

With the dawn of a constitutional democracy, South Africa has enacted contentious policies, such as outlawing capital punishment and legalizing same-sex marriage. Within the educational environment, the religious education (RE) and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) polices remain the most controversial to date. A comparative analysis of…

Background: Despite anatomically correct models (ACMs) being recommended internationally for their ability to serve as real-life, age-appropriate, and practical models in comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for learners with visual impairment, there is still limited research exploring South African teachers' views regarding their use.…

There is a critical need for sex, sexuality and relationships education to be LGBTQI inclusive. Numerous studies, internationally and in South Africa, highlight this need but what constitutes an inclusive curriculum has not been sufficiently addressed. This paper seeks to advance this conversation by imagining a curriculum beyond compulsory…

The dominant 'heterosexual script' positions men as sexually desiring subjects who initiate sex and use active displays of power to attract women, and women as passive sexual objects who use indirect means to attract men (e.g. physical appearance). While much research has highlighted how this script is deployed in high school settings, less work…

Within the growing body of literature on sexuality education in South Africa, researchers have highlighted how teachers may face, or themselves be, barriers to the implementation of rights-based comprehensive sexuality education. Important issues with regard to educators are: firstly, the social and discursive space within which educators are…

Following the ongoing study to develop a Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curriculum for visually impaired learners in South Africa, teachers reported hesitance from parents/guardians to inform their visually impaired children about sex. As such, this study sought to explore parents/guardians' involvement in their children's psychosexual…

The life orientation programme (LOP) was introduced to all schools in South Africa to help learners to, among others, take cognisance of their sexual lives. Before the programme was introduced in the 2006, many learners had become infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The programme was introduced based on the perceptions that some…

Objective: Globally, South Africa has the highest rate of HIV infection, nevertheless, society and communities seem hesitant to entrust teachers with the responsibility to teach their children about sexuality issues. This study examined how Further Education and Training Life Orientation teachers navigate the sociocultural complexities of teaching…

Background: Given the high levels of homophobia that exist in South Africa, including in its schools and universities, it is imperative that university lecturers develop integrated and transdisciplinary curriculums to educate pre-service teachers about sexuality and to empower them to incorporate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex…

In this paper, we investigate how teenage South African girls give meaning to gender and sexualities through online sexually explicit materials (SEM). We choose to move away from protectionist discourses which produce constructs of young people, especially girls, as vulnerable, passive and susceptible to online dangers. Instead we focus on young…

Bullying is a global social phenomenon that negatively affects learners' psychological functioning, social life, and academic performance. This challenge is notable among senior phase learners in Amathole East secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. This study responds to the problem by exploring the challenges and possible…

The Life Orientation (LO) learning area provides the primary vehicle for the delivery of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information in South African schools. The efficacy and uptake of the LO agenda is understood to rest with the individual educator facilitating this learning area, as located within a particular schooling environment and…

This article examines the views of male and female learners regarding how Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education is taught at their schools. Learners in the study were selected from five former 'Black' schools in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Focus groups were used to identify what learners could recall about their LO…