Educators' experiences of teaching sexuality education in the F.E.T. phase.

Abstract

This study explored the experiences of six F.E.T Life Orientation educators teaching sexuality education in the Chatsworth area. Three secondary schools were selected and participants were selected purposively as only Life Orientation educators from grades 10, 11 and 12 were part of the study. The focus was mainly to determine what experiences these educators have of teaching Sexuality Education in the F.E.T phase, what informs their teaching of sexuality education and why they experience the teaching of sexuality education in the way that they do. The study was grounded in the interpretive paradigm and the theoretical framework was guided by Social Constructionism. Social constructionism was appropriate for this study as the study looked at teachers' experiences of teaching sexuality, and how their teaching of sexuality is influenced by the social and cultural settings in which they live. By looking at the different cultures and beliefs, the indication is to uncover the manner in which a specific thinking or norm has been moulded by communal influences (Boghossian, 2007). In spite of this, educators’ religious affiliations, belief systems, culture and values are often overlooked by policy designers. This disregard of their norms and values which inform their teaching of the subject (Life Orientation) pose a threat to the effective delivery of this subject especially because of its subtle nature. The study used a qualitative research approach to collect data by means of three research instruments: unstructured observation, semi-structured interviews and a semi-structured questionnaires. The findings from this study revealed that the experiences of educators teaching sexuality education in Life Orientation were undeniably influenced by their cultures, religious affiliations, belief systems and values. Educators articulated that they do not feel comfortable

teaching the area of sexuality education and they leave out topics concerned with sexuality education. They further uttered that sexuality education is a waste of time since there is still a high rate of teenage pregnancy. Educators conveyed their frustrations with regard to the teaching of sexuality education mentioning that the problems they experience are about the nature of content in the syllabus about sexuality education and lack of proper consultation from education personnel in teaching this subject.