In this chapter, we provide a snapshot of critical theories with salience for adult education to illuminate their enduring efficacy within the discipline, including critical feminism, queer theory, and race-based critical theories. Critical theories seek to make individual change while dismantling the structures that suppress freedom and…

In August 2021 the Governor of Illinois passed a mandate (SB 818) that expanded the requirements for comprehensive sex education in schools. One purpose of the bill was to help ensure that sex education is inclusive and affirming of the LGBTQIA+ community. There is an abundance of research that shows that LGBTQIA+ students feel excluded from sex…

Reflecting on a previous article, I evaluate changes encountered around teaching sexuality over the past 22 years in different geo-political settings. This article examines the ways in which my teaching practices, as an academic committed to equality, have developed in relation to different academic and political contexts. This personal pathway…

Purpose: The aim of this contribution is to research assumptions of the education for innovativeness approach within a queer theoretical notion of pedagogy and to discuss im/possibilities of the approach in the framework of Geography and Economic education. Approach: This article explores intersections between the approaches of queer theories and…

Fertility information is an important component of comprehensive sexuality education, but the extent to which adolescents are taught or informed about fertility is unknown in Australia. This study examined knowledge of fertility using an anonymous, online survey of > 2,600 adolescents aged 15-18 across Australia. Respondents represented diverse…

Comprehensive approaches to sex education emphasise an integration of the mind and the body via emotions. Drawing on the historiographical shift towards the study of emotions, this paper explores cognitive, bodily and emotional dimensions of sexuality education and social relations. By analysing the institutionalisation of sex education in…

This study examines how one school's well-intentioned White teachers and students from diverse backgrounds--all of whom belong to their school's working groups created to address issues of diversity--conceptualize diversity. Utilizing a qualitative case study, the study shows a discrepancy between what teachers and students felt comfortable…

I examine my praxis as a researcher, K-12 teacher, professional development/curriculum writer, and critical scholar as I work with two documents from a large suburban Midwestern school district. The first is the 2009 Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy, which forbade teachers from discussing or teaching about LGBTQ concepts with students. The…

Reformers are increasingly calling for and adopting practice-based approaches to teacher preparation, with particular emphasis on identifying and centering core practices. In this article, we argue that organizing teacher education around core practices brings its own risks, including the risk of peripheralizing equity and justice. Situating our…

Sex and relationships education has been a controversial area of the curriculum in England for many years. Despite changes to the content and the approach to this material, many teachers and parents remained unhappy about issues such as: the right of schools to teach material that some think should be done in a family situation only; the problem…

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to critically analyse the extant research and help readers understand the ways the school-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can contribute towards youth development and urge policymakers to implement nationwide good-quality, scientific, culturally relevant, age-appropriate and holistic…

Researchers have concluded that policy implementation is a process of mutual adaptation between policies and implementers. Our study draws attention to that relationship, especially with respect to policies that challenge assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. We focus on how six administrators in one United States school district…

The field of school-leadership preparation has recently been making a concerted effort to embed social justice issues into the curriculum experiences of aspiring principals. Although much of this effort has focused on the academic achievement among students who are poor, nonnative speakers of English, or non-White, very little attention has been…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how school-based sexuality education has had a long and troubled history of exclusionary pedagogical practices that have negatively affected such populations as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (LGBTQ) individuals, people of color, and the disabled. The social ecological model is introduced as a…

It is important that districts and schools do everything they can to create and maintain school climates and environments that are sensitive and responsive to the various educational, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of transgender and gender diverse students, regardless of the actual presence of a student who identifies as something other…