Just the Facts? The Separation of Sex Education from Moral Education
Abstract
In this essay Sharon Lamb considers how progressives have begun to win the longstanding battle to shape sex education and what they have had to give up in the process. After framing the battle in historical context, Lamb uses discourse analysis to explore the hidden values in the “evidence‐based” (EB) curricula that progressives currently favor and that pass for neutral today. As her analysis reveals, EB curricula privilege three discourses — a discourse of science, a discourse of healthy choices (with an emphasis on individuals), and a discourse of efficacy — all of which are grounded in ideology and serve to legitimize certain kinds of knowledge while undermining other kinds. Lamb concludes by proposing eight tenets for the future of sexuality education, which are intended to displace the eight tenets codified by proponents of abstinence‐only‐until‐marriage sexuality education.
Number of times cited: 11
- Kari R. Harris and Melissa T. Hopper, Preventing Teen Pregnancy at Pre-Adolescence, Socio-Cultural Influences on Teenage Pregnancy and Contemporary Prevention Measures, 10.4018/978-1-5225-6108-8.ch010, (166-188)
- Sharon Lamb and Madeline Brodt, Sexuality Research, Ethics and, The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, (1-3), (2017).
- Marisa Ragonese, Christin P. Bowman and Deborah L. Tolman, Sex Education, Youth, and Advocacy: Sexual Literacy, Critical Media, and Intergenerational Sex Education(s), The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education, 10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_15, (301-325), (2016).
- Sharon Lamb and Renee Randazzo, From I to we: Sex education as a form of civics education in a neoliberal context, Curriculum Inquiry, 46, 2, (148), (2016).
- Sharon Lamb, Tangela Roberts and Aleksandra Plocha, Girls of Color in Sex Education Classrooms, Girls of Color, Sexuality, and Sex Education, 10.1057/978-1-137-60155-1_4, (37-52), (2016).
- Lauren Clark and Sarah M. Stitzlein, Neoliberal narratives and the logic of abstinence only education: why are we Still having this conversation?, Gender and Education, (1), (2016).
- Sharon Lamb, Revisiting Choice and Victimization: A Commentary on Bay-Cheng’s Agency Matrix, Sex Roles, 73, 7-8, (292), (2015).
- David McCarty-Caplan, Sex Education and Support of LGB Families: a Family Impact Analysis of the Personal Responsibility Education Program, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 12, 3, (213), (2015).
- Barrie Shannon and Stephen J. Smith, ‘A lot more to learn than where babies come from’: controversy, language and agenda setting in the framing of school-based sexuality education curricula in Australia, Sex Education, 15, 6, (641), (2015).
- Willemijn Krebbekx, What else can sex education do? Logics and effects in classroom practices, Sexualities, 10.1177/1363460718779967, (136346071877996), (2018).
- Fran Amery, Why Analysis of Gender Equality Policy Should Pay Attention to Risk: The Case of Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy in England, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 10.1093/sp/jxy026, (2018).
