Browsing by Author "Tarkamo, Iida"

Objectives. The aim of this thesis is to chart teachers’ views on sex education, the challenges and goals of sex education and to obtain more information about the supply of sex education materials. The objective is to get information about how sex education shows in primary school and what type of teaching material is needed. Through this, the aim is to obtain information on how sex education could be developed. Sex education has been studied quite a lot in the context of upper secondary education, which is why the study focuses on the development of sex education in primary schools. Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study. The case in this study was elementary school sex education. The data was collected through a semi-structured thematic interview. Four primary school teachers were selected for the study who shared their experiences regarding sex education. The interviewees were scouted based on their skills to tell about sex education. The data was collected through a semi-structured thematic interview between July–October 2020. The interview data was transcribed and it was analyzed by content analysis. The aim of the analysis was to summarize the interview data and increase understanding of the case study. Results and conclusions. Teachers defined sex education to be tied to everyday situations and teacher was inevitably seen as a sex educator. Sexuality was determined by a person’s personality, culture and activity, it showed in infatuations and discussions at school. The challenges of sex education were related to resources, the school’s sex education culture, students’ actions and teachers’ own insecurities. Its aim was to provide students with adequate information about sexuality, the ability to apply knowledge and an attitude of tolerance towards diversity. The teachers felt that the curriculum did not provide concreteness for sex education. However, the goals of the curriculum and the goals of sex education were seen to be in line with each other. The teachers experienced that there was not enough material for sex education and that the information was fragmented or surface level. Functional and age-appropriate material was needed for sex education. The conclusion was that lack of knowledge prevents the teacher from implementing sex education and that material is needed for sex education. The research results will be utilized in the development of sexual education material for primary schools.