Abstract:
Effective quality sexuality education is critical to the development, and intrinsic to the holistic wellbeing, of all young people. A sense of achievement and wellbeing comes with feeling safe and secure, which can be enhanced through sexuality education (Gluckman, 2017). Education Review Office (ERO, 2018) research indicates that some schools in Aotearoa New Zealand provide good-practice sexuality education. There is however, an inconsistency of implementation, school monitoring and review in this area. This sexuality education research is important because for the first time it explores how boards of trustees (BoT) who have a large influence within school and community, perceive their roles and responsibilities around sexuality education. This qualitative research focused on West Auckland schools, and examined the perceptions of four BoT members in relation to sexuality education at school. The intention was to investigate how BoT understanding of roles and responsibilities around sexuality education influence how the school approaches sexuality education implementation and review. Two health education teachers were also interviewed about their perceptions of the BoT in relation to sexuality education. These interviews played a supportive role.
The findings suggest that the BoT are implementing school-wide sexuality education policies in a number of diverse ways. BoT members also indicate that they understand the need for effective and student-driven sexuality education programmes. However, findings also indicate BoT require more professional learning time and ongoing support around policy documents so they can gain the understanding required for policy implementation, monitoring and review.