Let's talk about sex : A qualitative study on sexual health education in Grenada.

Sammanfattning: The purpose with this study was to understand what conceptions about sex and sexuality are conveyed in sexual health education in schools in Grenada as well as analyze how teachers and guidance counselors relate to those conceptions. Our focus was to understand how sex and sexuality is conducted and portrayed in the educational material and what the respondents believe is important when teaching the subject. We also wanted to understand what aspects of gender are present and what moral- and rights-based assumptions characterize sexual health education. This qualitative study was based on content analysis on educational material that covers sex and sexuality as a topic as well as semi-structured interviews with specially trained teachers and guidance counselors. The theoretical framework consisted of theories drawn from aspects of gender and discourse in order to understand the collected data. We found that sex and sexuality is portrayed through the conservative approach to sexual health education where moral, traditions and values allow a great deal of influence in the discourse. These morals, traditions and values are derived from religious influence and policies in Grenada. Sexual health education conducted in Grenada is heteronormative and presents abstinence as an ideal-typical solution to many sexual health concerns. Furthermore there seems to be a perceived gender-difference during class where boys tend to be more open than girls. There is also a stereotypical view on gender present in the educational material where females are portrayed as responsible and males as the opposite. Moral is heavily influenced in sexual health education in Grenada. A more beneficial approach to sexual health education would be a rights-based approach.