TY - JOUR

T1 - Mandatory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in England—Educators’ Views on Children’s Rights

AU - Daly, Aoife Caitriona

AU - Heah, Rachel

PY - 2023/9/1

Y1 - 2023/9/1

N2 - Comprehensive sexuality education (known as Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in England), which is age-appropriate, accurate, realistic and non-judgemental, is a tool that enables children and young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health, sexuality and well-being. As such, it is crucial towards the realisation of many of the rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as, but not limited to, the rights to information, education and health. However, in the English guidance on RSE, there is very little consideration of children’s rights, and the requirement to involve parents in the shaping of RSE curricula as well as the right for parents to withdraw children from sex education lessons potentially hinders children’s access to RSE. In this paper, we discuss the views and experiences of teachers and professional educators to ascertain the position of children’s rights in the National Guidance on RSE and in the everyday practice of teaching RSE. Their views and experiences assist us in understanding some of the motivators and barriers to teaching RSE from the perspective of children’s rights. In analysing the English approach to RSE, we used Bourke, Mallon and Maunsell’s framework and considered RSE rights under the UNCRC from the perspective of the right to education; rights in education and rights through RSE.

AB - Comprehensive sexuality education (known as Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in England), which is age-appropriate, accurate, realistic and non-judgemental, is a tool that enables children and young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health, sexuality and well-being. As such, it is crucial towards the realisation of many of the rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as, but not limited to, the rights to information, education and health. However, in the English guidance on RSE, there is very little consideration of children’s rights, and the requirement to involve parents in the shaping of RSE curricula as well as the right for parents to withdraw children from sex education lessons potentially hinders children’s access to RSE. In this paper, we discuss the views and experiences of teachers and professional educators to ascertain the position of children’s rights in the National Guidance on RSE and in the everyday practice of teaching RSE. Their views and experiences assist us in understanding some of the motivators and barriers to teaching RSE from the perspective of children’s rights. In analysing the English approach to RSE, we used Bourke, Mallon and Maunsell’s framework and considered RSE rights under the UNCRC from the perspective of the right to education; rights in education and rights through RSE.

KW - comprehensive sexuality education

KW - relationships and sex education

KW - UN convention on the rights of the child

U2 - 10.3390/youth3030065

DO - 10.3390/youth3030065

M3 - Journal article

VL - 3

SP - 1013

EP - 1029

JO - Youth

JF - Youth

SN - 2673-995X

IS - 3

ER -