Case study on sexual education: from reproduction to prevention

Abstract

This article is based on data on sexual education from an ethnographic research carried between August 2002 and July 2003 in a public school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Sex education was offered in Science courses provided by the Center of Adolescent Educators. The focus on reproduction matters contradictorily entice students to the subject of pregnancy which public policies wished to avoid. The course aimed at instigate a sense of responsibility about sexual relations. However information on contraceptive methods was usually related to adult s matters and remained distant from youth's anxieties thus not acknowledging adolescent sexuality.

SEX EDUCATION; SEXUALITY; PREGNANCY; SCHOOL