Horan, Corrina;
Stephenson, Judith;
Bailey, Julia V;
(2023)
Relationships and Sex Education teaching in English secondary schools and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sex Education
10.1080/14681811.2023.2267449.
(In press).
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Abstract
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on school education resulted in class disruption and fragmented online teaching. Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) was made compulsory in England in 2020, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on RSE is unclear. In this study, 16 teachers working in English secondary schools participated in online qualitative, semi-structured interviews on their experiences teaching RSE. Themes were identified using deductive and inductive codes as part of a thematic analysis process. Participants taught children aged 11–18 in independent, comprehensive and academy schools. Teachers found it difficult to deliver high quality RSE lessons because of concern that available material would be inappropriate for virtual delivery. Fragmentation of teaching also limited the development of pupil-teacher rapport, highlighted as key to effective RSE. Extra-curricular initiatives were also disrupted by the pandemic, persisting even after face-to-face teaching returned as schools focused on ‘core’ academic subjects. RSE teaching was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and although face to face teaching has resumed, healthy peer-on-peer relationships remain impacted by fragmented teaching. Ongoing prioritisation of RSE, and the appropriate use of digital resources, will support young people moving forward and help prepare for any future disruption of to face-to-face teaching.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Relationships and Sex Education teaching in English secondary schools and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/14681811.2023.2267449 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2023.2267449 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Sex, relationships, young people, fragmentation, disruption |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health > Reproductive Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10180084 |
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