Teacher training in sexuality education in Australia: how well are teachers prepared for the job?

Young people’s sexual health is a major concern worldwide and in Australia. The sexual behaviour of young people has changed over the past 50 years – with a trend towards first sex at an earlier age, and high rates of unprotected sexual intercourse among young women and men. While an AIDS/HIV epidemic seems to have been prevented successfully in Australia, infection rates for sexually transmissible infections, such as chlamydia, have recently increased significantly among young people in Australia. At the same time, sources of information about sexuality and sexual behaviour are increasingly readily available to young people, yet these are extremely varied in their reliability. In this context, school-based sexuality education is increasingly important in assisting young people to find reliable information, supporting their decision-making, reducing risky sexual behaviour and consequently preventing the increase in sexual infections. In fact, young Australians themselves nominate school programs as one of the sources they use most for information on sexual health. While there has been some criticism that topics such as loving relationships and homosexuality are not routinely covered, school education remains of primary importance in preparing young people for healthy and enjoyable sex lives. Hence, we need to ask the question whether teachers are adequately trained to deliver effective sexual health education and to influence young people’s sexual behaviour. Pre-service teacher training is clearly one important component of effective sexuality education in schools and is an opportunity to build a sound foundation for this work. It can help to reduce common barriers and challenges in the implementation of sexuality education at school level and improve teaching quality simply by making teachers feel more confident. Yet, very little is currently known about the preor in-service training delivered by universities and colleges to prospective teachers of sexuality education. Studies in this area are either out-dated or do not exist. To better understand the current situation of sexuality education at school and the barriers for implementing effective programs, more research on educators and their experiences within the context of professional development is needed. Thus, we reviewed the broader curriculum and policy content for sex education in Australian tertiary teaching institutions, as well as the availability and content of preservice teacher training.* First, the review included desk research of internet resources identifying sexuality, health and physical education content listed by teacher registration institutions as well as universities and colleges. Second, 15-min phone interviews were conducted with key contacts at each participating teaching institution (mostly course coordinators or lecturers specialising in health education) to validate the inclusion and content of sexuality education topics, whether these were compulsory and how many hours were allocated to these in the teacher training curriculum. Following the interviews, the findings were cross-validated by investigating the participating universities’ handbook for course and unit information. This cross-validation allowed for the categorisation of courses and units into substantial, basic and general inclusion of sexuality education. We found that of the 45 teacher training institutions nationally, 8 did not offer training in sexuality education anywhere in their curriculum. Across all states and territories in Australia, only 9% of relevant university courses had substantial inclusion in any core or elective units, 29% had basic inclusion and 11% had general inclusion of training in sexuality education. Interestingly, the majority (51%) of courses had no inclusion of training in sexuality education. Of those courses that included training in sexuality education, the majority dedicated only a few hours of course time to this topic.z In the 49% of courses that included some level of training in sexuality education, 74 specific units were taught. However, only 46 (62%) were compulsory or core units, while 28 (38%)