Escola e sexualidades: diferentes concepções / muitos desafios

Abstract

This work is aimed at identifying the approaches to sex education within the school environment, understanding the way educators have dealt with the topic and mapping the expectations and interests of the teenagers towards sexuality. In order to achieve these goals, two groups were formed: one made of primary school teachers and one made of nineteen pupils from the ninth year of primary school, both groups from the same municipal school in Juiz de Fora, in Minas Gerais. As for the methodology, free observation, questionnaires and group interviews. A brief record on sex education in Brazil from 20th century on is presented, together with the social changes that have taken place to this day, influenced by political and social matters, by medicine, religion and by educational policies, such as the National Curriculum Parameters, which have established Sex Education as one of their cross-curricular topics. Teenage characteristics and topics of interest as regards sexuality are also approached, besides the teachers´ formation concerning the approach to sex education in their praxis.