Comprehensive sexual education in rural schools. A case study in Santa Fe, Argentina

Abstract

The article is part of an larger research project addressing some characteristics of the implementation of the National Act 26150 of Comprehensive Sexual Education (known for its Spanish acronym, ESI). It describes a case study conducted on a secondary school in a rural area of the north of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Interviews to teachers and students were analyzed following a qualitative-interpretive method. The objective of this study was to understand the meanings attributed to ESI, as well as the teaching and learning practices around sexual education.The results revealed that the persistent challenges in the implementation of ESI refer to the need for a stronger effort to include ESI-related contents in initial and continuing teacher training and in rural-school teaching practices. This needs to embrace a variety of topics that can be integrated into school subjects in order to overcome the continuity of the pre-eminence of contents and approaches related to traditional models of sexual education.