Portuguese Primary School Teachers ’ Conceptions and Obstacles to Sex Education in Classroom

Teachers ’ conceptions are a product of the interaction between their scientific knowledge, systems of values, and social and professional practices. Obstacles to teaching sex education may have several origins. This research intends to identify primary school teachers ’ conceptions and obstacles to teach sex education, more precisely, teachers’ opinions and perceptions of difficulties, fears and supports and the contextual factors that can influence their conceptions. The research starting point was the construction and validation of the questionnaire. This instrument was applied to a large sample with 486 primary school teachers from the northern region of Portugal. After data collection, a data base was constructed and statistical tests were applied. The results suggest that: teachers are little favourable to sex education in primary school; the most difficult domain to teach is expressions of the sexuality; the most difficult topics to approach are related to sexual pleasure; teachers prefer the participation of parents, health professionals and psychologists; the reactions and mentalities of parents and conservative milieu seem the most strong fears; the supports teachers considered are colleagues, school director and school group president; the teachers ’ training needs expressed consist in to give them scientific knowledge, help them to respond easily to children's unpredictable questions and to prepare to develop values awareness. The factors which reflect the strongest influence on teachers ’ conceptions are: academic qualifications, gender, training courses, religious practice, time of career, area of work, and to have children