Sex education and HIV/AIDS: political conflict and legal resolution

Throughout the last decade sex education has been a site of intense political struggle. This article identifies how the legal regulation of sex education operates in such a way as to incorporate conflicting discursive problematisations of HIV/AIDS and childhood sexuality through the construction of distinct categories within the sex education curriculum and the legitimisation of distinct roles for parents, teachers and health professionals within those categories. In particular it seeks to explain why sex education in schools fails at present to be a primary source of information about HIV/AIDS for young people and, consequently, identifies the urgent need for new guidance from the Department of Education and Employment