Elementary Teachers’ Implementation of the Sexual Health Education Content in the New Ontario HPE Curriculum

In September of 2015, the government of Ontario implemented an updated Health and Physical Education curriculum that contained significant and controversial updates to the Sexual Health Education (SHE) strands. The implementation was faced with disagreement from many parents, and in an act of protest against what they felt fundamentally conflicted with their conceptions of sexual ethics, some parents removed their children from the classroom, most notably in Toronto. Implementing any form of SHE curricula can be problematic, as obstacles and difficulties delivering curriculum content in health classes have been recorded since the late 1970s. With research that examines these historical obstacles, as well as the climate of controversy surrounding sexual health education curriculum, this MTRP used that research to gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of three practiced elementary school health teachers using a semi-structured interview process. Interviews focused on the barriers these teachers faced, and the best practices they implemented along side the updated SHE content of the 2015 Ontario HPE curriculum. Various themes emerged, including the importance of collaboration with veteran teachers and colleagues, as well as potential refusal to deliver content based on teachers’ attitudes towards the SHE updates