Join RHEA for a panel on sex education, where we will bring together scholars and practitioners to interrogate the theoretical underpinnings of sex education and to connect these debates to what is happening on the ground in policy, classrooms, clinics, and communities. In recent years, access to sex education has seen both advances and setbacks. This panel invites a constructive re-examination of the logics that shape the field of sex education. This includes the rights-based approaches centred on individual empowerment, public-health approaches emphasising risk reduction, and increasingly justice-oriented approaches.
We consider how these logics interact with structural conditions and social norms around sexuality, reproductive health, and access to care. Bringing theory into conversation with practice, we ask: How do these logics materialise in curricula and programme delivery? What is under pressure in the current socio-political climate? And how might sex education evolve to remain evidence-based, context-responsive, and equitable?
