91ŃÇÉ« professor to speak on sex-ed curriculum from teachers’ viewpoint

TORONTO, March 22, 2019 – While many parents support sexual health learning in Ontario schools, changes to the sex-ed curriculum have left health teachers balancing the need to be informative and inclusive with the need to be aware of students’ diverse experiences, backgrounds and perspectives.

, associate professor and associate dean for teaching and learning in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, will present “Teaching Sex Ed: A View from Ontario’s Teachers” on Tuesday, March 26 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Civic Centre Resource Library located at 2191 Major Mackenzie Dr. W., in Vaughan. The talk is part of a partnership between Vaughan Public Libraries and 91ŃÇɫ’s Division of Advancement to bring some of 91ŃÇɫ’s top academics to Vaughan.

Flicker will share her research and possible implications for public policy and the community.

“Teenagers need to talk about sex. Discussions in the classroom about these topics can have real repercussions. They can mean the difference between an unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection, reporting a sexual assault and negotiating consent,” she said.

“Shifts in public policies and government priorities have very real implications to what actually happens in a classroom. These policies are not abstract. They actually shape and change what gets taught and how it gets taught in a classroom,” she said.

Flicker’s talk will focus on her ongoing research, Enacting Sex Education: A view from Ontario’s Teachers, which is examining teachers’ perspectives on implementation and enactment of the changing sex education curriculums. For the study, which began two years ago, Flicker and a team of researchers from five universities interviewed teachers who had at least five years of experience teaching health and physical education.

They asked teachers about their experiences teaching the sex-ed curriculum before 2015, compared with teaching the more expansive sex-ed curriculum after it was updated in 2015 and then reverted in 2018. They also asked teachers about their success stories, concerns, supports offered to them and how the policy and controversy were impacting their classrooms.

Preliminary results found that teachers strongly supported the updated 2015 curriculum, especially updates about consent, sexting, cyber safety, sexual and gender diversity, and naming body parts using anatomically-correct terms.

Flicker has written and co-written more than 75 published journal articles and book chapters, including , co-authored and published last year. Her research also includes , a national project working with Indigenous communities across Canada to determine how Indigenous youth understand HIV in relation to their communities, cultures and colonization, using arts-based methods.

Her talk is part of 91ŃÇɫ’s Scholars Hub Speaker Series which marks the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Environmental Studies. More information about upcoming talks in the “Environmental Changes” series can be found .

NOTE: Space is limited for the event so members of the public are required to . Members of the media should contact Media Relations (see below).

91ŃÇÉ« champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91ŃÇÉ« students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91ŃÇÉ« U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91ŃÇÉ« is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.

91ŃÇÉ« U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Vanessa Thompson, 91ŃÇÉ« Media Relations, 647-654-9452, vthomps@yorku.ca

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