https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2658-5644
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Abstract
Curriculum change involves struggles among political actors and interest groups, and those efforts related to sex education have been noted for their particularly vexatious character. When Doug Ford was elected Premier of Ontario, Canada in 2018, he immediately repealed the comprehensive health curriculum of 2015 and attempted to muzzle teachers during the 2018–2019 school year, only to unveil a strikingly similar “new” curriculum for 2019–2020. This article analyses Ford’s treatment of sex education as part of a conservative populist agenda. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, we divide the government’s approach into six components that illustrate how anti-elitism and fact-bending drove curriculum policy. Our analysis contributes to discussions in curriculum studies and educational politics by connecting the recently ascendant political ideologies in the West with the already contentious area of sex education.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The term “sex education” is misleadlingly narrow and therefore not favoured among researchers and advocates, who tend to use “sexuality education” or “sexual health and relationships education” [for a discussion about terminology, see Fields et al., (Citation2015)]. We use “sex education” in this article because that was the term used most frequently in the public discourse and media coverage we reference throughout.
2 The party’s official name is the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, but it is also referred to as simply “Conservative,” “PC” or “Tory.” Henceforth, we refer to the party as “Conservative” to more easily contrast it with the Liberal Party of Ontario. The use of “conservative” (uncapitalized) refers to the generic adjective.
3 The curriculum document is broken down by grade and issued in two volumes: Grades 1–8 and Grades 9–12. Health and Physical Education becomes an optional course after Grade 9, and most of the controversial material about sexual health and gender appears in the Grade 1–8 document in the 2015 iteration.
4 There is longstanding debate about the meaning of “expertise” in educational policy, as well as the related fantasy of a neutral or “value-free” sex education that consists exclusively of “facts” (Lamb, Citation2013). When we refer to the importance of evidence and expertise in sex education, we do not intend for this to be interpreted as faith in apolitical curriculum or the infallibility of any given “expert.” Rather, we are insisting on the role of research and professional experience in determining sex education policies that are most likely to advance children’s well-being.
5 They include Parents as First Educators and the Stop the New Sex Ed Agenda Party.
6 There is also emerging literature about the impacts of this policy change on the prudential curriculum, which we discuss below.
7 This is like a veto power usually reserved for extraordinary circumstances.
8 Ford has attacked left-wing “ideology” in other policies as well. When defending cuts to student unions in higher education, Ford dismissed their activities as “crazy Marxist nonsense” (Friesen, Citation2019).
9 Even though the Grades 9–12 health curriculum was not repealed, secondary health teachers reported feeling threatened too by the new regime of surveillance and “snitching” (Osborne, Citation2019).
10 In 1998, it appeared nowhere, and in 2015, it appeared in both.
11 Their very divergent strategies in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic subsequently weakened the impression that Ford was a “Trump-light” (Loewen, Citation2018); but at the time of the pre-pandemic sex education battles, Ford showed a Trumpian disregard for health professionals and scientists.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lauren Bialystok
Lauren Bialystok is an Associate Professor of Ethics in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She is co-author of a forthcoming book about sex education with the University of Chicago Press and also writes about identity and political philosophy.
Jessica Wright
Jessica Wright is a PhD candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She researches the impact of trauma on sexual consent for gender-based violence prevention education.
Taylor Berzins
Taylor Berzins is an MA candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her research analyzes the consent campaigns used at Ontario post-secondary institutions to address sexual violence on campus.
Caileigh Guy
Caileigh Guy is an EdD candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She is researching the teaching of sex education in Ontario's public Catholic school system.
Em Osborne
Em Osborne received their MA from the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2019. They interviewed Ontario Health and Physical Education teachers about the impacts of the 2015 curriculum and its repeal in 2018.