Co-researching and designing innovative learning approaches in sexuality and relationships education

ABSTRACT

Young people are rarely consulted about what and how they are taught in sexuality and relationships education (SRE) at school. The reasons for this are complex and relate to adults’ reluctance to acknowledge the need to take account of students’ perspectives on personally sensitive matters. In this article, we provide a brief rationale and justification for enabling students to have a greater say in the design and development of teaching approaches in SRE. We outline, in practical ways, how we used participatory research methods to engage young people in researching and developing innovative teaching and learning resources that utilised their musical, design, artistic, technological and literacy talents. In reflecting on some of the benefits associated with using participative research approaches, we discuss higher levels of student engagement and ‘playfulness’, an enhanced acceptance of, and respect for, difference and diversity, and the greater use of critical thinking during the research process. The challenges we faced were due to difficulties gaining ethics approval for an emergent research design from a human research ethics committee which insisted on pre-specified research protocols, and due to the pervasive effect of the taken-for-granted practices and ways of doing things in secondary schools that preserve existing power relationships and limit innovation and change. Despite these challenges, we remain positive about the potential of participatory research to provide students with a greater say in their sexuality and relationships education.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory research
• human research ethics
• sexuality and relationships education

Acknowledgments

This project was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects funding scheme (LP130100350). The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council or the project’s industry partner, SHINE SA.

We would like to acknowledge the contribution made to the paper and the broader research project by other members of the EYPSE team: Associate Professors Lyn Harrison, Debbie Ollis, Dr Leanne Coll, and Dr Peter Arnold.

Finally, we would especially thank the staff and students who participated in the project. Without their active support and involvement, we couldn’t have undertaken such a challenging approach to researching students’ views on sexuality and relationships education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This paper draws on a technical report prepared for SHINE SA in 2017. See B. Johnson et al. (2017). Permission to use selected content was given by the authors of the report and the copyright holder, the University of South Australia, in the interests of making it more accessible to an international audience.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [LP130100350]; SHINE SA.