Cândida Gonçalves-dissertação de Mestrado 21 de Julho 2

The role of Science Education and the Student Support Office in Sexual Education:
a research focused on Secondary Schools
ABSTRACT
In Portugal, there is a plurality of spaces for organizing the curriculum of sexual education (SE) in
schools. As it is an area of personal and social education, its implementation requires the adoption of an
open and flexible curriculum with active student participation. Curricular areas such as Biology, the Project
Area and the Student Support Office (SSO) are privileged areas for SE.
This study investigated the role of Science education and the SSO in the SE of youths in Secondary
Schools. In this sense, it was intended to achieve the following objectives: (1) to characterize the conceptions
of teachers of the SSO and teachers and students of Biology from secondary schools regarding its role and
the SSO in the SE of youths; (2) to describe how they conceive the SSO as a structure to support SE; (3) to
characterize the practices in the SSO and in Biology classes of secondary schools regarding student SE; (4)
to describe the relationships of cooperation at the level of SE among the Biology teachers and the SSO.
In order to reach these objectives, a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive methodology was used,
and data collection was done through semi-structured interviews applied to teachers responsible for the SSO
(n = 6) and teachers (n = 6) and students of Biology of the 12 th grade (n = 12).
Most of the respondents attributed an important role to SE in secondary school to Biology and the
SSO, and understood SE as an interdisciplinary and cross-sectional area which help youths to build a healthy
living project. In their perspective, the Biology program allows for the acquisition of the biological understand-
ing of sexuality, hence the importance of its relationship with the SSO. The SSO was seen as a support
structure to SE, because it was seen as collaborating in the projects of SE and as a social service, where the
teacher acts as a coach and, when necessary, guides students to other institutions.
According to most interviewees, the practices of SE in the SSO are stimulated by an interdisciplinary
team that is not available throughout the school term, and function in a space that is not only in the SSO but
also with few didactic resources. The main objectives described for the practices in the SSO were the
development of students’ personal and social competencies. Most of the respondents assumed that in
Biology, the affective-socio-cultural dimensions previewed in the transversal competencies of the national
program were not worked on, and identified as contents related to sexuality only in the unit, 'Manipulation of
Reproduction and Fertility' and only a minority of teachers explored issues related to sexuality not previewed
in the national program. For the majority, the link between Biology and the SSO is very low and sporadic.
These results have implications for teacher training, the links between the disciplinary curricular areas
and the SSO, and the (re) structuring of the SSO in light of the legal norms.
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