This study explored Ontario early childhood educators' (ECEs) experiences and perceptions about the development of sexuality during early childhood. Sixty-four educators completed an online survey with a mix of closed- and open-ended questions; quantitative data were used to provide descriptive statistics and qualitative data were interpreted using thematic analysis. The findings underscore that ECEs observe children expressing typical sexual behaviours in early learning settings. These behaviours include self-touching, those occurring during bathroom routines and play-time, and behaviours influenced from family experiences. Varying perspectives about the purpose of sexuality education in early childhood emerged; ECEs suggested that knowledge of self, families, and being able to answer children's questions should be key areas on which to focus. Participants also discussed concerns regarding childhood sexual development. Primary concerns included parental involvement, questioning the appropriateness of sexuality education in early childhood, and the need for more professional development. Many factors affected ECEs willingness to address the development of sexuality in their practice. When asked about workplace policies that could provide guidance, one-third of ECEs did not know if a policy existed, and a further 54% stated their workplace had no policy. These findings contribute new data on ECE perceptions about preschool sexuality education in a Canadian context. The development of curriculum and policy are suggested as ways to provide systematic guidance and protocols regarding sexual and gender development. Additional training in the area of childhood sexual development is suggested to increase ECEs' knowledge and skills in guiding the development of sexuality in childhood.
Pre-and post-service sexuality training for Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) is lacking in Canadian and international contexts. The objective of this study was to assess pre-and postservice sexuality education instruction and training needs among an ECE population in Ontario, Canada. Sixty-four participants completed an online survey, which included both closed-and open-ended questions. The survey assessed ECEs': a) perceptions of the quality of addressing sexuality and gender in early learning centres; b) current level of preparation in addressing the development of sexuality; and, c) sexuality training needs. Collectively, participants identified a variety of approaches to sexuality, spoke to themes of inadequate climates to address sexuality education, and the relational characteristics ECEs felt were beneficial for addressing sexuality and gender. Participants (65.6%) recognized the everyday opportunities in which they could engage in discourses of sexuality. Nevertheless, a lack of training to address these domains was notable, with 53.2% reporting inadequate preparation in their current role as an ECE. Findings are discussed in response to a paucity of curriculum documents, which hinders professionals' ability to adopt an emergent approach to address sexuality and gender.
Learning about sexuality is an important part of development in early childhood but is not formally considered in early learning settings. This makes sexuality education for young children both rare and inconsistent across early learning settings. The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique contribution and inform the state of sexuality education in early learning settings in Canada, which is currently an understudied area. We describe the Canadian context of sexuality education in early learning settings and examine its presence in provincial and territorial early learning frameworks. We advocate for the inclusion of sexuality education in early learning settings because it can support children’s development and construction of sexuality, is a critical factor in providing children with personal safety skills and a part of child sexual abuse prevention work, and also sets the foundation for equity and social justice in teaching children about diversity as a norm. We discuss the barriers which act to exclude sexuality education in early learning settings including a lack of curriculum and policy to guide early learning professionals in addressing and supporting this domain, fear of parent reactions, and theoretical constructions of childhood innocence. We conclude with practice and policy recommendations to move the field forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed social organizations and altered children’s worlds. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study of the institutional organization of disabled children’s lives, since March 2020 we have conducted interviews with families in rural and urban communities across Canada (65 families at the time of writing). The narrow focus of governments on the economy, childcare, and schooling does not reflect the scope of experiences of families and disabled children. We describe emerging findings about what the effects of the pandemic closures demonstrate about the social valuing of childhood, disability, and diverse family lives in early childhood education and care. Our research makes the case that ableism, exclusion, and procedural bias are the products of cumulative experiences across institutional sites and that it is critical we understand disabled childhoods more broadly if we are to return to more inclusive early childhood education and care.
The purpose of this article is to contribute new insights to critical disability and disabled children’s childhood studies that center on the valuing of disabled children’s lives—a guiding purpose in the disability justice movement. We use published findings from the Inclusive Early Childhood Service System project, a longitudinal, institutional ethnography of the ways that families and children are organized around categories of disability, which show social inclusions and exclusions before and during the pandemic. These findings illuminate: (a) institutional flexibility for the purpose of social inclusion and isolation during the pandemic as a result of institutional organization; (b) the impact of institutional decisions around closures, remote programs, and support on families’ choices and self‐determination; and (3) the ways safety is differently applied and rationalized for disabled children allowing institutions to exclude disabled children and families. We use critical disability studies and disabled children’s childhood studies to interpret these findings and position the valuing of disabled children’s lives with a call for disability justice actions.
With no standardized approach to sexuality education among Canada’s 13 provinces and territories and the various curricula focusing on neurotypical and non-disabled children, educators have insufficient instruction and lack appropriate training on how to address sexuality education for children and youth with disabilities, particularly children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This article provides the current context of sexuality education for children and youth with ASD in Canadian schools and guidance for more inclusive approaches with attention to three important areas: puberty, relationships, and gender and sexual diversity. Recommendations are offered to support more inclusive approaches to sexuality education acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all approach is insufficient for children and youth with ASD. The recommendations focus on three goals: (a) moving beyond simple knowledge-based approaches to include skill-building; (b) including parents, autistic voices, and advocates in planning and ongoing conversations; and (c) providing supports for educators.
Despite sexuality education in school contexts being a highly politicized and ideologically fueled conversation, discussions of the specific needs of disabled students are often silenced, in particular for those who might be accessing special education programming. In this paper, we provide a call to action to explicate the crucial importance of addressing both ableist attitudes and constructions embedded within conversations of childhood sexuality and sexuality education, as well as policy and curriculum change to create more inclusive sexuality education approaches for disabled students and learners in Canadian provinces and territories. Many Canadian provinces do not mention disability or accommodations for disabled learners in their sexuality education curricula and all provincial curricula do not currently meet requirements set by internationally governing human rights policies. As such, this paper aims to bring to attention the different ways in which current school-based sexuality education is failing the human rights of disabled learners in Canadian schools and how sexuality education can be rethought through a social justice framework to ensure that the needs of all learners and that systems of inequality, such as ableism and heterosexism, are addressed in school contexts. Specific recommendations for policy and professional practice are provided to direct educators, policy-makers, and curriculum developers towards providing more inclusive sexuality education.
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