2 studies examined middle- and lower-class Brazilian children's concepts of personal choice and social regulation. In Study 1, interviews of 40 middle- and lower-class children (9 and 15 years old) revealed that children across classes distinguished moral from conventional issues on the bases of rule contingency and act generalizability criteria. Lower-class children, however, were less likely to view conventions as rule contingent and more likely to generalize conventional acts. In Study 2, interviews of 240 middle- and lower-class children (ages 8, 12, 16 years) found that across classes, children distinguished prudential issues from matters they treated as personal. Prudential issues were seen as subject to parental authority. Middle-class children were more likely to treat personal issues as matters of choice. With age, lower-class children increasingly tended to treat personal items as matters of choice, and by adolescence there were no class differences. Findings show that Brazilian children maintain a heterogeneous orientation to rules and authority which includes a domain of personal choice. Class differences indicate that hierarchical social structures affect children's sense of autonomy. However, developmental effects indicate that a domain of personal choice emerges among children across social classes.

2 studies examined middle- and lower-class Brazilian children's concepts of personal choice and social regulation. In Study 1, interviews of 40 middle- and lower-class children (9 and 15 years old) revealed that children across classes distinguished moral from conventional issues on the bases of rule contingency and act generalizability criteria. Lower-class children, however, were less likely to view conventions as rule contingent and more likely to generalize conventional acts. In Study 2, interviews of 240 middle- and lower-class children (ages 8, 12, 16 years) found that across classes, children distinguished prudential issues from matters they treated as personal. Prudential issues were seen as subject to parental authority. Middle-class children were more likely to treat personal issues as matters of choice. With age, lower-class children increasingly tended to treat personal items as matters of choice, and by adolescence there were no class differences. Findings show that Brazilian children maintain a heterogeneous orientation to rules and authority which includes a domain of personal choice. Class differences indicate that hierarchical social structures affect children's sense of autonomy. However, developmental effects indicate that a domain of personal choice emerges among children across social classes.

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul _______________________________________________________ RESUMO: Este estudo tem por objetivo investigar inovações nas práticas de ensino-aprendizagem, que atentem para a questão da Orientação Sexual. Para isso, procuramos oferecer à instituição escolar formas significativamente contextualizadas e interdisciplinares de se trabalhar as questões acerca da sexualidade. Este estudo apresenta duas etapas investigativas: uma qualitativa e uma experimental. Participaram da pesquisa 25 alunos de 7 a série (ambos os sexos), de uma escola privada de Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Os resultados sugerem que através de uma abordagem adequada, a escola torna-se um ambiente imprescindível para a construção de valores pertinentes a uma educação sexual que possibilite aos jovens escolhas conscientes no que se refere à atividade sexual e à prevenção de doenças sexualmente transmissíveis. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Adolescência, Sexualidade, Interdisciplinaridade, Temas Transversais NEW CURRICULUM PARAMETERS OF BRAZILIAN SCHOOLS AND SEXUAL EDUCATION: NA INTERVENTION PROPOSAL IN SCIENCESABSTRACT:The purpose of this study was to describe and to justify the importance of innovative practices in the teaching and learning process related to sexual education. In order to accomplish this goal, we offered interdisciplinary ways to deal with the questions about sexuality in our schools. This investigation presents a quali-quanti design which is and ethnographic description and an experiment consecutively. the subjects' participants were twenty-five students enrolled on the "7th grade" (junior high) of a private school of Porto Alegre, Brasil. The results depicted students' reflection and discussion in depth about the issues, allowing us to suggest that the school is a very important setting for achieving contextualized sex education through crosswise and interdisciplinary

Este artigo apresenta resultados parciais de uma análise de conteúdo realizada a partir de sessões em grupo, envolvendo adolescentes, em um ambulatório de saúde pública na cidade de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Nosso objetivo foi investigar adolescentes que vivem em uma comunidade de periferia, situando seus processos psicológicos de antecipação quanto às possibilidades de engravidar. A coleta de dados consistiu em “versos de rap” escritos pelas adolescentes participantes em 10 sessões terapêuticas de grupo, bem como fragmentos de um manual técnico e educacional relativo à saúde sexual e reprodutiva, o qual constitui ferramenta de trabalho na Saúde Pública. As categorias emergentes da análise de conteúdo revelaram a inadequação e a distância entre a linguagem e a cultura das adolescentes e os conteúdos desses manuais, implementados como instrutivos e educacionais. Enfatizamos, ainda, os aspectos subjetivos e inconscientes que envolvem a procriação humana, sugerindo o neologismo “engravidamento” como um processo psíquico na adolescência.