Sex Education in Schools: Implementation Problems from the Teacher's Perception

The necessity and acceptability of sex education for many years remains a controversial issue that does not have a unified solution and a right standard even in those countries, where sex education is part of the compulsory school curriculum. In Russian history, attempts to introduce a sex education course have been made several times, but the public opinion on this issue is very disputable. However, even in the absence of special training and fixed standards teachers of some school subjects face issues related to sex education in their professional practice almost every day. This research discovers what practices, strategies and problems in teaching these topics are among Russian teachers nowadays. The paper has a high-quality design and is based on data from in-depth interviews with 23 teachers from 7 regions of the European part of Russia. The sample includes biology, literature, social studies and physical education teachers, who encounter most with issues of sex education in their subject area.