PurposeSexuality and relationships education (SRE) often do not accommodate the needs of vulnerable young people in child and youth social care, (school) social work, and residential or foster care, leaving professionals in these fields a vital role in delivering SRE to these young people. This scoping review examines what competencies professionals need to facilitate adequate guidance and education about sexuality and relationships in their work with vulnerable children and young people.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature search in five databases – PsychINFO, Eric, Medline, CINAHL and Social Services Abstracts – for articles published between 1991 and 2021 on March 6, 2021, using a set of predefined search strings. Articles on sexuality and relationship education (SRE) or sexual health, related to competencies of (future) professionals and published in English were included.ResultsOur review revealed a range of competencies that professionals may need, such as providing basic prevention, dealing with children struggling with their sexual orientation, handling disclosure of sexual abuse or dealing with problematic sexualized behavior (often combinations of the above), but also supporting young people in exploring positive aspects of relationships and sexuality.ConclusionSRE is an integral part of the work of professionals in child and youth social care. Wider organizational and educational commitment is needed for implementation of SRE to facilitate a safe environment for diverse young people.
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Over the last two decades, there has been increasing political attention on sexual abuse in care. Research has not only shown that sexual abuse in care occurs but also that abuse can be perpetrated by other children and young people in care, children of foster carers, as well as by foster carers and residential staff members. One of the main risk factors turns out to be the absence of relationship and sexuality education in care. This chapter describes the work in a three-year project where partners in four European countries developed products to educate (future) professionals to address sex and sexuality with young people in care, assist young people’s healthy sexual development, and safeguard children and young people from abuse. Grounded in the holistic approach of the WHO’s Standards for Sexuality in Europe, and based on literature review and interviews, five core competencies were developed and operationalized in a reflection instrument. Based on this, an open access (online) course for teams in care and open access materials for social work education were developed and can be found at https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429342912/ac296fd5-0ba8-4c3d-97c0-792bf07178b6/content/www.amsterdamuas.com/safe">www.amsterdamuas.com/safe.
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Teachers can play an important role in students’ healthy relational and sexual development. You can pay attention to this subject with specifically designed lessons. But it’s even more important to address relational and sexual development within the general curriculum, whenever the topic comes up in class. Discussing about sexuality is not always easy. This document provides practical tips for teachers for discussing sexuality in the classroom. This overview is based on the Dutch report 'Seksualiteit bespreken in de klas, hoe doe je dat?'
The project Decolonising Education: from Teachers to Leading Learners (DETeLL) aims to develop a multi-site approach for interventions towards inclusion and decolonisation in order to change the hierarchical nature of higher education in the Netherlands. DETeLL identifies the model of the ‘traditional teacher’ as embodying the structural exclusions and discriminations built into the classroom and proposes the figure of a ‘Leading Learner’ as a first step towards a radical change in the educational system. In collaboration with the education departments in the Theatre and Dance Academy at ArtEZ, the post-doc will build up a research and teaching programme that engages with students and teachers in the faculty to create a prototype of an inclusive and diverse educational practice. RELEVANCE: Education should be the critical space in which changes occur in order to shape best possible futures. In DETeLL’s acceptation, decolonisation refers to a complete change in the way of thinking and behaving. It does not refer only to the urgency of dealing with historical colonial legacies embedded in society, but also to the subversion of the deeply oppressive colonial culture that (also unconsciously) regulates public and private living, whether this is related to gender, race, class or sexuality issues. RESULTS: 1) Create a theory and practice-based scientific base-line of decolonisation and art education; 2) Provide a definition of ‘Artist educator as Leading Learner’ following a practice- based methodology of intervention; 3) Design and Pilot a new teaching programme for theatre education at ArtEZ to be then upscaled to all educational departments in a follow-up project); 4) Produce a strong interdisciplinary and international output plan: 3 academic publications, 2 conferences, 4 expert group workshops. NETWORK: ArtEZ; University of Amsterdam (UvA); Ghent University; UCHRI; Hildesheim University; Cape Town University. The partners will serve as steering committee through planned expert group meetings.
