Sexuality education at the itinerant school of MST: students’ perceptions

Abstract

Sexuality education should be understood as a educational intervention process aimed at imparting knowledge and discussing issues related to sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, sexual rights, gender relations, sexual diversity, and sexual and affective desire. Nevertheless, many paradigms hinder such education at school. However, since the itinerant school of Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST – Landless Rural Workers’ Movement) is an educational school based on Paulo Freire’s assumptions, do the same taboos, social interdictions, and prejudice have an effect on sexuality education in this setting? This descriptive and qualitative study has aimed to answer this question. It was developed with eighteen students from the itinerant school of MST in Paraná state, and it sought to present their perceptions on sexuality education at school. Based on the material produced in focal group meetings and on field diary notes, which were ordered by categorical analysis, it is possible to conclude that sexuality education at the itinerant school is conducted in a medicalized and biologized way, emphasizing the health-disease binomial, and that there is not transversality between sexuality teaching and the other disciplines. Thus, even though this school uses Paulo Freire’s theoretical and methodological contribution, it has proved to be paradoxical when dealing with sexuality education.