Picture that: supporting sexuality educators in narrowing the knowledge/practice gap

Teaching about sex and relationships is one of the greatest challenges in not only the combating of HIV and AIDS, but also in preparing the youth for responsible sexual behaviour. Although it seems as if teachers to some extent do feel comfortable with the teaching of sexuality education at school, the question however remains as to whether youth get the information they require. In this article, I present drawings produced by teacher participants in order to investigate the beliefs that teachers hold regarding young people's needs from sexuality education. As a result of the findings from this study, I will argue that teachers do have a sound knowledge of what contributes to promiscuous sexual behaviour and what is required to narrow the knowledge/practice gap, as discussed by Allen (2001), but they still want to teach what they find acceptable. I will attempt to interrogate the knowledge/practice gap from the 'other side' - what do teachers base their beliefs on when deciding what content is appropriate to teach in sexuality education and their understanding with regard to what youth require from sexuality education in the classroom.