More Than Misinformation: The Emotional Stakes of Debates Over Ontario's Sex Education Curriculum

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-3 - Rethinking Democracy Within and Across

Abstract

Three years after a contentious new sexual health education curriculum was introduced in schools in Ontario, Canada, a new provincial government is reversing the changes to the curriculum and debates over sex education have erupted in the province once again. Using a psychosocial approach to analyzing the media coverage of the many iterations of the controversy, beginning in 2010 and continuing into 2018, I challenge the notion that many objections to the 2015 curriculum could be addressed by correcting misconceptions about its content or the process of its development. Rather, my analysis highlights the emotional stakes of the controversy, with a view to better understanding how these stakes affect the processes and outcomes of educational policy change in this case.

Author

• Lauren Jervis, York University