Sexual education in Brazil: a comparison of national policies with UNESCO’s guidelines

• In Event: Difference and the Politics of Representation

Proposal

Introduction
The topic of sexuality is generally fraught with confusion, likened to something dangerous or sinful, and considered taboo across many cultures. While there is significant evidence that Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) yields positive outcomes, there is a lack of access to CSE for children and adolescents around the world. CSE has been found to help prevent sexual violence, gender-based violence, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as improve gender equality and sexual and reproductive health outcomes (Braeken and Cardinal 2008; Santelli et al. 2018; Schneider and Hirsch 2020; UNESCO 2015).
CSE promotion is a matter of respect for human rights and public health (Haberland and Rogow 2015; UNESCO 2021). The United Nations (UN) advocates for the implementation of CSE in all countries, working with governments and partners to develop policies on CSE both in and out of schools (Panchaud et al. 2019; UNFPA 2014). However, despite the increasing international awareness of the value of CSE, there has been uneven progress toward mainstreaming CSE into curricula and public policy in different countries (Braeken and Cardinal 2008; Ketting, Brockschmidt, and Ivanova 2020; Parker, Wellings, and Lazarus 2009).
Limited research has examined the development and implementation of CSE across different countries. In Latin America, there is significant heterogeneity among the countries, with many presenting misalignments with the CSE approach (Velis 2010). Particularly in Brazil, there is no such research to date using a comparative lens. Brazil is also an important case due to the high rates of gender inequality and gender-based violence, and the growth of conservative movements in the country. In this paper, I analyze Brazil’s national public policies for sexual education (SE), comparing them with UNESCO’s guidelines for CSE.

Data and methods
I use qualitative document analysis as a strategy of inquiry to conduct a comparative case study of SE topics in education policy documents from Brazil and UNESCO. I identified the most relevant current national policies in Brazil related to school curricula, teacher education, and international guidelines on SE. As for my analysis of SE at the global level, I selected the most recent version of UNESCO's publication on the International Guidelines on Sexuality Education (UNESCO 2018). After the document collection, five specialists in education and public policy in Brazil confirmed the suitability of the selected documents in the context of my research. In total, I examine six Brazilian national policy documents and one UNESCO document. I used a combination of inductive and deductive coding to identify SE topics and the underlying context and meaning.
For this study, I draw on world society theory (Meyer et al. 1997), decolonial and transnational feminist theories (Mohanty 1984, 2003), and queer theory (Butler 1990; De Lauretis 1991; Sedgwick 1990) in the context of conservative and illiberal tendencies (Lerch et al. 2022). These theories guided my coding process and helped me organize the findings into categories. I argue that public policies on SE are built in a complex process of powers: national models of SE may be influenced in a progressive direction by international guidelines (especially the UN’s) and feminist and queer movements (national and international), and they may also be influenced in the opposite direction by conservative tendencies.
To explore the current landscape of SE in Brazil, I pose the following research questions: 1) What is the state of SE in Brazil? 2) How is Brazil’s SE aligned with global education agencies? 3) To what extent does the content of these documents reflect: a) Themes from feminist and queer movements? b) Ideas from conservative movements?

Findings, discussion, and conclusion
The findings highlight the low degree of alignment of Brazil’s public policies on SE with UNESCO guidelines, the differences among some states, the influence of local progressive movements, the impact of conservative waves in the last years, and the non-prohibiting but also non-mandatory factor of SE in Brazil.
The study reveals that only one national policy (PCN 1997; 1998) is aligned with the CSE concept, addressing all aspects of sexuality, and it presents more progressive topics than UNESCO’s guidelines. The PCN's progressive approach can be attributed to local progressive movements, including Brazilian feminist and LGBT movements in the 1990s (Bueno and Ribeiro 2018; Pereira 2016; Sfair, Bittar, and Lopes 2015; Vianna 2015), and the influence of international support from foundations aiming to promote sexual rights and education (Carvalho and Carrara 2013; Pereira 2016).
In contrast, Brazil's common core policy (BNCC 2018) takes a conservative approach to SE, only covering limited topics (pregnancy and STIs) and restricted to the eighth grade, which leaves young individuals uninformed and vulnerable to unreliable sources (Figueiró 2009; Santelli et al. 2018). In addition, the teacher training policies (BNC-Formação 2019; 2020) and the national education plan (PNE 2014) are the documents with an absence (or near absence) of direct SE themes. This aligns with debates on the influence of neo-Pentecostal evangelical religions on reactionary thought and action in Brazil, especially from the 2010s (Mello et al. 2012; Pereira 2016) and with discussions about global illiberal tendencies affecting the world society (Lerch et al. 2022).
The research also indicates that all documents, even those with a conservative approach or an absence of SE themes, present SE-related or adjacent topics such as citizenship, human rights, and plurality. While this lack of explicit focus on SE does not legally prevent schools or cities from implementing SE, it also does not create an obligation to do so.
Moreover, the analysis suggests that the political ideology of each state in Brazil can influence the development and implementation of the curriculum, leading to variations in the approach to SE. Advocacy efforts by local communities and cultural and social dynamics also play a role in shaping the SE curriculum within each state.
In terms of policy recommendations, this study calls for a more concerted effort to develop and implement clear, comprehensive, and inclusive public policies on CSE, empowering educators and ensuring the provision of accurate and age-appropriate information to children and adolescents of all ages.

Author

• Natalia Ruiz de Oliveira, Stanford University