Yes to Sexuality Education at School: Exploring the voices of Italian Adolescents

Italy is one of the few European Union countries where the teaching of sexuality education is not included in the school curriculum, even if in the past forty years the issue has been quite discussed in the public arena. Through a qualitative research that took place with teenagers in three Italian regions, this paper aims at understanding what are their needs, views and perspectives about introducing sexuality education as a formal school subject. The voices of adolescents are indeed currently quite absent from the public discourse, even if this topic inherently concerns them. Findings reveal that the teenagers interviewed have a positive opinion on the teaching of sexuality education and that school seems the most appropriate space for it. Other spaces to talk about sexuality are lacking and whenever present they are embedded within a protective and preventive discourse. Furthermore, the research highlights strong gender categorization based on a heteronormative dominant narrative in the experiences of young people. These findings could provide an initial basis to develop a sexuality education curriculum starting from the adolescents’ opinions, preferences and lives.

Keywords: Sexuality Education, Italy, Adolescence, School