In Hong Kong, once a British colony, sex has traditionally been viewed as taboo and, as such, seldom talked about or openly discussed in public. As a result, there is reluctance on the part of most pre-to-secondary schools to implement sex education. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of preschool sex education in Hong Kong. One kindergarten and one childcare centre were selected for this study. Eight preschool teachers were interviewed. The findings indicated that almost all participants lacked the confidence to undertake preschool sex education because they felt that they had inadequate knowledge and skills. Interestingly, the findings showed that the unmarried participants felt embarrassed when talking about sex. Nevertheless, they were willing to take up the responsibilities of the implementation of preschool sex education if they had sufficient training.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CannoldL. (2001). Interviewing adults. In MacNaughtonG., RolfeS. A. & Siraj-BlatchfordI. (Eds.), Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (pp. 178–192). Buckingham: Open University Press.
2.
ChenJ. W. (1997). [Gender relationships: School counselling]. [Education Reform and School Counselling](Chinese text). Taiwan: Taiwan Education and Discipline Council.
3.
CohenL., ManionL., & MorrisonK. (2000). Research methods in education (fifth edn). London: Routledge.
4.
DenzinN. K., & LincolnY. S. (2000). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In DenzinN. K. & LincolnY. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd edn) (pp. 1–29). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
5.
GittinsD. (1998). The child in question.London: Macmillian.
6.
GuoB. J. (1999). [How to conduct sex education with children]. [Information in Pre-School Education] (Chinese text), 98, 17–22.
7.
HokuzawaK. (1993). [Inspiration in sex education (age 3–6) guidebook on sex education to teachers and parents](Chinese text). Taipei: Xiao-Chang Shu-Fang.
8.
LahayeT., & LahayeB. (1998). Raising sexually pure kids: How to prepare your children for the act of marriage. Portland, OR: Multnomah.
9.
LaiY. C., & LoO. L. (2004). [Sex education for young children: A case study] (Chinese text). Hong Kong Journal of Early Childhood, 3(2), 31–35.
10.
LiuX. Q. (1998). [Gender: Relationships and education](Chinese text). Taipei: Yang Zhi Wen Hua.
11.
MiaoW. Y. (2001). [Sexuality education for young children] (Chinese text). Taipei: Ching Tu Shu.
12.
Ming Po Local News (2004, 4 December). [80% of the victims of sexual abused were abused by their close relatives and friends] (Chinese text). Retrieved 5 December 2004, http://hk.news.yahoo.com/04120312/17adk.html.
PlantS. (1995). School-based sex education workshops. In MasseyD. E. (Ed.), Sex education source book: Current issues and debates (pp. 29–40). London: The Family Planning Association.
15.
PorterM. (1995). Parents and sex education. In MasseyD. E. (Ed.), Sex education source book: Current issues and debates (pp. 41–48). London: The Family Planning Association.
16.
RobinsonK. H. (2005). Childhood and sexuality: Adult constructions and silenced children. In MasonJ., & FattoreT. (Eds.), Children taken seriously: In theory, policy and practice (pp. 66–76). London: Jessica Kingsley.
17.
RoffmanD. M. (2002). But how'd I get in there in the first place? Talking to your young child about sex.Cambridge, MA: Perseus.
18.
Sing Pao Local News (2004, 8 February). [Sexual abuse case of children rises 1.5 times over the past five years: Victims puzzled if not seek help] (Chinese text). Retrieved 8 February 2004, www.singpao.com/20040208/local/511881.html.
Wen Wei Po Local News (2004, 13 May). [150 rise in sexual abuse cases of children last year] (Chinese text). Retrieved 13 May 2004, www.wenweipo.com/news.phtml?news_id=HK04051.
23.
WoodyJ. D. (2002). How can we talk about that?: Overcoming personal hang-ups so we can teach kids the right stuff about sex and morality. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
24.
ZhouY. Q. (1995). [Violence of marriage] (Chinese text). Taipei: Ju-liu Tu Shu.
