In 2019, Representative Todd Lippert (DFL-Northfield) introduced the bill HF1414 aiming to set state-mandated, standardized sex education curricula in Minnesota. In particular, Lippert advocated for a move away from the traditional models of sex education, such as Abstinence-Only Until Marriage (AOUM), by proposing that a more inclusive and expansive form of sex education – Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) – be mandated across the state’s public primary and secondary schools. CSE curricula go beyond purely biological aspects of sex education by teaching the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social aspects of sexuality, including ideas of consent, sexuality, and bodily integrity. 

Having been dismissed in the Minnesota state legislature twice, HF1414 is representative of the first stepping stones to introducing standardized sex education curricula in Minnesotan public schools. Over the Summer of 2021, I worked with Professor Vanessa Voller and my partner, Alice Bruno, to take a deeper look at the barriers that primary and secondary public schools across Minnesota face in implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), as opposed to Abstinence-Only Until Marriage (AOUM) curricula. In doing so, we adopted practices from a community-based participatory approach to research by directly reaching out to superintendents and district leaders across Minnesota to center the perspectives of educators. 

My role as an assistant researcher largely consisted of creating, managing, and distributing a survey to superintendents and school leaders in MN to collect both qualitative and quantitative (in the form of Likert scale questions) data regarding the school leaders' opinions about the current curricula at their districts, whether or not they personally agreed with the implementation of CSE in their districts, and their knowledge of current legislation working to diversify and expand sexuality education in the MN state legislature. By gathering data on the complex social external actors at play, such as religious institutions, parent groups, and community institutions, a thematic analysis was performed to see if there were any common sentiments and concerns were expressed in survey responses. We found that although district leaders and educators were largely in support of CSE implementation in their districts, ideological oppositions were prevalent among religious groups and local parent groups, questioning the morality of CSE, with concerns regarding the inclusion of teaching about sexuality and LGBTQIA+ representation being particularly problematic.

Among our principal findings, many expressed concern regarding a lack of confidence in the support offered by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). From our thematic analysis, we found that educators believed that the reintroduction of an initiative to mandate a statewide CSE curriculum should include, at minimum, a solid proposed curriculum, funding for curriculum implementation and teacher training, increased efficiency in paperwork along with robust resources for streamlined methods of communication between school districts and the community. For a smooth transition into teaching CSE in public schools, legislators creating the mandate and writing legislation must make it as easy as possible for teachers and district leaders to take on such a progressive initiative – especially in locations where politically conservative constituents are prevalent. 

In short, unspecific drafted legislation, lack of administrative support from MDE, and parent pushback were among the chief barriers to CSE implementation. For our manuscript, we used R, a statistical programming language, to create visualizations of the collected data and provided analyses. Ultimately, we provided recommendations based on concerns expressed by district leaders on a short-term, midterm, and long-term basis for implementing more inclusive sexuality education for state legislators. As a student considering a career in public health, I enjoyed the fact that the scope of our research was specific to Minnesota. This kind of specificity, as opposed to broader theory-based discussions in class, was an opportunity for me to truly understand what the term “Glocal” meant through hands-on experience – it only reiterated to me that global public health is more than just studying the health systems of other countries. A study of public health that is truly global in nature warrants serving our own local communities as well.

Image Credits: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/summer-2016/the-new-sex-ed