Sexuality Education: A battleground of ideologies in Panama

Abstract

In the last couple of years, there have been a series of attempts to include the teaching of sexuality education in Panama. Each time, efforts to establish a policy or a programme in comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) have generated debate and faced strong opposition from religious and pro-family groups, whose crusades have successfully prevented the approval and acceptance of CSE in Panama. In turn, the proposal of abstinence-focused sexuality programmes has received similar backlash from civil society organisations (CSOs), human rights and feminist activists, thus, creating a rift between proponents of CSE and proponents of abstinence programmes. This research aims to understand the narratives of such groups and their influence on public opinion. Although there is extensive research on the opinion of the public around sex education and the debates supporting and opposing sex education, to the best of my knowledge, no other studies are focusing on the influence of narratives on sexuality education in the opinion of the public. By using the lenses of symbolic interactionism and the narrative policy framework, this work represents an innovative addition to the growing literature on sexuality education and narrative policy analysis. Following a mixed-methods methodology composed by explorative interviews, document analysis, and a survey, this research demonstrates that both narratives rely on protecting human integrity and ensure the wellbeing of children, youth, and families, showing similar values around the narratives. Nevertheless, when it comes to content, profound discrepancies arise among groups, creating a polarising debate. To measure and evaluate how these narratives can affect public perception against or in favour of sexual education policies, I conducted a survey with university students. After a series of demographic questions, students were subjected to a narrative treatment, in which randomly, respondents were shown a video with the narrative of a person supportive of CSE or a video showing a person with an abstinence-based narrative. By calculating the mean difference among groups, findings imply that people subjected to CSE narratives changed their opinion and are keen to support the teaching of CSE. In contrast, those exposed to an abstinence-based video are polarised while some agreed with abstinence-based teachings, while others rejected this narrative and called for the teaching of CSE. This research makes noticeable the need for improved understanding between Panamanian political actors and a deeper comprehension of what CSE entails. Because of how sexuality education is approached, this work illustrates how the country faces several problems that affect the realisation of human rights, which CSE can tackle. Based on this reflection, I finish this research by 1) bestowing insights on why CSE should be implemented in Panama and 2) proposing policy recommendations for enhancing the Panamanian sexuality education teachings.