Reflexivity in Sexual Health Pedagogy

Youth face a daunting task transitioning the ever-changing contemporary world, which often causes them to engage in self-talking. Employing sociological perspectives of critical realism, Margaret Archer used the term reflexivity to describe the process of self-talking and how it mediates between social structure and human agency or the ability to act. This reflexivity or self-talk is exercised in various ways as determined by a person’s concerns, aspirations, and nature of relationships with the social environment. In this article, we examine this perspective of reflexivity and its implications for school-based sex education. We show how reflexivity intersects with the concept of identity to provide important insights into why youth behave differently in similar social situations. Thus, we argue, there is a need to tailor sex education to students’ sexual behavior identities. It is crucial to situate contemporary sexual health pedagogy within social constructivist and critical theory perspectives because sexual behavior identities are influenced by many sociocultural constructs. The article concludes with examples of empowering sex education instructional strategies.