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Culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents: a study of Black sexuality educators

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Culturally Relevant Sex Education for Black Adolescents:
A Study of Black Sexuality Educators
by
Gregory Charles Carrow-Boyd

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

August 2022

© Copyright by Gregory Charles Carrow-Boyd 2022
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Gregory Charles Carrow-Boyd certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Eunice Humphrey
Rufus Tony Spann
Don Trahan
Marsha Boveja Riggio, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2022
iv

Abstract
The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine the lived experience of
Black sexuality educators teaching Black adolescents. The target population was adult (18+)
Black sexuality educators who live in the USA who have taught sex education to Black
adolescents for at least 1 year. The accessible population was seven adult (18+) Black sexuality
educators who live in the USA and who have taught sex education to Black adolescents for at
least 1 year.
The quantitative sample (n = 7) was too small to draw conclusions about teaching efficacy.
However, an administration of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) revealed patterns
that support the need for additional research on Black sexuality educators’ perceptions of
teaching efficacy. Frequency data also clarified the respondents’ preference for using social
learning theories as an approach to culturally relevant pedagogy for Black adolescents.
Five of the seven respondents in the quantitative sample also agreed to participate in follow-up
interviews. Interviews with five Black femme sexuality educators highlighted the importance of
connection, trustworthiness, understanding of Black popular culture, and centering pleasure as
components of culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents. These findings were
consistent with the existing literature on the known and unmet sex education needs of Black
adolescents as well as the literature on culturally relevant pedagogy.
The current study suggests the need to expand the definition of comprehensive sex education to
include centering pleasure. The findings also urge the development of tools for sexuality
educators to reflect on how their race–ethnicity impacts their teaching and the use of culturally
relevant examples and activities when teaching Black adolescents sex education. Future research
should examine the meaning of “pleasure” for Black sexuality educators.
v

Dedication (Thank You Fam!)
There are no tasks in life that I have completed without a community a support. While these
acknowledgements are brief, the scope of care and encouragement that I have received from
those named and unnamed is nothing short of extraordinary. Thank you, Fam!

To my mother, grandmother, extended family of blood and of bond, and to all those who gave us
life, thank you for always believing in me and encouraging me to be the answer to our ancestors’
wildest dreams. This is only the beginning.

To Perdeta, I love you. There are more things than a dissertation I would have failed to complete
without your unwavering love, kindness, and reality checks. We finish together.

To all the cohorts of brilliant scholars I’ve studied with over these many years at Penn State,
Pepperdine, and USC, I am so grateful for the knowledge and wisdom you have shared. You are
some of the most inspiring educators, thinkers, and stewards of community I have ever met. I
especially lift the names of Janelle, Jen, Jamie, and Jovanny who checked in at critical points that
made this work possible.

To the Trouts and Trout Spouses, GroupText and Spouses, Rosara, and Helen, thank you for
holding me in all my complexity. These years were hard for me and you helped me through.
vi

Acknowledgements
I give special thanks to the staff of the Dissertation Support Center at USC Rossier
School of Education. Your constant encouragement, quick turnaround, and genuine interest in
my topic helped me to write quickly and well. Thank you, Sierra, Ilda, and Christopher, for the
time and energy you put into my writing process: I always felt like a priority.
Thank you, Vicki, Rick, and Rhoda, for helping me learn how to read and write so that
world my might benefit from what I have to say. Cindi, Kathy, and Mary Pat, I also thank you
for showing me early in life the connections between and among art, coding, and the scientific
method. I have become the social scientist I am today because of how all of you nurtured my
creativity and desire to learn.
And finally, I offer deep gratitude to my committee. We did this! I am a better and more
thorough scholar because of your guidance. Thank you for helping me bring more Black joy into
the world!
vii

Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv
Dedication (Thank You Fam!) ........................................................................................................ v
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ xi
List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... xii
Chapter One: Overview of the Study .............................................................................................. 1
Studying Absent Voices ...................................................................................................... 2
Social Location and Purposeful Sampling .......................................................................... 2
Background of the Problem ................................................................................................ 3
Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................... 4
Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................... 4
Significance of the Study .................................................................................................... 7
Definition of Terms............................................................................................................. 7
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations ................................................................... 14
Positionality and Social Location ..................................................................................... 15
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 16
Organization of the Study ................................................................................................. 17
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature ........................................................................................ 18
Search Description ............................................................................................................ 18
Theory of Change ............................................................................................................. 19
Theoretical Frameworks ................................................................................................... 20
Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................................... 28
Literature Relevant to Black Adolescent Sex Education .................................................. 29

Summary ........................................................................................................................... 39
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 40
Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................................ 41
Research Design................................................................................................................ 42
Research Questions and Hypothesis ................................................................................. 44
Participants ........................................................................................................................ 45
Population and Sample ..................................................................................................... 46
Instrumentation ................................................................................................................. 49
Data Collection ................................................................................................................. 54
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 56
Thematic Analysis ............................................................................................................ 57
Inferential Analysis ........................................................................................................... 58
Reliability, Dependability, and Confirmability ................................................................ 60
Validity, Credibility, and Transferability.......................................................................... 62
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 63
Chapter Four: Findings ................................................................................................................. 65
Research Question 1: Do Black Sexuality Educators Who Incorporate Learning
Theory and Culturally Relevant Frameworks for Sex Education Design in Their
Practice With Black Adolescents Have a Higher Sense of Teaching Efficacy? ............... 68
Research Question 2: What Is the Lived Experience of Black Sexuality Educators
in Providing Culturally Relevant Sex Education to Black Adolescents? ......................... 69
Research Question 3: Which Learning Theories Do Black Sexuality Educators
Use in Their Practice? ....................................................................................................... 75
Research Question 4: Which Culturally Relevant Frameworks Do Black Sexuality
Educators Use in Their Practice? ...................................................................................... 79
Research Question 5: Which Sex Education Design Do Black Sexuality Educators
Use in Their Practice? ....................................................................................................... 82

Research Question 6: How Do Black Sexuality Educators Understand Black
Adolescents in Their Practice?.......................................................................................... 85
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 87
Chapter Five: Discussion .............................................................................................................. 88
Discussion of Findings ...................................................................................................... 88
Recommendations for Practice ......................................................................................... 90
Recommendation 1: Include “Pleasure-Based” as a Component of the Definition
of Comprehensive Sex Education ..................................................................................... 90
Recommendation 2: Develop Tools for Sexuality Educators to Consider How
Their Race–Ethnicity Impacts the Learning of Black Adolescents .................................. 91
Recommendation 3: Use Culturally Relevant Examples in Sex Education
Curricula for Black Adolescents ....................................................................................... 92
Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................................ 92
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 93
References ..................................................................................................................................... 95
Figures......................................................................................................................................... 114
Appendix A: Informed Consent .................................................................................................. 116
Appendix B: Demographic Survey and Screener ....................................................................... 121
Appendix C: Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Short Form) .................................................. 124
Appendix D: Semistructured Interview Questions ..................................................................... 126
Appendix E: Document Analysis Rubric .................................................................................... 128
Appendix F: Transcripts ............................................................................................................. 130

x

List of Tables
Table 1: Recommendations for Effective Sex Education Program Designs for Black
Adolescents ................................................................................................................................... 39
Table 2: Research Questions and Instrumentation for Inquiry Grid ............................................. 49
Table 3: Demographic Attributes of TSES Respondents .............................................................. 66
Table 4: Demographic Attributes of Interview Participants.......................................................... 68
Table 5: Theories Black Sexuality Educators Use in Teaching Black Adolescents Sex
Education ...................................................................................................................................... 76

xi

List of Figures
Figure 1: Black Sexuality Educator Efficacy ................................................................................ 28
Figure 2: Black Sexuality Educator Average Rating of Efficacy in Student Engagement ..........114
Figure 3: Black Sexuality Educator Average Rating of Efficacy in Instructional Strategies ......115
Figure 4: Black Sexuality Educator Average Rating of Efficacy in Classroom Management ....115
Figure A1: Information Sheet ......................................................................................................116
Figure A2: Consent Quiz .............................................................................................................119
Figure B1: Demographic Survey and Screener Questionnaire Overview .................................. 121
Figure C1: Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Short Form) ...................................................... 125

xii

List of Abbreviations
AASECT American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists

ABSC Association of Black Sexologists and Clinicians

AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

BIPOC Black, Indigenous, and people of color

CDC U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CRT Critical race theory

HIV Human immunodeficiency virus

IPV Intimate partner violence

MSM Men who have sex with men

OSTES Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale

PII Personally identifiable information

PLISSIT Permission, limited information, specific suggestions, intensive
therapy

STI Sexually transmissible infection

TSES Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale

USC University of Southern California

YBMSM Young Black men who have sex with men

1

Chapter One: Overview of the Study
Sex education (see Definition of Terms) in the United States of America (USA) has long
been a fraught issue, as religious and moral frameworks compete with studies of program
effectiveness to shape state and federal law on what can and cannot be included in the curriculum
(Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016). Adding to the issue are the patchwork of state laws that impact
certain demographics more than others based on geography, socioeconomic status, and the
ability to supplement education with sources outside of the approved curriculum (Chen &
Barrington, 2017; Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Parasuraman & Shi, 2015). This reality is
especially true for Black American adolescents (see Definition of Terms) in the South of the
USA (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016).
The majority of Black Americans (see Definition of Terms) live in the Southern USA,
where the state curricular standards are more likely to mandate abstinence-only sex education or
maintain that remaining abstinent until marriage should be the focus of the program (see
Definition of Terms; Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). While
abstinence is the only 100% effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually
transmissible infection (STI) spread, abstinence-only programs are not grounded in science and
have been shown to be less effective at achieving their goals than comprehensive sex education
programs (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016). Due to this relationship between the
prevalence of abstinence-only sex education in the Southern USA and the substantial proportion
of Black Americans who live there, sex education in the USA may fail to meet the needs of
Black American adolescents.
2

Studying Absent Voices
In this mixed methods study, Black American adolescents are a silent partner more than
the focus of inquiry. While there is much that we could learn from the direct observation and
questioning of Black American adolescents and their sex education needs, several studies have
already undertaken this task (Bond et al., 2018; Brawner et al., 2016; Cooper & Watson, 2015;
Dalmida et al., 2018; Harper et al., 2019; Miller & Broman, 2016; Mincey & Norris, 2014;
Woodson & Carter Andrews, 2017). Thus, as a researcher, I am left with the question of why,
despite studies that offer significant and practicable recommendations, we still witness increased
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rates, teen pregnancy, and teen parenting rates among
Black American adolescents (Crosby et al., 2017; Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016;
Reed et al., 2015). To answer this question, it makes more sense to study sexuality educators (see
Definition of Terms) and determine which, if any, of the recommended practices they are
incorporating and how they are going about doing so. In this way, Black American adolescents
are always at the center and remain the primary focus of this investigation, even while it is the
sexuality educators who work with them that provide the data for the analysis.
Social Location and Purposeful Sampling
This study, further, turns to Black sexuality educators to investigate the power of
incorporating culturally relevant sex education methodologies (see Definition of Terms) into
working with Black American adolescents. Several studies indicate that respecting learner
preferences for who teaches them sex education improve learning outcomes (Dancy et al., 2019;
Koepsel, 2016; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018). These findings imply that there is something
important about the characteristics of the sexuality educator, the relationship between the
sexuality educator and the learner, or both elements of instructional design. Thus, this study
3

focuses on Black sexuality educators’ feelings of self-efficacy and their meaning making process
in using culturally relevant sex education methodologies with Black American adolescents. What
is special about the role Black sexuality educators working with Black American adolescents
might be ultimately unknowable, but the literature on the topic indicates more study is necessary
in this domain.
Background of the Problem
Black American adolescents and young adults continue to experience higher rates of
HIV, sexually transmissible infections (STI) spread, teen pregnancy and teen parenting, despite
improvements in the design and delivery of comprehensive sex education (Crosby et al., 2017;
Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016; Reed et al., 2015). Although access to quality
comprehensive sex education programs (see Definition of Terms) provides a partial explanation
for this disparity, these outcomes remain true when program delivery is tailored to meet Black
American adolescents in community and/or in online workshops (Chen & Barrington, 2017;
Reed et al., 2015). Further, many of the sex education needs of Black American adolescents are
already known to research but curricula specifically designed to respond to the needs of this
group seem to remain absent.
In recent years, several studies have detailed innovative strategies for working with Black
American adolescents, specifically young Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) and
young Black women (see Definition of Terms; Best et al., 2014; Bond et al., 2018; Chen &
Barrington, 2017; Reed et al., 2015). These strategies reveal the development of a corpus of
culturally relevant sex education methodologies for working with Black American adolescents.
Determining whether and how widely these methodologies have been adopted by sexuality
educators generally is as important as investigating how Black sexuality educators are
4

negotiating using these techniques in their own practice of education. Finding out more
information about the distribution of culturally relevant sex education techniques can help to
address the intractable problem of creating effective sex education (see Definition of Terms) for
Black American adolescents.
Statement of the Problem
There seems to be a lack of effective sex education curricula for Black adolescents in the
USA. Some studies suggest that existing sex education curricula fail both to address the sexual
health needs of Black adolescents and to help them develop the appropriate research skills to find
accurate sexual health information for their needs (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Rennis et al.,
2015). Similarly, Parasuraman and Shi (2015) indicate that school-based health centers see an
increase in Black adolescents who require treatment for illnesses that are otherwise preventable
as a result of ineffective sex education programs. Further, when curricula fail to meet their sexual
health needs, Black male adolescents, in particular, have a higher risk of becoming HIV-positive
(Martos et al., 2016a). All the evidence above provides a solid rationale for investigating the
problem of effective sex education for Black adolescents.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this mixed methods study is to learn about the lived experience of Black
sexuality educators providing culturally relevant sex education to Black adolescents. I
investigated this site of knowledge through a sequential quantitative and then qualitative research
design. The quantitative phase of the study examines feelings of self-efficacy related to using
culturally relevant methodologies with Black adolescents, while the qualitative phase more
narrowly examines desires and rationales for using these methodologies. Research questions and
the hypothesis for the quantitative phase of the study follow this brief overview.
5

This study uses Black queer theories (Boggs, 2000; Ferguson, 2004; Tinsley, 2008;
Walcott, 2005) as the primary theoretical lens for analysis. Black queer theories are a body of
critical theories, meaning that they examine and critique the use of power over and by the
communities under investigation (Wodak & Meyer, 2008). The theories incorporates elements of
critical race theory (CRT; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) but extends the analysis beyond the
explanation of how society is structured around racist oppression to specifically ask how Black
queer and Black and queer communities benefit or suffer from policies, practices, or institutional
perspectives (Cohen, 1997; Darieck, 2010; Lorde, 1984).
The study also uses self-efficacy, a subcomponent of motivational theory, to examine
decision making around using culturally relevant sex education methodologies with Black
adolescents. Self-efficacy functions through four pathways: verbal or social persuasion, enactive
mastery or mastery experiences, social modeling, and emotional and physiological states
(Bandura, 2000; Bandura et al., 1996; Milner & Hoy, 2003; Schunk & Usher, 2019; Tai, 2006).
These pathways can all lead to increased or decreased motivation for attempting a behavior
(Harper et al., 2019; Milner & Hoy, 2003; Schunk & Usher, 2019). Further, self-efficacy is
domain-specific, meaning a feeling of self-efficacy in one area of teaching might not promote
self-efficacy in another area (Milner & Hoy, 2003; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).
This study seeks to determine if selecting culturally relevant sex education methodologies
promotes self-efficacy for teaching sex education to Black adolescents among Black sexuality
educators.
Research Questions and Hypothesis
There are two primary research questions. The quantitative phase of the study tested a
hypothesis based on the first research question and the qualitative phase contains four sub-
6

questions that assisted in answering the second research question. This study sought to answer
the following research questions:
1. Do Black sexuality educators who incorporate learning theory and culturally relevant
frameworks for sex education design in their practice with Black adolescents have a
higher sense of teaching efficacy?
2. What is the lived experience of Black sexuality educators in providing culturally
relevant sex education to Black adolescents?
3. Which learning theories do Black sexuality educators use in their practice?
4. Which culturally relevant frameworks do Black sexuality educators use in their
practice?
5. Which sex education designs do Black sexuality educators use in their practice?
6. How do Black sexuality educators understand Black adolescents in their practice?
Hypothesis
This study had one directional hypothesis that examined self-efficacy among Black
sexuality educators who choose culturally relevant sex education methodologies when working
with Black adolescents. I utilized the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) and
compared it to a demographic survey that study participants completed as part of the quantitative
phase to test the hypothesis. The inferential analysis of this hypothesis was intended to use an
analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine if the data provided any predictions about
differences in teaching efficacy (applied self-efficacy) for sex education with Black adolescents
based on choice of methodology (culturally relevant or not). Hypothesis 1 follows: Black
sexuality educators who incorporate a learning theory and culturally relevant framework for sex
7

education design in their practice with Black adolescents will have a high level of teaching
efficacy as measured by the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale.
Significance of the Study
This study will increase knowledge about the factors that drive educational decision
making relative to culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents. In particular, the study
will help us learn more about how and why Black sexuality educators choose culturally relevant
frameworks. This study will also add to the growing body of research into educator self-efficacy:
knowing the motivational factors at play when determining how to meet the sex education needs
of Black adolescents could reveal how to increase behaviors that make educators successful at
meeting these needs.
Black adolescents will also benefit from this study. While many studies examine what
works when educating Black adolescents about sex and sexuality, ultimately sexuality educators
and the curricula they use implement the recommended interventions. Understanding the
meaning making process and feelings of self-efficacy that drive decisions about how to teach
Black adolescents may lead to more effective and consistent ways of meeting the sex education
needs of this group.
Definition of Terms
Several definitions that are foundational to this study follow in this section. Some
definitions are easy to standardize. However, many definitions require a bit more discussion to
address the nuance and multiple perspectives that inform social constructs and socially
constructed terms. Wherever possible, I have attempted to limit definitions to less than a
paragraph.
8

Abstinence-Only Sex Education
Abstinence-only programs promote waiting until marriage to have sex. They are not
based on research-based practices (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016).
Adolescent
A person 11–19 years of age (Herrman et al., 2017) (see also teen/teenager).
Black
To define Blackness is a difficult task because any definition of Black must address the
dynamic tensions of how Blackness exists in a binary opposition to Whiteness, how one
understands culture, how members of a racial–ethnic group understand features that differentiate
them from other groups, as well as who has membership in the group over time (Hall, 2009;
hooks, 2009; Kakavá, 2001; Magubane, 2001; Scollon & Scollon, 2001; van Dijk, 2001). For
this study, I will use discursive definitions of culture and identity as a way of understanding
Blackness. A discursive definition of culture—as opposed to an anthropological/sociological
one—highlights meaning making processes (Hall, 2013a). Further, I will use the terms “race–
ethnicity” and “racial–ethnic” to reinforce that race is not a biological reality but rather a human
construction.
Culture and Identity
Clues to how the culture of a racial–ethnic group functions surface through a conflict or
need to navigate meaning among two or more members of different racial–ethnic groups
(Kakavá, 2001; Scollon & Scollon, 2001). In this same way, the identity of a specific member of
a racial–ethnic group emerges when there is a power imbalance in the navigation of meaning
(Scollon & Scollon, 2001; van Dijk, 2001). Thus, the role of culture and identity in discourses of
race–ethnicity is to provide specific tools for accessing power individually or collectively in
9

order to determine which narratives about a racial–ethnic group become dominant (Richardson,
2007; van Dijk, 2001).
Black Culture
Because culture and identity, in a discursive sense, only exist when there is a meaning
making disconnect, there can be no fixed understandings of Blackness or of Black culture (Hall,
2009; hooks, 2009; Kakavá, 2001; Magubane, 2001; Scollon & Scollon, 2001; van Dijk, 2001).
Blackness and Black culture evidence themselves in specific negotiations for power and in given
ways of discussing race–ethnicity that demonstrate the relationship of an individual or group to
Black identity. hooks (2009) adds that the space of Blackness is a place “to do intellectual work
that connects with habits of being, forms of artistic expression, and aesthetics that inform the
daily life of writers and scholars as well as a mass population” (p. 394). For these reasons, a
functional definition of Blackness that addresses how one might experience and recognize Black
culture and identity through interaction with Black peoples is preferable to a descriptive
definition, which will always be limited in scope because it is fixed.
U.S. Census Bureau Definition
Fixed descriptive definitions of Blackness, nonetheless, allow comparability across
research studies. While I will continue to discuss Blackness more expansively, it is necessary to
understand how the literature and even databases address what Black means. Many of the studies
I found and the databases I used to find them reference the U.S. Census Bureau. Remaining
unchanged for more than 20 years, the U.S. Census Bureau (2012) defines Black or African
American as, “A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes
people who indicate their race as ‘Black, African Am., or Negro’ or report entries such as
African American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian” (p. B-7).
10

Blackness as a Site of Multiplicity
Although this paper would require a more expansive exploration than is its focus to
differentiate fully among the terms “Hispanic” and “Latinx”/”Latina”/”Latino”, some quick
distinctions follow. First, in the USA, the terms “Hispanic” and “Latinx”/”Latina”/”Latino” are
not defined as unique racial–ethnic identifiers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2012),
Hispanic, Latino, and Spanish origin are used interchangeably to refer to people whose personal,
familial, or ancestral origins “are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South
America, or the Dominican Republic” (p. B-3). Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin also includes
those who classify themselves as Mexican, Puerto Rican or Cuban (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012).
The report also indicates that “People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish
may be any race” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012, p. B-3). Latina is the feminine form of Latino;
whereas, Latinx is a term activist communities created for trans and nonbinary people with
ancestral origins in Spain or places imperialized by Spain to describe themselves and combat the
erasure of nonbinary identity in the Spanish language (Brammer, 2019). While the U.S. Census
Bureau only uses Latino to interchange with Hispanic and Spanish origin, most research
published after 2014 uses “Latinx” to refer to this population, irrespective of gender identity
(Gamio Cuervo, 2016). I use Latinx and Latina/o together to emphasize that nonbinary identity is
distinct from a common gender collective adjective.
Additionally, Since 1997, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has
required the Census Bureau to include a minimum of five categories of race: White, Black or
African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other
Pacific Islander (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). By 2010, OMB had approved the inclusion of
“Some Other Race” as a sixth category (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). This framework of racial–
11

ethnic categorization in the USA creates an issue where research that addresses folks with
multiple racial–ethnic identities, those who do not fit neatly into the six approved categories as
well as those who are Latinx and Latina/o might also be Black. For this reason, I have included
some articles in the review that specifically address the sexual health needs of Latinx and
Latina/o adolescents due to the likelihood that those populations also include Black adolescents.
Comprehensive Sex Education
Sex education programs that use peer-reviewed scientific research to inform their
pedagogy that abstinence is the only way to completely prevent sexually transmissible infections
(STIs) and unintended pregnancy (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016).
Comprehensive sex education also underscores the naturalness and breadth of various types of
human relationships (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016). Repeated analysis of
program outcomes shows that comprehensive sex education curricula are the only programs that
increase teen use of condoms and/or contraceptives (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel,
2016).
Culturally Relevant Sex Education
Effective sex education programs that use culturally relevant pedagogy as the primary
frame for addressing the needs of learners (Abe et al., 2016a; Aronson & Laughter, 2020;
Cameron et al., 2020a; Hamlin, 2013; Hyland, 2010a).
Effective Sex Education
Sex education programs that address the needs of a wide array of learners (Blunt-Vinti et
al., 2018; Brawner et al., 2016; Koepsel, 2016; Martos et al., 2016a; Meadows, 2018; Miller &
Broman, 2016; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018). While still a developing field, emerging scholarship
indicates that effective sex education curricula are comprehensive programs that center pleasure
12

and sexual satisfaction while accounting for learner wants and needs in program facilitators
(Blunt-Vinti et al., 2018; Koepsel, 2016; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018). Moreover, effective sex
education must assess for known ways that current comprehensive programs fail to respond to
health disparities among different racial–ethnic groups, socioeconomic statuses, sexual
orientations, gender identities, and mental health diagnoses (Blunt-Vinti et al., 2018; Brawner et
al., 2016; Koepsel, 2016; Martos et al., 2016a; Meadows, 2018; Miller & Broman, 2016; K. L.
Wilson et al., 2018). In this way, effective sex education designs are programs that cast the
widest net to meet the needs of groups that existing power structures ignore or actively
discriminate against to retain control of the curriculum.
Fem/Femme
An identity that holds a femininity separate from and without requiring a female
body/identity, as well as femininity that lives embodied by those for whom femininity is
culturally unsanctioned (Blair & Hoskin, 2016; Hoskin, 2013).
Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM)
A term that refers to a self-identified man who engages in anal, oral, and/or penile–
vaginal intercourse or skin-to-genital contact with another self-identified man. The sexual or
affectional/romantic orientation of the man is irrelevant to this definition (Martos et al., 2016a).
School-Based Health Center
Healthcare centers located in schools that “offer a broad spectrum of services that are
grounded within a primary care model and placed in a convenient location for students”
(Parasuraman & Shi, 2015). These locations may also serve an important role in supplementing
existing healthcare for adolescents in particular (Parasuraman & Shi, 2015).
13

Sexuality Educator
This study uses the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and
Therapists (2021) definition that
Sexuality educators teach and train about a range of topics, including but not
limited to sexual health; sexual and reproductive anatomy and physiology; family
planning, contraception, and pregnancy/childbirth; sexually transmitted
infections; gender identity and roles; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
issues; sexual function and dysfunction; sexual pleasure; sexual variation;
sexuality and disability; sexuality and chronic illness; sexual development across
the lifespan; sexual abuse, assault, and coercion; and sexuality across cultures.
Sexuality educators may teach in the classroom at the elementary, secondary, and
higher education levels. They may also provide education for groups of children,
adolescents, or adults, training for professionals, and outreach and education in
community-based, healthcare, corporate, and faith-based settings. Sexuality
educators also may design and conduct workshops, courses, and seminars;
contribute to the sexuality education literature; develop curriculum; plan and
administer programs; deliver lectures; and provide one-on-one client education
sessions. (para. 1)
Teen/Teenager
There is not one standard definition for a teen or teenager. This study uses the implied
definition that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021) offers of people 12–
19 years of age. Several studies cited in this study reference U.S. Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) reports when referencing this population, so it follows that this is perhaps this age range
14

the authors are referring to when discussing teens/teenagers. Because there is a slight difference
between the definition of an adolescent and a teenager, I prefer adolescent and use teen/teenager
when the study I am citing uses that term (see also Adolescent).
Young Black Man
A male adolescent or teenager who self-identifies as Black (Martos et al., 2016a).
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Two primary assumptions guide this study and inform its limitations and delimitations:
Black sex educators can potentially claim a variety of different cultural contexts (see Definitions)
and this multifaceted identity makes them best equipped to discuss the needs of Black
adolescents. These assumptions led me to create an interview protocol wherein I asked
participants to reflect on the sex education needs of Black adolescents rather than ask adolescents
themselves. With more time and more funding, I would have designed a study where the voices
of Black adolescents came from that group rather than the educators who work with them.
Working effectively with the sample of interest is also a limitation of this study. While I
intentionally chose to work with Black sexuality educators rather than Black adolescents, I failed
to recruit in line with established standards for engaging Black research participants (D. J.
Brown, 2004; Hatchett et al., 2000; Scott & Alexander, 2019; Swanson & Ward, 1995). A very
low sample (n = 7) made it so that I could not report any statistically significant inferences from
the responses I received. In particular, I needed to demonstrate that I was a trustworthy
researcher as an initial phase of recruitment, even before asking for participation (Bamidele et
al., 2019; D. J. Brown, 2004; Huang & Coker, 2010; Shavers et al., 2002).
Several limitations of this study included that there is no known estimate of how many
Black sexuality educators are the field. While approximations for this study came from two
15

reputable groups, the self-identified Black membership of the American Association of Sexuality
Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) and the Association of Black Sexologists and
Clinicians (ABSC), there is no national or international registry of Black sexuality educators.
Neither is there a standardized definition of what sexuality educator is or does. This study
borrows a definition from AASECT; however, that definition is more specific to seeking the
proprietary AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator credential than perhaps to a more widely
shared definition of a sexuality educator.
Finally, a delimitation of the study is that the meaningful findings of this study are
entirely qualitative and represent the perspectives of Black femmes (see Definitions). The
specificity of qualitative research is a feature of its design that allows readers to determine
whether the findings are applicable to their context (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016; Patton, 2002). However, because this study was designed to be mixed methods
and take advantage of the attributes of both quantitative and qualitative designs—understanding
both the what and the how of a phenomenon—another limitation of this study is that it only
answered questions about meaning making and not those about self-efficacy (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018).
Positionality and Social Location
Who I am as a researcher similarly informs the assumptions and limitations of this study.
For example, there is a saying, more of a refrain in Black America, “For the culture!” It is an
innocuous phrase out of context but for Black people it has the force of reminding us that there
are some things we do because we must; as Black Americans, we have a responsibility to act up,
act out, and celebrate certain ways because the ancestors worked too damn hard for us to stop
now. And so, I conducted this research for the culture, mindful that working for the sexual health
16

of Black adolescents is one of the most concrete investments I can make in Black life, Black
longevity, and Black joy.
It was a White mentor who reminded me, when I complained about the White cultural
bias of so much of the sex education curricula I was working with, that I had a responsibility to
help make it better because the lives of real people depend on it. Without curricula that center
Black life and Black health, Black people will die. Thus, I interpreted all the relevant literature
on this topic not only through a variety of critical theoretical lenses, but also through the
practical lenses of “Do these findings uphold the value of Black life?” and “Does this research
help us all get free?”
Getting free or collective liberation is an inherently self-interested act. It is in the best
interests of all peoples for everyone to have what they need to thrive, including sex education
that centers the cultural realities and known sexual health needs of Black adolescents. As queer
Black researcher, I personally benefit from a research agenda that centers my sex life and my
lived experiences. Thus, I am uniquely positioned to evaluate the surface validity of research
about Black sex education programs, if the research does not make sense to me, there are
probably other Black people for whom it makes even less sense. Likewise, my obligation to the
culture is also to interrogate whose voices are present and whose are absent in the research,
always advocating for the voices and needs of Black adolescents themselves.
Conclusion
This mixed-methods study attempted to answer six research questions about how Black
sexuality educators understand themselves and their work in teaching Black adolescents.
Answers to these questions could help address the increased rates of HIV and STI spread and
teen pregnancy and teen parenting this group experiences as compared to the general population.
17

Finally, this study will help us learn more about the practices and meaning making process Black
sexuality educators use in trying to provide effective sex education for Black adolescents.
Organization of the Study
Following this introduction to the study is a review of relevant literature, including the
theory of change, conceptual framework, and theoretical frameworks, which guided this study.
Most important in that chapter is the synthesis and implications for research that provided the
justification for this line of inquiry. Subsequently, I present the methodology of the study.
This project unfolded in three parts: data collection, provisional findings, and
implications for future research. The data collection involved two phases—survey administration
and follow-up interviews and document analysis. The next phase was drawing provisional
findings based on analysis of the survey and the interviews. I call these provisional findings
because the time available to complete the study and triangulate data indicated that additional
themes could emerge from further interpretation at a different time. Finally, the study concludes
with implications for further research based on the analysis of the data as well as offering any
proposed revisions to Black queer theories and self-efficacy theory based on the provisional
findings.

18

Chapter Two: Review of the Literature
This chapter addresses the theory of change, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual
framework that guide this study, and the implications that relevant literature holds for research
into Black sexuality educators. The first two sections of this chapter address the nature of power
and the power of belief as they inform paradigms of inquiry, while the third section interprets the
literature through this lens. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of the literature and the
justification it provides for this study.
Search Description
Articles in this review come from H.W. Wilson (EBSCO) database and targeted searches
of The American Journal of Sexuality Education and The Journal of Black Sexuality and
Relationships. Delimiters for each search included full text peer-reviewed articles in English
language journals published from 2014 on. These delimiters yielded 136 articles. Fifteen articles
met the inclusion criteria of relating specifically to Black adolescent sex education in the USA.
Several other articles shed light on the concepts of Black teaching efficacy and culturally
relevant pedagogy. Searching the references of those documents yielded additional articles about
both Black teaching efficacy and culturally relevant pedagogy.
I selected articles on self-efficacy and Black queer theories by using foundational
documents and notable authors in the field. Bandura’s (1986) article defines many of the key
concepts of self-efficacy and Maddux (1995) extends the theory to include the idea of imaginal
experiences. For this study, I chose articles that met inclusion criteria of learning and teaching
with BIPOC populations. Meanwhile, most of the articles on Black queer theories appeared in a
single annotated bibliography (Boggs, 2000) that I used as a starting point and then searched for
updates in the thinking of the included authors and those who cited them.
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Theory of Change
A theory of change is an explanation of how and why a program or phenomenon works
(Connell & Kubisch, 1998; Msila & Setlhako, 2013; Weiss, 1972, 1995). These models are
inherently political because they are formed in the context of real world scenarios and are
intended to effect specific changes (Msila & Setlhako, 2013; Weiss, 1995). Similarly, theories of
change can silence Black and Brown voices in favor promoting the agenda of the researcher or
evaluator (Tuck & Yang, 2014). Therefore, it is necessary to be explicit about the theory of
change that guides a program of research and evaluation.
The underlying theory of change for this study comprises three parts:
1. Black American adolescent lives matter.
2. Failure to situate teaching and learning about sex in ways that respond to the lives of
Black adolescents evinces the insidious nature of White Supremacy Culture.
3. The Black sexuality educators I am researching are more like me than they are
different.
Holding these as the guideposts of the study and attempting to answer the research questions as
the goal should ensure that the study serves the interests of Black adolescents. While a
committee of experts and I have designed the questions and the structures, we are using the best
research available from authors who are also Black sexuality educators to guide our thinking.
Further, my plan for dissemination of the finding includes the participants in the process.
To optimize the impact of sharing this information, I will seek publication in multiple
outlets with various degrees of immediate applicability to practice. Participants in the study will
receive access to the final product before I submit any findings and interpretation to the
university or to journals. This continuous and iterative process of member checking should allow
20

participants, Black adolescents, and me, as the researcher, to receive the benefits of contributing
to emerging scholarship.
Theoretical Frameworks
Self-efficacy and Black queer theory unite through the concept of imagination. Whether
the under-researched construct of imaginal experiences or vicarious experiences, self-efficacy
posits that if one believes they can complete a task, they are more likely to be able to complete it.
Black queer theory demonstrates that the power of imagination can lead people to create
outcomes and build communities of strength, belonging, and unbridled potential. Imagination
and belief in oneself are central drivers of both theories. Leveraging this point of unity offers a
robust explanatory framework for examining Black American sexuality and Black sexuality
educators who explore these intersections in their practice.
Self-Efficacy Theory
Self-efficacy is a component of social cognitive theory, originally theorized by Albert
Bandura to address some of the issues in behavioral theory (Abdullah et al., 2020; Bandura,
1986; Tsang et al., 2012). Traditional behavioral theory only examines the person and the task to
be completed (Abdullah et al., 2020; Hodges & Harris, 2017; McGee & Johnson, 2015; Pintrich,
2003; Pintrich et al., 1993). One can increase the likelihood of a person to complete a task, such
as learning, cooking, or cleaning through the use of motivation. There are two basic types of
motivation: intrinsic or internally generated motivation and extrinsic or externally generated
motivation (Pintrich, 2003; Schunk & Usher, 2019). While intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are
both equally valid motivators, tasks for which there is intrinsic motivation are more sustainable
over time and can lead to more enduring outcomes (McGee & Johnson, 2015; Schunk & Usher,
21

2019). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can lead to similar task completion outcomes in the
short-term (Abdullah et al., 2020; Bandura et al., 2001; Martin, 2004).
Social cognitive theory extends behavioral theory to examine the person, the
environment, and the task (Bandura et al., 1996, 2001; Pintrich, 2003; Schunk & Usher, 2019). It
is possible to address issues of motivation from any of these three perspectives (Abdullah et al.,
2020; Bandura, 1986; Schunk & Usher, 2019). The theory posits that other people, especially
competent models influence motivation greatly (Abdullah et al., 2020; Bandura, 1986; In’am &
Sutrisno, 2021; D. Johnson, 2017; White, 2017; Yüner, 2020). This is the social nature of
learning in this theory. Self-efficacy explains one set of the methods for increasing motivation
for task completion and/or learning.
Self-efficacy is the feeling or belief that one can accomplish a task. Additionally, self-
efficacy is domain-specific, meaning that one might have high self-efficacy in one area of their
life but not in another (Bandura, 1986). There are four well-researched and supported methods
for developing and reinforcing self-efficacy and one method that has been theorized but that is
not fully supported by research at this time: mastery experiences or enactive mastery, verbal or
social persuasion, vicarious experiences, psychological or emotional states that promote success,
and imaginal experiences (Bandura, 1986; Bandura et al., 1996; Maddux, 1995; Schunk &
Usher, 2019; Tsang et al., 2012).
Mastery Experiences/Enactive Mastery
Mastery experiences to develop self-efficacy are learning-by-doing activities (Bandura,
1986; Schunk & Usher, 2019). The related term for this self-efficacy strategy, enactive mastery,
comes from idea that by enacting or completing a task, the more likely a person is to believe that
they can do the task in the future (Bandura et al., 1996, 2001; Maddux, 1995; Schunk & Usher,
22

2019). Mastery experiences need not be wholly independent experiences, they can be guided,
paired or group practice as well (Schunk & Usher, 2019). To use mastery experiences as a
strategy for self-efficacy requires creating conditions where learners can be or believe they will
be successful at accomplishing a task (Abdullah et al., 2020; Bandura, 1986; Tsang et al., 2012).
Verbal or Social Persuasion
Verbal or social persuasion leans into the desire of many people to want to do what the
rest of a learning or working group is doing or can do (Bandura, 1986; Maddux, 1995).
Persuasion is a specific use of power designed to convince others that their thinking or behavior
should change (Bandura, 2000). For developing self-efficacy, persuasion may take the form of
verbal encouragement or explanations, such as the following: “You can do it!” “You’ve done
this before, I bet you can do it again.” Or, “This task is difficult for everyone at first, but with
practice, it should become more manageable.” Manipulation is not the goal of persuasion for
self-efficacy (Borgogni et al., 2011; Maddux, 1995; Schunk & Usher, 2019).
This strategy for developing self-efficacy may also take a behavioral modeling form. A
guide or group in a learning or work context may demonstrate the benefits or privileges of
accomplishing a task (regalia, professional or honor society membership, more free time, etc.)
and invite the learner or novice into task completion (Abdullah et al., 2020; Goddard et al., 2017;
Larson et al., 2018; Milner & Hoy, 2003). The desire to be part of the privileged or in-group can
assist the learner or novice to make progress toward task completion and in turn reinforce their
belief that they can perform the task (Bandura, 2000; Schunk & Usher, 2019).
Vicarious Experiences
Vicarious experiences are like social persuasion in that both can make use of a competent
guide or model. In this context, a competent model need not be an expert in the task, just
23

someone who is more capable of task completion than the learner or novice (Bandura, 1986,
2000; Lent et al., 1994; Schunk & Usher, 2019). In fact, for vicarious experiences to be
optimally effective as a self-efficacy development strategy, the more alike the model and the
novice are the better the likelihood of success (Abdullah et al., 2020; Bandura et al., 1996;
Maddux, 1995). This fact dovetails on the importance of representation: when a learner or novice
sees or knows of someone like them that has persevered through similar learning or workplace
challenges, they can begin to believe that people with their shared identities can be successful in
this context (Abdullah et al., 2020; Hall, 2013b; Maddux, 1995).
The vicarious nature of success can then translate into a personal belief about the learner
or novice’s own ability to be successful in the given context (Bandura et al., 1996; Schunk &
Usher, 2019). This strategy is like the under-researched component of self-efficacy development,
imaginal experiences (Maddux, 1995; Shipherd, 2019; Tsang et al., 2012). Both strategies invite
the learner/novice to create a belief about their ability or capacity without affirmative evidence
that they will be successful or that the belief is realistic.
Moreover, a vicarious experience can also be more of a proxy experience at success with
a task. Learners/novices might also develop self-efficacy by knowing or witnessing the
competent model complete a similar task (Bandura, 1986; Schunk & Usher, 2019). For example,
if learner/novice knows how to inflate a bike tire, then they might also be capable of inflating a
car tire. This proxy knowledge can then also translate into the learner/novice’s belief that they
are capable of completing the task before them as well as other related tasks (Bandura, 1986;
Schunk & Usher, 2019; Tsang et al., 2012).
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Emotional or Physiological States That Promote Success
Some people are simply predisposed to believing they can perform a task because of the
emotional or physiological states they are occupying (Abdullah et al., 2020; Bandura et al., 1996;
Maddux, 1995; Schunk & Usher, 2019). For example, someone who is excited or happy about
having just completed a task is more likely to believe they can perform other related tasks.
Likewise, someone who has achieved a lot of success in learning environments or in work
contexts like the one they are currently participating in might already believe themselves capable
of the tasks required to succeed (Abdullah et al., 2020; Maddux, 1995; Martin, 2004).
Imaginal Experiences
Maddux (1995) adds imaginal experiences to the strategies for developing self-efficacy
and few other studies have evaluated his claim (Feltz & Magyar, 2006; Greely, 2017; Jones et
al., 2002; Shipherd, 2019; Tsang et al., 2012). Imaginal experiences are the use of visualization
or imagery to imagine oneself completing or being successful at a task (Tsang et al., 2012). They
are similar to vicarious experiences except instead of a competent model, the model is one’s own
power of creativity. The research on imaginal experiences primarily surrounds athletes and
athletic activities, but the potential for application to other contexts extends the boundaries of
how self-efficacy strategies can impact and motivate behavior (Feltz & Magyar, 2006; Shipherd,
2019).
Teaching Efficacy
Teaching efficacy is domain-specific self-efficacy for teaching. While Tschannen-Moran
and Hoy (2001) and Greeley (2017) conceptualize these as set of discrete skills and
competencies, namely instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management,
their research reveals that these are areas of teaching that are consistently measurable. Several
25

studies indicate that both the construct of self-efficacy and teaching efficacy, specifically, require
more qualitative research to address the areas that existing scales cannot assess (Black, 2015;
Farinde-Wu & Griffen, 2019; Hakkola et al., 2020; Samuels et al., 2021; Smith-Walters &
Barker, 2015). Concrete beliefs about one’s ability to run a classroom are certainly important for
teaching (Bentley-Edwards et al., 2020; Callaway, 2017; Erbas, 2021; Genç et al., 2016; Hakkola
et al., 2020; Karimi & Nikbakht, 2019; Meiring, 2019; Neumayer DePiper et al., 2021; Smith-
Walters & Barker, 2015; Valadez et al., 2018). However, labeling these measurable skills as the
whole construct of teaching efficacy runs the risk of reducing teaching and teachers to a set of
mechanical behaviors rather than the complex, dynamic, and responsive field it is (Black, 2015;
Cronley & Kilgore, 2016; Farinde-Wu & Griffen, 2019; Hempstead et al., 2018; Hines III, 2008;
Samuels et al., 2021; Yoon & Martin, 2019).
Black Queer Theories
Black queer theory is a body of critical theories. All critical theories have their basis in
Marxist thought and, more directly, reference the work of the Frankfurt School thinkers such as
Habermas, Adorno, and Gramsci. Critical theories examine the dynamics of power in a given
context. Whereas Marx and the Frankfurt School thinkers were primarily concerned with what
they believed was an irreducible identity of socioeconomic class in a multigenerational struggle
for liberation from wealthy or elite oppressors, contemporary critical theories do not always
believe in the irreducibility of any identity and borrow the critique of power/power analysis in
critical thought to examine relations of race, class, gender, queerness, sexuality, and much more
(Asgharzadeh, 2008; Brookfield, 2005; Johnson-Bailey & Cervero, 2004; Manglitz, 2003;
Meadows, 2018; Schiffrin et al., 2001; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002; Woodson & Carter Andrews,
2017).
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Black queer theory is neither critical race theory (CRT), a body of theories and lenses for
analysis that center the social construction of race–ethnicity and how this construct impacts the
lives of people of color, nor is it queer theory, a body of theories that center constructs of gender
identity, gender expression, romantic and sexual orientation, sex and sexuality and the social
responses to these constructions (Cohen, 1997; Tinsley, 2008; Walcott, 2005; Yosso, 2005).
Black queer theory is a unique and dynamic body of theories that emerge from the lived
experiences of the social location of being Black and queer across time and in dialogue with
others who live similarly but never exactly the same way (Cohen, 1997; Darieck, 2010; Tinsley,
2008; Walcott, 2005). Black queer theories are a kaleidoscopic lens for discussing and
interrogating Black-queerness, a composite identity gestalt. Further, Black queer theories
operates in two powerful ways by activating the power of imagination as a resistance strategy
and by positing that Black sexuality, specifically sexual pleasure, is a tool for collective
liberation (Cohen, 1997; Ferguson, 2004; E. P. Johnson, 2016; Lorde, 1984).
Imagination
Imagination or radical imagination in Black queer theories is the ability to think through
new paradigms of power that widen the creative potential of power rather than the hierarchical
and disciplinary uses thereof (Foucault, 2004). Through imagination individuals and
communities can create pathways of justice, unity, and liberation without reference to the current
structures of power or regard for the practical limitations that might be involved in transitioning
from one system to another (Darieck, 2010; E. P. Johnson, 2016; Snorton, 2017).
Further, imagination and its tangible manifestations—innovations in material culture,
intimate relationship design and family structure, language, etc.—are items worthy of praise
through the lens of Black queer theories (Cohen, 1997; Lorde, 1984; Walcott, 2005). Rather than
27

reifying existing unequal structures by figuring out how to navigate them for the purposes of
survival, the highest regard goes to those who determine the most elaborate and creative ways to
dismantle these systems of power (E. P. Johnson, 2016). The transgressive uses of imagination
are a central tool of resistance in this body of theories (Walcott, 2005).
Pleasure
Similarly transgressive is the role of pleasure in Black queer theories. In existing
structures of exploitation and domination, pleasure serves no purpose: joy and free time are
unproductive, neither adding to the power of the existing elites nor leading to the creation and
distribution of more items for purchase (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1993; Darieck, 2010; Marcuse,
1991; Whisnant, n.d.). Sexual pleasure, as opposed to sexual reproduction which can add more
laborers to the workforce, is comparably purposeless (Cohen, 1997; Lorde, 1984). Because queer
sex and sexualities more frequently center pleasure over the goal of reproduction, they are threats
to the status quo (Cohen, 1997; Lorde, 1984; Snorton, 2017; Tinsley, 2008; Walcott, 2005).
In this way, pleasure introduces a competing and destabilizing counternarrative about
creative potential (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Rather than creating more workers, pleasure
invites us to create more joy, more connection, and more orgasms (Darieck, 2010; Lorde, 1984;
Walcott, 2005). The fact that humans might have limitless opportunities to create pleasure for
ourselves and others defies the scarcity logic of capital: the capacity for pleasure is innate
(brown, 2019; Lorde, 1984; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). While existing structures of power and
domination have successfully commodified the act of sex and mechanized some forms of desire,
seduction, and arousal (e.g., pornography, dating and marriage reality television, airbrushed
models and actors), the human capacity to experience and create pleasure exists only in
relationship to oneself and others (brown, 2019; Darieck, 2010; Lorde, 1984). By requiring self-
28

knowledge and community, pleasure breaks systems of domination and reinforces the radical
imagination (brown, 2019).
Conceptual Framework
Figure 1 illustrates the conceptual framework for the concept of “Black Sexuality
Educator Efficacy” that guides this study. Black sexuality educator efficacy is the actions
(decision making, thinking, behaviors) and beliefs Black sexuality educators have about those
actions that promote culturally responsive teaching for Black teens. The framework combines
elements of Self-Efficacy Theory and several Black queer theories to focus on the role of
imagination in informing beliefs that lead to new or continuing actions (Cohen, 1997; Ferguson,
2004; Maddux, 1995; Tinsley, 2008; Walcott, 2005). These actions, in turn, can reinforce
existing beliefs or promote new beliefs.

Figure 1:
Black Sexuality Educator Efficacy

BELIEFS

Black
Sexuality
Educator
Efficacy

ACTIONS
Self-Efficacy
Mastery Experiences
Vicarious Experiences
Emotional/Physiological States
Social Persuasion
Imaginal Experiences
Black Queer Theories
Pleasure

Imagination
29

To increase a sense of a teaching efficacy (domain specific self-efficacy for teaching) in
Black sexuality educators, Black sexuality educator efficacy, it does not matter whether the
intervention begins with belief or with action, as each ultimately impacts the other (Farinde-Wu
& Griffen, 2019; Hempstead et al., 2018; Hines III, 2008; Maddux, 1995; Samuels et al., 2021).
Literature Relevant to Black Adolescent Sex Education
Three significant themes emerged from the articles about Black adolescent sex education:
sex and sexual health practices, unmet sexual health needs, and meeting sexual health needs.
There was little overlap in articles across themes. A synthesis of recommendations for practice
follows this section.
Sex and Sexual Health Practices
Research into the sex and sexual health practices of Black adolescents is abundant but
often provides more new avenues for study than definitive answers for meeting the sexual health
needs of this population. The majority of studies tend to limit their explorations to analyzing
Black adolescent condom and contraceptive use and incidences of teen pregnancy and parenting
since these are known areas where sex education can have an impact (Jozkowski & Crawford,
2016; Koepsel, 2016). Moreover, much of the literature that examines Black adolescent sex and
sexual health fails to investigate differences in reasons this group chooses to have sex and who
facilitates this learning (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018).
Addressing these under researched areas, three different studies examined the sex
practices of Black and/or Latina/o youth and young adults and found that a variety of factors
impact sexual choices of Black adolescents (Best et al., 2014; Castañeda, 2017; Dalmida et al.,
2018). Where Best et al. (2014) and Castañeda (2017) determined that already engaging in
sexual behavior is a strong predictor of how Black and Latina/o adolescents will continue to
30

make sexual choices, Dalmida et al. (2018) note that models from hip-hop culture also impact
these choices. While these models can serve as an outlet for expression and sexual decision
making for Black female adolescents, they may also provide cover for risking unintended
pregnancy and STIs (Dalmida et al., 2018). Studies, further, indicate that young Black men are
less likely to use condoms when in monogamous relationships and that teens irrespective of
gender are more likely to send sexually explicit text messages if they are already having sex
(Best et al., 2014; Castañeda, 2017).
Similarly, there is a gap in the literature on how well Black adolescents negotiate
contraceptives and condom use. Separate studies of Black male and Black, Indigenous and
people of color (BIPOC) female teens revealed the ongoing need to create tools that help these
groups communicate effectively about HIV (Bond et al., 2018; Crosby et al., 2017). Crosby et al.
(2017) determined that the tool they were trying to develop did not work well for Black girls and
women. The other study on Black boys and men determined that communication around HIV
and condom use is heavily influenced by a stigma of being perceived as HIV-positive (Bond et
al., 2018). Walsh-Buhi & Helmy (2018) extend these analyses to offer that little research exists
on Black adolescent use of a variety of contraceptives and STI preventatives. While some
research exists on how frequently Black college-aged women use long-acting reversible
contraceptives, the authors clarify that more research is necessary to effectively provide for the
birth control and STI prevention needs of Black adolescents.
A major limitation of all studies in this section is that they only address male and female
teens. In fact, none of the articles in this review specifically address the needs of trans and
nonbinary teens. This limitation combined with a lack of research into how to address education
31

around the sex practices of Black adolescents creates the context for failing to meet even the
known sexual health needs of this population.
Unmet Sexual Health Needs
Consent education and intimate partner violence prevention are known sexual health
needs for Black adolescents. The two-fold issue of lacking effective sex education for the group
and general disinterest in research to develop these curricula highlight the resulting issue of
resources lacking for Black adolescents to learn the basics of consent education (Blunt-Vinti et
al., 2018; Cooper & Watson, 2015; Koepsel, 2016). All three research teams emphasize that
primary among these concerns is helping Black adolescents develop the dispositions of self-
worth and self-confidence needed to articulate their sexual boundaries as well as their sexual
agency. A linked need is gaining tools to prevent intimate partner violence, tools which benefit
from the same dispositions Black adolescents can gain through consent education (Cooper &
Watson, 2015; Voth Schrag & Edmond, 2018). Both research teams noted that Black female
teens and young adults are at greater risk for sexual trauma and intimate partner violence when
consent education and other effective sex education curricula are not available to them.
Meeting Sexual Health Needs
The lack of effective sex education resources for Black adolescents has led to creative
approaches for providing these programs. Online sex education programs for teens, in general,
and theater-based approaches to HIV prevention for Black boys and men, in particular, are
showing promise (Chen & Barrington, 2017; Reed et al., 2015). Online sex education programs
in the rural Southern United States are helpful for Black adolescents who might otherwise not
have access to high-quality programs or to professionals willing to deliver comprehensive
content (Chen & Barrington, 2017). While Chen and Barrington’s (2017) study is limited in
32

scope, it is important to note that most Black adolescents in the USA live in the south of the
country (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; U.S. Census Bureau, 2012).
Another development in meeting the sex education needs for Black adolescents is a
theater-based approach. Reed et al. (2015) found that using theater as a program for HIV
prevention increased the total knowledge that Black boys and men have about the topic and led
to an increased likelihood of condom use. Further, while not directly related to sex education,
programs that encourage lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) Black people to
pursue higher education also impact civic engagement in Black communities (Dancy et al.,
2019). Civic engagement of Black LGBTQ+ people can lead to the creation of sex education
programs that center the needs of both Black and LGBTQ+ populations (Dancy et al., 2019).
Professional engagement with effective sex education programs for Black adolescents is also
critical to meeting the sexual health needs of this group.
Healthcare professionals often lack the comfort and skill required to discuss sexual health
and contraceptive and condom use with their clients. Clinicians and organizations are better able
to serve teens when they create environments where they can directly and explicitly answer
questions about sexual health (Bloom et al., 2015; Colarossi et al., 2017). Organizations can gain
this capacity by leaving literature about sexual health in public areas, providing access to
condoms, and intentionally developing the skills of their staff in sex education (Colarossi et al.,
2017). In the field of counseling, clinicians can further develop their skills for discussing
sexuality and sex by becoming aware of their attitudes in that area and working with supervisors
to address any attitudes that might limit their ability to work with clients on sexual health issues
(Bloom et al., 2015).
33

Examining these attitudes is particularly important for counselors who might work with
Black girls and women (Bloom et al., 2015; Mincey & Norris, 2014). Because there is a direct
positive correlation between depression and risky sexual behavior for Black adolescent and
young adult women, competent counseling for this group is a tool for maintaining sexual health
(Mincey & Norris, 2014). Moreover, Mincey and Norris’ (2014) finding that parental attitudes
also impact sexual decision making for Black adolescent and young adult women supports
Bloom et al.’s (2015) claim that marriage and family therapists might already be engaging these
issues with families without the skills to appropriately address their needs.
Learning Theories
Black sexuality educators make use of various learning theories in each part of
instructional design and delivery. The literature on self-efficacy and Black queer theories
suggests the ability to visualize or imagine oneself successfully delivering a lesson, effectively
engaging students, and/or skillfully managing the learning context impact both the beliefs and
actions of teachers. For Black sexuality educators working with Black adolescents, these
imaginal experiences might also center pleasure as a guiding principle of consent, respect for
student learning facilitator preference, and the creation of (Black) joy.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Culturally relevant pedagogy build on and employ the cultural wealth learners bring to
the learning context to increase student engagement and optimize learning gains (Abe et al.,
2016a; Cameron et al., 2020a; Hamlin, 2013; Hyland, 2010a; Yosso, 2005). Black sexuality
educators who use culturally relevant pedagogy when teaching Black adolescents center their
own Blackness as well as that of their students and turn it into an asset for learning. Several
studies reveal that in the context of sexuality education this approach to working BIPOC leads to
34

increased condom use, decreased teen pregnancy and teen parenting, and decreased STI spread
among BIPOC adolescents and into adulthood (Abe et al., 2016a; Aronson & Laughter, 2020;
Cameron et al., 2020a; Kattari et al., 2021).
Sex Education Designs
There are two primary sex education designs: abstinence-only and comprehensive. A
third design, effective sex education, builds on the groundwork of comprehensive sex education
and connects with the literature on culturally relevant pedagogy. While effective sex education is
more of a term of art than a recognizable framework for instruction, the attention of this body
literature to the unique and varying characteristics shows promise for work with Black
adolescents.
Abstinence-Only
As the name implies, the central aim of abstinence-only sex education curricula is to
encourage young people to abstain from all sexual activity until marriage (Jozkowski &
Crawford, 2016). Aside from this aim, various abstinence-only curricula and designs may lack
any overarching similarities among programs (Hoefer & Hoefer, 2017; Jozkowski & Crawford,
2016; Kershner et al., 2017). Decades of research demonstrate that this sex education design is
neither effective at influencing adolescents to abstain from all sexual activity until marriage nor
in increasing condom use or decreasing teen pregnancy, teen parenting, or HIV/STI spread rates
for this group (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Kershner et al., 2017).
Comprehensive
Comprehensive sex education designs use peer-reviewed research to teach up-to-date
information about human sexuality and the risks and joys that attend it (Jozkowski & Crawford,
2016; Kershner et al., 2017). These curricula and programs are the only designs that effectively
35

lead to increased condom use, decreased teen pregnancy and teen parenting rates, and decreased
HIV/STI spread among adolescents (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016). These designs, however, can
make assumptions about the average learner in a program that are inaccurate (Abe et al., 2016b;
Hoefer & Hoefer, 2017; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018).
Effective
Comprehensive sex education becomes effective when it centers the unique and varying
characteristics of the learners, not limited to but including race–ethnicity, socioeconomic class,
gender, sexual and romantic orientation, dis/ability, geographic location, and preferences in
learning facilitator (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016). This body of literature seems
to be a bridge between what is already known about the unmet sexual health needs of Black
adolescents and the emerging culturally relevant sex education designs (Cameron et al., 2020b;
Finigan-Carr et al., 2018; Harper et al., 2019; Hoefer & Hoefer, 2017). Effective sex education
and the issues researchers seek to respond to with additional study hold promise for the creative
potential of Black sexuality educators and Black adolescents alike.
Sexuality Educators
Sexuality educators who lead instruction that is relevant to the culture of their learners are
might have high teaching efficacy (Bentley-Edwards et al., 2020; Callaway, 2017; Harper et al.,
2019; Hines III, 2008; Milner & Hoy, 2003). They are also more likely to respect learner
preferences for specific sex education facilitator (K. L. Wilson et al., 2018). Both factors can
increase long-term gains for learners as well as decrease risky sexual decision making for
adolescents (Bond et al., 2021; Harper et al., 2019; Reed et al., 2015; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018).
36

The Practice of Sex Education
Sex education designs and the pedagogical decisions attendant to them might need to
move from being comprehensive to also being effective culturally relevant programs. The
existing data both about the failure of many current programs to meet the needs of BIPOC
learners and various groups marginalized learners, more generally, indicate that intervention is
already necessary (Brawner et al., 2016; Finigan-Carr et al., 2018; Hoefer & Hoefer, 2017;
Koepsel, 2016; Voth Schrag & Edmond, 2018). Designing programs that are adaptable enough to
meet learners in their uniqueness is beneficial for Black adolescents, Black sexuality educators,
and the communities they inhabit (Dancy et al., 2019; Farinde-Wu & Griffen, 2019; Miller &
Broman, 2016; Woodson & Carter Andrews, 2017).
Sex Education for Black Adolescents
Sex education designs for Black adolescents are most effective when they build on the
cultural wealth of the learners (Bond et al., 2018; Crosby et al., 2017; Mincey & Norris, 2014;
Solórzano & Yosso, 2002; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018; Yosso, 2005). Culturally relevant sex
education assists with meeting this aim, however, linking strategies for developing teaching
efficacy and radical imagination could further enhance this approach (Aronson & Laughter,
2020; Cohen, 1997; Lorde, 1984; Milner & Hoy, 2003). The focus of this study on Black
sexuality educators renders Black adolescents an essential but silent audience for research. While
Black adolescents certainly are active participants in their learning contexts, the strategies and
beliefs that Black sexuality educators use to promote this engagement is the purpose of this
study. Culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents implies a dialogue among student
engagement and sexuality educator beliefs and actions that leverage radical imagination toward
liberatory ends (Lorde, 1984; Maddux, 1995; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018).
37

Synthesis, Implications for Research, and Justification of the Study
Black adolescents may have better sexual health outcomes when sex education designs
are effective and culturally relevant (Abe et al., 2016a; Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel,
2016; Reed et al., 2015; Yosso, 2005). The beliefs and decisions that inform these designs build
on and extend the learning and wisdom already present in the communities they inhabit (Abe et
al., 2016a; Schunk & Usher, 2019; Yosso, 2005). When Black sexuality educators utilize these
designs not only do they potentially enhance learning by embodying a potential learner
preference for knowledge facilitator, but their likelihood of having high teaching efficacy can
also impact the use of imagination (Maddux, 1995; Milner & Hoy, 2003; K. L. Wilson et al.,
2018). These factors suggest the following implications for research.
Implications for Research
More research is needed to determine how and why Black adolescents make the decisions
about sex and sexual health practices that they do. The research community must pay special
attention to how media messages are interacting with Black adolescent decision making and
analyze them for bias and coercion (Dalmida et al., 2018). Further, sex education scholar-
practitioners working with Black adolescents, whether professionals or peer educators have a key
role to play in data collection. Because access to messages about sex and sexuality and learning
how to make critical judgments about which messages are statements of fact and which are scare
tactics is so heavily mediated, determining the best platforms to engage Black adolescents
around sexual health is crucial (Castañeda, 2017; Chen & Barrington, 2017; Colarossi et al.,
2017; Parasuraman & Shi, 2015; Reed et al., 2015; Rennis et al., 2015). Finally, future research
into Black adolescent sex education will need to intentionally engage adolescents themselves in
order to navigate the intersectional realities of this group. There is no one set of solutions that
38

will work for everyone in this group because the kaleidoscope of privilege and oppression is
different for each of them (Brammer, 2019; Brawner et al., 2016; Crenshaw, 2008; Dancy et al.,
2019; Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Martos et al., 2016a; Meadows, 2018; Mincey & Norris,
2014; Reed et al., 2015; Voth Schrag & Edmond, 2018; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018).
Table 1 contains a set of recommendations that emerge from the articles about Black
adolescent sex education. Overall, the literature across all three themes—sex and sexual health
practices, unmet sexual health needs, and meeting sexual health needs—supports the
development of wide array of tools, professional dispositions, and sex education curricular
content and teaching methodologies to meet the needs of Black adolescents. The literature also
indicates some potential directions for future research, which I detail next.

39

Table 1:
Recommendations for Effective Sex Education Program Designs for Black Adolescents
Themes Recommendations
Sex and sexual
health
practices
Examine what role media messages play in sexual risk taking for Black
adolescents (Best et al., 2014; Dalmida et al., 2018).
Examine how media platforms (ex. texting, social media, etc.) impact
communication about sex and sexuality for Black adolescents
(Castañeda, 2017).
Develop tools that enhance the ability of young Black women and men to
discuss contraceptive use, condom use, and HIV prevention (Bond et al.,
2018; Crosby et al., 2017; Walsh-Buhi & Helmy, 2018).
Ensure research around teen sex and sexual health practices centers the
needs and challenges of Black trans and nonbinary adolescents.*
Unmet sexual
health needs
Develop consent education resources specific to Black adolescents (Blunt-
Vinti et al., 2018; Cooper & Watson, 2015; Koepsel, 2016).
Ensure that consent education for Black adolescents emphasizes self-worth
and self-confidence for articulating sexual boundaries as well as
strategies for preventing intimate partner violence (Blunt-Vinti et al.,
2018; Cooper & Watson, 2015; Koepsel, 2016; Voth Schrag & Edmond,
2018).
Develop sex education curricula that explicitly center pleasure as
component of healthy human sexuality (Koepsel, 2016).
Meeting sexual
health needs
Innovate sex ed delivery models with special attention to distance and
theater-based methods (Chen & Barrington, 2017; Reed et al., 2015).
Encourage Black LGBTQ+ adolescents to pursue post-secondary education
to create a pipeline of leaders equipped with the skills to serve Black
communities (Dancy et al., 2019).
Build the capacity and willingness of healthcare professionals to directly
and explicitly answer questions about sex and sexual health (Bloom et
al., 2015; Colarossi et al., 2017).
Develop mental health counseling models that support Black teenage girls
and their families in navigating sexual decision making and sexual health
(Bloom et al., 2015; Mincey & Norris, 2014).

*A gap in the literature relative to this group supports this recommendation.

Summary
In this chapter, I presented the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the study. At
the core is an overriding commitment to the sustained vitality of Black life, especially Black
40

adolescent sexual health. Sex education designs that are culturally relevant to Black adolescents
can assist with honoring this commitment. However, effective culturally relevant sex education
for this group is only as successful as the facilitators and educators responsible for its delivery.
For sex education to be optimally culturally relevant for Black adolescents, Black
sexuality educators play a role. Insofar as Black sexuality educators respect the desires of
learning facilitator preferences of Black adolescent, when they are in the learning context they
are more likely to be successful if they have a high sense of teaching efficacy. A key pathway in
connecting strategies for developing teaching efficacy with culturally relevant sex education is
imaginal experiences/radical imagination or the ability to visualize oneself as successful in a
context that has never existed. When Black sexuality educators leverage the creative potential of
imagination in their practice, they might develop what I am calling Black sexuality educator
efficacy. This form teaching efficacy might reinforce a pattern of beliefs and behaviors that
expand boundaries of just how culturally relevant and liberatory sex education designs can be for
Black learners.
Conclusion
Chapter Three presents the methodology of this study. The conceptual framework and
theory of change that guide this study support a mixed methods approach to answering the
research questions. The theoretical frameworks that inform this study also imply the need for the
ongoing involvement of participants in the analysis of data and interpretation of the themes that
emerge.
41

Chapter Three: Methodology
This study focused on how Black educators might impact sex education learning
outcomes for Black adolescents. While the primary beneficiary of this study will undoubtedly be
Black adolescents, all participants were self-identified Black professionals working in sex
education. I chose this group as my sample for two reasons: as a Black sexuality educator, I
know how I adapt comprehensive sex education content to the needs of the Black adolescents I
work with and I believe this process to be common; I also believe educators, generally, are best
equipped to implement learning interventions that impact Black adolescents.
Investigating this theory of change and its attendant conceptual framework requires a
mixed methods approach (Tuck & Yang, 2014; S. Wilson, 2008). While either a completely
quantitative or qualitative study would yield essential information about the motivations or the
meaning making processes of Black sexuality educators in meeting the sex education needs of
Black adolescents, combining these inquiry processes can strengthen the integrity of the findings
(Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007). Some studies even point to the
dearth of qualitative studies on self-efficacy (see De La Parra, 2021; Greely, 2017), a topic this
study will not address, but one that offers evidence that truly understanding the processes at play
when teaching requires multiple methodological approaches (Milner & Hoy, 2003). Chapter Five
will offer a more extended discussion on implications for future studies that examine self-
efficacy and teaching efficacy through a qualitative approach.
This chapter briefly revisits the problem under investigation, the purpose of the study,
and the research questions the study attempts to answer. The core of the chapter addresses how I
used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer these questions as well as the data
analysis process I conducted. The chapter concludes with some of the known issues with
42

instruments used in either approach and strategies to retain validity, dependability, and
credibility, as appropriate to the research construct.
Research Design
This study used a mixed methods approach to better discern how Black sexuality
educators understand themselves and their practice of education with Black adolescents. The
research design incorporated two surveys, participant-provided documents, and semistructured
Interviewing to approach this understanding. Following is a brief overview of quantitative,
qualitative, and mixed methods approaches and how they featured in this study.
Overview of Quantitative Research
Quantitative research draws from a positivistic framework which seeks to find objective
answers and universal truth claims (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). In this way, the goal of
quantitative research is to test hypotheses about observable information that can then be used to
predict future outcomes (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). This type of research is best for answering
questions where there is existing theory or known baselines about condition or the effectiveness
of certain interventions (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Quantitative research is also good for truly
experimental and quasi-experimental investigations, where samples can be randomized and
compared, if desired (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Because it is not the goal of qualitative
research to unveil universal patterns, quantitative methods are best when working with large
random samples (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Patton, 2002).
In quantitative research, instruments usually consist of objective surveys, scored or
indexed observations of behavior, or measurable differences in a baseline and post-intervention
test or analysis (ex. amount of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream before and after treatment
with an experimental drug, test scores before and after a training program on sanitation
43

techniques, etc.). Standardizing questions, contexts, observational techniques, and
operationalizing variables helps the researcher ensure that only the behaviors under investigation
(the dependent variables) are subject to change based on the given intervention (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018). For this reason, quantitative researchers prefer to use existing validated survey
tools or other instruments for their observations. New scales often emerge because of some lack
in an existing tool to measure a desired behavior or intervention. These new scales may take
several years to be validated for wide use. This study uses the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale
(OSTES)/Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), a validated scale of teacher efficacy (see
Appendix C) to measure the feelings of teaching efficacy Black sexuality educators feel when
using culturally response sex education designs with Black adolescents (Tschannen-Moran &
Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).
Overview of Qualitative Research
Qualitative research draws from phenomenology and holds that reality itself is a process
of social construction in which there can be no one objective view (Fetterman, 2010; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). Stemming from this perspective, the goal of qualitative research is to understand
the particular in depth and to allow the reader to determine if the findings are relevant to their
context (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This type of research is best suited for answering questions
where there is not yet clear theory or notions in prevailing theories are disputable, where the
issue is one of practice in a human system, those that are of personal interest, or any questions
that are not well-suited to quantitative methods (such as the nuances of experiences of emotions)
(Creswell, 2007; Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Patton, 2002).
In qualitative research, the investigator serves as the unit of measurement (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). As such, qualitative researchers most frequently utilize the uniquely human
44

metrics of open-ended interviewing, observation and note taking, and document collection
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Patton, 2002). In this phenomenological study, I used semistructured
interviews and any documents the participants felt represent their approach to teaching sex
education to Black adolescents.
The Power of Mixed Methods Research Designs
Mixed methods research designs combine the strengths of both quantitative and
qualitative designs to help answer complex problems (Creswell et al., 2006; Creswell &
Creswell, 2018; Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007). A mixed methods design is best when both the
description of a phenomenon and the processes surrounding the phenomenon are of interest
(Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). For example, this type of design
would be appropriate when participants who take a drug daily score more highly on a measure
than participants who take the drug intermittently and the researcher wants to know why
participants in the daily group decide to take it daily.
For this study, the sample of Black sexuality educators working with Black adolescents is
sufficiently small relative to all other types of educators working with this group that both what
is happening with the teaching and what process guides those decisions is important know.
Through this study I sought to generate new knowledge about which evidence-based
methodologies Black sexuality educators are using with Black adolescents and the meaning
making process that surrounds those decisions.
Research Questions and Hypothesis
There were two primary research questions guiding this study. The quantitative
component of the study tested a hypothesis based on the first research question and the
45

qualitative component contained four sub-questions that assisted in answering the second
research question. Through this study, I aimed to answer the following research questions:
1. Do Black sexuality educators who incorporate learning theory and culturally relevant
frameworks for sex education design in their practice with Black adolescents have a
higher sense of teaching efficacy?
2. What is the lived experience of Black sexuality educators in providing culturally
relevant sex education to Black adolescents?
3. Which learning theories do Black sexuality educators use in their practice?
4. Which culturally relevant frameworks do Black sexuality educators use in their
practice?
5. Which sex education designs do Black sexuality educators use in their practice?
6. How do Black sexuality educators understand Black adolescents in their practice?
I proposed to answer Research Question 1 by testing Hypothesis 1: Black sexuality educators
who incorporate a learning theory and culturally relevant framework for sex education design in
their practice with Black adolescents will have a high level of teaching efficacy as measured by
the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale.
Participants
More information about the participant selection criteria follows in subsequent sections,
but an interesting feature of the study is that all interview participants were Black femmes (see
Definitions). I did not ask about gender identity in the survey, so that information is not available
for those respondents (see Appendix B). Similarly, I did not ask about gender or gender identity
during the interviews (see Appendix D), but that information emerged during the conversations.
46

Population and Sample
To determine the population for this study, I used the combined figure of the membership
of ABSC and AASECT members who might be Black (see Definitions), according to
membership rolls. There are 161 ABSC members according to their Facebook page and I
estimated conservatively that half of them are Black, or approximately 81 members (Association
of Black Sexologists and Clinicians, n.d.). Membership roll documents from AASECT indicated
that the organization has 3500 members (AASECT, n.d.). For AASECT, I determined the
proportion of the membership who are Black by multiplying by the proportion of the U.S.
population that is Black, 13.4% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). 13.4% of 3500 AASECT members
was 469 members. Adding 81 ABSC members to 469 AASECT members gave a total population
of Black sexuality educators in the USA of 550. It was not possible to check for duplicates in the
rolls, so the population estimate I am using may be inflated. Further, ABSC does not require its
membership to identify as Black, so there was potential for population error using only the
membership rolls of that group. The remainder of this section discusses the target and accessible
population for the study, sampling considerations, as well as methods of recruitment.
Target and Accessible Population
The target population was adult (18+) Black sexuality educators living in the USA who
had taught Black adolescents sex education for at least 1 year. The accessible population was
seven adult (18+) Black sexuality educators living in the USA who had taught Black adolescents
sex education for at least 1 year. This accessible population formed the entire quantitative
sample. A subset of the population formed the sample for the qualitative side of the study. A
more detailed discussion of these samples follows.
47

Sample
There were two samples for this study. The quantitative sample (n = 7) contained all
respondents to the assessment tool for this project, The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale
(TSES). All respondents were Black adults (18+) who met the selection criteria (see Selection
Criteria). The qualitative sample (n = 5) was wholly comprised of those who met the selection
criteria for the quantitative sample and who also stated that they were using a culturally relevant
sex education design and agreed to be interviewed. I had hoped that these selection criteria
would give me access to a vast sample of Black sexuality educators with a variety of lived
experiences.
While both the quantitative and qualitative samples were diverse in age, educational
context, and teaching approach, the quantitative sample was very small (n = 7). For more
information on why the sample size was so low, see the section on assumptions, limitations, and
delimitations of this study. Moreover, despite the relative diversity in other demographics, all
participants in the qualitative sample were femmes (see Definition of Terms).
Sampling Method
To determine the sample size for the quantitative portion of the study, I used the
population that I estimated for all Black sexuality educators, 550. Using the most conservative
version of the sample size estimation formula in Equation 1, I set p at 50% or maximum
variability for a two-condition outcome. The formula provided a sample size of 227 for a 95%
confidence interval in my findings. This sample estimate guided my recruitment efforts.
n =
𝑧 2
𝑝 ( 1 –𝑝 )
2
𝑒 2
. (1)
^z = 95% CI
e = 5% Margin of Error
p = 50% Response Distribution
48

Selection Criteria
All participants had to meet the following selection criteria:
• self-identification as Black American
• identification as a sexuality educator according to the definition used in this study
• has taught sex education with Black adolescents for at least 3 years
• at least 18 years of age
There was no limit to the number of participants that could respond to the survey for the
quantitative section of the study. I identified potential participants for the qualitative section of
the study from respondents who indicated they were willing to be contacted for a follow-up
interview.
Additional Interview Selection Criteria
For the qualitative section of the study, I specifically wanted to investigate the meaning
making process of Black sexuality educators who were using a culturally relevant sex education
design with Black adolescents. From among the respondents to the survey that indicated they
were willing to be interviewed, I selected five participants who stated they were using a
culturally relevant design in their practice of sex education.
Recruitment
The sample for this study was self-identified Black sexuality educators who received
access to the survey in six different venues: marketing through an AASECT listserv, marketing
through an ABSC listserv, marketing through a closed Facebook group for sexuality educators
teaching online, marketing through a closed Facebook group people of color working in
nonprofits, contacting them through Instagram based on information from a colleague in the sex
therapy field, or following up on referrals from someone who heard about the study through one
49

of these other venues. Appendix A contains the write-up of the recruitment and consenting
materials.
Instrumentation
Table 2 displays a summary of the instrumentation that I used to answer the research
questions. The research questions guided which format(s) I used to collect data. The rest of this
section further details the instruments I used for data collection.

Table 2:
Research Questions and Instrumentation for Inquiry Grid
Research question
Quantitative
instrument
Qualitative
instrument(s) Relevant hypothesis
Do Black sexuality
educators who
incorporate
learning theory
and culturally
relevant
frameworks for
sex education
design in their
practice with
Black adolescents
have a higher
sense of teaching
efficacy?
Teachers’ Sense of
Self-Efficacy
Scale
Black sexuality
educators who
incorporate a
learning theory
and culturally
relevant
framework for
sex education
design in their
practice with
Black
adolescents will
have a high level
of teaching
efficacy as
measured by the
Teachers’ Sense
of Efficacy
Scale.
50

Research question
Quantitative
instrument
Qualitative
instrument(s) Relevant hypothesis
What is the lived
experience of
Black sexuality
educators in
providing
culturally relevant
sex education to
Black adolescents?
Semistructured
interview

Which learning
theories do Black
sexuality educators
use in their
practice?
Demographic and
screener survey
Participant provided
document that
represents teaching
approach

Which culturally
relevant
frameworks do
Black sexuality
educators use in
their practice?

Demographic and
screener survey
Semistructured
interview

Participant provided
document that
represents teaching
approach

Which sex education
designs do Black
sexuality educators
use in their
practice?

Semistructured
interview

Participant provided
document that
represents teaching
approach

How do Black
sexuality educators
understand Black
adolescents in their
practice?

Semistructured
interview

Participant provided
document that
represents teaching
approach

For the quantitative section of the study, I employed two different instruments that I
combined into one online survey: a demographic and screener survey that included questions
about teaching and public theories and the TSES. You can find the complete version of the
demographic and screener survey in Appendix B. The Short Form of the TSES is located in
51

Appendix C. I used the short form of the TSES to reduce survey fatigue. The demographic and
screener survey served two purposes: to determine if there was an experimental control group in
the sample (those who do not use a culturally relevant sex education design or learning theory in
their educational practice) and to identify the subgroup to contact for follow-up interviews.
Demographic Survey
To minimize survey fatigue, I also combined the demographic survey and the screener
(see Appendix B). After consenting to participate in the study (see Appendix A), all participants
began to answer demographic questions that determined how much of the survey they would
take. The respondents had to meet all four study selection criteria: (a) self-identification as Black
American; (b) identification as a sexuality educator according to the definition used in this study;
(c) has taught sex education with Black adolescents for at least 3 years; (d) at least 18 years of
age. Respondents who did not meet all four components of the study selection criteria were
bounced from the survey and did not see the remaining questions. This process allowed
respondents who met the selection criteria to experience taking a single survey and those who
did not meet the criteria to spend very little time with the study.
Qualitative Instruments
In qualitative research, the investigator is the instrument. However, the investigator can
increase dependability of the data through methods such as triangulation, or using multiple types
of data, and member checking, verifying the accuracy of transcripts, field notes, and/or initial
interpretations with the participants (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016;
Patton, 2002). For this study, the primary qualitative collection instrument was the researcher
conducting the interview. I also asked participants to provide an additional document that they
felt represented or explained their approach to teaching. Additionally, I made use of member
52

checks to verify the accuracy of interview transcripts and initial interpretations of the interviews
and documents. I used the constant comparative method to identify themes within and among
documents and interview transcripts.
Interview Protocol
The semistructured interview protocol was designed to probe for answers to RQ2–RQ6,
which all address the lived experience of Black sexuality educators (Appendix D). I asked all
participants at least the 10 questions on the protocol and probed for clarity where appropriate.
The semi-structured nature of the protocol also allowed participants to offer their own
interpretation of the documents they had provided, where otherwise only my interpretation of the
documents would have provided analysis.
Document Analysis
The document analysis rubric was also designed to find answers to RQ2–RQ6 (Appendix
E). For each document that participants provided, I interrogated the document using questions
like those in the interview protocol. I completed this process after the interviews in order to bring
the interpretations of the participants into the first round of documentary analysis.
Assessment Tool
The TSES is a validated scale of teacher efficacy or self-efficacy in the domain of
teaching based on an earlier scale developed by Bandura (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy,
2001). The instrument assesses teaching efficacy in three different areas using the 9-point Rand
scale: student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. There are two
different forms of the scale: the Long Form and the Short Form. I chose to use the Short Form
for this study to reduce the number of questions respondents encountered and to increase the
likelihood of survey completion.
53

Because the instrument was originally developed at the Ohio State University, it is often
referred to as the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale. The original developers of the survey prefer
to call it the Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy,
2001). The preference of the survey developers informs how I discuss the tool and the choice to
refer to it as the TSES.
Reliability
For the TSES, researchers found that the overall construct of teaching efficacy as well as
the three subscales of engagement, instruction, and management all returned Cronbach’s alpha
coefficients of 0.81 or higher (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). Cronbach’s alpha
coefficient of 0.7 are generally an indicator that the questions on instrument consistently measure
the same construct (Field, 2017; Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). Because Cronbach’s alpha is a
correlation coefficient, similar rules apply for interpreting the strength of the relationship among
the specific questions where the closer to the value of the coefficient is to 1, the stronger the
relationship is among the questions and the construct they measure (Field, 2017; Tavakol &
Dennick, 2011).
While the Long Form of the TSES is slightly more reliable than the Short Form, all
values of Cronbach’s alpha are 0.81 or higher and the overall construct of teaching efficacy still
returns a value of alpha of 0.90 compared to 0.94 for the Long Form (Tschannen-Moran &
Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). I used the Short Form to reduce survey fatigue among respondents. The
Short Form is still a highly reliable way to measure teaching efficacy.
Validity
The instrument originators validated the TSES, finding that it measures both an overall
construct of teaching efficacy and three subscales of efficacy in student engagement,
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instructional strategies, and classroom management (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).
While the instrument measures these subscales accurately, the survey items that correspond to
them can change depending on the group that is taking the assessment (ex. pre-service versus
experienced teachers) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). The Short Form of the survey
is less susceptible to items loading onto to different factors/subscale than the Long Form as are
the responses of the group of educators that meet the selection criteria for this study (Tschannen-
Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).
Data Collection
The data collection methods are similar for the quantitative and qualitative sections of
this study. I collected all data electronically, including interviews. While these procedures
opened additional pathways that hackers or others could access confidential data, they also
minimized the risk of spreading COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, which remains a
major concern at the time of writing.
Procedures
I collected data for the demographic and screener survey using Qualtrics. For information
on the demographic and screener survey (see Appendix B). It is possible to anonymize IP
addresses through this tool, so I used that feature to maintain respondent confidentiality. The
only way I knew the identity of a particular respondent was if they provided contact information
for a follow-up interview. I conducted the semistructured interviews on Zoom.
Confidentiality Parameters
I also asked participants if they would like to use a pseudonym and honor that request.
Some participants chose to use the name they normally do for the study write-up. When that was
the case, I reviewed with the participant measures I am taking to preserve their confidentiality
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and the limitations that exist when using personally identifiable information (PII) in a study. For
more information about the semistructured interview protocol (see Appendix D).
Data Management
For both phases of this study, I used cloud services to store data and minimize the risk
that someone could access confidential information by accessing one of my electronic devices
alone. I also connected to the University of Southern California (USC) virtual private network
(VPN) whenever I accessed saved survey responses, quantitative datasets, participant provided
documents, video/audio recordings, saved interview transcripts, and qualitative datasets. Use of
the USC VPN offered yet another layer of protection for data security. Data remained in a cloud
service that I accessed only while connected the USC VPN for as long as I had access to the
USC network. After my access to the USC network ends, I will store all study documents and
recordings on a physical storage device (ex. USB drive of DVD-RW) that I access only from a
computer that is not connected to the Internet. At this time, I do not have a plan to destroy data as
it could provide the basis for future studies.
Conducting these interviews while connected to the USC VPN minimized the risk of
unauthorized access to recordings. I saved completed interviews automatically to a cloud service,
so the original videos would not live on my personal device. At the conclusion of each interview,
I extracted the audio for each interview and sent them to the Rev.com transcription service to
create official transcripts. Use of the audio from the interview alone also decreased the likelihood
that persons other than the researcher knew the identity of any participants who do not wish to be
known to research.
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Encryption
Recordings and study documents live on a password protected cloud server. I have
informed interview participants that I will retain their data forever, unless they contact me and
tell me to delete the data. Appendix A contains the process for how participants can request
deletion of their data. I also reviewed this process with each interview participant prior to
commencing the interview.
Dissemination of Findings
Study findings will be disseminated in presentations at conferences and through peer-
reviewed research articles. I have promised interview participants that they can always see a
draft of whatever I am planning to disseminate before publication to order clarification or
correction. The interview participants do have the right to request I not publish all or part of the
data they provided: I will respect these requests as part of being an ethical Black American
researcher working with other Black people.
Data Analysis
Due to a low sample size, data analysis occurred in two phases: descriptive (survey data)
and thematic (interview transcripts and participant-provided documents). While the analytical
methods I used in each phase of the study vary greatly, I provide a synthesized analysis at the
end of Chapter Four. Answering the research questions in this study required the findings from
both phases to be optimally meaningful for informing future research and refining Black Queer
and Self-Efficacy theories.
Descriptive Analysis
From responses to the TSES (Appendix C), I conducted descriptive analysis using IBM
SPSS. The descriptive analysis identified response trends in the sample. I used this information
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to determine mean differences for Hypothesis 1. I was not able to test this hypothesis, however,
because my sample size was so low (n = 7). Sample sizes under 30 violate one of the
assumptions of parametric or typical statistical tests (Field, 2017). Nonparametric statistical tests
or tests that can accommodate for violating the assumption in typical tests were also
inappropriate for this analysis because I did not collect enough data to determine if there were
significant patterns in the frequency of certain responses (Field, 2017).
Demographic Data
I collected demographic data using the combined demographic and screener survey
(Appendix B). While the primary purpose of this survey was to verify that participants met the
selection criteria, it also provided information on the relative ages of participants, any theories
they use in their teaching, and Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (see Appendix B). Had there
been a sufficient sample size, these data would have allowed me to test different grouping
variables within the category of Black sexuality educator to support potential explanations of
differences between and among groups in the dataset.
Thematic Analysis
The qualitative dataset consisted of interview transcripts and the documents that
interview participants provided for data triangulation purposes. I coded both the transcripts and
the documents using open codes that emerged from the constant comparative method. I used the
NVivo qualitative analysis program to aid this analysis.
In the constant comparative method, the researcher examines the dataset for patterns,
themes, repeated phrases or elements to identify initial codes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The
researcher continues to compare these initial codes both within and across transcripts and
documents until the codes seem to appropriately address as many themes as possible in the data
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(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Open coding is particularly sensitive to the lived experiences and
identities of the coder (Creswell, 2013; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
For each document participants provided I looked for themes present within the
document. I then looked for themes that were present across documents. I paired this
documentary analysis with a similar process within the interview transcripts. During each
interview, I asked the participants to explain why they had selected that document. I added the
interpretations of the participants about the documents they provided to this documentary
analysis.
Subsequently, I identified themes within and among the five interview transcripts. I
compared the themes that emerged from analysis of the transcripts with those that emerged from
the documentary analysis. This final layer of comparison allowed me to present the themes found
in Chapter Four.
To increase the dependability of the qualitative findings, I utilized member checks after
the first round of coding (within transcript). I asked participants to verify that the transcript
faithfully documented what they said during the interview and provided the opportunity to offer
any clarifications. I also asked if my initial codes for their interview and the document they
provided felt like a match for what they were trying to express. Finally, I provided participants a
preview of Chapters Four and Five prior to the final defense, so that they could see the meaning I
made of their responses in context. I, then, offered another opportunity to provide any necessary
clarifications.
Inferential Analysis
Although I was not able to conduct inferential analysis of the TSES survey data, my goal
was first to use the demographic data to determine if there were any grouping variables for those
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who used culturally relevant teaching sex education designs for teaching Black adolescents and
those that did not. Had there been groups, I would have used them to test for an analysis of
variance (ANOVA) relative to reports of teaching efficacy on the TSES.
Irrespective of any demographic grouping variables appearing in the data, I also planned
to use multivariate linear regression as a way of determining which variables in the demographic
section of the survey might predict a sense of teaching efficacy amongst the sample. Linear
regression uses correlation to explain how much variation in a criterion variable (teaching
efficacy) a different variable might predict. Multivariate linear regression examines variables
individually and collectively to determine how much variation in an indicator variable a group of
variables might predict. Multivariate linear regression was an ideal analytical strategy for this
study because it could have helped identify a causal relationship between teaching identity
factors (use of culturally relevant sex education design) and sense of being able to teach
(teaching efficacy).
An issue with multivariate linear regression, which is based on correlation, is that all
variables in a study will have some relationship to one another (Field, 2017; Kutner et al., 2013).
While checking to see how closely the possible predictor variables are already correlated would
ease this issue during the regression analysis, this procedure can also over explain data (Kutner et
al., 2013). For example, sometimes the inclusion of an additional possible predictor variable can
explain more of the variation in a criterion variable simply because there is more data (Field,
2017; Kutner et al., 2013). A simpler regression formula that explains less variation but shows a
clearer relationship between the possible predictor and the indicator variable might be a better
choice to report (Kutner et al., 2013).
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Reliability, Dependability, and Confirmability
This study must ensure that measures are reliable as well as dependable and confirmable
because of its mixed methods design. Measures and instruments are reliable when they
consistently return values within a specified range for a construct or sub-construct under
investigation (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Reliability is a term most associated with quantitative
research designs, though some researchers use the term for qualitative research as well.
Qualitative researchers usually seek dependability and confirmability of data (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016; Patton, 2002).
Because the primary instrument in qualitative research is the researcher, the assets and
limitations that one brings to the work of analysis is a feature rather than flaw or evidence of bias
in interpretation (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). However, certain social locations and positionalities
that the researcher occupies can impact both the data they collect as well as the meaning they
make from it (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Thus, dependability—the
ability to trust that participants provided their input consensually—and confirmability—the
ability to demonstrate that the interpretations the researcher makes appropriately reflect the
information in the dataset as well as the context and meaning making process of the
participant—are essential (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Inferential Reliability
This study used two surveys from which to draw inferences: a demographic screener and
the TSES. The demographic screener provided information for grouping variables (see Appendix
B) and is not a scale from which I attempted to draw inferences. The TSES, however, is a highly
reliable instrument that measures teaching efficacy through three subscales and as an overall
construct.
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Dependability
Data are dependable when participants freely provide them and they are actually useful
for answering the research questions the study poses (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Patton, 2002).
The dependability strategies I used for this study are triangulation or providing multiple points of
data from which to draw conclusions. All participants in the interview phase of the study
provided a document which reflects they believe reflects their approach to teaching and
participated in a semistructured interview of 60–90 minutes. The semistructured interviews
allowed me to follow up and ask clarifying questions about responses to the interview protocol
(see Appendix D). The documents the participants provided allow me to check the interview
transcript against something participants created without the time pressure of an interview. I also
used my notes and recollections from the interview in the data triangulation process to provide
another point of access for supporting dependability of the data collection.
Confirmability
Triangulation of data and perspectives also help to confirm that the themes I identify as
emerging from the data exist in the dataset and reflect the meaning making processes of the
participants. In addition to the triangulation of interview transcripts, documents, and interview
notes to identify themes, I also utilized member checks to confirm the accuracy of the transcripts
and the emerging and final themes. I offered each participant three opportunities to review
interview phase data: the raw transcript, interpretation of themes that emerged from their
document and interview, final themes I identified for their section of Chapter Four. This process
of including participants in the data analysis process confirms the interpretations work
appropriately for the participants as well as communicate meaningfully to an audience larger
than the participants (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
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Validity, Credibility, and Transferability
Instruments and measures in this study must also be valid or accurately measure the
concept or construct they purport to measure (Field, 2017). For qualitative studies the concern is
that the findings are credible and transferable, meaning that participants and their communities as
well as the research community can believe the interpretations presented do emerge from the
dataset in way that is personally or contextually meaningful (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Transferability increases the stakes for qualitative research because it is not enough to conduct
research on humans or communities without the ability to apply that knowledge to new or
endemic situations (S. Wilson, 2008).
Inferential Validity
I did not conduct an inferential analysis in this study. For more information on the
validity of the TSES, which was the primary quantitative instrument for the study see the section
on the Assessment Tool. With a larger sample size, I would have also performed multivariate
linear regression to attempt to predict the degree of self-efficacy Black sexuality educators
reported based on whether they used culturally relevant sex education designs. I would have
validated the model by describing alternate models and making a case for the model that best
predicted the degree of self-efficacy the educators reported (Field, 2017).
Credibility
Factors that increase credibility in the qualitative phase of this study are similar to those
that increase dependability and confirmability: member checks and collecting multiple sources of
data (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In addition to allowing participants
to review emerging interpretation both for accuracy and clarity, I will do my best to use the
pithiest and most descriptive parts of interview transcripts and the documents participants
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provide to illustrate themes. Rich descriptive data allow for a “gut check” so that readers can
identify the theme themselves or at least understanding how I, as the researcher, arrived at that
theme even if they do not agree (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Qualitative data analysis and interpretation are always acts of co-construction, so it is important
to let readers and participants into the meaning making process (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Transferability
Although qualitative research findings are usually not intended to be nor can they be
generalizable, they should still have some real-world applications (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016;
Patton, 2002). Transferability can refer both to findings addressing a particular problem of
practice or context in depth or to the audience or community the findings address or are intended
for (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In this study, I guaranteed the transferability of the findings by
working with other Black sexuality educators who can apply whatever we discover to their
professional practice. Moreover, at the center of this study, is identifying the practices that lead
to the best learning and sexual health outcomes for Black adolescents. This multigenerational
dynamic at the core of the project ensures both wide interest in the conclusions and
recommendations that emerge while it demands these implications for change be meaningful and
applicable.
Conclusion
In this chapter, I discussed the attributes of quantitative and qualitative research designs
as well as the types of questions these designs help answer. I then made a justification for the use
of a mixed methods approach to answering the primary research question of What is the lived
experience of educators in providing culturally relevant sex education to Black adolescents? I
continued by describing the potential participants for the study and I would collect, protect, and
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analyze the data they provided. The following chapters examine the data that was collected and
what we can learn from the responses of study participants. Chapter Five, additionally,
reconnects these findings to theory and offers recommendations for further study.
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Chapter Four: Findings
The response rate to the survey was low. While I verified and contacted 240 people for
the survey, most did not take it. Eighty-nine people accessed the survey but did not complete it.
An additional nine people completed the demographic survey and screener but were disqualified
because they did not meet the selection criteria or offered a duplicate response. Only seven
respondents completed the entire set of surveys. Table 3 provides a summary of the
demographics of the quantitative sample.

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Table 3:
Demographic Attributes of TSES Respondents
Attribute n Percentage
Years of teaching
3–4 years 1 14.29%
5+ years 6 85.71%
Years of teaching sex education
3–4 years 1 14.29%
5+ years 6 85.71%
Years of teaching sex education to
Black adolescents

3–4 years 1 14.29%
5+ years 6 85.71%
Age
25–34 1 14.29%
35–44 3 42.86%
45–54 2 28.57%
55–64 1 14.29%
Race–Ethnicity
Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
Black or African American 7 100%
White 1 14.29%
Use learning theory in teaching
Yes 6 85.71%
No 1 14.29%
Use public health theory in teaching
Yes 6 85.71%
No 1 14.29%

Note. Respondents were allowed to select more than one race–ethnicity.

All five participants in the qualitative phase of this study were also respondents in the
quantitative phase. Because there were more respondents in the quantitative phase of the study, it
is difficult, though not impossible to match survey responses to the participants: I do not attempt
this process. All five respondents are Black femmes who have taught sex education with a
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variety of groups but focus on Black communities. Each participant has taught sex education to
Black adolescents for 5 or more years.
Excepting one participant, Maxine (a pseudonym), all other participants requested to be
referred to by the names they use in their work. I use the first name of participants only for the
purposes of this write-up. Moreover, rather than provide a profile of each participant, I offer
additional contextual information as it is necessary to understand responses that support the
specific interpretations I feel answer the research questions. Table 4 provides a summary of the
demographics in the qualitative sample. The table includes gender information because it
emerged from the interviews although I neither requested this data nor does it answer a specific
research question.

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Table 4:
Demographic Attributes of Interview Participants
Attribute n
Years of teaching
3–4 years
5+ years 5
Years of teaching sex education
3–4 years
5+ years 5
Years of teaching sex education to
Black adolescents

3–4 years
5+ years 5
Age
25–34
35–44 2
45–54 2
55–64 1
Race–Ethnicity
Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
Black or African American 5
White 1
Gender
Femme 5
Other Gender

Note. Respondents were allowed to select more than one race–ethnicity.

Research Question 1: Do Black Sexuality Educators Who Incorporate Learning Theory
and Culturally Relevant Frameworks for Sex Education Design in Their Practice With
Black Adolescents Have a Higher Sense of Teaching Efficacy?
The hypothesis associated with Research Question 1 was Black sexuality educators who
incorporate a learning theory and culturally relevant framework for sex education design in their
practice with Black adolescents will have a high level of teaching efficacy as measured by the
Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale.
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Due to the small sample size, it is not possible to accept or reject this hypothesis.
Consequently, it is also not possible to answer the research question. Frequency data from the
respondents, however, show that each educator ranked themselves on average above the
midpoint for efficacy in all three domains measured. While I cannot draw a conclusion from
these results, the pattern is promising for a future study that would be able to test Hypothesis 1.
Figures 2–4 display the count of average ratings of efficacy in the domains of student
engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management (see Figures). Most respondents
rated themselves 7 or higher on average out of 9 points, which indicates a sense of having a high
degree of influence over outcomes in the given domain. The small sample size combined with
the emerging pattern of high ratings point to a need for ongoing study.
Research Question 2: What Is the Lived Experience of Black Sexuality Educators in
Providing Culturally Relevant Sex Education to Black Adolescents?
The findings from the quantitative phase of this study are insufficient to answer this
research question, due to the low sample size. However, qualitative data provide a few themes
that offer clearer answers. In general, the participants in this study expressed a deep sense of
purpose in doing this work. Sometimes that sense of purpose showed up as being a type of
intercultural connector and at other times, it seemed to be a desire to serve a specific population
or subpopulation of Black peoples. Many of the participants also detailed something like a call or
origin story for leading sex education that reached back into their own adolescence.
Obligation
Several participants spoke about their sense of obligation to working with Black
adolescents. Moreover, some were more specific to mention their work with young Black
women and girls. For example, Lori said:
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[The students] come first. And so, I’m always thinking about how can I best serve the
students from where they sit. So, for example, when I mentioned earlier about the fact
that there’s this narrative… notion of being fast. And it really bothers me. And so, when
I’m teaching my young women of color, my adolescents, we have a discussion about that.
This narrative that gets pushed in the Black community around Black girls being fast, the
over sexualization of Black girls. And I think that’s important to bring into when I’m
educating them, and get them to look at it [differently].
Catasha, reflecting on her qualifications to work with Black adolescents, had a similar sentiment:
I’m a licensed sexual educator. I do take a lot of classes, and all of that stuff. And I
understand this psychology of people, but I don’t have a degree in that. But I can’t leave
them out there with nothing. They have nothing, if they don’t have me.
They’re now resorting to anal sex to avoid being detected for having sex. And so, they’re
creating these roundabout ways to do things that they don’t have to do, but they don’t
know that because they’re children and they’re not supposed to be figuring that out by
themselves.
Erica, also expressed her sense of obligation to represent sexual experiences that might otherwise
be absent for Black adolescents:
I do my best to make sure that the people who are in there that don’t know or are so
questioning feel supported. I shut all side conversations and giggles, especially when
we’re talking about that topic, I shut it down really, really quickly, because in the Black
community it can get really mean. Those messages and experiences stay with people for
forever, forever. I don’t want those experiences to exist in a space that I’m facilitating.
So, I’m very big on, if this is something that you don’t believe in, if this is something that
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you don’t have the bandwidth to take in, then you can excuse yourself for the day,
because you’re not going to be in here potentially disrespecting any of your classmates. I
don’t shame them for that. It’s just a factual: If this is something you can’t do, then please
leave because this isn’t the class for you
Connectors
Another theme that emerged for participants was a sense of being a connector for
information about human sexuality and sexual practices for Black adolescents. Catasha and
Maxine best illustrated this theme. Catasha, for example, explained her role in the context of
other people working in sexual health professions. She saw her role as a bridge:
All I am is a bridge. So, when you come to me with your issue, I give you all the other
ways people have handled this and you can try those ways and see which one works for
you. That’s my job. So, each new interaction gives me a new way or a new resource to
use going forward.
Because sometimes sex ed is [pauses]. So, I look at it like this. There is sex therapy and
there is sex education. The sex therapy is the why. The sex therapy is you [pauses] what
do I need to do? Like this is what’s stopping me from being able to live my life. I am the
how. So, when you want to figure out why you want to get fucked in a glory hole, you
need to go to therapy. When you want to out how to get fucked in a glory hole and where
the glory hole fuckers are, that’s when you call me. So, I am the piece before it can go
wrong. I am the piece before it goes right, or it goes wrong.
While this specific image of a bridge was not shared by any of the other participants, similar
understandings of working to connect disparate pieces of culture, sexuality and agency did show
up. Maxine understood her role in a rural community as an educator in all circumstances:
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And so, I went to my local pharmacy, which I live in the country, so it is a pharmacy
where you walk in and white coat and behind the counter and that whole thing. And I
said, “Hey I need to buy some condoms. Do you have female or internal condoms?” And
they had no idea what I was talking about. And literally the condoms were one brand,
Trojan, behind the counter. So, here I am, a woman of a particular age, but I can only
imagine a young person going in and having to not just have the conversation of, “I need
to buy condoms,” but then to not even know that there are other options other than. It
doesn’t sit well with me. … So, I feel like there’s so much more to be done to inform
young people of what their options are and the resources available to them.
So, I stood there and I was like, I could buy the condoms and leave or I could engage in
the meaningful conversation. And like, moneybag yo, I was like, “I got time today.” So, I
stood there and had the conversation about what an internal or female condom is and why
they’re important for them to also carry and to share what a dental dam is just on a very
basic level. … But, when you think that the high school is right there and what resources
are they really providing? It amazes me.
Maxine’s anecdote also illustrates a sense of obligation, although a sense of obligation to the
wider community rather than exclusively to Black adolescents. Her sense of needing to connect
young Black people both to information about sexual health resources and to ensure that the
wider community is prepared for those questions is clear.
Origin Stories
The final theme that surfaced to answer this research question was a sense of call or being
pressed into sex education with Black adolescents. Erica and Lori both had clear moments of
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being called into this work as adolescents. Robin, whose work focuses more squarely on
disability and sexuality, also shared how being disabled called her into the field of sex education.
Lori and Erica had similar stories of Black peers coming to them with questions about
sex and sexuality when they were teenagers. Lori shared,
So, when my mother suspected that I was doing stuff with my boyfriend, she took me to a
clinic. I grew up in Harlem. And she took me to a clinic… and there was this nurse there,
Black nurse, and she was so good. And she answered all my questions about sex and birth
control. My mother’s thing was she didn’t want me to get pregnant. … She just gave me
such good information, so much so that I took my two best friends back. And I think I
want to say that’s where I got my first contraception was there, and I was like 15. …
The way that she taught me, us, about birth control, and it wasn’t just that, too, which I
appreciated. It wasn’t just sort of the mechanics. It was also talking to us about how we
felt as young Black women about to embark on sexual experiences. And I’m thinking that
was kind of unheard of at that time. And that was a long time.
Lori’s story tells of receiving just-in-time information that she continues to reflect on and
connect back to in her practice as an educator today. Erica also connects to her adolescent sex
educator origins but from a different direction. She offers:
So, when I was in high school, people used to come to me all the time for advice about
their relationships and dating and sex stuff. I was like, “I don’t know why y’all are asking
me.” I don’t have any boyfriends. I’m not dating anybody. I’m not sexually active, but I
found the CDC website really quickly because of my friend’s questions. So, when I went
to undergrad, I knew I wanted to do something in health education.
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Erica goes on to provide some more context about why she believes her peers asked her
questions about sex. In the context of describing how Black girls are sexualized at a young age,
she adds:
I happened to know more information about sex and sexuality, I knew more because my
friends were talking to me, not because I was having sex. But the assumption was that I
knew because I was engaging in the behavior, but that was only true because I was the
Black girl who had hips and boobs and an ass.
Lori and Erica felt called to work with Black adolescents because of positive experiences in
being able to connect friends to resources and information. They also indicated that their
personal experiences of knowing how to access this information and these resources made them
want to help others. Robin describes a similar scenario to Lori’s that coalesces in working in sex
education after she acquired a disability. She mentions
I remember that my first sex ed teacher, I had in ninth grade, and we’re talking the 80s,
late 80s, she was a Black woman. We had 9 weeks of sex ed. Because at that time
Arkansas was running neck and neck with Mississippi with the highest teen pregnancy
rates. I remember her name was Ms. Fitzpatrick. And I remember Ms. Fitzpatrick, I still
even remember how I learned about the clitoris is because she showed the picture, like
the scientific drawing. And then she just told us, I remember she was like, it looks like a
little bean. And I can still remember that. That was the 80s. But that is the impact that a
Black woman [had on me].
Robin adds that as a Black woman with a disability that she also does this work because:
Talking to young people about sexuality, but also the talking about disability in that as
well, because I have noticed that the experience is different, how you’re treated. Like, for
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instance, somebody who is White, able-bodied, gay, is going to be treated differently than
somebody who is Black, in a wheelchair, and gay, those kind of things. Also, I believe in
being the representation too, that I went to see in the world.
The feelings of obligation, being cross-cultural connectors, and even the need to represent so the
experiences of future generations of Black people will be easier with respect to sex education
were important for the participants in this study. There is a sense of multigenerational
accountability. These feelings also carry into the participants’ choice of learning theories.
Research Question 3: Which Learning Theories Do Black Sexuality Educators Use in Their
Practice?
Table 5 shows respondents’ answers to the prompt “Please provide the name of the
learning theory or theories you use most in your practice of teaching.” Only five respondents
completed this prompt. Again, because of the low number of responses, I cannot draw
generalizable conclusions about the answers. The responses provided a meaningful foundation
for the qualitative phase of the study where participants elaborated on some of the theories
present in the table. Of note is the repeated mention of social learning theories, as social
cognitive theory is one of the guiding theoretical frameworks for this study.

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Table 5:
Theories Black Sexuality Educators Use in Teaching Black Adolescents Sex Education
Respondent ID Theories present in practice of teaching
Respondent 1 PLISSIT, disability justice, crip theory
Respondent 2 As a black [sic] sex educator, I use connectivism and cognitivism
mostly. I specifically teach a technical form of Sex Ed [sic] that
focuses on what’s actually happening in the body during the stages of
sex. My practice with kids mostly covers learning their bodies and
assent, with a much heavier lean on the later. This approach to sex ed
requires a development of emotional and physical intelligence. They
need to be able to source and apply information because all people
(and bodies) are not the same. What is pleasurable for some, may be
intolerable to another partner. Learning to read social cues and
practicing consent is crucial in adolescence. Knowing how to talk to
partners to understand their desires ensures you aren’t causing
additional harm by centering only your needs. It’s important to raise
children who can think critically and humanely about sexuality and
it’s [sic] many forms of expression.
Respondent 3 Social learning theory, harm reduction theory
Respondent 4 Social cognitive theory, theory of planned behavior, transtheoretical
model, social learning theory, among others

Respondent 5 I use emotional strategies.

Social Learning Theories
Many participants confirmed the use of social learning theories, especially social
cognitive theory. Robin, a disabled sex educator, spouse, and mother in her 40s expanded on the
use of the permission, limited information, specific suggestions, intensive therapy (PLISSIT)
model of sex therapy in the classroom:
I just know that I use it. The whole permission about giving talking and then of course,
the information. I give information that is specifically about that. Some basic information
about what we’re talking, about what we’re addressing. But then, also, I’m like, I also
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have links, or I have further things. If you want to know more about it, here are resources.
I’m a big fan of that in my talks and stuff. And then, specific suggestions. Because I am
all about actionable things. I like to talk about a problem, but then I’m solutions based.
So, I like to have the solutions.
And then, there’s intensive therapy. That part, as far as therapy goes, because I’m not a
therapist, but I do incorporate things about feelings and about emotions and address
mental health there because your physical and your mental, they all work together. So,
even though, like I said, I’m not a counselor or a therapist, a licensed counselor or
therapist, I do acknowledge the emotions, especially when we’re talking about disability
and sexuality. I do acknowledge all of those things; I acknowledge the human feelings
and emotions and maybe fear and trauma and things like that. But hopefully providing
people with tools though, in order to navigate that.
Robin was also the only participant to mention disability justice as a specific framework that she
integrated into her teaching.
Holistic Approaches
Catasha, a married sex educator in her 30s, preferred a more interactive and experiential
model. Many participants, however, mentioned the idea of teaching Black adolescents in a
holistic way. For example, Erica, a mixed-race sex educator, spouse, and mother in her mid-30s
offered:
We focus on the holistic view of sexuality and address its connection to our sense of
power and agency over our bodies. The most radical thing we can do as people with
Black bodies is to consistently reclaim and show up for our bodies and our sexuality.
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Nothing upsets the perceived balance of White supremacy more than operating in our
defiance to its control.
Robin similarly stated:
I feel like disability justice and PLISSIT, allow me to address things, like I said,
holistically, because using those frameworks together has me look at the issue in its
entirety in all of the ways that things are impacted. Looking at financial, looking at
ability, looking at interdependence, looking at the impact of race and gender and sexual
orientation, all of those things. I think for me, it just carries over. I feel like it works
together very well, for me, at least.
And Lori, a professor from New York City echoed these ideas:
I think my favorite theory is the social cognitive theory because decisions around
sex and sexuality, to me, they’re not made in a vacuum. And so, I need to take
into consideration environment, community, how all of those things impact the
decisions that young people make around sex and sexuality. So, for example, the
norms that exist in the adolescent community. I think there’s certain things that
young people engage in or do not engage in based on those social norms. So, to
me, the social cognitive theory allows me to look at it from a more holistic
standpoint versus just the individual.
The theme of sex education as holistic shows up again in the context of the curriculum models
that participants use to teach. I address this point more in the exploration of Research Question 5.
In general, the Black sexuality educators I interviewed preferred learning theories and
intervention models that allowed them work with Black adolescents as whole and complex
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beings. While the specific methods for employing those models varied, the value of the whole
learner was central to these activities.
Research Question 4: Which Culturally Relevant Frameworks Do Black Sexuality
Educators Use in Their Practice?
If we understand disabled people as having specific cultural identity which is both
separate from and interacts with other cultural identities disabled people have, only Robin, who
intentionally uses disability justice to inform her work, used a named culturally relevant
framework. The other participants in this study used a mix of specific practices to ensure access
based on dis/ability as well as socioeconomics, religious origin, and race–ethnicity. From the
interviews, it is not clear whether the participants broadly do not use named frameworks for
cultural relevancy or if they have so thoroughly integrated these frames into their practice as
educators that it is just part of teaching for them.
The most common culturally relevant practice for participants was bringing Black
adolescents’ experience and understanding of Black popular culture into the classroom. While
reflecting on an experience of having to perform cultural translation to participate, Catasha offers
a justification for the need to use examples and cultural referents that speak to Black adolescents:
I remember the very first sex ed class I took, they were talking about Dirty Dancing. I
was in this group and these women were just really fawning over Dirty Dancing. I’ve
seen Dirty Dancing once in my life and I can’t tell you what it was about. I don’t know
who was in it. I don’t know any of those people, but they were flushed. So, then they got
talking about this butt scene, his butt shot scene and they’re talking and they’re all flush.
And I’m like, “I don’t know.” So, then what I have to do as a Black American, is I have
to go into my bank, in my registry, and try to find a memory of mine that makes me feel
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that way. So, I had to dig, and I dug for the Jason’s Lyric memory. You remember when
they had the sex in the grass? When I was a kid, hairy butt, I was like, “Okay, so now I
know how these women feel.” But, imagine having to do that all the time.
You know, as someone moving in this Black world and being a Black American, we have
to dig, and we have to store, because we have to be aware of the things that [White
people] like, and that they watch and that they do. But they don’t have to be aware of the
things that we like, and we do. So, when you’re talking about sex ed and you’re talking
about Black people, you automatically need to gain a sort of trust. If I walk into a room
talking about Dirty Dancing, nobody’s going to trust me.
Erica similarly adds, “So you really got to think about how you’re tailoring the work that you’re
doing for the community you’re educating, because again, if you’re doing role playing and the
scenarios are not realistic for them, or if you’re giving them examples and they’re not relatable,
then the information is not going to sync with them.”
The concept of being trustworthy or gaining trust both as a culturally relevant practice
and as a reason for engaging in culturally relevant practices when teaching sex education to
Black adolescents showed up repeatedly for all participants. Catasha continues
I believe that, especially in sex ed, that when you’re teaching Black people that they need
to trust you. We can’t get regular medical help. We can’t get regular assistance. So, they
need to believe that you really do care and that this isn’t a scam and that blah, blah, blah,
or whatever.
It is important for Black communities to know how sexuality educators are going to care for
them in a way that values the community as it already exists.
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Many participants also mentioned how they address the religious backgrounds of learners
in the classroom. Lori, the professor from New York City, who also considered the regions of
origin for the primarily Black girls she works with stated
With many of the young women who are from… Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal.
With those young women, and for many of them, they come from the Muslim families,
and so I have to be mindful of that when I’m talking, when I’m doing my education, and I
have girls in the room who are from the continent, who are from the Caribbean, and my
Black girls that are from the U.S. The young women from the continent are very, very
[pause] They’re very reserved, especially if they haven’t been here in this country for
very long. Now, depending upon how long they’ve been here, I see them really thinking
and behaving more like the Black girls that are from here, the African American girls.
But initially, there’s this reticence to even talk about such things because it’s so taboo.
And I know that all Islam is not about the subjugation of women. But, with many of these
young women that I’ve worked with in the past who are from Africa, I got the sense that
these are things that we don’t dare talk about at all. So, my approach with them is to
acknowledge the challenge and the difficulties around talking about these things,
especially when, from a cultural and a religious perspective, it’s taboo. But I want to give
them a voice in the room because sometimes they kind of shrink back. And I want to
make sure that they have a voice.
Catasha also addressed religious considerations. She felt that religion was an important part of
Black and mixed-race cultures to understand to meet learners where they are. She provides a
poignant example about assisting teens by providing more information about their religious
context:
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So, one of my best examples is King James. So, everybody knows that King James was a
raging homosexual. He had all these lovers, and all these things, but he was still used. I
don’t believe in all of that. I don’t find it necessary, but I don’t knock people who do.
Because however you need to survive, that’s what you need to do. So, when I talk to
[teens], I talk to them about these people that lived this life, but they still were very
important to the culture.
She also offered, “I don’t delete people’s faith from their sexuality, but I don’t make it a
requirement for you to be a sexual being.”
Research Question 5: Which Sex Education Design Do Black Sexuality Educators Use in
Their Practice?
All participants used some variation of a comprehensive sex education model. They used
different terms to describe some of their specific methodologies but none used an abstinence-
only model. Two themes emerged to add nuance to the models participants used: experiential
and risk-reduction.
Maxine provided the most succinct version of why all the other participants used a
comprehensive model:
I am comprehensive sex ed. I do not believe that in 2022 abstinence-only education is
realistic. So, I have a more holistic approach and age-appropriate approach that talks
about, from the lens of healthy relationships, both platonic and romantic and not focusing
simply on STIs and unplanned pregnancies. But just healthy relationships from the
beginning, through consent, through making healthy choices. So, a much more
comprehensive approach than simply, “don’t have sex.” We saw the “don’t do drugs” and
how that went, so.
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Essentially, abstinence-only models do not offer enough sophistication for the Black sexuality
educators in this study to address the needs of Black adolescents effectively. For some, this need
for sophistication also clarifies why they use experiential activities such as role plays and other
dialogic scenarios.
Experiential
Catasha and Erica both discussed how important it was for them to get into working
through the sexual health scenarios Black adolescents realistically encounter. Catasha frames her
learning activities this way:
My approach to sex ed in general is that it is a series of processes. We’ve turned sex ed
into this, or sex into, this magical process that happens under these binary constrictions
and, if you do it perfectly, under these constrictions, it will be perfect. If you wait and
you get married and you love your partner, you can do whatever you want to do, if you
make it to that point. But, if you mess it up before then, that’s why your sex life is messed
up because you didn’t do it under these perfect binary conditions. But that’s not the truth.
Everything is a series of processes. People who are not married do deserve the freedom to
enjoy their sexuality.
For Catasha, sex education needs to be experiential so that learners understand that there are a
wide variety of sexual pathways they can take. Erica had a slightly different rationale, here she
explains why she does not use a risk or harm-reduction model:
So, just kind of helping [learners] deal with that and helping them deal with the
conversations that they’re going to have to have, because they’re the ones that are going
to know if their bodies need help because the periods are so unbearable. Their parents
aren’t always going to know that information. So, then how do you bring up that
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conversation? Those sorts of things. So, it’s very [trails off]. Again, it’s still very
conversational. It’s more information-, knowledge-based. Again, a comprehensive sex ed
way versus risk reduction. I don’t talk about it with statistics because they don’t care.
They don’t care about numbers because, when you’re in high school, you feel like you’re
invincible. You don’t think anything’s going to attach to you.
For Erica, connecting with Black adolescents so that they will continue to be in dialogue with her
about their sexuality was more important than changing specific risky sexual behaviors.
Risk-Reduction
Lori, conversely, employs a harm-reduction model because it was important in her
context for Black adolescents to reduce risky sexual behaviors. She also mentions why she
avoids abstinence-only curricula:
When I was working in HIV/AIDS education and prevention, because for many of the
folks that I dealt with, it was really about, okay, so you’re going to engage in this
particular sexual behavior. How can we reduce your risk of contracting HIV or another
STI? And I’m just a big proponent of harm-reduction in general, harm-reduction as it
relates to drugs. And so, reducing the risk, that’s huge.
And I know for a lot of the parents that I’ve dealt with, that even though they may sign
their kid up for the program that I’m working with, or even in the schools with a
curriculum that leaves a lot to be desired, a lot of parents, they want us to really push the
abstinence thing, and the abstinence-only, period. But I incorporate all of those things.
The specific risks that Lori’s learners were dealing with were significant enough that she
continues to integrate that model into her teaching. None of the other participants mentioned
using risk-reduction in their educative practice.
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Research Question 6: How Do Black Sexuality Educators Understand Black Adolescents in
Their Practice?
All participants mentioned that Black adolescents were knowledgeable, curious, and just
wanted to the know basics. In this section, I only provide two selections from the interviews
because they were so salient. These quotations highlight that often what Black adolescents
already know about sex and sexuality and what they want and need to know fail to line up with
adult expectations or assumptions.
First, we return to Catasha, who states:
So, I love these kids. I don’t care what nobody else say. I love they smart little mouths.
They are witty. They just don’t [pauses] they have not built the processes that they need
to survive, but they have the idea, and I think that the most important part of working
with these teens is not assuming that they care about the in-and-out part. The actual body-
to-body, the actual penis entering the vagina. That is important, but it is not the most
[pauses] like, if you let them ask their questions, that will probably be two questions.
Everything else will be well, “Why do boys hit me when they like me?” and “Why do my
periods stink?”
And “Why my balls be” [trails off]. It’s all these other questions that really have nothing.
So, I think the most important aspect is leaving your judgment at home and being fair
when you’re talking to kids about sex. Because if you just talk to them about condoms,
when the condom fails, that’s when they think it’s over. So, talk to them about condoms,
then talk to them about what happens when the condom fails. Talk to them about the
process of what to do. If you do have that, what kind of steps can you take to protect
yourself from HIV, from pregnancy, from any other kind of STIs? There are [sic] a list of
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things that adults have access to when we it up that we need to make available for
children as well.
Robin offered a similar reflection while reflecting on a particular encounter with Black
adolescents and sexual themes in the song “Post to Be” by the recording artist Omarion:
I found out from teaching youth, they know a lot, they know a lot more than I thought
they did. Because I’m thinking of once again, booty again, but there was like, one time
there was a question, and it was like, “Why do they say eat the booty like groceries?
What does booty taste like?” You had to know that that was from a song and the music
that they’re listening to, from artists. So, they’re going to have questions about the
activities that they’re hearing referenced or things like that. It’s because like it’s the
generational because I mean, yes, I’m Gen X and we had songs talking about stuff, but
we didn’t have anything talking about eating the booty like groceries. …
But I also feel like it’s important. Like in one thing in disability, I know that they have,
“Nothing about us without us.” So, I plan to, I mean, my kid’s not going to be a teenager
forever, soon they’re going to be a young adult, but I still plan to, as long as I plan to, if I
want to teach people, then I would like to make sure that I have the thoughts and opinions
and voice of somebody of that generation, so that I can, in order to educate. I believe in
listening to youth.
For Catasha and Robin, Black adolescents have agency and educators should follow the lead of
their curiosity and questions. These themes were consistent for the other participants. It was
essential to their understanding of Black adolescents to balance providing information that they
might not have with teasing out the approach of the young people’s generational cohort to
working through complex human relationships and consenting practices. It is easier to respond to
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what Black adolescents need from sex education when sexuality educators listen to the questions
they are asking and the information they want to know.
Summary
In this study, I was not able to draw conclusions about the relationship between using a
culturally relevant teaching approach and teaching efficacy. However, there was robust
qualitative data to answer questions about the lived experience of Black sexuality educators. The
participants in this study were all Black femmes and many had an origin story for working in sex
education that traced back to their adolescence. An approach to Black adolescents that centered
their questions and concerns in sex education was important to all the participants whether they
used a risk-reduction approach or a more holistic or experiential one. In the end, what was
important for all the participants was truly responding to the sex education needs of Black
adolescents.

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Chapter Five: Discussion
This chapter ties findings in Chapter Four to the literature I first introduced in Chapter
Two. I also take some time to compare the findings to the conceptual framework and offer any
updates to the model the study seems to imply. The chapter concludes with recommendations for
practice and additional directions for research with culturally relevant sex education for Black
adolescents.
Discussion of Findings
I was not able to answer Research Question 1. Do Black sexuality educators who
incorporate learning theory and culturally relevant frameworks for sex education design in their
practice with Black adolescents have a higher sense of teaching efficacy? For this reason, I will
not discuss those findings in this chapter. Consequently, the current study does not inform the
literature on self-efficacy, teaching efficacy, or even the conceptual framework of Black
sexuality educator efficacy.
From the qualitative component of the study, there do seem to be some connections to the
Black queer theories. I discuss these connections in context subsequently. The current study also
did not have any connection to imaginal experiences, which were central to Black queer theories
as well as to my conceptual framework (Cohen, 1997; Maddux, 1995; Tsang et al., 2012).
Although there is no support from the findings, I believe that this area of self-efficacy and Black
queer theories are promising for future studies. A discussion of supported findings follows.
Black Queer Theories
The importance of pleasure was supported by this study. In particular, finding wealth and
joy in sexuality from the perspective of Black culture was important to the participants in the
study (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Inviting Black adolescents to enjoy their agency as well as
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their own eroticism showed up for several of the participants (Darieck, 2010; Lorde, 1984;
Walcott, 2005). Similarly, the limitless potential for making new and different sexual decisions
even after an assault or a sexual scenario that brought pain was important for participants
(brown, 2019; Lorde, 1984; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). This study supports the primary
components of the body of Black queer theories.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
All the pedagogy that participants in this study used were culturally relevant because they
built on and employed the cultural wealth learners bring to the learning context (Abe et al.,
2016a; Cameron et al., 2020a; Hamlin, 2013; Hyland, 2010a; Yosso, 2005). While I did not ask
participants about how Black adolescents benefitted from these designs, it was clear from their
responses that the participants felt culturally relevant pedagogy were essential for working with
Black adolescents and Black communities. This study does not add to the literature on increased
condom use, decreased teen pregnancy and teen parenting, and decreased STI spread among
BIPOC adolescents and into adulthood (Abe et al., 2016a; Aronson & Laughter, 2020; Cameron
et al., 2020a; Kattari et al., 2021). While participants did use sex education designs that might
lead to these outcomes, I did not investigate a relationship between culturally relevant pedagogy
and learner outcomes from participating in comprehensive sex education curricula.
Sex Education for Black Adolescents
Finally, all participants used comprehensive sex education designs. These designs
use peer-reviewed research and lead to increased condom use, decreased teen pregnancy and teen
parenting rates, and decreased HIV/STI spread among adolescents (Jozkowski & Crawford,
2016). As described, the way participants employed these designs, were also effective because
they centered the unique and varying characteristics of the learners, including race–ethnicity,
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socioeconomic class, gender, sexual and romantic orientation, dis/ability, geographic location,
and preferences in learning facilitator (Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016) Abe et al.,
2016b; Hoefer & Hoefer, 2017; K. L. Wilson et al., 2018). This study adds to the body of
literature that bridges what is already known about the unmet sexual health needs of Black
adolescents and emerging culturally relevant sex education
Recommendations for Practice
Recommendations for increasing the cultural relevance of sex education for Black
adolescents follows. Overall, culturally relevant sex education for the population of interest
requires specific changes to the framing and definition of sex education curricula. However,
there are new tools that sexuality educators also need to live out their role more effectively.
The recommendations fall into three broad interrelated domains for implementation:
definitions, praxis, and methodology. It is necessary to change our definition of what
comprehensive sex education includes periodically to ensure that we are responding to the needs
of learners. The praxis domain is about reflective practices and tools sexuality educators can use
to self-assess how culturally relevant their teaching is. Finally, changes in methodology include
specific tools and practices, such as praxis, sexuality educators need to use or adopt to provide
culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents. These changes, in turn, might also
influence how we define comprehensive sex education.
Recommendation 1: Include “Pleasure-Based” as a Component of the Definition of
Comprehensive Sex Education
The importance of pleasure in sex education was apparent for all participants in the study.
Their concern with this topic was consistent with several studies advocating for centering
pleasure in sex education curricula (Blunt-Vinti et al., 2018; Castañeda, 2017; Cooper & Watson,
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2015; Koepsel, 2016). Two of these studies detail the role pleasure-based sex education plays in
reducing intimate partner violence for young Black women in particular (Blunt-Vinti et al., 2018;
Cooper & Watson, 2015). For these reasons, it becomes clear that including the term “pleasure-
based” as a component of the definition of comprehensive sex education would pull the field
toward designs that are culturally relevant for Black adolescents and other communities of color.
Include that a component of comprehensive sex education is that is pleasure-based in future
discussion of the topic and in the field.
Recommendation 2: Develop Tools for Sexuality Educators to Consider How Their Race–
Ethnicity Impacts the Learning of Black Adolescents
Race–ethnicity (see Definition of Terms) is a social construct that impacts how learners
and educators understand themselves politically, culturally, and intrapersonally. Black educators
generally spend much time reflecting on what it means to be capable as an educator (Farinde-Wu
& Griffen, 2019; Hempstead et al., 2018; Hines III, 2008; Samuels et al., 2021). This form of
Black teaching efficacy coupled with domain-specific knowledge supports culturally relevant
teaching for a variety of marginalized learning populations from English-language learners to
various children and youth of color (Callaway, 2017; Genç et al., 2016; Karimi & Nikbakht,
2019; Neumayer DePiper et al., 2021; Payakachat et al., 2019; Watt et al., 2017; Yoon & Martin,
2019). As a portion of the conceptual framework of Black Sexuality Educator Efficacy is about
the relationship between belief and action, tools that allow sexuality educators to reflect on their
beliefs and actions about race–ethnicity in the classroom should impact their ability to deliver
effective sex education for Black adolescents. Develop these tools for all sexuality educators to
engage in similar levels of praxis in working with Black adolescents as Black sexuality educators
already bring to our practice.
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Recommendation 3: Use Culturally Relevant Examples in Sex Education Curricula for
Black Adolescents
In this study, the participants described the ways in which they infused their
understanding of Black culture into their work with Black adolescents. Using examples of sex,
sexuality, and sexual scenarios from hip hop, reality television, and movies prominently
featuring Black people helped Black sexuality educators build a reputation as trustworthy. These
practices also provided a common language for the educators and Black adolescents to discuss
sex and sexuality.
Respecting the preferences for who is teaching and how sex education is taught also
supports the literature on effective sex education for Black adolescents (Martos et al., 2016b; K.
L. Wilson et al., 2018). Similarly, building on representations and practices in the culture that
support sexual health improves learning and health outcomes for adolescents more generally
(Abe et al., 2016b; Foxx et al., 2020; Hyland, 2010b). Further, this approach can also help
develop a deeper sense of teaching efficacy (Callaway, 2017). Thus, using examples that reflect
the culture of Black adolescents can improve both learning and teaching. Train sexuality
educators to select and use examples of sexuality that reflect and respond to the varying cultural
backgrounds of Black adolescents to improve learning and health outcomes when working with
this group.
Recommendations for Future Research
Future research into culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents should more
closely examine the relationship between teaching efficacy and culturally relevant teaching. I
was not able to make a conclusive connection due to a small sample size. However, this study
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lends some support toward what other studies have found that educators who use culturally
relevant teaching practices experience a high sense of self-efficacy on the TSES.
Further, a commonality among the participants of this study about centering pleasure in
sex education leaves some open questions. Pleasure for the participants in this study seemed to
have connections beyond a physical or emotional state to include a more holistic sense of joy.
Future research might investigate what pleasure means for Black sexuality educators, Black
adolescents or both groups.
Moreover, future research with Black sexuality educators should address best practices
for recruiting this group into research. The participants in this study were very busy and had a
sense of obligation for teaching Black adolescents. If this fact is true for many or most Black
sexuality educators, it might be difficult to conduct research with this group well and deeply.
Studies on the best practices for working with this group could support a wide range of research
on and with this group.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to learn about the lived experience of Black sexuality
educators providing culturally relevant sex education to Black adolescents. Quantitative and
qualitative methods revealed that Black sexuality educators use a variety of social learning
theories, infuse relevant examples from Black popular culture into their teaching, and experience
a sense of obligation for working with Black adolescents. These findings support several
recommendations for the field of sex education.
More importantly, these findings support an emerging understanding of the intricacies of
meeting the sexual health needs of Black adolescents. In the USA, where Black people make up
less than a quarter of the population, sexuality educators who reliably understand the cultural
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context of Black adolescents might not always be available (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012).
However, without these culturally relevant educators, the sexual health outcomes for Black
adolescents is severe: higher rates of unintended pregnancy and teen parenting, higher rates of
STI and HIV transmission, and increased risks of intimate partner violence (Cooper & Watson,
2015; Crosby et al., 2017; Jozkowski & Crawford, 2016; Koepsel, 2016; Reed et al., 2015).
And so, the findings of this study have opened more pathways for balancing the urgent
sex education needs of Black adolescents with expanding access to the cultural understanding
skills and ability to engage in reflection that Black sexuality educators possess. There is no clear
or efficient way to help sexuality educators who hold race–ethnicity identities other than Black
learn to teach Black adolescents sex education effectively. But if the connection holds among
using culturally relevant examples, centering pleasure that might also be joy, and feeling more
capable of teaching because one uses culturally relevant teaching methods, the future of sexuality
education for Black, BIPOC, and White groups is promising. The simple belief that Black
cultures provide meaningful context for learning about sexuality is enough to support better
teaching that addresses the sexual health needs of Black adolescents. Believe that.
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Figures
Figure 2:
Black Sexuality Educator Average Rating of Efficacy in Student Engagement

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Figure 3:
Black Sexuality Educator Average Rating of Efficacy in Instructional Strategies

Figure 4:
Black Sexuality Educator Average Rating of Efficacy in Classroom Management

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Appendix A: Informed Consent
Figure A1 displays the information sheet that all research participants were given and
consented to as part of each phase of the study. I reviewed the information sheet in writing and
again verbally before each interview for participants who were included in the second phase of
the study. Survey respondents gave consent before continuing the survey. The initial questions
for each interview also confirmed that participants were consenting to be interviewed.

Figure A1:
Information Sheet
University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
Waite Phillips Hall
3470 Trousdale Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90089

INFORMATION SHEET

STUDY TITLE:

Culturally Responsive Sex Education for Black adolescents: A Study of Black Sexuality
Educators

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd, MEd

FACULTY ADVISOR: Marsha Boveja Riggio, PhD

You are invited to participate in a research study. Your participation is voluntary. This
document explains information about this study. You should ask questions about anything that
is unclear to you.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to learn about the lived experience of Black sexuality educators
providing culturally responsive sex education to Black adolescents. We hope to learn about
how Black sexuality educators make decisions about learning theory, culturally responsive
frameworks, and sex education program design. You are invited as a possible participant
because self-identify as a Black sexuality educator.
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PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
This study consists of two phases: a survey stage and an interview stage. Only some of the
participants will be part of the interview stage. To have an interview, you must indicate that
you would like to participate in an interview during the survey stage. The survey will take 10–
15 minutes to complete. The interview will last 60–90 minutes.

If you decide to take part, you will be asked to:

• Complete a survey about who you are as an educator;
• Complete a survey about your beliefs in your skills as educator.

If you tell us that you are willing to take part in an interview, you might be asked to:

• Make time for a video interview conducted through Zoom videoconferencing software;
• Give us a copy of a document you feel shows us your approach to education; and,
• Confirm that the text of the interview and our notes about it are correct.

PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
You will not be compensated for your participation; however, if participating in the study will
make you lose money because you cannot work, please contact Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd at
carrowbo@usc.edu, so that we can work through options for your participation.

CONFIDENTIALITY
The members of the research team and the University of Southern California Institutional
Review Board (IRB) may access the data. The IRB reviews and monitors research studies to
protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.

When we publish or discuss the results of the research, we will not use any identifiable
information.

The research team will use the best tools we have access to keep your information confidential
during the study. During the survey stage, you will complete the survey anonymously and we
will not have access to your Internet information. The only way we will know who you are is
if you provided contact information to participate in an interview.

During the interview stage, we will record the interviews using Zoom for Healthcare, a more
secure version of the Zoom videoconferencing software. The research team will send only the
audio from these recordings to professional transcribers to create a text of the interview. The
research team will use the text of the interview, notes about the interview, and any documents
you provide to make meaning of the interview.

The research team will keep all data from the survey and the interview on a cloud-based server
to keep your information off their personal devices. We will look at and test all data while
using a virtual private network or VPN to decrease the ability of others to access your data. A
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risk of a breach of your confidentiality is part of maintaining data on a cloud-based server;
however, the measures we are taking greatly reduce that risk.

You may look at any documents you provided, video/audio recordings, and interview texts at
any time during this study. You may also stop participating or ask us to destroy the
information you provided by emailing Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd at carrowbo@usc.edu. We
need 30 days of notice to make sure we can meet your ask.

The research team will keep survey data, video/audio recordings, interview texts, and
documents forever. You can ask us to destroy information about your participation in the study
in a sooner by emailing Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd at carrowbo@usc.edu. We need 30 days of
notice to make a note about how long to keep your data or to destroy your data.

INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions about this study, please contact

Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd, MEd, Principal Investigator
717-461-2419
carrowbo@usc.edu

OR

Marsha Boveja Riggio, PhD, Faculty Advisor
mriggio@usc.edu

IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the
University of Southern California Institutional Review Board at (323) 442-0114 or email
irb@usc.edu.

Before completing the survey, each potential respondent was asked to complete a four-
question consent quiz to verify that they understood the contents of the information sheet.
Irrespective of the answer selected, participants always saw the correct answer after selecting.
Figure A2 displays the quiz potential respondents took. Bolded text indicates the correct answer
to each prompt.

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Figure A2:
Consent Quiz
4-Question Consent Quiz
Participants receive correct answer(s) before being asked to consent to the study. Answers in
bold indicate the correct answer(s).

C1. What is the purpose of this study?
A. To learn about the lived experience of Black sexuality educators providing
culturally responsive sex education to Black adolescents
B. To study Black adolescents
C. To study educators generally
D. Some other purpose
C2. What will you be asked to do as part of this study?
A. Complete a survey about who you are as an educator
B. Complete a survey about your beliefs in your skills as educator
C. Maybe participate in an interview
D. All of these activities
C3. If you want to stop participating in the study or have your information in the study
destroyed, you may…
A. Contact Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd at 717-461-2419 or carrowbo@usc.edu
B. Contact the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board at 323-
442-0114 or irb@usc.edu
C. Call 911
D. Go to the beach
C4. If you have questions, concerns, complaints, or think the research has hurt you, you may…
(Please select all that apply).
A. Contact Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd at 717-461-2419 or carrowbo@usc.edu
120

B. Contact the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board at
323-442-0114 or irb@usc.edu
C. Call 911
D. Go to the beach

C5. Do you consent to take part in this study?
A. Yes
B. No
If YES, the survey will proceed to Question T1. If NO, the following message will display:
Thank you for your initial interest in the study! You have indicated that you do not consent to
take the survey or participate in other study activities. No one else from the research team will
contact you.
If you selected “No” in error. Please follow the link you originally received for the survey and
fill out the form again.
If you would like to participate in future research that I am conducting, please contact Gregory
C. Carrow-Boyd, Principal Investigator, at carrowbo@usc.edu.

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Appendix B: Demographic Survey and Screener
Figure B1 contains the demographic survey and screener questionnaire as they were
presented to the USC Institutional Review Board. The actual presentation of the questions and
the amount of information study respondents saw varied slightly because of features built into
the Qualtrics software. The instructions, wording of questions, and response options remained
identical.

Figure B1:
Demographic Survey and Screener Questionnaire Overview
Welcome to the Black Sexuality Educators’ Teaching Beliefs and Instructional Designs
Survey. This survey should take 10–15 minutes to complete. For each question, go with your
first answer. If you have any questions or concerns about this instrument, please contact
Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd, Principal Investigator, at carrowbo@usc.edu.

Directions: Please respond to each of the following prompts.
T1. How long have you been teaching?
a. Less than 1 year
b. 1–2 years
c. 3–4 years
d. 5 or more years
T2. How long have you been teaching sex education?
a. Less than 1 year
b. 1–2 years
c. 3–4 years
d. 5 or more years
T3. How long have you been teaching sex education to Black adolescents (11–19 years of
age)? Please include any years where you have taught sex education to at least one Black
adolescent in your class.
a. Less than 1 year
b. 1–2 years
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c. 3–4 years
d. 5 or more years
T4. What is your age?
a. Under 18
b. 18–24
c. 25–34
d. 35–44
e. 45–54
f. 55–64
g. 65–74
h. 75–84
i. 85 or older
T5. Are you Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin?
a. Yes
b. No
T6. How would you describe yourself? Please select all that apply.
a. Black or African American
b. American Indian or Alaska Native
c. Asian
d. Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
e. White
f. Description Not Listed
RQ3. Which learning theories do educators us in their practice?
RQ4. Which culturally relevant frameworks do educators use in their practice?
T7. Do you use a learning theory to guide your practice of teaching?
a. Yes
b. No
T8. Please provide the name of the learning theory or theories you use most in your
practice of teaching. (Open Response)
†

†
Only displays if the answer to T7 is “Yes”.

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T9. Do you use a public health theory to guide your practice of teaching?
a. Yes
b. No
T10. Please provide the name of the public health theory or theories you use most in
your practice of teaching. (Open Response)
†

†
Only displays if the answer to T9 is “Yes”.
For questions T1–T3, answers must be c or d. For question T4, answers can be b–i. For
question T6, answer a must be selected. If answers fall outside of the described ranges or are
left unanswered, respondents will see the following message:
Thank you for participating in the survey! You do not qualify for the next portion of the
survey. If you would like to participate in future research that I am conducting, please contact
Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd, Principal Investigator, at carrowbo@usc.edu.

124

Appendix C: Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Short Form)
I display the short form of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale in Figure C1.
Collectively, these are survey question B1–B12. They will simply display as the next page of the
survey on Qualtrics. They assist in answering Research Question 1. Do Black educators who
incorporate learning theory and culturally relevant frameworks for sex education design in their
practice with Black adolescents have a higher sense of teaching efficacy?

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Figure C1:
Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Short Form)
T e a c h e r s ’ S e n s e o f E f f i c a c y S c a l e ( s h o r t f o r m )
Teacher Beliefs How much can you do?

Directions: This questionnaire is designed to help us gain a better
understanding of the kinds of things that create difficulties for teachers in
their school activities. Please indicate your opinion about each of the
statements below. Your answers are confidential.

1. How much can you do to control disruptive behavior in the
classroom?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
2. How much can you do to motivate students who show low interest in
school work?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
3. How much can you do to get students to believe they can do well in
school work?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
4. How much can you do to help your students value learning? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
5. To what extent can you craft good questions for your students? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
6. How much can you do to get children to follow classroom rules? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
7. How much can you do to calm a student who is disruptive or noisy? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
8. How well can you establish a classroom management system with
each group of students?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
9. How much can you use a variety of assessment strategies? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
10. To what extent can you provide an alternative explanation or
example when students are confused?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
11. How much can you assist families in helping their children do well in
school?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
12. How well can you implement alternative strategies in your
classroom?
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
Subscale Scores
To determine the Efficacy in Student Engagement, Efficacy in Instructional Practices, and Efficacy in Classroom
Management subscale scores, we compute unweighted means of the items that load on each factor. Generally
these groupings are:
Short Form
Efficacy in Student Engagement: Items 2, 3, 4, 11
Efficacy in Instructional Strategies: Items 5, 9, 10, 12
Efficacy in Classroom Management: Items 1, 6, 7, 8

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Appendix D: Semistructured Interview Questions
I have arranged interview questions by the research questions they seek to answer. This
arrangement does not necessarily represent the order in which I asked the questions. While I
asked each participant all these questions, specific probes or follow-up questions are not a part of
this template. Where a question varies greatly from this list, I have included the text of the
question and a rationale for its inclusion in Chapter Four.
1. What is the lived experience of educators in providing culturally relevant sex
education to Black adolescents?
• What drew you to teaching sex ed to Black adolescents?
• Why is teaching sex ed in a culturally relevant way important to you?
2. Which learning theories do educators use in their practice?
• Which learning theory or theories do you draw on most in teaching sex ed?
• How does your choice of theory build on any philosophy of learning you
have?
3. Which cultural responsiveness framework do educators use in their practice?
• Which frameworks for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are you using to
teach sex ed?
• How does your choice of framework reflect the needs of your students?
4. Which sex education design do educators use in their practice?
• Which model of sex ed are you using (ex. comprehensive, abstinence-only,
risk-reduction, etc.)?
• How does this model reflect your approach to sex ed in general?
5. How do educators understand Black adolescents in their practice?
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• What are some of the most important features for you about the population of
Black adolescents (ages 11–19)?
• How does your approach to teaching sex ed build on what you think is
important about Black adolescents?
128

Appendix E: Document Analysis Rubric
The document analysis rubric is similar to the interview protocol. For each document, I
was looking for answers to the questions in the interviews. I also asked participants to reflect on
the documents they provided during the interview.
1. What is the lived experience of educators in providing culturally relevant sex
education to Black adolescents?
• What does this document say about the reasons the participant teaches sex ed
to Black adolescents?
• How does this document reflect the importance of teaching sex ed in a
culturally relevant to the participant?
2. Which learning theories do educators use in their practice?
• How does the document articulate the learning theory or theories the
participant uses most?
• Which philosophy or philosophies of education does the document articulate?
3. Which cultural responsiveness framework do educators use in their practice?
• Which frameworks for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion for teaching sex
ed appear in the document?
• How does the document demonstrate the participant’s understanding of
cultural responsiveness?
4. Which sex education design do educators use in their practice?
• Which model(s) of sex ed appear in the document?
• How do these models reflect the participant’s approach to sex ed in general?
5. How do educators understand Black adolescents in their practice?
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• How does the document articulate the participant’s understanding of the
developmental and learning needs of Black adolescents?
• How does the document articulate the participant’s integration of their
understanding of the developmental and learning needs of Black adolescents
into their approach to teaching sex ed?

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Appendix F: Transcripts
The transcripts that inform the qualitative side of this study. Because this is the raw data
that I used to identify themes and findings for RQ2–RQ6, they remain unedited. The transcripts
contain a notable deviation from APA format, wherein an ellipsis (…) indicates there has been
an omission from the text. In these transcripts, any ellipsis (…) signifies that the speaker trailed
off while speaking before switching to a different part of the conversation.
Catasha
Greg:
Okay. We are recording now. Do I have your consent to record?
Catasha:
You absolutely do.
Greg:
All right. And do I have your consent to continue with the interview?
Catasha:
You absolutely do.
Greg:
Fantastic. All righty. So, you uploaded your bio, and I’ve only been able to skim it briefly.
Would you tell me a little bit about why that represents your approach to teaching?
Catasha:
I teach a pleasure based nonjudgmental form of sex ed, and that is not something that is readily
available to the Black community. I also teach a very Black-asseded form of sex ed. So, 98% of
my audience is African American and because of that, I have been able to... I don’t actually have
to... when I first started, they give you these conversations about making sure that you’re being
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inclusive and whatever. Then I made the decision that wasn’t for me, not that I did not want
everybody there, is that I wanted to talk to the people that I wanted to talk to. That’s why I am
the way that I am and I teach the way that I teach, because I don’t want to have to do the mental
gymnastics that we have to do.
Catasha:
I remember the very first sex ed class I took, they were talking about Dirty Dancing. I was in this
group and these women were just really fawning over Dirty Dancing. I’ve seen Dirty Dancing
once in my life and I can’t tell you what it was about. I don’t know who was in it. I don’t know
any of those people, but they were flushed. So then they got talking about this butt scene, his butt
shot scene and they’re talking and they’re all flush. And I’m like, “I don’t know.” So, then what I
have to do as a Black American, is I have to go into my bank, in my registry, and try to find a
memory of mine that makes me feel that way. So, I had to dig and I dug for the Jason’s Lyric
memory. You remember when they had the sex in the grass? When I was a kid,
Greg:
Yeah!
Catasha:
hairy butt, I was like, “Okay, so now I know how these women feel.” But imagine having to do
that all the time.
Greg:
Yes.
Catasha:
You know, as someone moving in this Black world and being a Black American, we have to dig
and we have to store, because we have to be aware of the things that they like, and that they
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watch and that they do. But they don’t have to be aware of the things that we like and we do. So,
when you’re talking about sex ed and you’re talking about Black people, you automatically need
to gain a sort of trust. If I walk into a room talking about Dirty Dancing, nobody’s going to trust
me.
Greg:
The dirty who?
Catasha:
Right. Was that was one or two? Was they they in that one? So I mean, it gets to a point where
we’re left out of a lot of those conversations because we cannot connect and link to what other
people are speaking about, so that’s what my sex ed is for. It is to be that bridge from all of the
smart parts, to all of the nasty parts, bringing them together with cussing.
Greg:
Sometimes you got to. It’s just language.
Catasha:
My filter is terrible. It is nonexistent. I checked, I took the thing off. It wasn’t even there. I just
put it back on. Like I don’t have one. And so that also makes me very relatable because I don’t
have any secrets. You can readily go and find information out about me. You can readily go and
see what I am and what I do and how I live my life. It makes me more believable, and that is
super important when you’re trying to make people aware of their sexual health and make it
important.
Greg:
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Nice. All right. I think you already started answering this a little bit, but let’s get to it more
specifically. So what in that experience, drew you to teaching sex ed to Black youth, to Black
adolescents?
Catasha:
Well, so that is not even a part of what I do, but because I am sometimes the only resource
people have, they dump the kids on me. But that is not... I study for youth and whatever, but it is
very difficult to mix the two. It’s very difficult for me to be a pleasure-based Sexologist and also
be a youth Sexologist because people are dumb and don’t know how to separate those two
things. And so I spend more time trying to explain to them why I’m not trying to teach their kid
how to suck dick, but instead of actually teaching their children, the things they need to know
about their body and consent and body autonomy. So, usually when I work with youth, they’re
thrown at me, but I get a lot of youth thrown at me. It’s a process. It’s a very touchy kind of
thing, but they’re usually dumped in my lap, almost always after a crisis.
Greg:
I’m so sorry. Yeah. I’m just taking some notes as well. Yeah, that makes sense. And again,
you’ve touched on this already. What makes teaching in this culturally responsive or culturally
relevant way, important to you?
Catasha:
Well, it’s important to me because I didn’t have it. I never had access to it and nobody I knew
had access to it. So, when you think about sex ed, you really leave all of the education of sex ed
to the possibility of trauma. The only way that you can experience sex ed is if you go out and do
it, what if I don’t like it? What if the person is abusive? What if all these things? So now you
have all these other things attached to parts of you, parts of your sexuality, that you may not have
134

had to do, had you known what your body’s supposed to be doing. How people interact together
and things like that. It just leaves everything up to you fucking it up to figure out how to do it.
And that’s unfair and it’s lazy and it’s stupid.
Greg:
Yeah.
Catasha:
It’s stupid as a society that we know that people, every single person is just like not feeding
someone, every single person on this earth has to eat. Every single person on this earth, most
likely is going to have sex. Most likely. It is highly probable that they’re going to have sex, but
we don’t prepare anybody for that interaction. Nobody. We just tell them about periods and hope
they watch the video on how to put a condom on and voila.
Greg:
Right.
Catasha:
And so when we do that, we create situations, and this is especially when we’re talking about
children, where when you talk to them about condom use, when that blows, what’s next? We
don’t prepare children with the safety precautions that we as adults have when we fuck it up. So
kids, once they mess up the condom part, “Okay, well, I got pregnant now.” It’s all... whereas if
you had left the conversation open to talk, depending on how long ago it was, we may be able to
avert some of the things that may happen in the future. And we can talk about how adults safely
use other methods of contraception when we fail at one. So, we put all this pressure on children.
“If you’re going to have sex, you can make sure “you use a condom.”
Catasha:
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Okay, well, if you use a condom or it breaks or the person slips the condom or whatever, what do
they do after that? They’re so worried that you’re going to be upset that they had sex, that they
can’t even get the care that they need to take care of the rest of it. And the way that parents react
to that is one of the biggest conversations. Like it’s one of the first questions I had asked, “What
did you say?” Because parents inadvertently closed that door, because you’re focused on the
wrong thing. And the focus is on sex when the sex part is so small, because you don’t want them
to have sex, so they don’t get pregnant, or don’t get diseases. So, why don’t you just tell them
how to safely do these things so those things don’t happen? We just think if we don’t talk to
them at all, then maybe they just won’t do it. They’ll be the magical percentage of people who
won’t and voila.
Greg:
You have to wait and see. So based on that, I can tell there’s a deep resource related to how
you’re framing all of this. Are there particular theories that you utilize most readily in your
work? Or is it more hybridized? How would you say?
Catasha:
So, it’s almost all just me only because I know I experienced my first sexual assault at five-
years-old. I remember what it was like. I remember what happened. I remember who was there,
all of that. So I’m moving through life with that experience that a lot of other people share. And
if I just remember, it took me developing this and understanding that I used to think that people
were not inherently good. I used to think that people weren’t inherently good because there’s no
reward for being inherently good. You have to make a decision to be good, but the person that’s
being bad, may be getting all the rewards, but you just have to feel good about not being that
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person. So, nobody’s going to sign up for this unless you have a great child. But I have now
come to realize that people are not bad.
Catasha:
People are just different shades of broken. So when you look at it that way, and everybody has
the opportunity to become unbroken, or at least less broken. So, if you look at it that way, it
gives me the opportunity to give grace for people who may not be perfect right now, but who are
going to be better later. And that is how I talk to children. And even though this thing has
happened, and this bad thing has happened, we talk about real world people who have done great
things. So for example, I got a kid dumped in my lap. A Spanish kid that got dumped in my lap,
and his parents found gay porn on his iPad. Of course, they’re deeply religious. That community
is probably is about as tough on homosexuality as the Black community, because they are highly
Catholic, and highly religious.
Catasha:
And so they don’t get to express those types of things. So, he was under the impression that he
was just going to be this horrible person and blah, blah, blah. And all these great things. Well, we
talk about people who are perceived horrible people and that are actually great people. So one of
my best examples is King James. So everybody knows that King James was a raging
homosexual. He had all these lovers, and all these things, but he was still used. I don’t believe in
all of that. I don’t find it necessary, but I don’t knock people who do. Because however you need
to survive, that’s what you need to do. So, when I talk to them, I talk to them about these people
that lived this life, but they still were very important to the culture.
Catasha:
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So maybe, even if what you do now or who you are now may seem like an issue to these people,
but maybe in the future, it won’t be, and you will still be useful. You can still be useful. You can
still be useful when you get pregnant. That does not mean the end of the world. You can still be
useful if you get assaulted. It is not the end. Because we don’t tell children, we don’t prepare
them for these types of situations, they get into the worst of it. And it’s a complete catastrophe.
They’re ready to end their lives. And it’s like, “Baby, your mother was a teen mother.” Like, “I
understand that you think this is the end, but do you see the three brothers after you?” My God,
don’t you do it.”
Catasha:
So, it takes me having to ground them. Having to say that, “I know that emotionally this feels
like the end of the world and that you’re going to be this whole big thing, but you have so much
life left in you. So, much other shit to do. This is a blip, and it just feels that way because you’re
a bundle of emotions now.” And I’m explaining about hormones and all that stuff, “You’re not
supposed to be able to control stuff right now. So shit’s going to feel real bad, but you just got to
trust me that it’s not.” And it works. And I don’t know how, but it do.
Greg:
I’m going to make a note about that. Don’t know how.
Catasha:
It works.
Greg:
Well, I’m also hearing... I work in ministry as well. So when you use terms like grace, and make
connections to the religiousness and or religiosity of our Black, Brown communities, I’m
wondering, is there a particular faith perspective that’s at play in your work for you?
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Catasha:
Not for me. I don’t believe that it’s necessary. Not for me. I am agnostic, which just means that I
don’t care. I think people spend too much time on why. And they get so caught in the why and
they need a reason and all of these things. And instead of just enjoying the process, you need to
understand the process. I got to break it down. I got to blah, blah, blah. It’s just unnecessary to
me, so if you just put all the energy... I put all the energy that other people put into faith, into
other people. And by doing that, I have been able to reap the benefits of everything else. But I
don’t delete people’s faith from their sexuality, but I don’t make it a requirement for you to be a
sexual being.
Greg:
That makes sense. So, I guess building on that, I hear a really kind of embodied and lived theory
of learning and learning practices and what you’re doing. Does that build on a particular
philosophy around learning that you have?
Catasha:
Yeah. I believe that, especially in sex ed, that when you’re teaching Black people that they need
to trust you. We can’t get regular medical help. We can’t get regular assistance. So, they need to
believe that you really do care and that this isn’t a scam and that blah, blah, blah, or whatever. I
get hired all the time. People think I’m going to show up with a grapefruit. And everybody’s
ready for me to show up with a grapefruit, but I show up with a whiteboard and a tripod and I got
a pointer and I’m, “This is the vulva, and this is actually your vagina.” And they’re like, “Oh,
okay, wait.”
Catasha:
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So I had to start packing notes and paper with me, so that people can start taking notes, because
they think I’m just going to show up and blow like... like what is wrong with... But again, our
definition of sex education is very commercial. Because people don’t know that this sex
education is this... when I did this, when I started this, I literally just started because I wanted to.
I remember when I was young, I watched Real Sex on HBO. And it was an episode of a lady
who taught blowjob classes, and she was washing dildos in the dishwasher. And I was like, “I’m
going to do that. That’s what I’m going to do.” And so, one day, I just decided to start. I started
doing is in my house, and it just grew and it turned into this. But it really is just a need, because
people see that I really live this, that I am passionate about it.
Catasha:
So, it makes them believe that it’s important, which is... the biggest hurdle that I cross is
convincing Black folk that sexual health is important. And even for their children. It’s even more
important for their children, because there is nowhere else in their lives that is going to teach
them body autonomy, nowhere. There’s nowhere else that they can learn that on a scale where it
can be practiced and talked about. Because everything else is... when they’re coming up, it’s
discipline, and teamwork and all of these things, but nothing teaches them body autonomy. You
go and you shower, when they tell you to shower and you eat and people tell you to eat. So, there
is no way for a child to learn that they have power over themselves. They’ve been dictated for 18
years. How are you going to tell them like, “Okay, now you can go to do whatever you want to
do.”
Greg:
Is that helpful?
Catasha:
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“Okay. Thank you so much.” Like we’re just sending our kids out here to just fumble it out.
Greg:
Yeah, absolutely. I think this really speaks to the next question as well, about what are the
frameworks for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion that you’re using to teach sex ed? If
there’s a term for what you’re doing. I’m hearing a lot of the practical ways that you do that,
which is also very important.
Catasha:
Whenever I do my workshops, when I send out my notifications and when I build my event
pages, I ask for... I make sure that my building is accessible. And I ask if they have any other
accessibility issues, if they would like addressed, to please email me and I leave my email
address, because that is important. We do talk. That is a really big issue is accessibility,
especially in the Black community. So, we talking about regular sexual health, but what if you’re
diabetic? Or what if you have arthritis? What if you had a stroke, which is common in the Black
community, because of high blood pressure? All of those things could make you think that you
are disqualified from a healthy sexual existence, when that is not the case.
Catasha:
So I try to make sure that I make it broad. When I talk about toys, I don’t just talk about the fun
side. I talk about, “Hey, and if you also have accessibility issues, this works for this. And these
are the toys is that I recommend for these type of accessibility issues,” and so on and so forth. So
I just try to make sure that as much of it that can be covered, and as many people that can be
comfortable in the sexual space, that we do that when I do my parties. So we have a system here,
and our system is one of the most effective ways that I’ve found for throwing kink parties is to
cut down on conversations. Cut down on people having to explain who they are and what they’re
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here to do. So, I built this board that has colored arm bands on it. And that arm band represents a
different kind of kink. So, you can put that arm band on and people know that’s the shit that you
with.
Greg:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Catasha:
But it cuts down on someone asking you and you having to be like, “No, I don’t really wanna
share that.” So, being able to make a lot of the accommodations to think of the things that
people... that would be barriers for them and try to address them ahead of time. That is one of the
most successful things that I have found for my business, for my practice. Did you ask me that?
Did I make that up?
Greg:
Yeah, no. You were there. I’m wondering... yeah. No, I love that. And that I focused a little bit
more on adults, I think, because of obviously the nature of the stuff.
Catasha:
Right.
Greg:
Are there specific ways, that you’re being accessible or talking about accessibility-
Catasha:
Yes.
Greg:
Accessibility with teens?
Catasha:
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Yes. We talk a lot about variations. We talk a lot about gender, and we talk about body
variations. And I also do have to keep in, because I’m in Oklahoma.
Greg:
Yeah. I know, I read the news today.
Catasha:
So, I’m in Oklahoma. It is very, very difficult, but you have to make sure that you’re keeping
people’s religious frameworks in. I don’t want to tell children... And it’s weird because you
would think children would be asking you how to actually have sex. Those are not the questions
they’re asking. That’s hardly ever the questions they’re asking. Parents think that you’re going to
tell their kid like, “This is what you do to enjoy anal and blah, blah, blah.” When a kid is like,
“Okay, he’s making me sneak out when my mom is at work, and I don’t know what to do about
that. I don’t want to get caught.” It’s kind of stuff like that. Or, “What if he’s telling me that this
girl would do the thing that I don’t do, how do I navigate that?”
Catasha:
It is a listening issue, and it is understanding the cultures that you are coming into. That’s why
it’s easiest for me to work with Black cultures because that’s a culture I grew up in. So, I don’t
have to usually dig for that. We do have a high Mexican population here. And so I had to learn
their customs, and learn the ways that they view sexuality, and the ways that it can be inhibited
by just day-to-day conversations. I had to learn the slurs, because I didn’t know what those were.
So it takes an investment into the communities that you’re into, to make sure that you’re
including everyone that you can.
Greg:
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Yeah. I think I’ll ask a follow-up with that. Do you notice anything in particular, in terms of
access or ways that you enter into the culture and customs of say mixed race use? So it doesn’t
look different with Black and white mix, or with Afro Latinx folks-
Catasha:
Yeah.
Greg:
What types of things are you noticing there?
Catasha:
So, what I try to do is have the conversation to figure out the culture. So just as you said, even in
mixed race kids. If the mom is white, that’s a different conversation than if the mom is Black.
And I’m just now realizing... not just now, but during the pandemic, realizing that the
conversations are very different in those mixed race households. I spend a lot of times telling
mixed girls they’re not ugly. They really believe that they’re ugly. And it’s because they’ve
grown up in a culture where they were the bottom of the barrel. So, I went to Oklahoma. My
daycare was segregated. I went to Black... so when people were talking about Black teachers, all
of my teachers were Black. I could probably recall the white teachers, because there were so few
of them.
Catasha:
I went to a Black elementary school. I went to a Black fifth year center. I went to a Black middle
school. I graduated from a Black high school, and I graduated from a Black college in HBCU. So
I know what it’s like to be Black. And these people are coming into these conversations, not
really being in that community and thinking that they have all this body dysmorphia, based on
what they’ve absorbed around them. So, you have to be conscious of that. I can’t just be like,
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“Girl, you stupid? Because you fine.” Like, “That’s dumb, why you talking to me that way.” But
I have to just explain to them that, “When you’re in communities, communities push somebody
to the bottom of the barrel. And although you are fine, the community that you were in, did not
see you that way because they view people differently.”
Catasha:
So, once you go into Black communities, you see that you are now... You can’t leave out of the
store without getting a say, “Hey, say hello, Mama. Say hello, Mama.” But that’s a shock. If you
don’t know that and you’re not prepared for that... you go out from your white Yukon school,
and you go out into the world, and you go to the club. You might branch out, start going to
parties and meeting other people. Say, you go to college and you start going on campus and you
meet all these other people. And now all of a sudden everybody’s giving you all this attention
and you spent 18 years thinking you were ugly, and now everybody’s just on you. Now you got
to find who this person is that everyone is attracted to.
Catasha:
It’s a process. It is a very much being openly aware of people’s cultures. I think that’s another
thing that people do, especially when you’re talking to children, is that we expect all children to
be this way. And when you’re talking about different types of cultures and the children. People
don’t understand children, these days. And so, you have different cultures of children, a different
generation of children, and you just want them to behave in this manner. And that’s not how you
figure out what’s going on. You have to actually talk, and you have to listen. But when you
talking to kids, you really have to be trustworthy. They really have to feel like they can trust you.
Greg:
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Yeah. All right. So based on that, I’m wondering... this is a thorough response. Are there any
other ways, how you’re being accessible or discussing access reflects the needs of your students?
Catasha:
Well, here in Oklahoma, we don’t have any... like there’s nothing. We have nothing. So they just
recently passed a bill. The governor just signed a bill to stop trans kids from competing in girl
sports. But Oklahoma is... I don’t think it’s one anymore, I think it’s two for the worst
incarceration rate for women. We were number one for a very long time. We were the number
one state that executes women. And we were the number one state that incarcerates women. And
so it’s hypocritical and it’s... I cannot stand him, that he would get up there and smile, talking
about he’s protecting girls’ sports. But he’s not protecting girls. So we have this climate where
our children are watching people play with their lives. They’re watching people play with their
livelihoods and with their futures.
Catasha:
And we have to prepare them to fight that and without access, without them knowing that they
could have healthcare, and have contraceptives, and abortion, and learn about their bodies, and
learn about orgasms and erogenous zones, and not just have to rely on porn. We talk to them
about like how those conversations go, what grooming is like. There are so many kids who are...
the number one path to child pornography for is in the household. So, parents are the number one
proponent of child pornography. Children are most dangerous in the homes with their parents,
taking pictures of them, leaving them on computers, things like that, getting grooming. But we’re
not talking to them. They don’t even know that’s what’s happening.
Catasha:
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We don’t even know our body parts. We don’t even know what a vulva is. We don’t even tell
children where their actual vagina is. They don’t know what a vulva is. They don’t know what
their mons pubis is. They don’t know what their labia is. You just tell them, “Don’t let anybody
touch your labia.” Nobody’s telling them what a labia is. So Uncle Chester just in there running
his fingers all through the body, and we don’t know nothing. And then when we’re not talking
about body parts, we’re missing cues from children. Talking about, “This person’s messing with
my cookies.” Well, we don’t know because we’re not having those conversations with kids.
What does that mean? Let’s stop and let’s talk about that, because we’re not listening. We just
want them to be in this little box, and just do that. It’s hard on this end, when they dump them on
me. It’s hard.
Greg:
Yeah. I hear that.
Catasha:
Especially because I’m not prepared to do this. So I’m really just trying to... I’m just on harm
reduction at this point, when you... because I’m not a therapist. I’m a licensed sexual educator. I
do take a lot of classes, and all of that stuff. And I understand this psychology of people, but I
don’t have a degree in that. But I can’t leave them out there with nothing. They have nothing, if
they don’t have me. So, I would also like the resources. Help me. Yeah, our kids need access.
We need access. We need... I don’t even know if they’re still teaching sex ed in school.
Catasha:
Actually they are. My friend was really scared to her about her son taking sex ed. And she said
that all they did was talk about periods and condoms. That was it. So there’s no kind of
preparation. And I keep telling parents, students are now... because they don’t know about
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hymens and all that stuff. They’re now resorting to anal sex to avoid being detected for having
sex. And so, they’re creating these roundabout ways to do things that they don’t have to do, but
they don’t know that because they’re children and they’re not supposed to be figuring that out by
themselves.
Greg:
I hear that. And I’m also hearing the emotion that comes through when you’re talking about the
work that you do. How would you describe that emotion or that... I don’t want to put words in
your mouth. How do you describe what’s underneath that emotion for you?
Catasha:
So I still... even with that, I absolutely love what I do. I’m probably never going to do anything
else ever in my life, but it is frustrating because I don’t have the resources and I don’t have the
backup. So, I don’t even have somewhere that I can send these kids. I don’t even have
somewhere that I can send a Black woman or a Black, young girl, who’s concerned about her
sexual health. Who is maybe in a relationship where she is with an older person and he’s doing
things to her that she doesn’t approve of. I don’t even have anywhere I can send her because if I
send her anywhere, she could be demonized. There’s no kind of protections, nobody’s going to
protect her name or are they even going to care?
Catasha:
The last time I checked and this was a couple years ago, we had like 7,000 rape kits sitting in
that... when they did the thing, where they went through each state, we had like 7,500 rape kits
just sitting that was years ago. And I’m pretty sure somebody dies in our jail here every week. I
think we’re up to like 12, 13 people dies in our county jail here. So, what do kids have to look
forward to? They have no hope and we are not giving them anything here. We’re not preparing
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them at all and it’s sad because you know, they’re going to go out and you know they’re going to
be hurt. You know they’re going to have to experience these horrible things to get to something
that they have a right to. So yeah, it’s sad.
Greg:
Yeah. I’m kind of... if I describe that as kind of thing, you’re you are an education or an
intervention of last resource, does that sound right to you?
Catasha:
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I remember I was at work, when I used to work in corporate
America, and one of my... I was a supervisor and one of my teammates, one of my people came
to me, sobbing. She found out that her daughter got taken advantage of at a friend’s sleepover by
a boy who apparently does that to a lot of girls. So all of the girl’s friends, but he manipulates
them in a way that is common. So, when I spoke with her, I’m talking to her and I’m telling her
things, and so that’s another thing that we don’t do, is we don’t tell them what to expect. We
don’t tell them that somebody’s going to tell you this, and if you rebut, they may say this, they
may try use someone else or may try to tell you, “Well, I’ll leave you for another girl if you don’t
do this, or blah, blah, blah.”
Catasha:
And so there’s these manipulation tactics that our young boys are using against young girls and
they have nothing to fend it off. So, she lost that battle at 14, but because she got thrown to the
side, it wasn’t even the sex that bothered her. She was ready to kill herself because he wasn’t
talking to her anymore. Her mother found text messages of her daughter, telling her friend, “I
think I’m going to kill myself. How is he doing this to me? Blah, blah, blah.” And she’s like
distraught. The only reason she came to work was because she can come and tell me face to face.
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So, she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She was Colombian and the father was in Florida. And
she’s like, “If I tell her dad he’s going to come up here and shoot everybody in the face.” So, she
can’t even go to her child’s father. So yeah, it’s dumping on me.
Greg:
Thank you for the work you do. And it’s unfair and thank you. Thank you. I’m glad you’re there
and-
Catasha:
Right.
Greg:
No, systemic problems without systemic solutions right? (laughter).
Catasha:
Let me get it. Whoo child. They are going to wear me out.
Greg:
Let me just take a breath there as well, because I feel like the next couple questions are just kind
of routine and you’ve just shared so much and I’m really grateful for chatting with you and
learning.
Catasha:
I got this accidentally. Like one of my friends sent it to me and she was like, “I know that you...”
Not one of my... she’s actually a therapist, but she’s a therapist in Houston. And she was like, “I
know you’re not a whatever, but I think you should do this.” I was like, “Okay, cool. I’ll do it.”
And it said like, if you occasionally... and I’m like, kids are not my primary practice, but I
literally have... two of my kids just went to college. I call them my littles. Like people, they just
dump them on me. So, I call them chicken nuggets. My chicken nuggets is gone. They’re out in
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the world. And so, it is beautiful because you’re really only helping them see something that
everybody else has already gone through. Like, “This is your turn.”
Catasha:
That’s what I tell them. “Sorry, it’s just your turn. It was going to come eventually. And it’s just
your turn. I’m sorry that it happened so early.” And so, I just try to be real with them. And then I
make their mothers... like, you need to find her a therapist. You need to get people to talk to
somebody to talk to her feelings, because I’m not really that person because I’m too blunt. And I
know that. I’m never going to be able be a therapist because I’m like, “This is stupid. Y’all be
doing stupid stuff.” And until, as a therapist you can call people stupid, I’m have to sit out here
because I don’t be having time for y’all to be doing stupid stuff, I don’t have time.
Greg:
No, that right.
Catasha:
I like to tell... like you need to get her some help, but I got to get her off the ledge until then. And
it’s more than just talking to me about sex ed. Again, I have to earn their trust. So I got to go to
talent shows. I got to go to football games. I got to go to band recitals. I got to do all this stuff. I
got to show up on behalf. I literally have so many kids, so many God kids. I have kids
everywhere. I don’t have any children. There have been no children that came from my body.
There is probably 19 children that call me names.
Greg:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Catasha:
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But they’re living life and it feels good to help them, even though I’m not the one that’s
supposed to do it, it’s good that I was there because it also helps me to help the parents like,
“Okay, you can can’t act like that and you can’t behave, and you can’t say that and you can’t
next time or you going to close the door. If you do blah, blah, blah.” It gives me an opportunity
to help them both. I love it. I do. I’m not even going to lie to you. I love my job.
Greg:
That’s awesome. I’m really glad to hear that. Again, to follow that up with the very formulated
question, which model of sex ed are you using?
Catasha:
So, I definitely use more of a... I live, I did look that up, but I try to live it. I try to live how I
maneuver through the world because if I live it, then they believe me, but it is a... I also want to
leave the space for them to make the conclusions. So, I don’t tell them what to do. They give me
the situation and I tell them what other people have done. These are a couple of other ways that
this has been handled. What do you think would be the best for you? And by leaving that open, it
helps them to make a decision that’s good for them, but it also gives them options to start with.
Catasha:
So, if they say, “Oh, well he’s not talking to me.” “That’s fine. You don’t need to talk to him
anyway, you need to block him and then decide what do you want to do from there? Do you
want to... because you need some work you have to do on yourself. Do you want to do that while
still having access to him? Sometimes that doesn’t work. Sometimes you have to do that while
he can’t talk to you, because it’s difficult.” So, you talk about options. “What are you going to do
when you go to school and you see them in the hallway. If you do make that decision, how does
that work?”
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Catasha:
And so by giving them the tools to make a plan of action, it can help them build something that
they can stick with and that they feel good about. And even if it fails, they can come back and be
like, okay, I did that and it didn’t work, but you get gave me another option, so maybe I could try
that. Or do you have any other options? Because kids will seem to think like whatever they did,
that thing that they did is the end of the world. That’s it. I got an F on this paper. I’m dumb. I
don’t know what it means. This is ridiculous. No, it’s just an F, it’s a cumulative grade. You can
just put it with the other ones and you will never even see that F. But you have to tell kids that
because they don’t make those processes, so that’s what I try to do.
Greg:
Fair. Yeah, I’m not going to ask you that follow up question about how it reflects your approach
to sex ed in general, because you told me.
Catasha:
It is my approach to sex ed in general it’s to and... but I also have a very technical approach to
sex ed. My approach to sex ed in general is that it is a series of processes. We’ve turned sex ed
into this or sex into this magical process that happens under these binary constrictions and if you
do it perfectly under these constrictions, it will be perfect. If you wait and you get married and
you love your partner, you can do whatever you want to do if you make it to that point. But if
you mess it up before then, that’s why your sex life is messed up because you didn’t do it under
these perfect binary conditions. But that’s not the truth. Everything is a series of processes.
People who are not married do deserve the freedom to enjoy their sexuality.
Catasha:
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People who are married, I am married and people still call me a slut for talking about sex. So
here we are. We don’t have a space that is sex positive or a space that leaves it open to learn sex.
When you take it out of this magical context and turn it into a series of processes. It starts
becoming real. So, say you’re a quadriplegic. “I can’t have sex, blah, blah, blah.” That’s not true.
Your orgasm happens in your mind. You can have an orgasm anytime you want to. You can train
your body to do that. You can train your body... somebody can lick your armpits and you can
have orgasm if you want to, but they probably never consider that because they think that they’re
outside of that magical binary lane of sex. Well, no, it’s a process. And it’s one of the reasons
why people cut sex out of their lives when they get older, because they think you’re only
supposed to have it for this amount of time.
Catasha:
And then you’re supposed to go away and blah, blah, blah. No, you can have sex, a healthy sex
life. Well into your 90s, it’s going to look different when you were 25, but you could still have a
quality sex life at 90, but we don’t think of it like that because we think that it’s this magical
process and I’m only supposed to enjoy it here. No, you can enjoy it everywhere. The whole...
I’m telling you... it don’t matter what happened to me. They could take my eyeballs. I’m still
from the bus. I don’t care what nobody say about nothing. I’m going to find me away to have me
an orgasm, period. But my approach to sex ed is a very technical based approach to sex ed. Let’s
talk about the body. Let’s talk about what it does and its proximity to pleasure. That’s it.
Greg:
Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. What would you say are some of the most important features
about working with Black youth, Black adolescents and here I’m using the technical definition
about 11 to 19. I think that’s-
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Catasha:
Okay.
Greg:
I’m drawing on the CDCs definition, which has teen and adolescent as separate terms.
Catasha:
Right, between 11 and 19, what’s the most important aspect of sex ed, you think if they would
need?
Greg:
Or what’s important about working with that group? However, that question hits you. So, the
specific wording is what are some of the most important features for you about the population of
Black youth, ages 11 to 19?
Catasha:
So, I love these kids. I don’t care what nobody else say. I love they smart little mouths. They are
witty. They just don’t... they have not built the processes that they need to survive, but they have
the idea and I think that the most important part of working with these teens is not assuming that
they care about the in and out part. The actual body to body, the actual penis entering the vagina.
That is important, but it is not the most... Like if you let them ask their questions, that will
probably be two questions. Everything else will be well, “Why do boys hit me when they like
me?” And, “Why do my periods stink?”
Catasha:
And, “Why my balls be...” It’s all these other questions that really have nothing. So, I think the
most important aspect is leaving your judgment at home and being fair when you’re talking to
kids about sex. Because if you just talk to them about condoms, when the condom fails, that’s
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when they think it’s over. So talk to them about condoms, then talk to them about what happens
when the condom fails. Talk to them about the process of what to do. If you do have that, what
kind of steps can you take to protect yourself from HIV, from pregnancy, from any other kind of
STIs? There are a list of things that adults have access to when we it up that we need to make
available for children as well.
Greg:
Right. So, I heard about fairness and that... I just want to make sure I note that. All right, about
two more questions.
Catasha:
You can ask all the questions you want. I can talk all day.
Greg:
Okay, gotcha. I appreciate that. I could too, but you know.
Catasha:
I’m like I can be here.
Greg:
I love that. So, how does your approach to teaching sex ed build on this information that you
think is important about them?
Catasha:
Oh, man. I think that it gives them the opportunity to still make their own decisions about sex ed.
I don’t come in and tell students what they need to do. When you go in and you talk to
somebody, talk to your parent about sex ed, they’re going to have, “Don’t do this and this is what
it does and blah, blah, blah.” I’m not going to do that. So, when I talk to kids, it is a conversation
about what they want, what they’re interested in and what I have to contribute to that
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conversation. So, being able to do that leaves a space open for them to guide where it needs to
go.
Catasha:
And not necessarily for me deciding, “Okay, we’re going to talk about condoms and we’re going
to put it on a banana. And then we’re going to point at a fluffy coochie, and you’re going to
name the parts.” it is a really interactive experience and being able to build that relationship
helps me. And it gives me additional information because all I am is a resource. All I am is a
bridge. So, when you come to me with your issue, I give you all the other ways people have
handled this and you can try those ways and see which one works for you. That’s my job. So,
each new interaction gives me a new way or a new resource to use going forward.
Greg:
Makes sense. That makes sense. I’ve heard you use the bridge metaphor a lot over the course of
our conversation, so I just want to tug on that a little bit more. What calls to you about that
image?
Catasha:
Because sometimes sex ed is... so, I look at it like this. There is sex therapy and there is sex
education. The sex therapy is the why. The sex therapy is you... what do I need to do? Like this
is what’s stopping me from being able to live my life. I am the how. So, when you want to figure
out why you want to get fucked in a glory hole, you need to go to therapy. When you want to out
how to get fucked in a glory hole and where the glory hole fuckers are, that’s when you call me.
So, I am the piece before it can go wrong. I am the piece before it goes right or it goes wrong. So
you can come to me and we can make a informed decision about which you needs to go. Versus
you tumbling down the bridge and getting sticks in your shoes and messing up your hair and all
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that only to end up on the wrong side anyway. So, that’s when I say, when I call myself a bridge,
is that I’m just the information highway.
Catasha:
I have all the tools I have. You want to know how can I enjoy anal sex? Well, I have studied
extensively how to do that. So, you can come to me and I can tell you how to do that. And it’s
not a, you read it and try to figure it out and try to blah, blah. You have somebody that you can
talk to, talk through the process with, because what usually happens with humans, like kids, is
that we get to a block and then we stop. So, because I can’t get past this part, fuck I’m just throw
it all away. But if you have somebody that you can talk to in real time, that’s like, “Okay, I don’t
like that part.” “Okay, well maybe you don’t have to do it like that. Or maybe you don’t have to
do that part at all, or maybe you can do it like this.” And so it gives them a reason not to use that
block as a stop and they can use me and go have fun.
Greg:
Makes sense. All right. Those were all of my questions. Is there anything else you’d like to share
that I didn’t ask about?
Catasha:
No, I think that it is important that I would really like to see some more resources for kids. I’ve
been thinking about making some, but I’m always thinking about making shit. I am also always
making shit. But I would like to have some more resources. I think that somebody should
definitely be doing this and that this is important work and that kids need... we can’t keep
throwing them out there and hoping that they get it. We can do better than that and I want us to
do better than that.
Greg:
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Great. Awesome. Okay, I’m going to go ahead and stop the recording. That was awesome. So-

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Robin
Robin:
I am here.
Greg:
Good. All right.
Robin:
Got it.
Greg:
Do I have your consent to record this interview?
Robin:
Yes, you have my enthusiastic consent to record this interview.
Greg:
Woo hoo.
Greg:
And do I have your consent to continue recording?
Robin:
Yes, you have my consent to continue recording.
Greg:
All right. Fantastic. The very first thing I’d love to talk about, Robin, is your document, the one
that you uploaded. Tell me why it represents your approach to teaching.
Robin:
I guess, this, because I know about reclaiming your sexuality after you’ve acquired a disability.
And that actually was kind of the thing that launched my career. It was my experience as being
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someone who acquired a physical disability and realizing the impact that, that had on my
sexuality and sexual expression and sex life. So the article that I wrote for Nurx, I wanted to talk,
because as I’m thinking about aging, and as people age, they join the community of people,
disabled people. But I wanted to talk about it in a way in ways that people... I like tying things
together and I like making connections in sexuality and pointing things out. And one of the links
that I have noticed is, like with aging, or just, there are certain conditions that people don’t think
about as being disabling, when it came to sexuality, like strokes or cancer or heart attack or
things like that.
Robin:
So that article, I felt like, it represented how I talk about things, but also the fact that I could be
rather frank and to the point, but also give good information that is useful and helpful. And that
particular piece, I have all kinds of different kinds of pieces. So I was trying to feel like, I was
like, ugh, do I submit the birth control and disability article? Because that’s more of the
healthcare and the sexual healthcare realm and it was actually that one, about birth control and
disability or bedside, that was the first article, like research article, that I wrote about disability
and reproductive health.
Robin:
But that Nurx one, I like the fact that now I can get approached by a company and say, “Hey, can
you write something about sex health? Because we are a telehealth company and we talk about
all kinds of sex. We talk about all things related to healthcare,” and also they were merging with
somebody big or something. And so I was like, “Okay, what about something that we don’t talk
about is, how things can change when you acquire a disability.” So I guess that’s why I chose
that article, is because like I said, it, because I knew how important it was to talk about that
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because like I said, it was an impetus and it’s what launched my career because of realizing that
we don’t talk about that.
Greg:
So thank you so much for that. And I look forward to engaging with it some more. So my next
question, kind of building on that then is, what drew you to teaching sex ed with Black youth or
Black adolescents?
Robin:
Okay. Well, the thing is, I noticed that we all talk about the term intersectionality, but I noticed
that a lot of colleagues or other sex educators, it took them a while to actually understand that
things like culture and race have an impact on your sexual expression and the thoughts and
feelings and things that you form around your sexuality, around your body, around your image,
all of those kind of things.
Robin:
And I saw that those were some connections that had to be made, but particularly talking to
young people about sexuality, but also the talking about disability in that as well, because I have
noticed that the experience is different, how you’re treated. Like for instance, somebody who is
white, able bodied, gay, is going to be treated differently than somebody who is Black, in a
wheelchair, and gay, those kind of things. Also, I believe in being the representation too, that I
went to see in the world. And I remember that my first sex ed teacher, I had in ninth grade, and
we’re talking the eighties, late eighties, she was a Black woman. We had nine weeks of sex ed.
Because at that time Arkansas was running neck and neck with Mississippi with the highest teen
pregnancy rates. I remember her name was Ms. Fitzpatrick. And I remember Ms. Fitzpatrick, I
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still even remember how I learned about the clitoris is because she showed the picture, like the
scientific drawing. And then she just told us, I remember she was like, it looks like a little bean.
Robin:
And I can still remember that. That was eighties. But that is the impact that a Black woman, and
she was the science teacher as well, but for nine weeks, every ninth grader, that was just
something we had to take. And the only way you didn’t get it is, if your parents had to actually
write a note saying that you couldn’t take it. So basically that meant everybody take it. So there
were only kids and I still remember, it was Shatina and Heather, that didn’t
Greg:
What did they do wrong to you then?
Robin:
No, it was just because they had those Christian parents that were like, no, and I went to a
school, it was in Little Rock, but like the county, like it was the outskirts of the city. And it was
just the fact that those were the only two because everybody else was taking it. And they were
the only two that weren’t taking it. And so I was just like, I don’t know why, I just remembered
that.
Greg:
I feel that. Are you still in Arkansas now?
Robin:
Oh no, no, no, no, no. When I was eight years old, I wrote in my journal, when I grow up, I’m
going to leave Arkansas and never turn back. I now live in Oakland, California, Bay Area.
Greg:
Yes. I’m down here in LA.
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Robin:
Okay. Yeah. I got that. Fuck. Oh, sorry, it’s being recorded. But Ms. Fitzpatrick though, she did,
she left that imprint and I realized, just because I’m talking about it now, now I’m realizing that,
having it made a difference to me as a Black adolescent, having a Black sex educator, talking to
me about my body. Because I felt like I could trust what this person was saying.
Robin:
I mean, I’d had the whole fifth and sixth grade education where you sit down and you watch a
film about starting your period. And here’s some pads, here’s some deodorant, rock on with
puberty, but that was the first time I’d had... But it was also because we had discussion of
pleasure and watched a film of a baby being born, all of those kind of things. But I just
remember how... If people talk about representation, blah, blah, blah. But it really is important
for people to be able to see other people like you, because otherwise it’s easier to dismiss. That’s
what I was trying to talk about. Like in the fifth and sixth grade, I went to schools where almost,
the teachers were predominantly white and it was them showing the film and of course
everybody in the films were white and all of that kind of stuff.
Robin:
But having a Black person speaking about that, that made it like, this information is relevant for
me as well. And it’s not like it’s something that I have to model after what white people are
doing, in order to absorb and learn what’s what. So for instance, I never thought about, until,
maybe it was last year, that the scientific medical drawings of genitalia, all those kind of things
or models, were all like peachy skin, all white skin. And I was like, what the fuck? When I
realized that, that was actually pretty profound because that’s what we’re showing kids like, this
is what is deemed typical. So then brown skin, being Black and sexuality, that’s atypical.
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Robin:
And so that’s why I feel like it is important for people to see them, especially young people, to
see themselves represented, in talking about sexuality. So that’s another reason why I make sure
that all of my slides, any kind of media or anything that I use, depicts people of all different
kinds of races and cultures, and also like genders and orientations. And I try to make sure that all
of that is represented because I am conscious of that. And especially with youth. And I do mad
searches, looking for stuff. And I remember doing a presentation about cannabis and sexuality,
disability and sexuality. And I was upset because I could not find any images of Black, disabled
people, using cannabis.
Robin:
And I was like, oh yeah, because it’s only been since white people. And since it’s been, they had
legal fights in different places, and only white people have that privilege of being able to feel like
they can do that, and be in a picture or a photograph and it’s okay. And that they’re not going to
be taken to jail. So I also brought that up in my speech too. Because they were just all like, I
didn’t care. I had to talk about it also, but it’s just, I feel like it’s important for young people, but
especially young Black people to hear this and to see this. Especially, I don’t know, I guess I’m
thinking about... Because I was a Black youth and the things that you internalize, what people
say about your sexuality, about your sexuality, when you’re going to have kids or what kind of
statistic you’re going to be? Or any of those kind of things, like teen being a teen parent or all of
those kind of things.
Robin:
I just felt like, I think it’s important. I remember talking to, I think, because when I talked to,
they were ninth graders at a school here in Oakland. This is like right before the pandemic hit.
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And it was a charter school and I would say, it was probably about 40% of the children were
African American. And it was actually very, very racially diverse class, but me coming in there,
and talking about disability and sexuality, and there was also a white man that was in there
talking, he was disabled and talking about disability and sexuality. And I feel like that the
students felt like they could be a lot more open and asking questions and talking. And I noticed
that. Because even when I talked about having ADHD, there was another young Black lady that
was like, I have ADHD too. And then being able to have that, getting to see other, but each one
teach one.
Robin:
So getting to talk to them and talk about what may work, but also about sexuality and disability, I
think that was pretty impactful. I also went with that same class, we went to a Planned
Parenthood clinic for a field trip. And I was like, wow, y’all already know a lot. At the time, my
kid wasn’t quite that age, and I was like, oh wow.
Robin:
And the questions, there were some very interesting questions. And some of the things I’m
thinking about, maybe culturally, how it might have impacted some of those questions.
Somebody asked, and it was a legitimate question, they wanted to know if anal sex made your
booty bigger. And then they were like, because they wrote on paper and they’re like, this is a real
question. I’m serious. Because that’s what they heard.
Robin:
And then I was like, I wonder, because I’m thinking different songs and stuff like that, that I’d
heard. We’re talking about, like my butt getting big, stuff like that. And so I was thinking, I bet
this is a cultural type question but the thing is, it was an anonymous question. So I couldn’t sit
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there and just say, the Black person wrote this. But I was thinking to myself, based on culture,
and based on things that are seen as an issue, or things are seen as desirable or whatever, I
thought that was interesting way to think about it. But anyway, I don’t know if this is answering
what you asked.
Greg:
It does. I think you even got us into the next question a bit. So I want to focus on that. Why is
teaching sex ed in a culturally responsive or culturally relevant way important to you?
Robin:
Speaking about sexuality in a culturally competency... Why is it important to me is because of
my own, I know everything is not centered around me, but our experiences influence what we
do. And my career was influenced by what I dealt with as a Black woman. A Black, disabled
woman in receiving reproductive healthcare and the racism and things that I encountered as a
result of my gender and sexism because of my race. I mean, because of my gender.
Greg:
I got you.
Robin:
Yeah. But particularly being a Black woman and the things that I encountered around my
tolerance for pain, my being listened to, being everything from an old white doctor showing
disgust because I was pregnant with a disability. Like he waved his hand over me and he goes, if
you knew you were going to be like this, why didn’t you use birth control or something. A look
of just utter disgust. It’s just stuff like that, experiences like that, just enraged me, but it
empowered me to use those experiences to teach, so that other people are aware and that they
don’t experience the same thing. But particularly talking, the fact I’m getting out to talk, I’m
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talking a lot more to healthcare providers and professionals about this cultural competency, and
why it’s important. And how it affects people and how they get their care and how it affects the
outcomes, of what happens as well.
Robin:
And just thinking of all of the things that are all tied into that though, like the cultural pressures
that we get, to listen to doctors or that deference. I know some of them are generational, but it’s
like where you put that on a person to like, this person is an expert and they know everything and
I am an advocate in being involved in the healthcare decisions that affect your body. Because I
didn’t know about the fact how I can frame this as a relationship between the doctor and me.
Like we are working together, with me, but that means that they have to listen to me too. And
they have to work with me too. So I’m listening to them, but they’re listening to me. It’s not just
that, oh, okay, I’m going to do whatever they tell me. And then we’re going to talk about it and
these medical providers, they’re not these omnipotent, all-knowing beings and that’s something
that I bring up as well.
Greg:
Thank you for that.
Greg:
Great. Following on that, it sounds like this is all informed by something. Which learning theory
or theories do you draw on most, in your teaching of sex ed?
Robin:
Okay. Now I know I do use the PLISSIT model a lot of times in talking about stuff, but I use a
lot of different frameworks. Like I incorporate disability justice. The disability justice framework
informs my teaching as well. And let’s see. I make sure that I am addressing things holistically
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and which is where, to me, that’s where the cultural competency ties into that. But I feel like I...
Can you ask one more time because I had something I wanted to say to that.
Greg:
Yeah. Which learning theory or theories do you draw on most in teaching sex ed?
Robin:
I would’ve to say PLISSIT and disability justice. As far as the academic approach, I can do it, I
could sit there and pull up theories. Like if I have to write something formal. That I’m a big
proponent of plain language, but yes, I understand that things need a basis or something, in order
to describe it, or how to frame it and how you talk about it. So just basically, I’m trying to... I
forget what all of the initials for PLISSIT, hold on. I have to look it up on the... Yes. That’s it.
Okay.
Robin:
I just know that I use it. The whole permission about giving talking and then of course, the
information. I give information that is specifically about that. Some basic information about what
we’re talking, about what we’re addressing. But then also I’m like, I also have links or I have
further things. If you want to know more about it here are resources, I’m a big fan of that in my
talks and stuff. And then specific suggestions. Because I am all about actionable things. I like to
talk about a problem, but then I’m solutions based. So I like to have the solutions.
Robin:
And then there’s intensive therapy. That part, as far as therapy goes, because I’m not a therapist,
but I do incorporate things about feelings and about emotions, and address mental health there
because your physical and your mental, they all work together. So even though, like I said, I’m
not a counselor or a therapist, a licensed counselor or therapist, I do acknowledge the emotions,
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especially when we’re talking about disability and sexuality. I do acknowledge all of those
things, I acknowledge the human feelings and emotions and maybe fear and trauma and things
like that. But hopefully providing people with tools though, in order to navigate that.
Greg:
Nice. Okay. So relatedly, is there... No, let me ask the question as it’s written, because I just got
lost in how I was going to ask it. Start over.
Greg:
All right. It’s the end of my workday.
Robin:
I’m so glad that this was Pacific Time for you too, because I was feeling guilty. I was like, what
if this dude is like a New York person?
Greg:
No, no, you’re fine. You’re fine. All right. So relatedly, how does your choice of theory or
theories in this case, build on any philosophy of learning that you have?
Robin:
Okay. Now, disability justice. How I learn about people, to me, I feel like disability justice helps
me with the PLISSIT model as well, because the principle, like the 10, 11 principles of disability
justice, when we’re talking about centering voices of marginalized people, cross disability, cross
movement, solidarity.
Robin:
Oh, goodness gracious. Sorry. I’m thinking, because you asked me the question, can you say it
again? Because I’ve lost my train of thought because I was like, I’m thinking about disability
justice and all the different principles and I’m like going, wait. Yes, it’s just woven in because
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those are principles, I guess, I try to live in my work, in all of my work. And making sure that the
needs, voices, whatever of marginalized, are centered also, recognizing and realizing the roots of
capitalism and how that affects things and affects outcomes, and how it affects sexuality.
Robin:
Because I like to bring up things. Like I know people talk about poly, blah, blah, blah. Do you
realize that poly takes money? Stuff like that. I feel like disability justice and PLISSIT, allow me
to address things, like I said holistically, because using those frameworks together, has me look
at the issue in its entirety in all of the ways that things are impacted. Looking at financial,
looking at ability, looking at interdependence, looking at the impact of race and gender and
sexual orientation, all of those things. I think for me, it just carries over. I feel like it works
together very well, for me, at least.
Greg:
That makes sense. And I think you’ve been answering this question the entire time we’ve been
talking, but there might be something more specific for you in this next one. Which frameworks
of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion are you using to teach sex ed?
Robin:
Disability justice.
Greg:
No way.
Robin:
I already said that. I was just like, I mean, there’s crip theory, but I’m a disability justice, as far
as, how that works.
Greg:
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Makes sense.
Robin:
And because I’m also having to recognize things. Like I said, economics, but also like region. As
we see with reproductive health, some states have rights and some states are getting them taken
the fuck away when it comes to abortion and things like that. So what is advice, what is sexual
health information and advice in one state may not be what you can do in another state or another
country. And just looking at it, hope that yeah, disability justice.
Greg:
Yeah. Since I’m hearing it’s very central to who you are as a sex educator, I’m wondering, let’s
dig a little bit deeper then. Are there particular theorists or writers that you’re really following as
you develop this approach, as you live out this approach, as you’ve said?
Robin:
Now, a person who has talked about it in a way, especially like accessing intimacy and things
like that, and what that means, Mia Mingus, is huge, her writings and talks, just hearing talking
about that and explain, I feel like... And then Dr. Bianca Laureano. She has those principles
down and she teaches about them, and she lives it. And also Leroy Moore. I’m trying to think, I
read lots of different things, there are many voices. I feel like, I hear and I read things from
around the world.
Robin:
For instance, when I was looking at different models of disability. Like you have your social
model of disability, you have your medical model of disability. But the holistic model of
disability, someone in Germany came up with this model. It’s called autistictic, is the website of
the person, but talking about that. Because the social model is saying, it’s society and what’s
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disabling is the way society treats you or the barriers that society places. And that’s what’s
disabling. Whereas the medical community is like, it’s a condition or a disease or blah, blah,
blah. And you know that you have to work with to make better or cure or whatever. And then the
holistic model is like, so you are with disability, you’re biologically impacted and impacted by
your environment, and they can go together. That to me, is a better model, because it
acknowledges that, yes, hello, I can’t, I’m paralyzed on those sides. So that’s a real disability.
It’s not society. Yes, it is disabling when there’s not an elevator or there’s stairs, and I can’t get
up a place, but medically, this is what’s going on. That’s also disabling. My body itself.
Robin:
And so that’s why I like that model. I like a more holistic model. And it was something that,
2019 is when she, I think they, I don’t know, she or they? I think they’re they. Put out, and I’m
like, okay, I’m going to be teaching this everywhere because this is what resonated with me,
because I felt like with disability, it’s not like an either or. There’s so many different models, of
course. You’ve your pity model of disability. And then there’re some places in the world, where
you have like a religious model where you’re are being punished by God for disability, as a
model. But I like the holistic, I really like the holistic.
Greg:
Thank you for that. Again, I think you have answered this quite a bit over the course of our time
together so far, but if you’d like to elaborate, how does your choice of framework? So this is
again your framework for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, in sex ed, how does it reflect
the needs of your students?
Robin:
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I feel like disability justice means that for students acknowledging that people are whole people
as they are, and that acknowledging that their culture, their life, their gender, who they are, that
impacts and influences their decisions around sexuality and sexual expression. And I have to be
cognizant and acknowledge that, in order for students to be able to hear the message. A prime
example, like I was talking to nurses, nurse practitioners about basic cultural competency in
reproductive healthcare with people with disabilities. And I was able to find a film and show
them a film. Basically, it’s kind of what’s called table manners, for when you’re in a doctor’s
office and that whole talking about getting onto the table, blah, blah, blah.
Robin:
So I was able to find a film where it was an Asian woman in a wheelchair with her sister and
they’re at the OB GYN and she’s trying to get a pap smear. And it showed like the wrong way
that the staff was taking, the wrong way where the staff was not really listening, and was the
racial insensitivity over the name and not pronouncing the name right. Or not even trying to find
out how to pronounce her name. So I was able to talk about the race and also how they were not
acknowledging disability or autonomy, or decision making, or to the fact that the equipment
itself wasn’t accessible. Did the practicalities and how all of that effected the experience of this
person, getting the reproductive healthcare that they needed.
Robin:
And then it showed that same scenario, but if it was done right. Where the person was addressed
and where the person that was with the person was not, because they showed the bad ways where
they’re talking to the person with the disability in the chair, like they’re a little kid, and then
they’re wanting to ask the other, like does she have periods? That kind of thing. Like talking to
the person, her sister, whoa, that’s something you didn’t talk to her, I’m just here to help the
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sister. I’m not the patient, she’s the patient, talk to her, about her body and about what she does,
not me.
Robin:
So in that film, and it was like, I think it was maybe a seven minute YouTube video, but it was
very impactful because for a lot of them, it just woke them up. They were like, oh wow. They
were in Wisconsin and a lot of these nurses and nurse practitioners were in rural area. And then I
got all these questions, like yes, I work with a refugee population and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I was just like, oh, okay. That’s a lot of questions. And I have some answers, not all the
answers. But I was able to actually give the advice, because I’m all about solutions. Talking
about access to translators, knowing how to have access to translator, or I was like, you can use
an app. I was like, the app things, try to use that kind of more as a last resort, but I know that
with money and whatever, isn’t always there, but I’m like, okay, this is like the best thing, I
think, that could happen.
Robin:
Here is kind of a stop gap to help in the meantime, that will provide some help and it’s better
than doing absolutely nothing. Those are all things though that I’m thinking about though. But
that’s what disability justice has taught me, thinking about language, thinking about
verbalization, thinking about communication, and the different styles of communication. And
how people communicate and how to ask questions, or how to get information across. And also
thinking outside of the box, so to speak, in order to make adaptations.
Greg:
Thank you. Great. Kind of a turn. Which model of sex ed are you using? So for example,
comprehensive or absent only, risk reduction, something else?
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Robin:
Comprehensive. I do comprehensive. I try to make sure that, because I’ve noticed that especially
with disability, a lot of it is deemed as preventative or protective and not in order, or preventive,
but rather than embracing also, like pleasure, or reproduction, or things like that. It’s just, a lot of
it’s based on, that’s how you don’t get pregnant. That’s how you don’t get disease. This is how
you don’t do this. This is how you stay away. This is how you don’t get raped. It’s just like, that
kind of stuff.
Robin:
And I feel like comprehensive sex ed should include, not only just those things but also how they
present it. Like if you’re not wanting to have kids and you’re not wanting to, then there’s, you
know what, these are birth control. Talk about this one. And talk of course, because of course it’s
responsible to talk about the very real medical conditions and things that can happen as a result
of engaging in sex. But I want to talk about the pleasure and being able to make it where it’s not
all about scare and fear. So that to me, comprehensive is taking all of it in account, taking a
holistic approach to talking about sexuality.
Greg:
Got it. All right. So I’m going to ask the question, just in case it sparks some more, but again, I
think you’ve answered it. What does this model, the comprehensive model, reflect about your
approach to sex ed in general?
Robin:
It means that you have to think about it from all the different angles, not just the physical, but
also the mental. And you think about the benefits as well as maybe deficits. I think that
comprehensive, for sex ed, having a complete picture is better because the other ways if you
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don’t do it in a way that encompasses everything, all parts of things that make up sexuality, then
it’s disjointed. You can’t just have talking about just pleasure because that’s not how it is. It’s a
multi-issue thing, sexes and there’s many different parts [inaudible]. I’m thinking, thinking,
thinking... Talking about sexuality, it’s not just a one point issue. There’s comprehensive, means
taking a person, their body, their life and its entirety, and how sex relates to that. So that’s what I
feel like a comprehensive model is for me.
Greg:
Thank you. What are some of the most important features for you, about the population of Black
youth and you’re focusing on ages 11 to 19, but it’s okay, if you have a different understanding
of what a Black youth is.
Robin:
No. That’s cool. So you asked me about, what now? Why is it-
Greg:
What are some of the most important features about working with that group? What’s significant
about working with Black youth or Black adolescents?
Robin:
I think that for me, being able to talk about different, talking about sex in a way that might be
different, or things that they might hear or talk about. Like I knew that polyamory, for instance,
was not something that is a Black youth that I grew up, hearing about as something that is
normal for some people or I didn’t realize it was like an option. I just thought that monogamy
was the default. And if you thought outside of that, then something was wrong with you. I spent
30 some odd years thinking that something was terribly wrong with me, that needed to be fixed,
because I am polyamorous. And I thought that meant that I was a hoe] and all these. And so I
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feel like it’s important for young Black people to realize that when it comes to sexuality, there’s
no just one way to do things.
Robin:
And then also that basing everything on a heteronormative model of sexuality is not good and
being able to talk to... For instance, right now, it’s very frightening to me about all of the, don’t
say gay, don’t mention anything outside of heterosexuality to children, because then they grow
up feeling like they’re wrong or they’re broken. And it takes a while to unlearn those negative
messages and lessons that you learn and internalize it. It’s shameful to be who you are, when
that’s how it’s introduced. So for me, talking to youth, it’s important to talk about the various
ways that people express themselves in relationships and sexuality. But also, it’s important to
destigmatizing certain activities, or things like that.
Robin:
I know that Gen Z and Gen Alpha, they’re coming up a little differently. So there’s a lot that I
can’t compare. I can’t compare my experience to what they’re learning because they’ve always
had the internet. They’ve always had their internet, and they have parents that had internet in
their youth or whatever. So even my kid, I get to tell my kid, your mom had a computer at 10. I
was 10 years old in the eighties, when I got my first computer. And I was like, so I was an early
adopter, so yes, I also had a digital youth just an old ass digital youth.
Greg:
That’s right. Fair enough.
Robin:
I was like, I could Telnet with the best of them. So things that I saw as daring activities, that I
had not even heard that people did, except for like, as in jokes, like eating booty, I thought I’m
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thinking about like, think of the tossing salad jokes in jail or stuff like that. Those kind of things.
But now Gen Z is asking on Tinder, do you eat ass? Like, you know. Okay. All right. I was like,
back in my day we didn’t really talk about it. If we did that, because then folks think you nasty.
Robin:
So I remember getting teased, awful. Because that was in the early 2000s. My friends were
making fun and calling me the Colonel. Anyway, it had involved a popcorn kernel. But I’m just
saying, but then I’m on Twitter. And they had a thread that said 20 something only. And I had to
save the picture on the phone because it was that. I was like, wow. What is that? It was a picture
of, I guess it was supposed to be, it was a drawing of all these little poop turds sitting around in
the circle and you see this little tongue going through a hole and they’re all like, is it about to get
me? And I was like on the 27th and I’m like, y’all, oh my God.
Robin:
But that’s because it’s not seen as... I’m trying to find this picture because I’m like, if I have to
see it, you have to too. Because I was a bit, I would just say I was shocked. Oh actually, I think
this one I saved on my computer. So I can find it and put it on you. And I put it in chat and you
can see what I’m talking about.
Greg:
Oh, good.
Robin:
It was just, okay. No files. Put it in files. Because this was like... You can ask me the next
question.
Greg:
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Okay. And this is my last official question. How does your approach to teaching sex ed build on
what you think is important about Black youth?
Robin:
Okay. Let’s see. How does, what I teach... Say that one more time.
Greg:
How does your approach to teaching sex ed to anyone, build on what you think is important
about Black youth?
Robin:
I think that it’s... Oh yeah. Found the pictures. I think that it is important. Wait, sorry. One
second. I will. I’m going ask you to ask it again, but there are reasons. One second. One second,
please. I’ve got it. I’m just trying to drag it because I’m like, it has to happen.
Robin:
All right. There we go. Come on drag. Okay. Well, okay. Let me just answer the question. I
found the picture. I’ll drag it there in just a minute. Anyway, go on. Ask me again. I’m sorry.
Greg:
All right. Not a problem. How does your approach to teaching sex ed, build on what you think is
important to know about Black youth or Black adolescence?
Robin:
I think that the way I approach what’s important to know. It’s important to take a holistic
approach to sex ed with Black youth. It’s important to incorporate and to know about what’s
currently going on. It’s important to know pop cultural references. And it is important to know
what they’re seeing, what they’re hearing, how they talk, how they get information.
Robin:
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All of those things are really important because these are the things that they’re surrounded by
and that’s where they get their information. So you’re having to think about, you need to know,
you have to know where they’re going or where they’re visiting, in order to know how to reach
them. You have to know what is important or relevant, and not make assumptions about what
they know or what they don’t know.
Robin:
Because I found out from teaching youth, they know a lot, they know a lot more than I thought
they did. Because I’m thinking of once again, booty again, but there was like, one time there was
a question, and it was like, why do they say eat the booty like groceries? What does booty taste
like? You had to know that, that was from a song and the music that they’re listening to, from
artists. So they’re going to have questions about the activities that they’re hearing referenced or
things like that. It’s because like it’s the generational because I mean, yes, I’m Gen X and we
had songs talking about stuff, but we didn’t have anything talking about eating the booty like
groceries.
Robin:
So that’s not a question, for instance, that would even pop up in my purview. But Gen Z, it’s
like, that’s in their vernacular. So being able to address, being able to know these things, that’s
really important. I feel like you need to be aware of what, and I feel like I kind of lucked out in
this area because I have a teenager. So having a teenager, just from parenting my own kid, and
knowing the kind of things that he listens to. And I know that my kid is not the trendiest type kid
and a kid does their own thing, but his music, things like that, I talk to him and it gives me ideas,
it gives me direction. He teaches me areas that I feel like I’ve missed.
Robin:
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But I also feel like it’s important. Like in one thing in disability, I know that they have, nothing
about us without us. So I plan to, I mean, my kid’s not going to be a teenager forever, soon
they’re going to be a young adult, but I still plan to, as long as I plan to, if I want to teach people,
then I would like to make sure that I have the thoughts and opinions and voice of somebody of
that generation, so that I can, in order to educate. I believe in listening to youth, I’ve seen the
SLAM youth conference, that had happened. I’m starting to see youth led sex ed conferences and
things like that, and I feel like that’s amazing. And I think we should have more of that. Okay,
now I’m going to drag that picture.
Robin:
Come on Robin, you can drag. You have skills.
Robin:
Okay. Why didn’t they want to go there? Why don’t you want to go?
Robin:
So you know how you have the different windows and you have it, and it’s like going... All right,
there we go. No, no, no, no. Just go get it. Just attach it, Robin. I have to sit there and do that
whole file thing. I was hoping I could just drag it, but that’s not how it works.
Greg:
It would’ve been simpler. I get it.
Robin:
No, no, no. But I was just (makes plaintive noise) but I’ll just go there and find the file. Attach
the file. There it is. And open, and bam! Yeah, it’s called the chances you take when you eat ass.
And after I saw that picture, I was like, I was done. Wait, does not that click to open? There we
go.
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Robin:
You see it? It’s like-
Greg:
It froze. There you go. You’re back.
Robin:
Okay. I see. Probably because of that picture. And they were like, nope, you don’t need to be
showing that stuff. But did you see it now?
Greg:
I do.
Robin:
And like I said, that was on the Twitter thread where they did say twenties only, but I was like,
okay, I’m doing research. Because like I said, I have a degree in anthropology. So I like just kind
of wandering in, doing observation and reading, so that I can understand. A lot of times,
sometimes I look at stuff and I don’t understand what the hell they’re talking about that’s funny.
Because my kids always show me stuff and I’m like, I don’t get it. And I’m like, I’ve got a sense
of humor. I’m pretty cool. But I don’t get that. That’s not funny, But that picture, oh I got that
picture.
Greg:
All right. Well, Robin, I am at the end of my formal questions. Is there anything that I haven’t
asked about that you’d like to tell me or any additional information that you’d like to provide?
Robin:
No. I’m just glad that you’re doing this as your dissertation. I think that this is amazing. I look
forward to getting to read it one day, if you post it as a paper or something. I’ve been reading,
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like when I’ve been doing research for other stuff, and then I’ve read people’s dissertations that
have popped up over the years, when I’m searching for something and I’m like, oh, this person
wrote a paper on blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. [inaudible] So there are people like me that
actually do read other people’s dissertations to get information.
Greg:
I’m so glad to hear it. All right. I’m going to go ahead and stop the recording then.
Robin:
Okey-doke.

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Maxine
Greg:
All right, you should get a little alert. So we are recording. Do I have your consent to participate
in the interview?
Maxine:
Yes.
Greg:
All right. Do I have your consent to keep recording?
Maxine:
Yes.
Greg:
Fantastic. All right. So I just got your document, but I’d also love you to tell me, why do you feel
that your article in your first column of Dear Dr. J, it represents your approach to teaching?
Maxine:
So my approach is asking the questions, so my prioritized populations are adolescents and
emerging adults. And I feel like there are so many questions that they want to ask, they need to
ask, but they’re either embarrassed or ashamed. And so my approach to sexual health education
is, you should be able to ask me anything. Now, obviously there are boundaries in all that we do
because we discuss a very sensitive and sometimes taboo subject. But my hashtag is, go ahead
and ask me. Because you asking me isn’t going to hurt. I can always decline. But rarely, rarely
do I.
Greg:
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Awesome. All right. So my next question is, what drew you to teaching sex ed with Black youth
or Black adolescents?
Maxine:
Oh goodness. So as a mom of two, young adults/adolescents, I just felt like there’s never a wrong
time to be more informed. And in the great state of Texas, the comprehensive sex education is
non-existence. We are for the most part in abstinence-only states, some abstinence-plus. But the
age of sexual debut is decreasing, the rates of unintended and unplanned pregnancy are
increasing. So kids are having sex at a younger age, but we are still not telling them what they
need to know to prevent the negative aspects related to sex. And we don’t focus on
comprehensive sex, which includes pleasure, which includes being well-informed, making your
own decisions. Major conversations on consent are still not taking place to my comfort level.
And as a public health practitioner dealing with adolescents early in my career, a lot of the
questions are basic questions that I had when I was a young person that we’re still not talking
about.
Maxine:
And so I really wanted to step into the space and created an avenue for me to be able to do that.
To talk, not just the negatives, but a more holistic approach to, let’s just talk about relationships.
Before we even get to the point of we want to see each other naked and maybe just our pants at
our ankles and all the other things that go along with our sexual debuts and our sexual behaviors
and practices. But let’s just talk about having a human experience and what those feelings look
like and what those feelings mean. So my approach is, if you take the aspect that we are in
culinary school, we’re not just going to talk about Salmonella and Listeria. We’re not just going
to talk about all the bad things of being in cooking school. We’re going to talk about those, but
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we’re also going to talk about this delicious meal that is prepared and how it looks, how it’s
presented. And I take that same approach to comprehensive sex in, we’re going to talk about all
of it.
Greg:
Yes. Right. Thank you for that. So building on that, why is teaching sex ed in a culturally
responsive or culturally relevant way important to you?
Maxine:
So I think as a Black woman, we often sexualize Black girls very early, and we do not always
give young Black teens and Black and Brown teens of color, the same opportunities to be young
as we do their counterparts. So if we see a young Black girl who is more developed than her
counterparts, we automatically label her as fast. We automatically put labels on young Black
men of their sexual prowess and we put all of the stigma and negative aspects on it and we don’t
really allow them the opportunity to just be young people and to have meaningful, informed
conversations.
Maxine:
And I don’t think that, that happens across all ethnicities and cultures. I honestly feel that we
hold young Black and Brown kids to a different standard and a different expectation when it
comes to what they should do and how they should do it and what they should know and what
they shouldn’t. And we often put those negative labels on them and we don’t give them the
chance to make mistakes. We don’t give them the chance to be curious and to make meaningful
inquiries of different aspects of their bodies and how things work. And that’s an unfortunate
circumstance that I just kind of see.
Greg:
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Mm-hmm (affirmative). Got it. I get it. In your work are there particular learning theories that
you draw on the most in your teaching?
Maxine:
So as a public health person, obviously health behavior theory, and I laugh, because I’m a big fan
of the theory of reason to action when it comes to why we do the things that we do. So I would
probably say I lean into those most often.
Greg:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Awesome. Awesome. Does your choice of theory at these two in
particular more, if you’re using them and just mention them, build on any philosophy of learning
that you have in particular?
Maxine:
I’m going to say not in a very purposeful manner other than I feel like we need to create more
role plays and experiential learning for young people. But as far as a hardcore philosophy, I
would probably say no.
Greg:
Okay. Also sort of building on that same theme of questions, which frameworks for justice,
equity, diversity and inclusion are you using in your teaching of sex ed?
Maxine:
Oh my goodness. That is a very hard question. And I’m going to have to say at this time I would
really have to think about that because there is not a specific framework that I have incorporated
in a purposeful way. But that’s a great question. Now I have to sit and kind of go back and think
about that one.
Greg:
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Well let’s dig in there. Are there specific strategies that you’re using to make sure that your
teaching is just equitable, diverse, and inclusive?
Maxine:
Well I had a meeting with two of my doctoral students earlier today and we were going through a
PowerPoint. And we actually had a conversation about it being, using more inclusive language
and making sure that, because you don’t know how someone is coming to a session, you don’t
know how they are presenting until you begin to interact with them. And making sure that we
really focus on more, I want to say, more purposeful and not just neutral language, but more
intentional language. I think is probably what my approach is really centered around.
Greg:
Nice. Nice. So far have you seen any... What outcomes have you seen? Let me ask it a little bit
more balance. What outcomes have you seen from making those changes?
Maxine:
So I think one outcome is people are more inclined to be open with sharing. And because as a
sexual health educator that is just one aspect of my job or many jobs, I feel like people are more
inclined to be transparent with what their lived experience has been. So they’re more open to
receiving the information that I’m trying to share.
Greg:
Okay. How do you think your choice of frameworks that, you said you’re not using the specific
framework, but I’m going to ask the question the way it’s written and then I’ll tweak it. So how
does your choice of framework reflect the needs of your students? So how are the strategies that
you’re using reflecting the needs of your students?
Maxine:
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So when it comes to working with young people, I will say they don’t know what they don’t
know. And it’s really easy for us as educators to sit on the other side and wonder why they don’t
know it as opposed to providing them with an environment to explore those topics in those areas
more openly and more, what’s the word? More genuinely. So I would say that the strategies that
I use and the outcomes that I’ve seen really kind of coincide what my end result is, is having
those candid conversations. It’s one thing to provide information and I’m a bit proponent of it
needs to be medically accurate information and kind of dispelling myths. But also those curious
questions that people get embarrassed and are afraid and make them giggle, but they really want
to know their answer to create a safe space for them to be able to explore what those areas are
and to really have a conversation about it and get the information that they desire.
Greg:
Yeah. That makes sense. That definitely makes sense. And I think I’ll ask-
Maxine:
I mean, when you think about myths, I mean, I’ve had the... Here in Texas they start with fourth
grade I believe is when they do kind of hygiene video and conversation. And then when they get
in either seventh or eighth grade, they’re doing the more abstinence kind of sex ed conversation.
And the questions don’t always mirror what the information is, it’s being shared in those videos
and in those sessions. But the questions that are being shared are questions that they are dealing
with in day to day life, whether it’s in music lyrics or having older siblings or cousins that
they’re hearing conversations, and what does that mean? So I kind of feel like the conversation
needs to keep up with the time, which as we all know, working just in a community setting you
have more opportunity need to have those types of conversations than particularly in a school
session.
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Greg:
Right. I’m wondering, based on what you’re saying, it sounds like you provide a counterpoint for
the sex ed that’s going on in your state. Does that sound accurate?
Maxine:
I would say that’s the goal.
Greg:
Okay.
Maxine:
I would say that is the goal. I have not fully reached that, but I have young people as well as
parents and guardians that reach out and like, “Hey, this is the question that came before me, or
what should I do because of, or this is what we’re experiencing at home and what should we
include to have that conversation?” Things like, I use the example of masturbation because that’s
always a big one. “I walked in my kids room and he, she or they were masturbating and what
should I do?” And then I kind of chuckle like, “Well, did you knock? Was the door closed? Do
they have autonomy over their body? Do they have the ability to have privacy, and you not
wonder what they’re doing? And they feel open enough to come and say, ‘Hey, I did this, this
felt good. Is that bad?’”
Maxine:
Are you creating an environment, parent/guardian to allow them the time to explore what’s
theirs, they’re with it all day, every day. Not exploring somebody else’s, but when I touch my
elbow like this, it feels really weird. That conversation is okay. But if we talk about touching our
genitals, then it’s a whole nother conversation.
Greg:
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That makes sense. I think I want to back up just a little bit. I’m wondering then, we already
covered what are the strategies that you’re using in the classroom? How that reflects the needs of
your students. And I’m guess kind of wondering again, what outcomes are you seeing from
applying those strategies with the students that you’re working with?
Maxine:
Well, I will say this, COVID has hindered a lot of community work, so I’ve been focusing more
on digital education and interacting more with one on one or in a social media setting or small
group versus classroom in the traditional sense. And the outcomes that previous to COVID are
having a delayed sexual debut or at least having a more informed sexual debut when that choice
is made. And having more resources and understanding around, “I’m making this choice, but I
still need to protect myself.” So that’s kind of what I’m seeing anecdotally without doing formal
evaluations.
Greg:
That makes sense. Thank you for that. All right. You’ve definitely already mentioned, but I want
to make sure that I get it from you, which model of sex ed are you using? Comprehensive,
abstinence-only risk reduction, a combination-
Maxine:
I am comprehensive sex ed. I do not believe that in 2022 abstinence-only education is realistic.
So I have a more holistic approach and age appropriate approach that talks about, from the lens
of healthy relationships, both platonic and romantic and not focusing simply on STIs and
unplanned pregnancies. But just healthy relationships from the beginning, through consent,
through making healthy choices. So a much more comprehensive approach than simply don’t
have sex. We saw the, don’t do drugs and how that went, so.
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Greg:
Exactly. Kind of more broadly, how does this model, the comprehensive model that you’re
applying reflect your approach to teaching sex ed in general? So that was more about working
with any group.
Maxine:
Young people. Any group?
Greg:
Yeah.
Maxine:
That’s a great question. Because I have quite a few women that interact with me and have
questions related to consent and intimacy, whether they’re in a partnered or unpartnered
situation. And while working with a young person, we may talk about boundaries and consent in
the sense of don’t touch my hair. That’s a perfect example for a young person. It’s your hair
grows out of your head, you get to determine who you’re comfortable with touching it. When we
talk to an older individual, let’s say an emerging adult, so someone that’s an undergraduate. I
stress do things because you are wanting to do them, because you are curious to do them, not
because you are being convinced to do them. So taking on again, that autonomy of this is your
body, this is the vessel that you have that you’re always with.
Maxine:
So if you decide to wear tight jeans, wear baggy jeans, you’re doing it because you want to do it
not because your partner is telling you, “This is what I want you to do.” So again, I take, while it
is comprehensive sex ed, it has real world applications outside of the bedroom or the kitchen or
whatever, it is that you decide that you want to engage in sexual activities and talk about
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boundaries and how those boundaries and how you communicate those boundaries just in normal
conversations really can apply to sexual interactions. So even when I talk to parents, we talk
about the dreaded, “I want my kid to sit on Santa’s lap and take this picture or the Easter
Bunny’s lap,” since Easter’s coming up. And “I want this cute picture,” and then you see the
picture and the baby’s screaming and crying because they’re scared, they’re afraid. But what you
are communicating to them in a lot of instances is A, I said it, so you have to do it. B, it’s an
adult so you have to do it.
Maxine:
If I say to my child, “Go give your grandmother a hug or a kiss,” well, what if that person gives
me a bad vibe? What if that person has body odor, breath odor, all these things. But you’re
saying, you’re teaching me that I have to do it from an early age because an adult said so. So
taking those lessons, even for parents to say, how about giving options of a fist bump, a
handshake, a hug, a kiss and making it, it’s your choice. So you can take those lessons as an
adult and say, “Hey, I do not have to do this particular position or activity or engage in any of
these things if I choose not to.” And these are my boundaries and giving resources and tools to
be able to communicate those to your partner.
Greg:
So, great.
Maxine:
And you’d be amazed at how many, again, just had this conversation earlier. Women and men
not even being able to identify body parts. So the joke about men can’t find the clitoris and what
does the clitoris look like? And then they’re like, “Oh, it’s the little dot,” not knowing what a
clitoris actually looks like. And how big a clitoris is and how it mimics a penis. So all of those
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conversations are more adult conversations, but it still falls under for me, still falls under
comprehensive sex ed.
Greg:
Makes sense. That makes sense. Thank you for that. I think my next question then is, what do
you think are some of the most important features for you about the population of Black youth or
Black adolescents? And we’re using ages 11 to 19 here. You might use a different definition
that’s fine to you.
Maxine:
What are the some of the, say the question again.
Greg:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). What are some of the most important features for you about working
with the population of Black youth or Black adolescents?
Maxine:
So relatability. I come from where they come from. I look like them, I sound like them, I dress
like them a little older, because I’m a woman of a particular age. We listen to the same kind of
music. And while those are very general things, when we walk into the world, we have a similar
reception from society. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is, an eagerness for learning.
An eagerness... I personally do not operate well in an environment of ignorance. I like to know
things. I like to know the why. And being able to communicate the why to young people is very
important to me because I think oftentimes we use because I said so, because that’s the way it is,
it’s never going to change. But we never get to the, this is how it is and here is why. This is how
it is and these are the things that you have the ability to change. This is how you can respond.
This is how you incorporate.
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Maxine:
And I honestly don’t feel that we always provide the full set of resources that we have to our
Black and Brown youth, particularly in urban areas. And I think we could do a better job. To
even, like I said, I live in a very rural community. And I was doing a class out here, sex ed at the
ranch and I had college kids between the ages of 19 and 21. And so we started talking about, we
were doing a session on porn literacy and what realistic sexual interactions look like. But as I
was setting it up, I was like, “We’re going to talk about some other things leading up to.”
Maxine:
And so I went to my local pharmacy, which I live in the country so it is a pharmacy where you
walk in and white coat and behind the counter and that whole thing. And I said, “Hey I need to
buy some condoms. Do you have female or internal condoms?” And they had no idea what I was
talking about. And literally the condoms were one brand Trojan behind the counter. So here I am
a woman of a particular age, but I can only imagine a young person going in and having to not
just have the conversation of, “I need to buy condoms,” but then to not even know that there are
other options other than. It doesn’t sit well with me. And heaven forbid we talk about dental
dams. The pharmacy tech said, “Is that something for your teeth?” Exactly. So I feel like there’s
so much more to be done to inform young people of what their options are and the resources
available to them. But at the same time, we have to do a better job as sex educators to really
stress the importance of informed providers of these services and resource.
Greg:
Yeah. I’m just sitting with that. I’m kind of-
Maxine:
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Yeah. I mean, and I laughed because it was the traditional pharmacist of, “I’m a thousand years
old, this was my practice from my parents and grandparents.” And then there were two kind of
middle aged women and there was one teenager. And when I tell you he was beat red the entire
time I was in this interaction. I was just like, this is absolutely. So I stood there and I was like, I
could buy the condoms and leave or I could engage in the meaningful conversation. And like,
Moneybag Yo, I was like, “I got time today.” So I stood there and had the conversation about
what an internal or female condom is and why they’re important for them to also carry and to
share what a dental dam is just on a very basic level. But I live in a town of 7,000 and there’s
more cattle than people. But when you think that the high school is right there and what
resources are they really providing? It amazes me.
Greg:
So we’re to my last formal question. And that’s, I want to give that another beat. All right. Thank
you. How does your approach to teaching sex ed build on what you think is most important about
working with Black youth or Black adolescents?
Maxine:
So the thing that I stress most, like I said, I talk about healthy relationships, both platonic and
romantic, is consent. I think we as a society don’t give consent enough conversation until it’s a
problem. So when it was a problem in Hollywood and we saw the #MeToo movement, there was
consent everywhere. And I do not think in regular conversations, we really stress enough what a
healthy relationship looks like and what consent means for that individual. And I think it starts
way before we have the conversation on sexual relationships and encounters. I think we really
need to stress consent at an early age when in those most formative years, when young people
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are learning who they are and what they like and what they dislike and really having a
meaningful way to share with them that consent matter matters in everything.
Maxine:
Even in the workplace, I did an interview a couple weeks ago and we were talking about love
languages. And I was just like, even in the workplace, there’s some workplace cultures that are
very touchy-feely, “Let me get you a hug, it’s so glad to see you.” But what if that is a trigger for
you? And you don’t know how to communicate that boundary in the workplace or in other types
of relationships. So I really feel like we really need to start with consent. And like I said, young
Black and Brown people are often over sexualized and labeled very quickly negatively when we
have conversations around sex.
Greg:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Right. I think my follow-up question then is that, what brought you to
Texas? Are you originally from there? Did you stay there?
Maxine:
I am not. So I moved here in 1997 to do my internship for my Master’s in Public Health. I had a
little bit of family here and then I had a bigger family because I had children and Texas just
became home. I worked in STI education and sex education as my first real public health job.
And I would be invited to speak and do a session on HIV or syphilis or STIs or other things. And
I found that while even now I’m a woman of a particular age, that I am just drawn to youth
because I just feel like we talk about them being the future, but we don’t always prepare them
with real world skills just to navigate how screwed up our culture is when it comes to topics of
around sex.
Maxine:
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And not just that being the Black and Brown culture, but just society in general, when we talk
about sex sales, when we look at the media, when we look at music videos, when we look at arts
and entertainment, we do not always acknowledge that there was no message that went along
with that. There was no warning label. You know what I mean? So there’s no conversations that
are taking place after we ingest all this sexually related information and there needs to be more
conversation that for us to talk about what’s realistic and really, like I said, focus on consent. We
need to do a better job of focusing on pleasure and making sure that how we define pleasure is
very individual. But I just don’t think we’re having those conversations with young people, so.
Maxine:
When I came to Texas, I worked in very urban areas where I would sit and talk to young girls
about getting off of the streets or making sure that they’re protecting themselves. And we have a
conversation about sex with young people. Again, we talk about the negative aspects, we don’t
do a good job of talking about aftercare. I mean, there’s just so many things that I think we could
do a better job of. I’m just trying to feel a little bitty square of being a resource wherever I can.
Greg:
Thanks. Nice. I appreciate you for doing that work. That was the end of my questions. Is there
any more information that you would like to share or any questions you’d like to ask or answer
that I didn’t ask?
Maxine:
So I do have a question for you. Tell me why you are interested in this work.
Greg:
Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah. Let me just make sure I get the note, right. So I’m also a Black
sex educator. And basically what happened is, a couple years ago, I’m out here in LA and I help
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run a small sex ed nonprofit. And we got a contract with a school where we always have a co-
teaching model. So we send at least two people to be in the room to reflect different gender
identities and a wide array of social locations and what have you. And I ended up in this class of
exclusively Black and Brown eighth graders as this Black man. And it was the first time I had
been in a class of exclusively people of color.
Greg:
And we were having a conversation on consent actually, I was just like, “So what are some of the
things you could do?” And the answers start coming out immediately. You call the police, you
do this, you do that. And I’m just like, this is like 2017. I can’t have them thinking that the very
first thing you do is call... That doesn’t work well for us. And I don’t know that they’ve ever had
a Black man-
Maxine:
The we’re offender, we’re not even the victim at that part.
Greg:
Exactly, exactly. And so like, I said, I had to lean into my own identity where I was just like, this
is something I wouldn’t necessarily do if my teaching partner were present. But these kids are
going to get themselves in trouble if I don’t tell the some lived experience wisdom that’s on top
of my book learning. And so I kind of sat with that for a few years and then I worked on a
credential, I’m also a Unitarian Universalist minister and I was working on a credential in
religious education. And I brought this up to my mentors through the process and she’s just like,
“Yeah, that’s important. You’re right. The curriculum that we use, isn’t really responding to the
needs of people of color and that can lead to long term consequences. Don’t forget that you said
that you’re doing this work because.” And so that eventually became my dissertation topic
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because I figured, if I’m doing this, I can’t be the first Black sex educator who figured out that
the mainstream materials lack something.
Greg:
So are we all doing the same types of things? Are we doing this at all? I’m not sure. Let me ask.
And that’s what birthed the study.
Maxine:
Okay. I like that. Yeah. It’s interesting when you go and you see a room full of yourself. For me,
it would be 30 plus years ago. But, to see me sitting on like, what I have wanted to know sitting
in that classroom? Me being more informed, or at least better informed could have prevented
what lived experiences that I have had to go through, because I just didn’t know. Because I
didn’t have the resource. Because I was too afraid to speak up for myself. And when we think
like, just as an undergraduate student you’re away from home for the very first time, the majority
of the time in our communities, we’ve not extensive weeks, months away from our family.
We’ve been away from home visiting other family, but we’ve not been a month long, “I’m going
to study over here or study over there.” Typically in our community we just don’t see that.
Maxine:
And to have that come full circle with, and you have to study and you have to manage your
money and you have to be safe as you’re walking from class at night and you have to. Like,
there’s just so many things that I think we do a really good job of in our community, but there
are definitely some gaps that we could be addressing better, so. So what life experience did you
share with that class?
Greg:
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I just kind of walked them through it. I’m a big fan of, okay. And I didn’t have this terminology
at the time, but this was what I was thinking of. So most situations don’t require the presence of
a gun, so I’m not sure why you’re calling the people with the guns. And this was a neighborhood
school so I could talk about, go to auntie down the street, everybody has an auntie down the
street. There is someone in the neighborhood who knows too much about everything that’s going
on, talk to that person.
Maxine:
Everybody’s babies.
Greg:
Exactly. Exactly. Talk to that person. They will help you. That they will be only too thrilled to
help you. And it’s going to end up most likely being better for everybody. There are some very,
very limited scenarios where you might need actors of the state present. And even then it’s
probably not the police.
Maxine:
Yeah. Then it’s, the boys down the road will take care of that for you.
Greg:
Exactly.
Maxine:
Yeah. No, I mean, it is just so... And as I said, a mother of two daughters, I struggle with that a
lot. Even in school, because like I used the example of hair and we used to joke about it, but I
was so serious because my daughters have hair like mine, but a lot more of it. And I would
always say, if somebody and this... So my oldest daughter had a friend, her hair didn’t thrive,
we’ll put it that way. And a little boy cut her ponytail off in school. Now mind you, this was not
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her ponytail, this was her ponytail. And after I said, “If anything like that were or to ever happen,
I would be in jail, a hundred percent. But because I can’t be with you always, this is what you
have to do. You punch first, then you call me. Don’t worry about all the other stuff. I’m going to
be there. I will worry about all the other stuff, but punch, you have to defend yourself.” And so
when that incident happened, I mean, the little girl was crushed as you could imagine, that’s our
crown.
Maxine:
And I was just why? But, and it wasn’t one of us that did it, which just made it even more
offensive in my book. So yeah, I just don’t think that we always have all of the resources shared
that we should. And I think a lot of it is because we just don’t know some things. We say, “Don’t
come up here with no babies.” To our daughters, we say it to our sons, to our daughters. We say,
“Don’t come up in here pregnant.” Okay. But what’s the conversation that needs to take place
before that.
Greg:
Exactly. Exactly. I say sometimes I’m in my thirties and I have this conversation with my peers
routinely. I do not know when the switch flipped and we went from, don’t get pregnant, don’t get
pregnant to yay we’re having a baby. When were we suddenly allowed to have babies? Because
the message was definitely don’t do it. And then one day we’re doing this and you’re happy
about this. This is not an accident.
Maxine:
Yeah. Or even the, oh God, you just made me think of something. We all have that one family
member.
Greg:
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Yes.
Maxine:
Go give so and so, but now we, it’s just, it’s so much. It’s so very much. It’s so very much, we
are more worried about... It seems like we’ve taken a few steps back on what’s necessary to keep
our young people healthy and safe. And I think we need to kind of reinstill some of those old
school values with new school education. So. Yeah.
Greg:
Right. Again, any other information you want to share? I think I’m about ready to end the
recording. I love the conversation we’ve had.
Maxine:
Yeah. I don’t think so. Read my column. Right. Read my column. But yeah. Oh, podcast folk
this is Sex on Apple and Spotify.

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Lori
Greg:
Pop up that will ask if you want to record or not.
Lori:
No. So this meeting is being recorded by the host or participant. Do I just click on where it says
got it? And then or just-
Greg:
Yeah.
Lori:
Okay. I’m so scared to touch anything. I’m afraid if I touch something my whole screen will go
blank. Oh my God.
Greg:
Well, I understand. Good, all right. We’re good. All right. Do I have your consent to participate
in this interview?
Lori:
Yes, you do.
Greg:
Do I have your consent to continue recording?
Lori:
Yes, you do.
Greg:
Fantastic. All righty. So the first question I want to ask you is what drew you to teaching sex ed
to Black youth?
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Lori:
Wow, okay. So right after I got my master’s, one of my first jobs out of, when I graduated, was
working with Planned parenthood. I was working with HIV/AIDS education and prevention
program. And the demographic, it was like 99.9% Black youth, and some Latino. But it was
overwhelmingly Black. And I just loved it. I had a professor in graduate school who really
inspired me. And so once I started teaching it, I was hooked. And I like to talk about stuff like
that. And the kids love to talk about stuff like that as well.
Greg:
Awesome. So tell me for you, why is teaching sex ed in a culturally responsive or culturally
relevant way important to you?
Lori:
I think it’s important because a lot of sort of the way that I learned how out to teach sex ed was
from a very white, male, heterosexual perspective. And forget about LGBT. It was very narrow,
and I felt like it didn’t take into consideration the lived experiences of young people of color.
And I’ve taught white youth as well. And the basics are the same. The ovaries are the ovaries,
the fallopian tubes, and all of that. However, there’s these nuances when it comes to teaching
youth of color that I really wasn’t taught how to do that. And I had to figure it out on my own
because I wanted to make the sex ed really relevant to my young people of color.
Greg:
Right. Building on that, which learning theory or theories do you draw on most in teaching sex
ed?
Lori:
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It’s so interesting. I think I draw on a lot of different theories, the health belief model. Stages of
change, not so much. I think my favorite theory is the social cognitive theory because decisions
around sex and sexuality, to me, they’re not made in a vacuum. And so I need to take into
consideration environment, community, how all of those things impact the decisions that young
people make around sex and sexuality.
Lori:
So for example, the norms that exist in the adolescent community. I think there’s certain things
that young people engage in or do not engage in based on those social norms. So to me, the
social cognitive theory allows me to look at it from a more holistic standpoint versus just the
individual. The stages of change and the health belief model is really about sort of the
individual’s perception, where is the individual at? And that’s fine. And I do use some of that.
But I think it’s a bigger ... I think the picture is bigger than just what Mary and Johnny choose to
do when they decide to have sex.
Lori:
There’s the gender piece, which, to me, is huge around working with young women of color,
because I feel that the way that sex and sexuality is looked at is looked at from a very male
perspective. And so that gender piece I think has to be taken into consideration. And it’s very
different to me how white girls process it versus like how Black girls process it, because there’s
so much more writing on it for Black girls. There’s some deep stuff. It’s so multi-layered, and
there’s so many fat involved. I’m just glad I’m not 15.
Greg:
Yeah. I think I’ll ask a follow up question on that then. What were your experiences with sex ed
an adolescent then maybe?
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Lori:
Oh God. So when my mother suspected that I was doing stuff with my boyfriend, she took me to
a clinic. I grew up in Harlem. And she took me to a clinic. It wasn’t in Harlem. It was more in
Upper Manhattan, in the Washington Heights area. But she took me there, and there was this
nurse there, Black nurse, and she was so good. And she answered all my questions about sex and
birth control. My mother’s thing was she didn’t want me to get pregnant. So she took me to the
nurse, and she just gave me such good information, so much so that I took my two best friends
back. And I think I want to say that’s where I got my first contraception was there, and I was like
15.
Greg:
Nice. And I’m wondering because you took your two friends back, is that kind of a proto-version
of you becoming a sexuality educator?
Lori:
You know what? Now that I think about it, and the way that the nurse, the way that she taught
me, us, about birth control, and it wasn’t just that too, which I appreciated. It wasn’t just sort of
the mechanics. It was also talking to us about how we felt as young Black women about to
embark on sexual experiences. And I’m thinking that was kind of unheard of at that time. And
that was a long time. That was a long time ago.
Lori:
But it was the way that she did it, again, not just focusing on the below the waist stuff, really
talking to us. And one of my friends, one that I took for initial visit, unfortunately she contracted
a sexually transmitted disease from her much, much, much older boyfriend, which is a whole
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nother thing that happens sometime in the Black community, teenage girls having sex, or older
men having sex with these younger girls, putting them at risk for all type of stuff.
Lori:
So she was 15. And I think he, oh my God, he was probably 25. And he gave her a sexually
transmitted infection. And we went back to this nurse, to this teen friendly clinic, and no
judgment. She helped my friend, got her treated. And so I just never forgot how she interacted
with us, the nurse. It was good.
Greg:
Thank you for that. Great. Now back to our regularly scheduled session. So you already talked
about your choice of learning theories, a little bit of health belief, some social cog. How does
your choice of theory or theories build on any philosophy of learning that you have?
Lori:
How does it build on any philosophy? My philosophy around learning has changed so, so, so
much. I’m very much about meeting folks where they are, in terms of what they know, and then
building on that. Read the question again.
Greg:
Yeah. How does your choice of theory or theories build on any philosophy of learning you have?
Lori:
How does my choice of theory build on any ... And we talking about sex education?
Greg:
Or learning in general. It sounds like you would teach most in sex ed, so yeah. But if you have to
go further left-field, that’s fine too.
Lori:
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So my philosophy on learning in general is that I feel that most young people, I would say the
majority of young people, they’re teachable. And that has been a challenge for me. Now I’m
teaching on a college level. And I guess I just start from the basic premise that everyone is
teachable, or most everyone is teachable. And I want to make folks learning experiences as
interactive and as engaging as possible.
Lori:
And so that’s why I said I don’t have one theory that I subscribe to 100%. Sometimes I feel like I
pull from here to here, to here, to here, to here. And depending upon who my target population
is, who my audience is, really determines sort of where I pull from, and how I pull from where I
pull from. I don’t know if that’s making any sense.
Greg:
Yeah, it does. It sounds like you’re making choices in the moment. There’s some general
guidelines, maybe there’s some parameters that you’re choosing from. And so you’re not
choosing any and all philosophy, but you don’t employ all of everything all at once if it’s not
necessary.
Lori:
Correct, yes.
Greg:
That makes sense to me. That was a good explanation.
Lori:
Oh, gosh.
Greg:
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Right. This is actually kind of similar then. I’m wondering which frameworks for justice, equity,
diversity and inclusion you’re using teaching sex ed.
Lori:
Well again, no such framework. But what I do know is that if my teaching, and that could be
whether I’m doing health education, sex education, whatever, if it’s not inclusive, then I know
that I’m missing the mark. And I’m not 100% well versed on the different frameworks around
DEI, I think. Correct?
Greg:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lori:
The way that I look at it, depending upon who I’m teaching, and again, because for the most part,
I’m teaching Black and Hispanic youth, but primarily Black, I want to center the Black
experience. If I’m teaching primarily students from the LGTQIA+ experience, I want to center
that. If I’m teaching Black girls, I want to center that, rather than center whiteness as the norm,
and then teaching around it. No, I’m going to center who I’m teaching, and their experiences,
and validating those experiences because I know oftentimes ...
Lori:
And I have colleagues who are not folks of color. And I’ve watched them teach and stuff. And I
just always come back to the place, “Well, okay. This lesson is very male penis focused, but your
audience and who you’re teaching, these are young women. So why are we just centering that?”
Or not even bringing into the conversation the fact that not everybody has penis-vagina sex.
Even if the folks in the room are heterosexual, they could be doing a whole variety of things.
And so my inclusivity is really based on who’s in the room. And I’m going to take it from there.
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Greg:
From who’s in the room. I will have a follow up question about that. It’s in my brain right now.
But yeah. Let me move on to the next one, and see if another question pops up about that. And I
think you answered this really already, but let’s see if there’s more here. How does your choice
of framework, so this is justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, again, reflect the needs of your
students?
Lori:
Well, the students, absolutely, 100%, they come first, even when they’re getting on my nerve.
But that’s another discussion. They come first. And so I’m always thinking about how can I best
serve the students from where they sit. So for example, when I mentioned earlier about the fact
that there’s this narrative, and I’m sure you’re well aware, but there’s this narrative in the Black
community, especially around Black girls, of this no notion of being fast. And it really bothers
me. And so when I’m teaching my young women of color, my adolescents, we have a discussion
about that. This narrative that gets pushed in the Black community around Black girls being fast,
the over sexualization of Black girls. And I think that’s important to bring into when I’m
educating them, and get them to look at it from a different ...
Lori:
It has nothing to do with fastness. I don’t even like that term. I don’t like the term promiscuous,
none of it. It’s very judgment heavy. And it’s bad enough trying to be, or it’s difficult or hard
enough trying to be a Black adolescent girl navigating through these crazy waters of sexuality
and then to have all of these like labels and all of this stuff that’s placed on you. So how do I
grow to be a happy, healthy, functioning, sexual, human being if I have all of this stuff that’s
being placed on me, and I don’t have any type of historical context to put it in?
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Lori:
So that’s an example. I’m so huge on ... I’ve taught many, many Black young men. But the
majority of my experience around teaching sex education has been with Black girls, primarily
African American, but also girls from the Caribbean and from the continent of Africa. And so I
have like this huge affinity. And then I’m a Black woman. I have a 23-year-old daughter, who is
Black as well. And I just feel like Black girls get the short end of the stick when it comes to so
much. And that includes the way that they are viewed in our society.
Lori:
And it impacts everything that we do. It impacts who we choose to be sexual with. To me, it
impacts how we choose to be sexual. How can I relax and be with my partner if in the back of
my head I’m thinking, “Oh, I can’t enjoy this too much because if I enjoy it too much, then that
narrative around Black girls being fast, and Black girls being slutty is going to be in my head. So
how do I ever become a fully functioning, sexual, human being that can enjoy my experiences
without having all these other burdens weighing heavy on me?”
Greg:
Yeah. A lot there, a lot there. Thank you for doing this work. And I heard something in what you
just said that really kind of stuck out to me. I want to ask you about your experiences of working
with these different varieties, these different subcategories of Blackness. What have you noticed
are some of the differences around diversity, equity, inclusion around how you serve your target
population?
Lori:
With many of the young women that are from Africa, and I want to be more specific because I
know Africa is a continent. I tell my students all the time, they’re like, “Oh! This person’s
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African.” I’m like, “Okay. But what country are they from?? So I want to say I probably worked
with girls from all over. I know definitely Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal.
Lori:
With those young women, and for many of them, they come from the Muslim families, and so I
have to be mindful of that when I’m talking, when I’m doing my education, and I have girls in
the room who are from the continent, who are from the Caribbean, and my Black girls that are
from the US. The young women from the continent are very, very ... They’re very reserved,
especially if they haven’t been here in this country for very long. Now, depending upon how
long they’ve been here, I see them really thinking and behaving more like the Black girls that are
from here, the African American girls. But initially, there’s this reticence to even talk about such
things because it’s so taboo.
Lori:
And I know that all Islam is not about the subjugation of women. But with many of these young
women that I’ve worked with in the past who are from Africa, I got the sense that these are
things that we don’t dare talk about at all. So my approach with them is to acknowledge the
challenge and the difficulties around talking about these things, especially when from a cultural
and a religious perspective it’s taboo. But I want to give them a voice in the room because
sometimes they kind of shrink back. And I want to make sure that they have a voice.
Lori:
There’s more of a similarity, to me, between the African American girls and the girls that are
from the Caribbean. There’s more similarity there than difference around the comfortability
around talking about those things. So when the room is mixed with those three different
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categories of girls, I have to figure out how am I going to do this so that everybody has a voice in
the conversation?
Greg:
Yeah. I want to dig a little bit deeper then. What role does religion or spirituality play in your
work?
Lori:
Mine or the ...
Greg:
I just heard you referencing religion clearly it plays a role in the classroom with your learners. So
I’m wondering if that plays any role for you in the work that you do.
Lori:
So I don’t consider myself religious. I consider myself more of a spiritual person. With that
being said, I’m not totally against organized religion. There’s a Unitarian church in Manhattan
that I attended for years and years. And now I attend a Unity church. So definitely I believe in
the divine. But for me, the divine, it’s a woman. And so that’s really the extent of ... I don’t have
any strong religious leanings that could influence what I do and how I do it.
Greg:
Neat. How about this one? Which model that ... I think you’ll be able to ... Let me not
editorialize, I apologize. Which model of sex ed are you using, comprehensive, abstinence only,
risk production, some combination?
Lori:
It’s actually a combination. I definitely lean more towards a comprehensive model. However,
with that being said, I recognize that for some young people that abstinence, that they may
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choose abstinence. So I don’t want to invalidate that. I don’t believe in abstinence only. No, just
on so many levels. There’s so much wrong with that. So I lean more towards comprehensive,
holistic. There was a third one you said. Abstinence only, comprehensive, and then you said
another.
Greg:
Risk reduction.
Lori:
Oh, risk reduction. So risk reduction, absolutely, especially when I was working in HIV/AIDS
education and prevention, because for many of the folks that I dealt with, it was really about,
okay, so you’re going to engage in this particular sexual behavior. How can we reduce your risk
of contracting HIV or another STI? And I’m just a big proponent of harm reduction in general,
harm reduction as it relates to drugs. And so reducing the risk, that’s huge.
Lori:
And I know for a lot of the parents that I’ve dealt with, that even though they may sign their kid
up for the program that I’m working with, or even in the schools with a curriculum that leaves a
lot to be desired, a lot of parents, they want us to really push the abstinence thing, and the
abstinence only, period. But I incorporate all of those things.
Lori:
And then also I’m also a believer in ... So let’s say if a young person, they were sexually active
and then now they decide that they want to be abstinent, that’s valid. It’s not like once I start
having sex, I can’t make the choice to stop. You can choose, for whatever period in your life, to
be abstinent, and that’s a valid choice.
Greg:
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So following up on that, how do these blend of models reflect your approach to sex ed in
general?
Lori:
How does the which model?
Greg:
The blend of models that you were just talking about, how does it reflect your approach to sex ed
in general?
Lori:
How does it reflect my approach? Because I think it’s just a constant in the way that I teach,
because I know that in the room, they’re going to be kids from different cultures, different
religions, kids that are going to be at different places in their life in terms of maybe they started
having sex when they were 14 or 15, and then I’m going to have the ones in the room who are ...
They’re 17, 18, and they haven’t. So I’m just constantly ...
Lori:
Again, a lot of what I do, I know who my audience is. And then before we even get into the nitty
gritty about sex and sexuality and what we came here for, I want to learn, I try to learn as much
as I can about them as just people, as just young people before we even delve into all of that
stuff. And it gives me information. It gives me information. Sometimes we may even do a pre
and post test around certain things. I may do a pre-test, give them a questionnaire and ask them
certain things so that I have a sense of who I’m talking to, what they know, maybe some of what
the experiences have been. So I’m not just going in blindly doing this work.
Greg:
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Nice. So again, another similar question. What do you think are some of the most important
features for you about the population of Black youth or Black adolescents? Here we’re using the
CDC definition of 11 to 19 years old. But if you have a different understanding of who the youth
or adolescents, that’s fine too. So what are some of the things you think are most important about
working with Black youth or Black adolescents?
Lori:
When you say most important, from my standpoint or?
Greg:
Yeah, from yours. And if you’re drawing on other researchers, that’s fine. That’s important to
you too. That’s why you brought it up.
Lori:
What do I think are ... Read the question again. That was a long question.
Greg:
Yeah, it was because I read it three different times. That’s one question. What are some of the
most important features for you about the population of Black youths or about working with
Black youths?
Lori:
I guess I’m getting stuck on the word features. Can you give me an example?
Greg:
Yeah, absolutely. When you are thinking about working with Black youths, what comes to
mind? How do you prepare to do that work?
Lori:
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Okay. I’m definitely starting from ... And I guess I don’t do this when I’m teaching white youth.
I’m really starting from, not from the premise, but I’m starting from the point of these are Black
youths, they probably have received very spotty and irrelevant information around sex and
sexuality. I’m also taking into consideration just what it means to be Black in our educational
system, what it means to be Black in this country. So this isn’t the most articulate way to put it.
But I’m just really zeroing in on their Blackness and all that it means to be Black, and all of the
oppression, the microaggressions, all of that. I’m taking all of those things into consideration out
the gate.
Lori:
And I don’t do that with the white students because when everything is centered around you, you
are unencumbered. So your learning, I think, is very different than someone who is oppressed
and marginalized. You’re not unencumbered. And again, I think a lot of the decisions that Black
youth make around these issues ... For example, I think about some of the young Black men that
I’ve worked with, mainly inner city Black youth. The notions of masculinity and toxic
masculinity, and how those things impact, how they relate to ... And I’m mainly talking about
from a heterosexual standpoint. If I’ve been fed a constant diet of toxic masculinity and notions
of what it means to be a young Black man, that is going to have an impact on how I relate to my
partners.
Lori:
And when I work with white, young men, that’s a non-issue. I mean, I think there’s still some
toxic masculinity there, but the notions of like what it means to be a man in the Black
community, to me, there’s a lot of toxicity there. I’ve taught classes with young men who, and I
had to correct them because we have to be mindful and respectful of everybody in the room, but
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they refer to the young women that they supposedly like and want to have sex with, they’re
calling them bitches and whores. I’m talking young men. I’m talking 12, 13, 14.
Greg:
Interesting. I want to make sure. Was there more there? You seemed mid thoughts.
Lori:
These things just ... And it’s not just with the young people, but it’s also with older folks too, but
nonetheless. And so when I’m working with my young women, and again, I go back to this
whole notion of sexual freedom and being unencumbered. Sometimes we’ll have discussions.
And I learn so much from the young people. The first time I ever heard the term bodies, I’m
talking to young people, we’re talking about whatever the topic was. And someone used the term
bodies. They said, “Oh! Well, how many bodies do you have?”
Lori:
And this was a mixed setting. And in my head, I had never heard the term. And I’m like,
“Bodies? Okay. I’m going to go out on the limit and I’m going to ask them what does that
mean.” And when I asked them, they told me. They said, “Oh, that’s how many people that
you’ve had sex with.” And I was like, “Okay. And you refer to them as bodies?” That just
conjures up just so much for me.
Lori:
And it’s so interesting because in the mixed setting, with young men and young women, and then
now of course we have to consider the folks who are not in the binary, but years ago, we weren’t
even talking about our non-binary young folks. And I noticed that with the young women, this
hesitancy, and I get it, this hesitancy to actually say how many bodies you have, because based
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on that answer, and depending upon the setting, there is no right answer. The right answer,
oftentimes, especially in the minds of adults, is zero if you’re not married.
Lori:
So if I’m a young woman, I’m a young Black woman, and I’ve had 10 bodies, for example, and
maybe I’ve been sexually active for three or four years, I don’t get to express that without people
looking at me sideways, or what do you mean you have 10 bodies? And then people call you all
kinds of names. And so again, in terms of this being able to be a fully self actualized, sexual
being, a lot of young Black women ... And I think it’s kind of changing a little bit, but there’s
still this ... If Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion, when they talk about WAP, even though I think
that things are a little different around young women being sort of out there and in your face
about their sexuality, it’s changing.
Lori:
But there’s still this undercurrent of, “Oh my God, what are they talking about? That’s not a lady
like behavior, that’s not proper.” But if a young man is talking and he’s talking about his private
parts in ways that are bragging and stuff like that, they get a pass. So I was going somewhere
with that. And now I don’t know where I was going.
Greg:
It’s all good. This is a rich and robust response. If more comes back, just blow an email. Well,
this is my last official question. I’m wondering, how does your approach to teaching sex ed build
on what you think is important about working with Black youths?
Lori:
Say that again. I’m having like moments. How does-
Greg:
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My audio is not as good as it could be either. Sorry for that. How does your approach to teaching
sex ed ... This could be in general. This is not just with Black populations like we’ve been talking
about for the last little bit. How does your approach to teaching sex ed build on what you think is
important about Black youth or about working with Black youth?
Lori:
How does my approach build on it? How does my approach build on what I think is important? I
mean, I think because I use ... I think of the holistic approach. And if I’m working with young
people, and you did say Black, right?
Greg:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lori:
I guess I’m always just mindful of what it means to be a young Black person who is navigating
this extremely complicated just white supremacist world. It’s just not enough for me to talk
about, again to talk about penises and vaginas and fallopian tubes and STIs. And I’m not saying
that those things are not important, because yes, they are extremely important. But to me, it’s all
that other stuff. What does it mean to be a young Black person who is coming of age in these
very turbulent times? And how can I best make decisions that are good to me, that won’t be to
my detriment?
Lori:
So my approach is that I have to keep all of those things at the forefront, the social factors, the
psychosocial factors. If we’re talking about, again, the social cognitive theory, the community,
peers, environment, all of those things are floating in my head when I am setting up my lesson.
And when I’m in front of them, and I may have certain definitive things that I want to cover, but
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maybe they want to talk about what happened on Love and Hip Hop. Something went down that
was totally from left field, but it’s relevant to their lives, just making sure that I keep in mind
their experiences, and again, what it means to be a young person of color, and just trying to
navigate all of those things.
Lori:
And again, I don’t just want to speak to the rudiments of sex and sexuality. We got to get up
underneath all that stuff, and try to give young people the space to ask me anything that they
want to ask me. And I do bring into it my experiences as a Black woman. And I’m was a Black
teenager at one point. So I hope that answered the question.
Greg:
Yeah, definitely. I think I’ll ask a little bit more broadly. So you focus primarily on how you’re
addressing the needs of the Black youth. Does this inform the way that you teach white youth
and adults and other populations?
Lori:
Does it inform the way ... It doesn’t really inform the way that I teach white youth. In my
experience teaching white youth has been, I used to teach at a private school in Manhattan, a
very, very wealthy community. And those type of things didn’t come up. I mean, teenage stuff,
sort of coming of age stuff, issues and concerns, but nowhere near. No, for my for working with
white youth, no issues of race and no. And the parents were very, very clear on what they wanted
their young people to be taught, just the basics. So all the social stuff, the social factors and the
psychosocial stuff, no. And teaching.
Greg:
I like it.
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Lori:
Okay.
Greg:
No, go ahead.
Lori:
And teaching adults, again, 99.9% of the adults that I’ve taught and continue to teach are Black
and Hispanic. And all of those issues, and sort of the way that I approach things with them is
very, very similar to the way that I approach teaching those topics to my adolescence of color.
And it’s almost ... And unfortunately, with many of the adults, they’re 25, 30, 35. They’re
coming into the room with such deficiencies. And I know that those deficiencies that they have
around sex and sexuality stem from the fact that they didn’t get what they should have gotten
when they were 15, 16. So now here I am, 30, 35, and I don’t even know basic things about my
reproductive and sexual anatomy. And I’m 35 and I’ve had two kids. And so in some ways, it’s
more challenging with the adults in some ways.
Lori:
And then some of them are so ... They’re very set in their ways. Oh my goodness. Especially a
lot of the men, these antiquated notions that they have around sex and women. And at least with
my young peoples, I feel hopeful because they’re young and you can still maybe try to help them
to broaden their horizons and how they see things. By the time this hardened 35 year old person
is sitting in front of me, it makes things way, way, way, way more challenging.
Greg:
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Thank you for that. Like I said, that was my last official question. Was there any more
information that you wanted to ask or add rather, or a question that you wish I had asked that I
didn’t have an opportunity to?
Lori:
A question. For me, I guess more questions around, and maybe we did talk about the
subpopulations. Maybe more questions around more specifically related to gender or to LGBTQ
youth, because I’m just wondering, especially with LGBTQ youth, how much research is being
done that’s really germane to those folks. I haven’t seen a lot, and maybe I’m just not looking in
the right places. I don’t know. But I’m gathering-
Greg:
No, I think you’re right.
Lori:
Okay. So I’m gathering that this is more you were looking at it more broadly, not ...
Greg:
Yeah. I think there’s ... I’ll kind of go off script now. But from what I’ve been leading so far, my
primary interest is in our Black sex educators doing something differently with Black youth.
There have been many, many studies on, “Hey, here’s where this curriculum fails for this
population. Here’s what’s really only working.” And I haven’t seen it reflected in mainstream
curricula. But I know my experiences of being a Black sex educator, working with Black youth,
where it was like, I’m doing this, I’m doing that, I’m bringing in this experience. I wonder if I’m
the only one.
Greg:
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So a lot of this was, “Hey, what are we doing?” I don’t think we’ve had a sit down at the Black
sex educators council and decided that these are the Black inclusive practices. Maybe this can be
something that informs a future conversation. But no, I think you’re spot on. There certainly is
research around young Black people who are LGBTQ+ and all of those different types of things.
But often what you get is just Black is Black is Black. It can be difficult enough to get the
research about Black youth, Black young adults in particular.
Greg:
And my particular nuance there is we don’t always tease out what it means to be Black and
Latinx, or Black and mixed. Who are they talking about? Who are Blacks? That nuance is often
missing in reports even by us when we write that stuff. To make sure we have enough in there,
we sometimes forget to talk about there’s more than one way to be Black. Black doesn’t mean
the same thing around the world, and Black doesn’t even mean the same thing within this
country. What does it mean to be Black and rich, Black and queer, Black and from the south,
Black can from Seattle? These are different experiences.
Lori:
Right. Okay, cool. It’s exciting stuff. Can I ask what drove you to, what motivated you to do this
type of work?
Greg:
Yeah, absolutely. I think I’m going to stop recording, because I definitely want to have this a
chat more, but we have answered all of my-

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Erica
Erica:
Sounds good.
Greg:
All right. You should have a little thing that said you’re being recorded. Perfect. All right. Do
you consent to participate in the interview?
Erica:
Yes, absolutely.
Greg:
All right. Do I have your consent to continue recording?
Erica:
You do.
Greg:
Fantastic. All right. So the very first thing, I want to talk about the teaching documents that you
uploaded. I know that you uploaded three and I want to know more about ... you already told me
an email a little bit about, I needed to upload all three. Why do you feel those documents
represent your approach to teaching?
Erica:
Well, because I think there’s the traditional lesson plan sort of format that I do when I’m in a
school setting. Then, when I’m in the community, it’s more so a handout sort of thing that I
create about important things with more resources. Then another one is for people who just come
to my website and want a piece of information, then they can just ... so it’s kind of the different
ways that I educate. I felt like each of those pieces kind of hit the nail on the head in terms of
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how outward facing my content looks. I approach them a little bit differently, because some of
them are for high school students. Others are for anybody who wanted to download the
information. The other one is for adults, and I teach a lot of range of people. So I just wanted you
to have all the options so you could see it from all the different angles.
Greg:
Thank you so much. I appreciate that. All right. Then our first proper interview question, what
drew you to teaching sex ed with Black youth or Black adolescents?
Erica:
So I’m going to try to give you a Reader’s Digest version, but every time I say that 20 minutes
later, here’s my answer. So I started, and this profession actually kind of found me. So when I
was in high school, people used to come to me all the time for advice about their relationships
and dating and sex stuff. I was like, I don’t know why y’all are asking me. I don’t have any
boyfriends. I’m not dating anybody. I’m not sexually active, but I found the CDC website really
quickly because of my friend’s questions. So when I went to undergrad, I knew I wanted to do
something in health education, but I wasn’t really sure what topic I wanted to focus on. So for a
few summers, I did internships at public health departments.
Erica:
They kind of looked at everything as a problem that needed to be fixed. Specifically they looked
at people as numbers versus humans who have experiences and things that are going on in life. I
didn’t really enjoy that approach too much, so I was doing research at Children’s Hospital in
Cincinnati for abused adolescents and looking at their online presence and the connections that
they were making were like, okay, if they had been abused, it’s probably likely that they’re
highly sexual online. I didn’t really like the lines that were being drawn and assumed by the
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research that I was a part of. So I was like, okay, I’ve got to get out of this study. I got to do
something. Most of those girls were Black in that study in inner city, Cincinnati. There were a
few from the Appalachian area.
Erica:
So we did have some Caucasians a part of that study, but a good chunk of the girls that I
interviewed at least were Black. In undergrad, I took a class about HIV and aids and, at the time,
which would’ve been in 2005, we were like 12 to 13% of the total population making up over
75% of the newly diagnosed HIV cases every year. I was like, how am I in my twenties and
hearing this for the first time? This is bullshit. Why hasn’t anybody talked to me about this
already? So that kind of lit the fire under me to think about sex education as my focus for the
health education part that I wanted to use my degree for. Then when I found out there was a
whole master’s program in Philadelphia at a school called Widener University. It’s technically in
Chester, Pennsylvania, which is right outside of Philly. I was like, oh, well clearly this is where I
need to go.
Erica:
So I signed up for the GRE immediately, took that and rolled into Widener. Me and my husband
first year of marriage, just packed up, went to Philly, lived in a one bedroom apartment. We both
went to grad school at the same time. I was like, this wasn’t the greatest plan, but we did it. We
survived, we made it, and we’re okay. So I found myself, everything I did in grad school,
everything I wrote was for Black people. Part of that is because, as a biracial person, it took me a
minute to feel like I found my community. I didn’t really feel like I fit in with the white kids that
I grew up with. I didn’t really fit in with the white kids that I went to Miami with, but I found a
home and a community and the Black kids at Miami.
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Erica:
I got so much from the Black community myself, that it feels weird to wake up and not grind for
any other community in my life. So that’s definitely part of why. Now a lot of my work is
focusing on helping the next generation try to avoid all the shame and guilt that comes around
sex and pleasure and bodies and whatever. I have two toddlers who are Black, so it’s like, I’m
trying to help this next generation of Black babies just be able to be free and not be judged in
their own homes, at the very least, as best as I can. So it just kind of feels natural to me to work
for people who look like me, and it makes it ... I know that I’m able to give them education that
somebody who isn’t a part of the community can because they don’t always know the ins and
outs of everything.
Erica:
That was actually a pretty short version. Look at that, Gregory.
Greg:
Yeah. Yeah.
Erica:
I don’t think I’ve ever done it that short before.
Greg:
I was looking at the time go bay and-
Erica:
I’m very proud of myself in this moment. I don’t think that’s ever happened. I’ve been ask that
question so much and I’m never that short in my answer. Look at that. Okay.
Greg:
Well-
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Erica:
I’ll have to remember that roundabout. I’ll have to remember that journey. That was quick.
Greg:
You’re going to get a copy of the transcript, so-
Erica:
That’s true. That’s true.
Greg:
Remember your talking points.
Erica:
Yes, that’s true. Thank you. Okay, good to know.
Greg:
All right, let’s keep building on that. So why is teaching sex ed in a culturally responsive or
culturally relevant way important to you?
Erica:
Oh, goodness. Well, I think that there are parts or components of sex ed that can work for any
group. But the way that you offer that education or the way that you make it relative is based on
the group that you’re teaching, or else it’s not going to stick. So I think too often comprehensive
sex ed isn’t given the chance to exist in a space with youth anyway. I’m in Ohio. They are not
open to what I am doing. I don’t get a lot of calls from schools like, “Hey, please come talk to
our kids about comprehensive sex education.” That’s why I’ll lot of my work is based in the
community because I’m reliant on relationships that I build or people that I know that know to
trust me, because I’ve been doing this for 17 years.
Erica:
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So it’s just one of those things where I’m able to be successful because I grew up in this city and
I know people here, and people know me and my circle is very big, and it helps that my husband
is also an artist in the city. So he gets me connected to a lot of youth programming and stuff like
that too. So we both have connections to where I’m able to access. When I was working at
Planned Parenthood, I was overseeing all of the sex ed that planned parenthood did in Columbus
and some kind of outskirts areas. It was always these right out of college, skinny, white girls
going into school full of Black students, teaching and just spitting information for like 30
minutes because that’s all they would ever give us is 30 minutes to come in and teach, which any
teacher or any facilitator knows, 30 minutes is no time at all to dig into any concept or any idea
at all.
Erica:
It was just, every time I tried to push to get the content to be sound and understanding for the
group that we were teaching, they never let me do it. They were like, “Oh, well it’s got to stick to
exactly what the book says. It’s got to stick to exactly what the curriculum says.” I knew the
people that wrote the curriculum, and that’s actually not what they wanted. I was like, “I can talk
to Bill right now. I actually know Bill personally. You’re acting like I don’t have these
connections. All I got to do is call him and say, ‘Hey, we want to make this more culturally
appropriate for the groups that we’re educating. Can you sign off on that and give us the okay, as
long as we’re still using the bulk of your curriculum,” and he would’ve said, yes, it wasn’t a big
deal. They never let me do it.
Erica:
So, when I was working for Planned Parenthood, it was a conflict of interest and I wasn’t able to
do Happ E. SexTalk. So when I left Planned Parenthood in 2018, I was like, okay, bet. Well, I’m
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just going to make everything that Happ E. SexTalk does extremely culturally appropriate. It
almost made my shit more Black. I was like Blackity, Black, Black, Black. Y’all going to get all
this Black and you just going to take all this Black stuff. That was kind of where it landed
because I was like, I’m not going to continue to educate people and it’s not even going to
resonate with them, because nobody knows what you’re talking about. You’re using language
that isn’t a part of that culture. You’re not connecting them to anything. You’re not retaining
anything. You’re just basically yelling words at them for 20 minutes.
Erica:
Then do you have questions? None of their questions are connected to what you just taught
because they didn’t retain anything. So it was just one of those things where I was just trying to
make myself a little unique and stand out. So every time I get asked to educate, I ask about the
demographics of who I’m teaching and I make a presentation, or my content is based on who I
am teaching and the subject line. I don’t use the same stuff over and over again, which I know
may make me a crazy person. Because then it’s kind of like, I’m always creating new things. I
don’t have ... I’ve got stuff, like random activities that I will do over and over again, but only
because I know I did them with the other group of Black children at this other high school that’s
the same age, and I knew it was effective. You know what I mean?
Erica:
So I’m constantly creating based on who I’m teaching in the moment, because I think it’s so
important to make things relevant to their lives and their experiences. If you don’t do that, it’s
not going to stay with them. They’re not going to remember the information. So, that’s just been
my experience over the years.
Greg:
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Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for that. Based on that, which learning theory or series
do you draw on most in your teaching of sex ed?
Erica:
Goodness. It’s so funny because, at this point, I don’t even remember the names of them. I don’t
even remember the names. I remember when I was answering ... I do remember answering this
questionnaire now because I had to pull out my books from grad school. I was like, damn it.
What is the name of that theory?
Greg:
Oh, I’m so sorry.
Erica:
No, no, no. No, it was fine. It was kind of fun for me. I’m a nerd, so it was fun to pull my little
developmental learning theory book out. Again, it kind of depends on who I’m teaching. So if
it’s an adult learner, then I’m using adult learning theories. If it’s my high schoolers, then I’m
using like traditional educational theories and childhood development theories. There’s no real
sex education theory, so to speak. We all kind of like build around the ones that exist and make
them work for the topic that we’re talking about, if that makes sense. At least to my knowledge,
there is not a traditional sex education theory. There was not one when I went to school. I don’t
often keep up on readings about sex education theories. I could be incorrect in that, but I do a lot
of ... For me, I do a lot of assessments while I’m teaching.
Erica:
So I’ll do things like brainstorming. I’ll do small group work. I’ll do ... oh, what’s the other? We
do role playing. So I’m constantly doing the different, what are those called? Formative
assessments or, you know what I’m talking about? Those things throughout the lesson. So I think
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I rely on those a little bit more than the overarching theories, because for me what’s important is
that they’re retaining the information. I know that how I’m presenting it is already molded in
some theory because I don’t know how to build education outside of that. Because that was my
training. So I know I’m using some form of some educational theory when I’m building my
content. It’s to me, I pay attention more so to how I can do the check marks to make sure they’re
retaining things.
Erica:
So I do exit slips at the end of all of my programming, and I enter those and do a Google form.
We do pre and post tests when I have more than one session with a group, so I can make sure
that I’m assessing if they’re learning from beginning to end, those sorts of things. So for me, a
lot of my focus is more so on the checking to make sure that it’s effective. I am a very
conversation based educator. So we do a lot of open ended questions. We do a lot of dialogue
because I like to let the kids think that they have some sort of say over what we’re doing and
what we’re talking about, because that also keeps them invested. If it was just me showing up,
talking to them for 60 minutes or 75 minutes or however long I have, they would check out.
They’d be on their phone. Someone would fall asleep. That’s just how it would be.
Erica:
So I try to keep it very interactive. I keep them up and moving and I do open ended questions. So
they have to engage and brainstorming. That also helps me kind of see where their knowledge is
before we start a topic. So it’s like, you hear healthy relationships. What does that mean to you?
So I can gather intel on what they know ahead of time and then I can change my route of how I
want to teach in the moment if I need to based on their responses. So I don’t know if that ... I
didn’t really give theories, but those are kind of the methods that I use so to speak.
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Erica:
I know I entered some in my questionnaire, so whatever I put in that questionnaire, I really did
think about those. So I think it was like, so they’re probably social cognitive, some behavioral
something or other, practical application, those sorts of things. So add those in to make me sound
smart. I don’t know if formative or summative is the assessment style, but it’s one of those two
that I’d be using.
Greg:
Yeah. Yes, yes. Formative, spot on. Spot on.
Erica:
Okay, perfect. Okay, great.
Greg:
On the form that’s developing instead of summary [inaudible 00:16:36].
Erica:
There we go. There we go. You know what I’m talking about, Gregory. It’s okay.
Greg:
I do. If we both know, why do I even need to say?
Erica:
Oh my goodness. That’s so funny.
Greg:
All right, well based on that, it sounds like you’re using the hodgepodge of theories, which I
think most educators do. So, that’s not a problem. How does your choice of this hodgepodge of
theories build on any philosophy of learning that you have?
Erica:
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Yeah. Well, so my biggest philosophy from my company, and I can actually send you the link to
my website that has my business philosophies and our manifesto and stuff like that too.
Greg:
Oh, cool, cool.
Erica:
Because that’s connected to this question and it’ll probably give you some more sort of intel to
that. Let me actually pull it up while I’m talking, because it’ll help me reference my point so I
don’t sound so all over the place.
Greg:
Go for it.
Erica:
Hold on. No, I don’t need to log to my HP account. Why would you be asking me that? My
printer sometimes is like, oh, you don’t want to talk about me? No, don’t be so self-absorbed,
printer. Everything is not about you. Okay. So these are my beliefs as a company. When I say
company, it’s just me. So these are my beliefs. The website is supposed to make it sound like I
got a team. It’s just me, Gregory. Ain’t nobody on the ... So it’s just Erica and my husband is the
unofficial graphic designer of things every now again. When Canva won’t cut it, I’ll be like,
“Hey David, could you help me out with something?”
Greg:
That’s right.
Erica:
That’s how we go. But anyway, so this is why I use such a hodgepodge of things, because I feel
like in order to have these beliefs and these principles that I’m about to say exist in everything I
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do, I kind of have to do a mix of everything. So sexual pleasure is a basic human right. There’s a
paragraph that goes around it. I’m not going to read all that. I’m just going to give you the ... So
sexual expiration starts to be where we’re even born and continues throughout our entire lives.
There’s no denying the number of conflicting media messages about sex and sexuality we’re
exposed to in our lifetime. So this one, I’m going to continue to read. So whether positive or
negative, these messages have lasting effects on sexual development. We intentionally create
spaces for conversations of about navigating and challenging these messages. To reach a state of
sex positivity, we must confront the sex negative places and experiences of our lives.
Erica:
We focus on the holistic view of sexuality and address its connection to our sense of power and
agency over our bodies. The most radical thing we can do as people with Black bodies is to
consistently reclaim and show up for our bodies and our sexuality. Nothing upsets the perceived
balance of white supremacy more than operating in our defiance to its control. So those are kind
of my beliefs. Now, my principles or the parts that are a part of the manifesto are to serve, to
have equality, to be authentic, to be pleasure centered and make sure people know that it’s a
natural part of life to be trustworthy, engaging, and empathetic.
Erica:
So with all of those sort of beliefs of who I need to be when I’m in the room, and then thinking
about all of the kind of basic standards about sexuality and human behavior and development
that I believe as well, it makes sense that I have a hodgepodge of everything because there’s a lot
of things that I want people to know in a very short amount of time. So the way that I address
them are multifaceted. So the way that I educate has to be that way as well. So those are the two
web pages that I was reading off of, and each of the things that I said had paragraphs underneath
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of them. So please feel free to take any of that text or context if that helps you with what you
need.
Greg:
Absolutely. I will probably ... I’m on a time crunch, so I won’t use as much of it for the current
study, but I will likely come back to it.
Erica:
Yes, please. Please do. Please do. Absolutely. However you need it is fine.
Greg:
Thank you, Erica. Yeah, I think you already started the next question on that,. Based on this,
which frameworks for justice equity, diversity inclusion are you using to teach sex ed?
Erica:
Yeah. Again, I’m not really great about the names of any frameworks that I’m using, but I know
that there are things. Like when I am talking to Black children, I talk about how society adultifies
them at a very early age. So they have to feel comfortable standing up for themselves when
people, even in their own families, are calling them fat because of how clothes fit their bodies.
When we know that designers are not making clothes for children, for Black children who have
hips and boobs. That’s just naturally how our bodies are formed. I only know that because that
was my experience. I was trying to find clothes for myself growing up. I matured in like fourth
grade, so clothes for fourth graders ...
Erica:
My frame, my height was still the same as every other fourth grader. So it’s not like I could go
up in sizes to clothes that would’ve fit at my body a certain way, because then I would’ve been
drowning in them. You got to wear what fits your height. Those clothes were really tight on my
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body and made me really uncomfortable because that wasn’t how I wanted to wear clothes, but
that was what was available to me. So it’s like, you got to think about things like that. And
people are putting labels on kids because of how they look, but sometimes that’s not up to them.
That’s what society and the clothing industry is providing for them. Or just because I happened
to know more information about sex and sexuality, I knew more because my friends were talking
to me, not because I was having sex. But the assumption was that I knew because I was engaging
in the behavior, but that was only true because I was the Black girl who had hips and boobs and
an ass.
Erica:
Everybody just assumed that I had those things because I was being sexually active. None of that
was true. It was the furthest from the truth actually. So I try to give them those real life anecdotes
and help them feel confident to kind of speak up for themselves in those moments where it’s like,
no, I’m actually only 13. Please don’t talk to me or age me like I’m a whole teenager yet because
I’m not. I explain to them the difference in brain development from a 12 year old to a 16 year old
is extremely vast. So if somebody’s treating you like a 16 year old, you’re never going to meet
those expectations because you’re not capable of it. Your brain is literally not even developed
enough to be at the point of a 16 year old.
Erica:
So just kind of those things and how that all leads into how people in the world treat you,
especially police. We’ve had a lot of teens in our area here in Columbus who I honestly think
were shot because they looked like they were 18 or 19, and they were 12 or 13 years old. The
police officers were acting like they were scared of them, like they could hurt them or some shit.
You know how that goes. So it’s just kind of like educating them about those things, about how
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to stay safe, how to speak up for themselves to always understand that they can say no, even in
where they have said yes in the beginning, that everybody has to ask before they touch their
bodies in any way.
Erica:
That includes family members, because unfortunately we know that people close to the family or
family members are often the perpetrators when it comes to sexual abuse and sexual assault,
especially with little kids. So, that’s really prominent when I’m talking to adults about educating
their little ones. We want them to know their body parts because, if they can’t tell you the exact
body part they were touched on, then what can we do? There’s other research and stuff behind
the benefits of starting those conversations earlier, of course, but it’s all kind of surrounding the
real life experiences that I have had or that my friends have had and allowed and agreed for me
to use as anecdotes in the classroom. I don’t share anybody’s experience or story without consent
and permission first, because sometimes we have similarly relatable experiences.
Erica:
Again, it’s about being culturally aware and competent enough to know that those anecdotes are
going to stick with them more than a theory would, more than me explaining to them a theory.
So giving them something tangible that is connected to something that could have happened to
them or their cousin, or their best friend or their sister seems to me, in my years of experience
with Black youth, a more relatable way to approach it. Now I may using theories or different
frameworks behind what I’m doing, but I’m not talking to them about those frameworks because
they could care less.
Greg:
Right, right, right, right.
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Erica:
I do use a media literacy framework when I’m doing media literacy education. Again, I’m not
great with names. I’m so sorry. I can get this stuff to you.
Greg:
No, it’s fine.
Erica:
On the back end. I’m fine. Okay. So it’s like five questions, the same five questions that you ask
every time you see a piece of media. It’s asking you who created it? What was missing or who
was missing? Why were they missing? Why were they intentionally left out? What are the
benefits of this message for the people that made it, those sorts of things. Really getting people to
critically analyze the media that you’re taking in so that you can decide for yourself whether or
not the messaging that they’re giving you is true.
Erica:
98% of the time, it is not. It is meant to support a societal belief or expectation that is not
realistic, and often leaves us in our mid thirties, like I am still trying to process all the shit that
we were told growing up was accurate or made us somebody worth value or whatever. So yeah, I
think that’s kind of how I approach those sorts of things. Everything I do is a little less official,
which is a benefit I have as somebody who owns their own company. That’s kind of why I like
it.
Greg:
Yeah, that makes sense. As I’m listening to you, it’s clear to me that you have command and
grasp of these series. Again, when we were talking earlier about the hodgepodge of framework,
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it’s not always important that you have the right terms. You know how to go find it if you need
to.
Erica:
Yeah.
Greg:
You’re talking to me. You know I know, and I understand what you’re describing and I will
write it up an interpretation that makes sense to me. It’s okay.
Erica:
Yeah. Yeah. I know. It’s just so funny because you would think, in the moment when you’re
learning this stuff and the way that they ingrain it in you so hard, you think that there’s never
going to be a time in your life where you’re not going to remember the names of all of these
things because you’re using them so often in the moment. But now it’s like, no girl, you got your
degree in 2013. You finished in 2013. It’s been a hot minute since you’ve had to really get into
the thick of remembering names of theories. At this point, you just have of them in your head
and you just ... I know how to talk about dissonance. That’s where it’s all ... yeah, I talk about
that all the time.
Erica:
A lot of things, when I’m talking to adults about how I’m educating youth, it’s like, oh shit, we
got those messages too. Then they’re are all like, oh man. They’re just in this feeling of things
just don’t match up. Why is this not what I thought life was going to be? This is what they told
me. I didn’t even realize this was holding me back from X, Y, and Z. So that happens a lot, a
feeling of dissonance is very big with the adults that I educate. When I talk about the youth and
stuff, it’s like, oh my gosh, I had those same experiences. It’s crazy that they’re still receiving
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those same messages. I was like, yeah, like a thousand times more than we did because it’s
everywhere. I don’t know how old you are, but I’m 36 and you still had to call my house phone
to get to me.
Erica:
For the most part, when I was ... You still had to talk to my daddy, because I wasn’t allowed to
answer the house phone. So you still had to talk to my daddy to bully me. You know what I
mean? I had instant messenger, but my mom was reading over my shoulder when I was typing.
So it wasn’t like it was really ...
Greg:
Oh my goodness.
Erica:
She tried to make it seem like she wasn’t, like she was in the room doing something else. So she
was asking me questions. I’m like, “Debbie, I can feel you breathing on my shoulder. Do you
want to be part of this conversation? We just talk about homework.” So you couldn’t access me
as well as these kids are accessed now. So these messages are coming in all the time and they’re
finding them. The kids don’t have to look for them anymore. Porn finds them by like nine.
Greg:
For real. For real.
Erica:
What are you going to do? So anyway, that’s a little tangent.
Greg:
Yeah. I appreciate it. Yes. I just turned 36 and a half last night.
Erica:
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There you go.
Greg:
So I’m grown, grown now.
Erica:
You’re grown, grown. Yes. Yes, you real grown. Grown, grown. Yep. That’s how it goes. Yep,
that’s grown, grown. I just turned 36 last month. I’m like don’t bring on 36 and a half, because
that’s grown, grown.
Greg:
Pace yourself. Pace yourself, Erica.
Erica:
Oh my goodness. That’s funny. That is funny.
Greg:
Well, I feel like you’ve been answering this next question the whole time. So let’s just see if you
have more. How does your choice of educational, or this is actually the DEI framework. So the
diversity equity, inclusion and justice framework, reflect the needs of your students?
Erica:
Yeah. Like I said, I try to use real life experiences that I know people in the Black community
are experiencing as a collective, because that’s the easiest way to kind of get those messages of
equality and diversity across in a way that they’re going to understand and want to connect with.
If I brought in a scenario that is something that they would’ve never encountered and asked them
to role play it, they’re going to be like, “Miss Erica, this would never happen.” And they
wouldn’t be able to get over the fact that they wouldn’t have access to X, Y, and Z and this
example, or all those sorts of things. So you really got to think about how you’re tailoring the
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work that you’re doing for the community you’re educating, because again, if you’re doing role
playing and the scenarios are not realistic for them, or if you’re giving them examples and
they’re not relatable, then the information is not going to sync with them.
Erica:
Otherwise, it’s just words that they’re hearing and they may digest some of it every now and
again. The only subject that I’ve seen, that you kind of have to come at it from the way that it is,
is anatomy. I can’t make anatomy Black. It’s just reproductive anatomy is what it is. Testes are
testes, a penis is a penis, a vulva is a vulva. There is no way to make that culturally appropriate
necessarily. When we talking about different things and experiences with our bodies, absolutely.
But when I’m educating just about the anatomy, that’s kind of like, this is going to be real
sciencey. There’s going to be a lot of words. You’re going to have a lot of questions, and that’s
fine. Ask them as they come up, but there’s really no other way to educate it other than to give
them diagrams of what the body parts look like, internal and external, and educate that way and
move on.
Erica:
But everything else is very much tailored for the group that I’m educating and the needs they
have right now. The curriculum I just did at one of the high schools here, I just finished last
week. They were having really, really bad issues with consent and relationships. They had a
couple of instances of assault that were going to court from actions in their hallways, in between
classes. They’re having people getting caught having unprotected sex in the public bathrooms
and school, or people dragging girlfriends down the hallway by their ponytails because they
think it’s funny or by their book bags. This just inappropriate level. Exactly, huge eye roll, right?
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This inappropriate level of just feeling like you can own somebody because they’re your
boyfriend.
Erica:
When somebody stops them and asks them, why are you dragging them down the hallway by
their book by I go by their ponytail. It’s like, oh, because they’re my girlfriend. What’s that got
to do with anything? I don’t understand. It seems to be drastically worse since they were at home
during COVID. So then my fear is that these are the types of relationships that are being modeled
for you at home, or that you saw because you were engaging more media because you were at
home and you couldn’t go anywhere. So you’re seeing unhealthy relationships in the media or
you’re seeing them in real life. However you’re seeing them, you think that this is how a
relationship should operate because they weren’t having these same problems when we were all
in person before COVID happened. They were just having general teenager problems.
Erica:
Now it’s very specific. So I had to spend three, four weeks on healthy relationships and consent
and boundaries because that’s what they needed in the moment. That’s not a typical curriculum
for me. Every week is a different topic, but the teachers were telling me what their students
needed and that’s what I provided. So the fact that I can do that because I have my own company
and I’m not bound to scientifically keeping up with the actual curriculums that exist. I make my
own curriculum, so I’m not relying on other stuff that’s made from other people. I may adapt
some activities to match what my group needs, but I’m never using word for word an activity
that already exists. I’m always modifying.
Erica:
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So I really like having that freedom because I’ve been on the other end where I haven’t had that
flexibility and it’s been really stifling. I think it’s actually doing a disservice more so than
anything. So I’m really glad to be in this space where I can do these things based on the needs of
my students and the needs of the populations that I’m educating. It gives me time to be able to
talk to them and find out what they feel like they need. I always spend time the very first time
that I talk to somebody, asking them what they need from me. I never assume that I know what
anybody needs based on anything that they tell. You tell me exactly what you need in this
moment and how I can help you. Then we go from there, because you can spend a lot of am with
me guessing and wishing and hoping and praying that I knew what people needed, and that’s not
effective. So yeah, I hope that answered that question.
Greg:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Erica:
Good.
Greg:
I really appreciate that. So this one is a little bit simpler. Which models of sex ed are you using?
Comprehensive, abstinence only, reproduction?
Erica:
Definitely comprehensive. Yeah, definitely comprehensive. If I do end up doing a session on
safer sex methods and abstinence, which is a part of comprehensive, I feel like a lot of people
don’t understand that comprehensive sex education also includes abstinence education. It’s just
not the only option that we talk to them about. I don’t necessarily approach it as risk reduction.
It’s more so like I’m giving you the information to make the best decision for yourself. So I
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don’t know that’s a model specifically, or a type of sex education. I think it’s a way to do
comprehensive for sure, but some people who do comprehensive sex education still approach
that topic from a risk reduction standpoint. So I really want to make sure that it’s clear that I
don’t approach it from that way.
Erica:
Because again, I think when you’re looking at reducing risk, you tend to take away humanness
from the experience. So I like to talk about things as these are your options. Do you have any
questions about them? Figure out what works best. When it comes to birth control methods,
figure out what works best for your body, because some of these methods are not going to feel
great when you’re using them. So you have to listen to your body and see what changes.
Sometimes the extra estrogen will make you sick. Sometimes you need progesterone only,
sometimes you only can have these sorts of things. So I do that way. It’s truly base in educating
them in their options and then empowering them to ask their OBs and talk to their families and
figure out what the best option is for them.
Erica:
And to also let them know that you can get on birth control because your periods are bad, not
because you’re having sex. That’s how I got introduced to it. So it’s not always about protect you
from sex. It’s also because, if your periods are so bad, you’re crawling down a hallway and
you’re missing days of school, then you need something to help regulate your body. There’s
nothing wrong with that. So kind of helping address ... because I felt a lot of shame getting on
birth control for my periods when I knew I wasn’t having sex. Cause I was like, oh my God,
people are going to think I’m having sex. The reality is nobody knew I was on birth control
anyway. I was taking the pill at home in the mornings before I went to school. Nobody knew, so
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how would they even ... it’s just kind of like the things that we think about when we’re high
schoolers.
Erica:
So just kind of helping them deal with that and helping them deal with the conversations that
they’re going to have to have, because they’re the ones that are going to know if their bodies
need help because the periods are so unbearable. Their parents aren’t always going to know that
information. So then how do you bring up that conversation? Those sorts of things. So it’s very
... Again, it’s still very conversational. It’s more information, knowledge based. Again, a
comprehensive sex ed way versus risk reduction. I don’t talk about it with statistics, because they
don’t care. They don’t care about numbers because, when you’re in high school, you feel like
you’re invincible. You don’t think anything’s going to attach to you.
Erica:
So I’ve learned that the best way to do it is to just educate them about how to protect themselves
and then hope that they don’t become the statistic that ends up obtaining an STI. I tell them about
when to get tested. I tell them the benefits of doing it. We talk about it in healthy relationships,
about something that you both should do together before you have sex so that you both know
you have current test results, and those sorts of things, but it’s never in a manner of reducing
risk.
Greg:
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. So building on that, we’ve been talking specifically about
working with Black adolescents. We’ve been talking about justice, equity, diversity inclusion. In
a more general way, how does this model ... sounds a little bit comprehensive with some other
ways that you’ve learned to do it from your own experience.
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Erica:
Yeah.
Greg:
How does it reflect your approach to sex ed more generally?
Erica:
Yeah. The one thing I always say is that Happ E. SexTalk believes that comprehensive and
medically accurate sex education is a basic human right. So I think that everything I do reflects
that. I think it is your human right to know this information, especially when it comes to things
that can impact your health. I think that’s what’s most infuriating to me about abstinence only
sex education is because they’re only looking at reducing rates of teen pregnancy or reducing
rates of STIs. They’re not actually looking at it as a way of educating people to help keep them
healthy and to have them be healthy, existing citizens of the fucking world like we want them to
be. So I think that, for me, it’s only right that everybody knows this information.
Erica:
I want this to be readily accessible and, if I could do it for free, I would do this for free until the
days are long, but I got kids and bills, so I got to charge people. But if I could do it for free and if
there becomes a point where I can, I will gladly do this for free until I can no longer breathe air. I
feel like I’m going to be one of those people who’s wheeling in a wheelchair training people like,
“Go on. You know what we talked about on Tuesday?” I may not be teaching-
Greg:
Do you.
Erica:
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... but I’m going to have a crew that I’ve trained. So it’s just one of those things, that’s just so
ingrained in who I am as a person that I think, inevitably, any type of education that I do or any
sort of model of comprehensive sex ed that I do is pretty connected to that belief.
Greg:
Yeah. Awesome. So this is a little bit of a turn. What do you think are some of the most
important features about working with the population of Black youth or Black adolescents? Here
we’re specifically using the CDC definition of 11 to 19, but if you have a different understanding
of what a Black adolescent is, that’s fine too. You can bring it in here.
Erica:
Yeah. Yeah. So talk to me a little bit more about what you mean by features.
Greg:
Yeah. So when you get ready to work with this group, what are some of the things that come to
mind? What are you preparing for? What are you thinking about? Okay, when I go to work in
this neighborhood, I do this thing. When I go to work in ... but instead of neighborhoods, it’s the
group of people.
Erica:
Yeah, yeah. For me, I always try to think of what’s relevant for teens or for the age group that
I’m talking to in that moment. My understanding of adolescence is more like, I would say nine to
14 ish maybe is that kind of age range for me. So I think about the things that they’re talking
about, the things in pop culture that they’re into, and I figure out ways to incorporate that in what
I’m teaching. So if I’m doing a media literacy course, I’m letting them find a song that talks
positively about consent, and I’m not giving them parameters on what the language is. If there
are cuss words, that’s fine. Just find the song, write the lyrics down and we’ll talk about them. So
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making it accessible for them and not judging them for what they’re into or what they’re
listening to, making sure that when I talk about families, I don’t necessarily say parents.
Erica:
I say caregivers, because you never know if somebody’s auntie or grandma is raising them and
not their parents. So I try not to single out, or I say caring adults in your life. So I’m really
intentional with the language that I use when I’m discussing, continue these conversations with
the adults that you trust in your life. That could even be an older sibling. That could be a cousin.
Making sure that they understand that I’m not just talking about parents because that may not be
the reality for all of them.
Erica:
Making sure that I am understanding of the way that Black parenting works is like, you don’t
speak up. Oftentimes you don’t get the voice. You don’t get to buck back. You don’t get to
question my authority. I’m telling you what to do. I have the power here. So making sure that
I’m understanding when that’s usually the norm. It’s slowly kind of moving our generation of
parents are doing a little more gentle parenting, whatever, but our kids are usually younger.
We’re not dealing with that with high schoolers just yet. The parents of my generation that I
know are doing that are with seven and under. They’re not teenagers. The groups of our age who
have teenagers are still in that traditional parenting role. So I try to be very mindful with how I
suggest they engage in conversations about things or how they voice their opinions if they’re
different from their families.
Erica:
I don’t want to get them in trouble and I don’t want them to disrespect their parents, because you
never know what the family dynamic is like at home. I don’t know if somebody is abusive in
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their house and that could cause a whole spiral of things that would cause more problems for my
student than not, because I’m not in the school every day. I don’t know them. I don’t know their
home life. So I don’t want to do anything that can cause them harm. I make sure that they
understand that, if what I’m recommending to you can cause you harm or cause your relationship
with your caregiver harm, please do not engage. This is for people who you feel like you can
trust and who you can open up and talk to about these things.
Erica:
Also, if I’m educating youth, I’m giving their parents a resource packet, their caregivers, a
resource packet. So they know exactly what I’m talking to their kids about, so that they can also
engage in those conversations if the student doesn’t feel confident doing that themselves. So I
give the parents conversation starters and tips on how to have the conversations and stuff along
those lines as well. So there’s always resources and extra support to make sure that those things
that I have to think about when I’m building lesson plans. I’m thinking about it from both
standpoints, as a caregiver and as a teenager, if that makes sense.
Greg:
Yeah. Yeah, it does.
Erica:
I think about the fact that most Black people have some religious connection to something. So
I’m also very mindful of how bold my language is when I’m doing the caregiver packets,
because I don’t want to offend anybody just on language alone to where then they’re not even
going to engage with the rest of the content. So I tend to air on the conservative side, which,
what’s the conservative side for somebody who’s been doing sex ed for 17 years? What I think is
254

conservative is probably still bold to most people, but I try to be mindful of that as much as I can.
So yeah, I hope that ... those are some things that I have to think about.
Greg:
Yeah. I think I’m going to follow up on that.
Erica:
Yeah, please.
Greg:
So you mentioned that most Black folks have some connection to something religious, and I’m
wondering what’s the role of religion and spirituality in your practice of teaching?
Erica:
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I often don’t talk about religion because I never know the different
religions that exist in the space. I don’t like to single people out by asking. But I do talk about
just being in tune with your body and being connected to your beliefs and your values and
whatever you are learning, because it’s not my job to teach beliefs, values and things like that.
That’s at home. That’s the caregiver’s job. I give you information, and I give you the ability to
think about things from a different perspective or from a different standpoint, but I don’t actually
tell you what to believe. I don’t tell you what values to believe. I may talk about values and I’m
going to talk about societal expectations and how you are allowed to feel differently than what
society tells you to feel, but that doesn’t mean I’m telling you to do that.
Erica:
So I’m very big on making sure they understand that I’m not trying to push against anybody’s
beliefs. Nobody has to engage in any conversation they don’t want to engage in. Nobody has to
participate in any activity that they don’t feel comfortable in. They always have the option to opt
255

out and not be a part of something. I try to be respectful in those ways without making it about
religion. I’m making space for those feelings of dissonance and uncomfortableness to exist. But I
also encourage them to understand that we often learn best when we’re uncomfortable, because
then we’re paying attention. So if you feel super uncomfortable with something I’m talking
about, see if you can stay for the conversation because you may grow because of it. But if it
makes you too uncomfortable, then please just get up and leave. It’s okay. You don’t even have
to say anything to me. I know why you’re getting up. It’s perfectly fine. I won’t make a reference
to it. We don’t ever have to talk about it.
Erica:
So I try to be very mindful of that. Most adults of these teens, if they’ve got reservations due to
religious beliefs or concerns or teachings, then they usually just won’t consent for their it to be in
the class anyway, is what I’ve experienced, is that they just won’t even ask questions. They’ll
just automatically be like, “Oh no, they don’t need to be learning about that.” Then they’re not in
the class. Oftentimes, those are the kids that probably needed to learn it the most because the
messages they’re getting from your religious institutions are very one sided and often based in
shame and guilt, and will be part of the reason that they’re going to have to unlearn all of this in
their twenties and their thirties in order to feel like a free human being who can enjoy and
appreciate their body, and sex for what it is. Pleasure, and not just procreation.
Erica:
I try to, when I talk about gender, sometimes we don’t get to ... This time we didn’t get to that
topic in school because their importance of relationship drama kind of took precedent, but I still
found a to get it into the conversation as much as I could. So I intentionally don’t make every
relationship example heteronormative. I make mention of things of people not always being
256

cisgender and there being other identities. We talked about intersex identification for people who
are born with both sex organs and those sorts of things. I filter it in when I can, but when I’m
doing an actual lesson about it, we have a whole, if you can’t contain your shit, you need to
leave, because what’s not going to happen is I’m not going to let you sit in here and laugh when
we’re talking about people’s identities, because you don’t know who’s in this room. If you’re
able to be mature enough to have this conversation, then today’s class is not for you.
Erica:
I do my best to make sure that the people who are in there that don’t know or are so questioning
feel supported. I shut all side conversations and giggles, especially when we’re talking about that
topic, I shut it down really, really quickly, because in the Black community it can get really
mean. Those messages and experiences stay with people for forever, forever. I don’t want those
experiences to exist in a space that I’m facilitating. So I’m very big on, if this is something that
you don’t believe in, if this is something that you don’t have the bandwidth to take in, then you
can excuse yourself for the day, because you’re not going to be in here potentially disrespecting
any of your classmates. I don’t shame them for that. It’s just a factual, if this is something you
can’t do, then please leave because this isn’t the class for you.
Erica:
There’s a separate class that you should take about this topic and this ain’t it. So I think, because
I also want people who are in that stage of trying to figure that stuff out, to feel free to ask those
questions. Sometimes the language that they use when they ask them is not the best, but it’s not
their fault. It’s that society doesn’t really give them a space to learn those words. So they may be
asking the question with the best intentions ever, but it doesn’t sound great. So if somebody in
the room is hearing that, they’re going to automatically think something about that person and
257

their perspective of who they are and their identity. It may not even be true. It’s just them asking
a question and not having the right words. So I try to be mindful of that.
Erica:
I also think when it comes to topics like gender or like different orientations, most of what
people are repeating that seems negative is something that they’ve heard. They don’t even really
understand what they’re saying. So if I ask them, “explain to me what you just said,” they can’t.
They never can. They never know what it is they’re actually saying. It’s just a phrase they heard
somebody else say that got some laugh from somebody else. So they started repeating it, but they
never investigated what it actually meant. So even in those moments, it’s like, where did you
hear that from? Who gave you that messaging? Then I use it as a learning experience. Why do
you think they wanted you to believe that? What do you believe? We kind of go through and
analyze things like that.
Erica:
So again, I don’t address religion specifically, but I address the beliefs that come from it in a
bunch of different ways. It just kind of depends on how they show up in my class. Now when it’s
adults, we go in. I don’t care about people’s feelings as adults. We’re going to figure it out.
We’re going to dig in. We’re going to pay attention. We’re going to tear this apart. But when it
comes to teens and younger kids, no, no, no. I assume that adults have had some therapy at some
point to know how to process things. So I’m just like, oh no, we’re having this conversation
because we’re adults and we can.
Greg:
I love it. All right. We’re onto our final official question.
Erica:
258

Okay.
Greg:
So how does your approach to teaching sex ed build on what you think is important about
working with Black youth, Black adolescence? Especially back to that first question, what were
some of the important features? How does your approach to teaching sex ed more generally even
build on what you know?
Erica:
Well, I think that comprehensive sex ed as a field is a beautiful thing. I do think it is very white.
So I appreciate people like me and all of my colleagues. Really, truly the only sex educators I
communicate with are Black women or women of color. So we got a little tight-knit group.
We’re looking out for each other, we’re figuring out ways to help spread information about each
other’s content because social media is doing a really good job at blocking specifically women of
color and fems of color, our content on social media. So we’re all working on building up our
email list so we can get people back to our website as opposed to utilizing social media for
things.
Erica:
It’s causing a lot of work on our end, but we all feel like it’s important because we know that this
information is needed and we know that it needs to be out there for our communities. So we try
to make it as accessible as possible. We’re still posting on social media. We’re encouraging
people to be able to turn on the notifications to be notified when we post and stuff so they can get
access to our information. But I think making sure that we are present on all of the platforms
where youth are, so like TikTok doing reels, doing stuff like that is really important. I think at
259

my generation and my approach to sex education is a way to help normalize this conversation,
which is ultimately what we all want to do.
Erica:
We’re going about it in a myriad of ways, but the goal is to normalize conversations about our
bodies and about sexuality and not make them so taboo. There’s so much shame and guilt
wrapped around them that people feel like they can’t engage in these conversations on a daily
basis. So however we can make it seem that it’s a normal process is going to be the best thing
that we can do for our communities because Black community already doesn’t talk about a lot of
things. They push a lot of things under the rug, and it’s very much like what happens in the
family stays in the family. But then this is how generational cycles of shame and guilt and abuse
and assault continue and nobody does anything to stop it.
Erica:
So the more this generation is very much about generational healing and trying to get those
nodes on every other aspect, like talking about family trauma and talking and getting it out and
processing it together. So I think that we use that energy and that sort of focus to pull in, also talk
about sexuality and how you all viewed people’s bodies and how you talk about people and how
there’s an expectation for kids to always walk in and hug and kiss every family member. But
what if they don’t want to do that?
Erica:
What are you telling them about their bodies if they don’t have any say over their family being
able to come and touch them whenever they want? You have to be able to give them a sense of
autonomy to say, no, I don’t want a hug right now and give them a high five or just say hi, as an
option. They don’t always have to accept hugs and kisses and people touching their hair and their
260

faces that doesn’t have to be the norm. So kind of starting those dialogues, I think is leaning
towards this generational healing. I think it’s really essential for Black youth because they don’t
realize that those things don’t have to exist. It’s all they know.
Erica:
That’s all I knew growing up when I saw my Black side of the family, and I didn’t really hang
out with them that much growing up, so it was even weirder for me because they would fetishize
me over my darker family members because I have this silky curly hair that is very much like my
mom’s texture. So still to this day, they obsess over my hair and my skin color. I have to them,
“Yo, stop. This is not okay. You can’t keep doing this. I am no different than my cousin Devana
who is drop-dead gorgeous and as chocolate as they come.” I love her. She’s beautiful. Nobody
ever tells her that, but she’s seen people tell me that my whole life at every family reunion. What
do you think that’s doing to her confidence? That’s not fair. All I did was show up and my hair is
usually like this, and I’m not wearing makeup, and I’m dragging two kids and y’all are still over
here.
Erica:
I don’t like that shit. Stop. Don’t do that. Just kind of having those conversations or, in those
moments, reminding Devana how beautiful she is. She’s my younger cousin. I take care of her. I
protect her as best as I can. So in those moments, she ain’t slouching on confidence nowhere,
which is great, but I’m just saying it could have gone a different ... she could still feel that way in
those moments at the family reunions. I don’t want to be because I showed up. No, we’re not
going to do that. So making sure that those sorts of conversations are happening and are shown
that it’s okay. People come out of them better off, and families are healthier because of it. I think
all of that is necessary for the Black community to see.
261

Erica:
So a lot of my work is rooted in doing that hard work, which is why a lot of people don’t want to
do it, but we’re getting there. I’m just trying to normalize things as best as I can. One lesson at a
time, in some way, shape or form. I don’t care what topic it’s about, as long as it’s something
that’s sexuality related, which most things are. Sex is kind of in everything we do. So yeah, I
think that it’s building that foundation for healing and for a healthier understanding of sexuality
and hopefully, fingers crossed, a healthier existence and environment for the youth to have their
identity and sexual development occur. That there won’t be so much trauma and shame and guilt
based in that. That it’ll just be a sense of sexual freedom and that they’ll be able to explore
themselves, and that curiosity isn’t a bad thing. Kind of believing those sorts of thoughts. So
hopefully, hopefully.
Greg:
Awesome. Oh Erica, thank you so much for all of this.
Erica:
Yeah. No, of course.
Greg:
This is such a rich conversation. Before I start to wrap us up, is there anything else you’d like to
share or any questions that you wish I’d asked?
Erica:
No, I think your questions were very great. I was looking at these like, Ooh, this is going to be a
good conversation. When I looked over them at first, I was like, oh, that’s great. Yes. Yes. I
think I pretty much touched on all the things that I would’ve wanted to talk about. The only other
thing is that I’m currently working on sex positive affirmation cards for toddlers.
262

Greg:
Oh, cool.
Erica:
So I just finished the draft and I ordered a few sets, a few decks, and they should be coming. So
I’m hoping that they’re going to be launched next month because it’s the sex ed for all month is
in May. So I’m trying to launch them in that month. So if you happen to follow me on social or
whatever, please just pass that along, because I would love to give that to as many families of
color as possible and try to promote that as best as I can. If you’re not already on my email list,
you can just go to my website and add yourself, and then that way you’ll get the email
notification too, if that’s easier for you.
Greg:
Yeah.
Erica:
But yeah, most of the work that I’m doing is for youth. It just involves me talking to adults more
so. I’m not actually talking to toddlers. I’m talking to their caregivers about how to have those
conversations with toddlers because it’s harder to justify a sex educator coming into elementary
school. Although, we need to be there to talk about these exact same things, I do think that the
conversations would go over better if they were coming from a parent or a caregiver or even a
teacher.
Erica:
So I’m trying to get into training elementary school teachers, trying to get to the people who
have the access. If I can’t access them directly, trying to access the people who can and who the
kids trust. They’re probably not going to talk ... they shouldn’t, in a perfect world, talk to me
263

about those things anyway, because I’m just a random person that would be showing up talking
to them about these things. They need to have those conversations with people that they trust. So
hopefully that gets to expand a little bit so that the type of sex ed that I’m doing can help better
this next generation, one little group of students at a time.
Erica:
So just send good vibes for that. Ohio is not the most open state to be in for these things. So
yeah. No, I think other than that, it was a great conversation for sure. Thank you for including me
when you’re so close to finishing.
Greg:
My pleasure. Thank you. I’m going to stop recording now.
Erica:
Yeah.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Carrow-Boyd, Gregory Charles (author)

Core Title Culturally relevant sex education for Black adolescents: a study of Black sexuality educators

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2022-08

Publication Date 09/17/2022

Defense Date 05/02/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Black adolescents,Black Americans,Black femme,black popular culture,Black queer theory,Black sexuality educator efficacy,Black teaching efficacy,comprehensive sex education,connection,critical race theory,cultural relevance,culturally relevant education,culturally relevant pedagogy,Education,Educators,femme,OAI-PMH Harvest,Pleasure,popular culture,quare theory,queer theory,self-efficacy,Sex education,sex educators,sexuality educator efficacy,sexuality educators,social cognitive theory,social learning theory,Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale,teaching efficacy,trustworthiness,trustworthy

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Riggio, Marsha Boveja (committee chair), Humphrey, Eunice (committee member), Spann, Rufus Tony (committee member), Trahan, Don (committee member)

Creator Email carrowbo@usc.edu,gccboyd@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC112002230

Unique identifier UC112002230

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Source 20220919-usctheses-batch-982 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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