A case for sex education that puts it in historical and philosophical context. In the United States, sex education is more than just an uncomfortable rite of passage: it's a political hobby horse that is increasingly out of touch with young people's needs. In Touchy Subject, philosopher Lauren Bialystok and historian Lisa M. F. Andersen unpack debates over sex education, explaining why it's worth fighting for, what points of consensus we can build upon, and what sort of sex education schools should pursue in the future. Andersen surveys the history of school-based sex education in the United States, describing the key question driving reform in each era. In turn, Bialystok analyzes the controversies over sex education to make sense of the arguments and offer advice about how to make educational choices today. Together, Bialystok and Andersen argue for a novel framework, Democratic Humanistic Sexuality Education, which exceeds the current conception of "comprehensive sex education" while making room for contextual variation. More than giving an honest run-down of the birds and the bees, sex education should respond to the features of young people's evolving worlds, especially the digital world, and the inequities that put some students at much higher risk of sexual harm than others. Throughout the book, the authors show how sex education has progressed and how the very concept of "progress" remains contestable.

Education, as an academic field taught at universities around the world, emerged from a range of disciplines including philosophy, history, sociology, politics/policy, economics and law. Educational Foundations is the first reference work to provide an authoritative state-of-the-field mapping of these foundational disciplines, showing the ideas, methods, theories and approaches that each of them contributes to field of education. Each of the six volumes is devoted to the examination of a constituent discipline, namely: Philosophical Foundations of Education (Volume 1) Historical Foundations of Education (Volume 2) Sociological Foundations of Education (Volume 3) Policy Foundations of Education (Volume 4) Economic Foundations of Education (Volume 5) Legal Foundations of Education (Volume 6) Each volume covers the same set of key topics within education which also form the chapter titles, those topics/chapters are: Mapping the Field, Purposes of Education, Curriculum, Schools and Education Systems, Learning and Human Development, Teaching and Teacher Education, Assessment and Evaluation. This structure allows readers to study the volumes in isolation, by discipline, or laterally by topic, allowing for comparative, thematic readings of chapters across the volumes. Particular attention is paid to social justice issues throughout the volumes with the authors showing how each discipline works to combat social justice issues including race, gender, sexuality and disability. Students, researchers and faculty in education departments rarely have a thorough knowledge of all of the foundational disciplines and yet foundations remains a staple aspect of teacher education and education programmes around the world. This set allows readers to focus in on the specific gaps in their knowledge. Including 48 chapters written by renowned international scholars, this work will define the educational foundations for generations to come.

A case for sex education that puts it in historical and philosophical context. In the United States, sex education is more than just an uncomfortable rite of passage: it's a political hobby horse that is increasingly out of touch with young people's needs. In Touchy Subject, philosopher Lauren Bialystok and historian Lisa M. F. Andersen unpack debates over sex education, explaining why it's worth fighting for, what points of consensus we can build upon, and what sort of sex education schools should pursue in the future. Andersen surveys the history of school-based sex education in the United States, describing the key question driving reform in each era. In turn, Bialystok analyzes the controversies over sex education to make sense of the arguments and offer advice about how to make educational choices today. Together, Bialystok and Andersen argue for a novel framework, Democratic Humanistic Sexuality Education, which exceeds the current conception of "comprehensive sex education" while making room for contextual variation. More than giving an honest run-down of the birds and the bees, sex education should respond to the features of young people's evolving worlds, especially the digital world, and the inequities that put some students at much higher risk of sexual harm than others. Throughout the book, the authors show how sex education has progressed and how the very concept of "progress" remains contestable.