UNDERSTANDING THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE TEACHING OF HEALTHY AND SAFE RELATIONSHIP (HSR) TO STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: A SINGAPOREAN TEACHERS' PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The development of healthy sexuality is essential for all children and adolescents, and especially so for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (SWIDs). Sexuality education is essential to developing healthy sexuality. In Singapore, the Ministry of Education’s Special Education (SPED) branch has embarked on developing a standardised Healthy and Safe Relationship (HSR) curriculum to ensure SWIDs receive adequate and timely sexuality education. Teachers are pivotal to the delivery of HSR education, and existing literature asserts the importance of attitude, knowledge, and sexuality comfort of sexuality educators. Unfortunately, no known study has explored what Singaporean teachers perceive can influence the teaching of sexuality education (i.e., HSR). As such, this study adopts the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Graham and Smith’s definition of sexuality comfort as it seeks to answer the main research question: what do teachers perceive as factors influencing the teaching of HSR? Focus group discussions were conducted with SPED school teachers over Zoom. The discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Braun and Clarke’s approach to thematic analysis was caried out within a contextualist framework. Two main themes, each with multiple sub-themes, emerged. Findings revealed how training and infrastructures are what teachers perceive to influence the teaching of HSR. Specifically, the lack of training and inadequate infrastructures negatively influences the teaching of HSR. This study thus provides robust practical implications for the schools, MOE team, and HSR trainers on what can be done instead.