Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Parental emotions in the context of culturally conflicted secondary school sex education in England. |
| Authors: |
Mukoro, Jude1 (AUTHOR) judemukoro@gmail.com, Setty, Emily1 (AUTHOR), Hemming, Peter1 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: |
Intercultural Education. Aug2026, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p445-463. 19p. |
| Subject Terms: |
*Emotion regulation, *Sex education, *Secondary schools, *Multicultural education, *Parent attitudes, *Culture conflict, British people, Face-to-face communication |
| Geographic Terms: |
England |
| Abstract: |
Sex education in England's secondary schools remains a site of cultural conflicts. While existing research has examined parental attitudes and resistance, little attention has been given to the emotional experiences of parents navigating cultural conflicts in this area. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring the emotions and emotion regulation strategies of 12 parents with differing cultural, social, and familial contexts through semi-structured interviews. Grounded in an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, the findings reveal three key emotional clusters: (1) positive alignment (trust, satisfaction), (2) negative distress (anxiety, powerlessness, moral outrage), and (3) ambivalence (pragmatic tolerance, reluctant acceptance). Parents' emotional responses were shaped by perceived cultural dissonance, institutional marginalisation, and identity threats, with communication emerging as a central regulatory strategy to manage conflict. The study contributes to the sociology of emotions by demonstrating how parental affect is socially constructed, performed, and regulated within contested educational spaces. It also advances policy discourse by advocating for emotion-informed, culturally responsive approaches to sex education that prioritise communication. By centring parental emotions, this research offers a nuanced understanding of the affective dimensions of cultural conflict in education, with implications for fostering more inclusive school-parent partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: |
Education Research Complete |
