Alberta Bounded - Comprehensive Sexual Health Education, Parentism, and Gaps in Provincial Legislation and Educational Policy

Oct 15, 2026

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The article argues for mandating comprehensive sexual health education (CSHE) for all students in Canadian schooling, focusing on Grades 7 to 12. Using Alberta as an illustrative case, it evaluates how legislation and educational policy support CSHE while paying close attention to sexual and gender minority (SGM) students. It frames parentism as a harmful rightist politico-religious stance that restricts high school students’ ability to build sexual knowledge and agency, and it calls for coordinated action by legislators, districts, and faculties of education to enable CSHE for all students.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Legal and rights context for SGM students

Educational and policy implications

Need to mandate CSHE for Grades 7 to 12

Alberta Bounded: Comprehensive Sexual Health Education, Parentism, and Gaps in Provincial Legislation and Educational Policy André P. Grace University of Alberta Abstract This article makes a case for mandating comprehensive sexual health education (CSHE) for all students in Canadian schooling, with a focus on Grades 7 to 12. Using Alberta asan example, it examines the degree to which legislation and educational policy enable CSHE, with particular attention to sexual and gender minority (SGM) students. The article conceptualizes and interrogates parentism as a rightist politico-religious viewpoint harmful to high school students needing to build sexual knowledge and sexual agency. It concludes by calling on legislators, school districts, and faculties of education to act to enable CSHE for all students, including SGM students. Keywords: sexual health education, high school students, LGBTQ youth, parents, legislation, Bill 10 in Alberta, educational policy Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 41:2 (2018)©2018 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/ Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation [www.cje-rce.ca](www.cje-rce.ca) Résumé Cet article explique l’importance d’un programme complète d’éducation de santé sexuelle pour tous les élèves dans l’école au Canada. On se concentre sur les niveaux septième à douzième. L’article utilise l’Alberta comme exemple pour examiner à quelle mesure la législation et les politiques d’éducation permettent les programmes complèted’éducation de santé sexuelle, avec un accent sur les élèves de minorités sexuelles et de genre. L’article questionne les parents qui ne permettent pas leurs enfants au niveau secondaire d’apprendre les connaissances sexuelles. On appelle les législateurs, les districts scolaires et les facultés d’éducation de poursuivre la réalisation des programmes complète d’éducation de santé sexuelle pour tous les élèves, notamment les élèves de minorités sexuelles et de genre. Mots-clés : éducation de santé sexuelle, élèves secondaire, adolescents GLBTT, parents, législation, loi 10 de l’Alberta, politiques d’éducation Acknowledgement This research was conducted with funding from both the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC principal investigator: Dr. André P. Grace, University of Alberta; Council Identification No. 65592) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR principal investigator: Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc, University of British Columbia; Co-applicant: Dr. André P. Grace, CIHR Application No. 259692) . Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 41:2 (2018) [www.cje-rce.ca](www.cje-rce.ca) Introduction Sexual and gender minorities compose a diverse population that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, intersexual, and queer Indigenous (or, more commonly, TwoSpirit) persons. The population’s complexity increases in intersections with race, ethnocultural location, class, and other relational differences. This spectral public is marked by variations in sexual orientations and gender identities that fall outside normative cultural understandings of sexuality and gender, as well as outside the heterosexual/homosexual and male/female binaries as limiting either/or categories (Grace, 2015) . Crucially, as a multivariate community whose members have been historically disenfranchised and targeted due to sexual and gender differences, in contemporary times the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter) guarantees equality rights—human and civil—and provides individual protection against discrimination in section 15. As an acknowledgement that sexual and gender minority (SGM) people are as deserving of rights as everyone else, subsection 1 states,“Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination”(Government of Canada, 2018, section 15[1]). Equality rig

FAQs

What is the article’s main argument about CSHE in Canada?

The article argues that comprehensive sexual health education should be mandated for all students in Canadian schooling, with emphasis on Grades 7 to 12.

How does Alberta function in the article’s analysis?

Alberta is used as an example to examine how provincial legislation and educational policy enable or limit CSHE, especially for sexual and gender minority students.

What does the article say about parentism and its impact on students?

It portrays parentism as a rightist politico-religious viewpoint that harms high school students by restricting their ability to develop sexual knowledge and sexual agency.

Oct 15, 2026

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