Özet:

This research is a case study conducted with 13 counseling teachers working at thirteen public elementary schools serving students with special needs in their mainstream classrooms in the Antakya city of Hatay district. The study sought to find out whether sex education is provided in the studied schools and if so what is the content of such education. In addition, the study also examined the opinions of counseling teachers with regard to the necessity of providing sex education to students with special needs, whose responsibility they think it is to provide sex education, and the possible impact teacher demographics may have in the formation of these opinions. This research determined that no comprehensive and standard sex education curriculum is provided in the studied schools and nearly 50 % of the participant teachers reported to have had no training in sex education and that 62 % of the participants reported that they do not provide any sex education to their students. The teachers who reported to provide sex education stated to provide this education in simple presentations with very limited content (such as information about puberty and sexual growth). These results have important implications for educational policy and curriculum