Parents’ Cultural Conflicts in English Secondary School Sex Education

This article investigates the cultural conflicts experienced by parents of secondary school students in relation to sex education within English schools. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 12 parents from diverse cultural backgrounds, the study explores how parents perceive, interpret, and manage these tensions. Using sociological theories of symbolic interactionism and identity, alongside debates on liberalism and communitarianism, the analysis identifies four main sources of conflict: (1) speaking the unspeakable, in which parents negotiate between competing cultural scripts about who may talk to children about sex; (2) weighing both sides, in which the recognition of gender and sexual diversity is experienced as a zero-sum demand; (3) the broken promise, in which a school chosen as culturally trustworthy is found to teach otherwise; and (4) inclusion as a language of loss, in which policies framed as inclusive are experienced as exclusionary. The article suggests that parental cultural conflicts around sex education reflect broader struggles over identity and belonging, offering insights not only for sex education policy but also contributing to wider sociological debates about how schools and institutions can engage constructively with cultural diversity in pluralistic societies.