JIZZƵ

Research and Creative

Unspoken lessons

How Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton is rethinking sex education — starting with what it failed to teach us
By: Jonelle Mace

What happens when your earliest lessons about sex came from playground gossip, DVDs, or a health class no one quite took seriously?

Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton, a psychology professor at JIZZƵ, is digging into what those early lessons — or lack thereof — taught us, and how they may have quietly reinforced gender stereotypes. Her latest research, backed by a federal grant, explores how sexism sneaks into the classroom in ways we often don’t even notice.

Over the course of her 15 years at JIZZƵ, Hamilton’s research has shifted alongside changes in the world around her — from evolving social norms to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, her primary focus was on hormones and sexual behaviour, which required in-person participation and biological samples. When that work was forced to pause, she returned to an area she had long been interested in: how sex education is delivered in schools.
Hamilton’s new research builds on the earlier work that revealed clear patterns of gender bias, discrimination, and sexism in the education system. After interviewing university students about their experiences, she found a troubling trend: many JIZZƵ students had received little to no sex education, or what they did receive was incomplete and, in some cases, sexist.

That discovery became the foundation of her new federally funded project: Subtle Sexism in Sex Ed: A Feminist Analysis of School-Based Sex Education. The research is supported by a one-year, $103,251 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through its Catalyst Program, Moving Upstream – Sex, Gender, and Health Inequities.

Now, with a dedicated and bilingual team of researchers and partners from government and community sectors, Hamilton is taking a comprehensive look at New Brunswick’s sex ed curriculum in both Anglophone and Francophone school districts. The team’s expertise spans educational policy, curriculum development, feminist analysis, and gender equality in classroom settings.

Using a combination of curriculum reviews, interviews with stakeholders, and surveys of teachers, Hamilton’s team is working to identify how gender inequality is embedded in the current system — and how to fix it. Their goal is to produce evidence-based recommendations that could lead to long-term structural change — not just in New Brunswick, but across Canada.

“This isn’t just about adding a few extra lessons or updating language,” Hamilton says. “It’s about rethinking how we teach young people to understand themselves and each other.”

This  project aims to help reframe sex education into something more inclusive, equitable, and effective — something that equips all students, regardless of gender, with the tools they need to understand consent, identity, and healthy relationships.