Entre lineamientos y prácticas. Tensiones de la educación sexual en Colombia: caso PESCC (2008-2025)

Abstract

The study analyzes sexuality education guidelines in Colombia through the Sexuality Education and Citizenship Building Program (PESCC), highlighting the tensions between its conceptual, pedagogical, and regulatory foundations and its implementation processes during the 2008–2025 period. Although the Program represented a significant step forward by moving away from biologically focused approaches toward a framework based on human rights, citizenship, and human development, substantial gaps persist between institutional discourse and school-based practices. These gaps are reflected in outdated guidelines, ambiguities in curriculum mainstreaming, and the continued presence of moralizing and fragmented approaches. Using a qualitative approach grounded in documentary analysis from a hermeneutic perspective, the study examines PESCC Guidelines 1, 2, and 3, School Coexistence Guideline 49, as well as a range of academic and regulatory sources. The findings indicate that, while the 2008 guidelines incorporated principles related to human rights and citizenship competencies, they remain limited in addressing contemporary debates on gender, diversity, and intersectionality. Likewise, School Coexistence Guideline 49 broadens perspectives through the inclusion of differential approaches and restorative justice, yet it also requires updating. In practice, weaknesses were identified in teacher training, the integration of a gender perspective, institutional leadership, and monitoring mechanisms, resulting in discontinuous implementation processes that are primarily preventive and administrative in nature. The study concludes that, despite advances in policy formulation, its effectiveness remains constrained by institutional fragmentation, sociocultural barriers, and the lack of conceptual updating. Therefore, it highlights the need for stronger monitoring and evaluation of the PESCC, enhanced teacher training incorporating a gender perspective, the consolidation of curriculum mainstreaming, and the active participation of educational communities. These measures are essential to positioning schools as spaces for critical citizenship, interculturality, and social justice.