Study Framework and Background

Various research studies in the Spanish context reveal a lack of university instruction on education in sexuality and equality among future education professionals (^{Blázquez Vilaplana, 2016}). The principle of gender equality in the education system in Spain has been incorporated from the time of the educational laws of the democratic period to the present, in an essentially stable way, but without establishing a norm of an obligatory nature. Within the framework of the, it is evident that in the University Centres for Teacher Training (UCTT), issues of sexuality and equality appear underrepresented in the subjects of study.

These questions contextualise the research that supports this article, which is focused on exploring the extent of future education professionals' knowledge in relation to competence in education in sexuality and equality (the research project, Education in equality and sexuality in the initial training of teachers and social educators in Castilla la Mancha University, was funded by the Women's Institute of Castilla la Mancha, 2017-2018).

Theoretical Perspective: Feminist Pedagogies in Teacher Training

The formal educational processes involved in the initial training of teachers constitute a fundamental pillar in the transformation of gender and sexuality inequalities (^{Aguilar, 2015}). ^{Freire (1979}) showed the value of education as an appropriate process for the exercise of freedom and for challenging traditional power. We identify patriarchy as a sign of traditional ideological power installed in educational processes, becoming present in the curriculum through pedagogical markers (^{Younger et al., 1999}). Such markers must be combatted through feminist pedagogies that place their bets on scientific knowledge and knowledge empowered from a gender perspective (^{Pérez Rueda et al., 2017}). These pedagogies are a tool of scientific transformation, deconstructing the traditional pedagogical approaches on which the training of teachers continues to rest focus on the normalisation of disciplinary and efficiency-oriented approaches with respect to equality and sexuality.

We share the vision of ^{Stolze, & Ramírez (2015}), pointing out that teacher training is constructed as a field of action from political, ideological, epistemological, sociological, anthropological, and pedagogical standpoints, among others. All of this has repercussions on the training curriculum for future professionals, which refuses to incorporate a comprehensive discourse on equality and sexuality. Different authors (^{Bragg et al., 2018}) warn about the need to treat sexuality and equality as an area of scientific study and to transform the current academic thought systems. More so, in the Social Sciencies where new forms of inquiry emerge that reveal different forms of inequality dominated by the androcentric paradigms (^{Jenkins et al., 2019}).

Competence in sexuality and equality

Within this framework, we must ask ourselves, is teacher training responding to the sexual needs arising from the educational socialisation that is rooted in a binary gender-sex system and that gives rise to sexual violence against women under the prism of patriarchy? We agree with ^{Jolly et al. (2013}) in stating that sexuality is a cultural construction around the dominant normativities; that is, we construct ourselves and we think of, and read ourselves as men and women based on masculinity to dominate and femininity hegemonic (^{Paechter, 2018}).

It is necessary to visualise and educate students about non-normative sexual diversity as another element of the human species (^{Pichardo Galán, & de Stéfano Barbero, 2015}), under the paradigm of equality, to build alternative and feminist educational narratives. In this vein, ^{Bakare-Yusuf (2013}) discusses the importance of making visible the kinds of stories we tell about our sexual lives. It is important to tell positive stories of women living their sexuality in freedom. These stories help to reappropriate sexuality, empower and rebrand women's (and men's) sexuality beyond violence, myths and stereotypes.

Sexuality encompasses many facets and dimensions of a human being (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2014), which is why these facets and dimensions must be developed and made visible through educational processes. We would be talking about sexual education. However, this education would not be effective if it were not governed by the principle of equality or by an education in equality, which is the same thing, and which ensures a process of social transformation aiming at coexistence between the sexes, distant from the oppression of women and those with other non-generic sexual identities. Its main objective is to strive for a relationship of justice and respect between human beings and to ensure integral development and effective equality of opportunities between men and women, as well as with those of other sexual identities.

Methods and Instruments

For the collection of data on competence in sexuality and equality, a quantitative approach, based on the application of a questionnaire structured in nine dimensions, was taken. ^{Tamayo, & Tamayo (2003}) defines the questionnaire as a format in which data can be produced in a systematic way and recorded uniformly. It offers a clear and objective view of the facts and groups the data according to specific needs.

The questionnaire was utilized with the purpose of discovering future professionals' knowledge regarding competence in sexuality and equality during the period of initial professional training. It is a generic instrument, designed at the Higher Education School (Escola Superior de Educação) in Coimbra, Portugal, for previous research (^{Veiga et al., 2006}) in the Portuguese context and it was applied by the GIES Group considering the similarities of socio-educational contexts between both countries. The validation of the questionnaire was previously carried out for the Portuguese study with 10 similar students, not included in the main study. In Spain, the trust level was estimated to be 95.5%, according to the application of Cronbach's alpha, assuming a sampling error of 5% and using p=q=0.50 as the population variance estimator. However, we consider that it would have been appropriate to have carried out a more detailed factorial validity study of the instrument.

Subsequently, its content validity was determined, based on the judgment of 10 experts. ^{García Valdés, & Suárez Marín (2013}) defined experts as people whose training and prior experience has allowed them to achieve mastery of an area of content that exceeds the average level of their peers, and who are willing to present their opinions and judgments about the question to be used as conclusions. The contributions were focused on clarifying the wording of some of the items in the dimensions to be explored.

It is considered a tool to support professionals in the context of promoting competence in sexuality and equality. Following theoretical review, it was determined that this instrument was appropriate for use in the Spanish Teacher Training Centres, once the language had been adapted.

Said questionnaire consists of the following dimensions: 1st. Personal information; 2nd. Institutional training; 3rd. Basic scientific knowledge; 4th. Sexual behaviour; 5th. Motivation for sexual relations; 6th. HIV/AIDS; 7th. Identity and sexual orientation; 8th. Sexual violence; and 9th. Beliefs about sexuality. Each dimension was represented by a bank of multiple-choice questions, 57 in all, observing the criteria of relevance, coherence, and adaptation and clarity, in accordance with the main goal of the research (^{McMillan, & Schumacher, 2005}).

These dimensions of the questionnaire respond to the research objectives. The questions addressed in each of them were previously determined by the Portuguese research team, considering the recommendations of international organisations and the specialised scientific literature on each dimension. We reviewed the references that the Portuguese study (^{Veiga et al., 2006}) recorded, and we carried out a monitoring on more updated literature, finding no major changes that could eliminate the items included in each dimension.

The limitations of the study stem from the students' own perceptions, who answer the dimensions of the questionnaire from a subjective position mediated by their previous experiences, their previous educational background, and/or their beliefs about sexuality issues and violence. These answers may not coincide with what they actually do in their daily actions or how they will act in classroom situations where the principle of equality is compromised.

Sample

The study sample was taken from five UCTT of the Castilla la Mancha University and is composed of 371 people, senior students with a generalist profile.

The first dimension of sampling data describes the university sample of degree-awarding institutions in the field of education, which are characterised by high feminisation and youth. Three quarters of the responses (78%) come from female students, and in nine out of ten instances (88.4%), the respondent was 25 years old or younger.

A stratified non-randomised multistage sampling design was used, taking the five Teacher Training Centres as clusters. For each centre, quotas for setting the sample size were established, according to the number of students in each of them and their distribution in terms of sex and age.

In the process of gathering the data, 12 teachers from the various centres participated, who were experts in sexuality and equality issues, as well as members of the GIES group.

Analysis procedure

A quantitative approach was taken, using a descriptive analysis by basic frequencies that provides information on the characteristics of knowledge and preferences in sexuality and equality that the students in the survey had of each dimension of the questionnaire. The description of the data is, therefore, sought through an exploratory analysis to construct explanatory models within each of the dimensions and of each component. This procedure was performed using the IBM SPSS program, version 19.

When crossing the data with the variables of 'sex' and 'age', it was observed that there were no significant disparities (due to the homogeneous characteristics of the sample) in the descriptive analysis; thus, the data are presented without this variability. In the case of the variable 'couple', it stands out among the dimensions where there are significant differences.

Data Analysis and Results

It should be noted that all the dimensions, starting with the second, describe fundamental aspects of the competence in sexuality and equality education exposed in the theoretical framework of this article. We present a descriptive analysis, in depth, of each of the dimensions of the questionnaire related to competence of sexuality and equality:

HIV/AIDS

This dimension seeks to concretise knowledge about the transmission routes of HIV/AIDS and whether there are still social prejudices against infected persons. Practically the entire population that was interviewed (98.9%) is aware that having unprotected sex is one of the risk factors for HIV transmission.

The reference population was asked to identify the pathways of HIV transmission, and 98.8% recognised that unprotected sex is the main route of transmission; in addition, 79.8% pointed out the use of contaminated syringes and needles as another means of transmission. It is surprising that even 69.9% included blood transfusions among the transmission routes, and that only 31.5% did not realise that there is a high risk of transmission during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding.

On the other hand, it is clearly shown that certain prejudices still prevail (43.3%) regarding the groups considered most vulnerable to transmission, such as homosexuals, prostitutes, and drug addicts, because they are considered highly likely become involved in unsafe sexual practices and/or risky situations.

Conclusions and Implications for Initial Teacher Training in Sexuality and Equality

Based on the analysis of the data, two major conclusions can be drawn: 1) there is a weak level of knowledge in sexuality among future teachers and 2) there is a poor identification of discourses grounded in equality based on their practices, motivations, and beliefs. We went on to interrelate the two areas identified in the analysis.

Students who are being trained at University Centres for Teacher Training (UCTT) have not clearly or directly acquired competence in sexuality and equality. Therefore, we ask, 'What approach to education in sexuality and equality have future professionals in education acquired in their academic training?' This is something that has also been investigated in other European contexts (^{Winkelmann, 2010}).

It has been demonstrated that the little knowledge they have obtained regarding sexuality and equality has been from weak institutional training and through informal learning. This is inadequate to prepare future professionals to comply with national legislative requirements of an educational and social nature, which urge integration of the principle of equality and a gender perspective in the general organisation of educational policies and establish criteria of quality in teaching performance in relation to sexuality and equality, taking an integral approach. Formative deficiencies emerge at the stages of primary and secondary education, and they are addressed more by informal activities (popular knowledge, myths, peer groups, etc.) than by formal academic learning per se. It has been noted that sexual education is not a subject treated in the classroom at the basic-compulsory stages, as shown in various studies (^{Ayuste et al., 2016}; ^{Bejarano Franco et al., 2021}) conducted at the national level.

In relation to this question, we argue that maintaining education in sexuality in the informal field does not ensure equal education of a scientific nature or adherence to quality criteria (^{Burns, & Hendriks, 2018}). This approach only serves to continue reproducing myths and stereotypes in the areas of educational intervention, and it will result in unsafe sexual practices (^{Barón, 2019}; ^{Bas-Peña et al., 2015}).

These future professionals are not prepared to introduce a gender and transformational feminist approach into the teaching practices and discourses that will directly affect the people they educate. A comprehensive, global perspective on sexuality is not being applied at the European level (^{Bejarano Franco et al., 2021}). Young people's awareness of protection in their sexual practices should be deepened, since research on young people's sexual risk behaviours and HIV/AIDS indicates that there has been an increase in the number of infected people, especially among adolescents and youth, that is, those between 15 and 24 years of age (^{Antón Ruiz, & Espada, 2009}). Although they know the forms of transmission, 40% still do not use condoms in their sexual relations. It has also been shown that the young people surveyed are highly vulnerable in the exercise of their sexual practices and that they continue to reproduce stereotypical perceptions of HIV.

Sexual relationships without a good sexual orientation contribute to ignorance of the body and of different types of pleasure. Although shared pleasure does appear to be the main motivation in sexual relationships, little knowledge about orgasm and their own bodies is indicated in the answers. It is striking how high a percentage of the sample, which, as we recall, is mostly female, highlights the couple's pleasure as the main motivation (72%) - even greater than their own. From a feminist analysis of women's sexuality and health, this is a fact that shows the differentiated patriarchal socialisation that relegates female sexuality to a secondary level (^{Muruaga López de Guereñu, & Pascual Pastor, 2013}).

As argued by ^{Herrera Achón et al. (2015}) and ^{Enguix Grau, & González Ramos (2018}), comprehensive sexual education promotes knowledge about one's own health, and this contributes to the well-being of individuals and increases self-care.

^{Giroux (2019}) addresses the need to rethink university dynamics in the face of neoliberal impositions, including questioning and reworking curricula, objectives, content and methodologies. Feminist pedagogies in university education provide us with interesting lines of action and critical and transformative reflection, focusing on student participation and dialogues between the pedagogical narratives of students and teachers (^{Martínez Martín, & Sanz Landaluze, 2022}).

In the light of the answers focused on the dimensions related to equality, we see that a feminist-democratic perspective, whether conceptual, behavioural, or discursive, permitting work on equality in its multiple dimensions, is not being promoted in the first years of higher education. This leads us to observe a weak map of the imaginary centres of the principles that underpin the term. From its theoretical-practical side, as the axis that should guide all educational practice, one notes the widespread confusion about the correct identification of the concepts of transsexuality and sexual identity (^{Bernardos et al., 2022}). This misinformation leads future teachers to lack adequate tools to address the diversity of sexual identities in the classroom (^{van Leent, 2017}) and to be unable to make positive interventions to prevent and stop inequitable situations in the classroom.