Perhaps no other area of the school curriculum generates as much controversy (and on such a consistent basis) as sex education. Recent polling data point to a broad consensus that schools should offer some form of sex education (see, for example, National Public Radio, 2004). But exactly what should be taught, when, and how are matters of intense and ongoing debate. As David Archard (2003) observes, “Sex education is disputatious because sex itself has a great significance in our lives yet we disagree profoundly about the values that should inform our sexual conduct” (p. 540).

Recent developments in sex education policy raise difficult questions about how educators should deal with moral disagreement in the classroom. Should educators strategically avoid moral questions that are highly disputed in society—questions about the rightness or wrongness of premarital sex or of homosexual acts, for instance? This approach may sound appealing to some parents, citizens, and conflict-averse teachers and administrators, but there are attendant dangers. If educators choose to broach highly controversial moral questions in the classroom, another question immediately comes to the fore: Should educators endorse a particular point of view, or should they present the arguments for the various sides as evenhandedly as possible?

We have assembled an international panel of scholars — from North America and the UK — in the interest of providing a varied look and fresh insights on these timely and important questions related to sex education and value conflict in the liberal state. In addition to participating in the 2012 Summer Institute and developing a special issue of Educational Theory, we also are committed to finding ways to disseminate this research to a broader audience of educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens.