This article aimed to know the perception of sexuality and sex education of teachers of the Elementary and Secondary Education of a public school in Juazeiro do Norte-CE, Brazil. We developed a descriptive study with qualitative approach carried out from September 2009 to February 2010 with seven teachers, through observation and semi-structured interview, with the following questions: What is sexuality for you? What do you understand by sex education? Data were organized into five categories and analyzed in an interpretive way. The concept of sexuality was divided into two categories: gender and sexual orientation. Besides the physical aspects, there were spiritual and expression elements of love among humans, although these were secondary to genital attributes and sexual intercourse, surrounded by nature character. Sex education was based on three themes: sexual intercourse, body physiology and social behavior, constituting an important issue to be worked from the fourth or fifth year of elementary school, where science classes are listed as the most appropriate space to address the issue. The teaching profession needs constant renewal, being necessary to overcome the biomedical/scientific model in sexuality, considering its historical, social and cultural dimensions, where cross-sectional actions should be a goal to be achieved in several fields of knowledge.
sexuality; sex education; gender identity; school