Case Studies Case Study 10: Construction of gender in primary school ]
The school has an enrolment of less than 200 students. It is situated in a large country town with a high proportion of Aboriginal students, students from non-English speaking backgrounds, students with disabilities and students whose families live in poverty. There is high unemployment and many families are transient.
Needs analysis was based on:
Boys dominated the agenda and boys took up the time
The first concern the principal had with regard to gender equity was that the majority of girls did not participate in things such as physical education or hands on activities in the classroom. The boys behaviours and participation dominated in most curriculum areas. The principal observed classroom interactions and noted that girls from some cultural groups such as Aboriginal or Turkish were particularly disadvantaged. This lack of participation was evident in student outcomes in many learning areas. Single sex groupings and classes had been tried in some areas to allow the girls to develop their confidence and to improve their access to the curriculum.
We can't change things for girls unless we change things for boys and men
The student counsellor, deputy principal and the principal have spent a great deal of their time dealing with behavioural issues with many more referrals of boys than of girls. Referral records showed that 90% of the referred incidents related to harassment, bullying and violence were initiated by the boys. While much of this violence was against other boys, there was also a lot of sexual harassment against the girls. Aboriginal girls were often victims of racial and sexual harassment. There was some harassment of boys by girls but, overwhelmingly, boys were the perpetrators of violent behaviours. All suspensions and `take homes' (parent notifications) during the year were boys.
An Anger Buster program was introduced to give the boys alternative ways of behaving to control violence and resolve conflict through learning new social skills. This had considerable success with greatly improved behaviour of the majority of the boys who have been involved.
Policies and procedures
The school introduced a harassment policy, and grievance procedures have been explicitly taught to the students, care givers and parents. These procedures are constantly modelled and reinforced by the staff when incidents occur, in social skills programs and through the behaviour management policy. The implementation of school level policies was supported by the requirements of system level policies in the areas of sexual harassment, racism and gender equity. The principal believed that this provided an incentive for teachers to work on these areas and, in some cases, to change their own attitudes as they learned more about the positive outcomes from these procedures and policies.
Parents have been kept informed of policies and programs through regular newsletters and in personal contact. The location of a child parent centre in the school encouraged many parents to feel comfortable in the school. All parents are invited to discuss their concerns and to support the school's behaviour management program. The Behaviour Management Policy explicitly states roles and responsibilities of all members of the school community.
Construction of gender
The school was a trial school for materials that were produced by the Education Department to introduce to junior primary students understandings of how gender is constructed. This program helped both teachers and students to understand issues associated with gender differences and how these affected their behaviours and learning. It was complementary to the other programs such as Anger Busters for boys and access programs for girls.
We've been doing a lot of different things
The school has implemented many innovative strategies and programs to try to ensure equitable outcomes for all their students. Teachers were encouraged to develop critically reflective teaching and learning programs and were supported to try new methodologies and to take risks. These programs and strategies were resourced to support their implementation if the school saw the likely outcomes as being important to the school's goals. Monitoring and assessment of the effectiveness of the programs is ongoing. While most have been formally evaluated at the end of term or the end of year, if a program did not seem to be working as well as expected it would be modified or replaced with new strategies. As part of the evaluation, observations of student attitudes and behaviours and of learning outcomes are all considered, as well as the resourcing that would be needed to sustain the program or to mainstream it. Students have been actively involved in monitoring processes.
A supportive learning environment
Gender issues have provided a focus for changing the experiences of the students in a safe, equitable and supportive school environment over the last two years. Improving access to the curriculum for girls and recognising and valuing their experiences has also meant working with the boys to achieve different outcomes for them. System level initiatives and policies have helped in establishing parameters for change among staff and students and support has also been given to sustain initiatives through a national program for gender equity in disadvantaged schools. Both boys and girls have been skilled to deal with, and reduce, conflict and violence. Understanding, valuing and accepting difference-different ways of being male or female, differences in cultures and race-have been an integral part of the school's programs.
Ongoing program
The principal expected to continue to develop and maintain the successful strategies that had been started. A high turnover of staff meant that new teachers required continuing training and development, and more work with parents was needed to ensure understanding and support for the programs. Regular evaluation of strategies was planned which included listening to student comments and concerns.
