Case Studies Case Study 2: A critical incident ]
The school is a co-educational primary school situated in a community that has a fairly high socioeconomic profile and is drawn from many different cultural groups. The program described in this case study evolved over approximately five years.
Needs analysis was based on:
A situation of concern
The school has developed and implemented an effective sex based harassment * policy for staff and students and has addressed issues of harassment and sex stereotyping within the curriculum. This focus came about largely because teachers who were new to the school several years ago were concerned by the level of blatant harassment that was evident, and accepted, among both staff and students. Their concerns reached a critical level when an incident of sexual assault occurred among upper primary students. The new teachers were concerned that the administration did not have, and was unaware of, an appropriate way of dealing with the incident. They felt that no support was given to the girl involved, or her parents, and that the boys' behaviour was not dealt with appropriately because of parental denial of the boys' responsibility. The school administration was seen to `play down' the incident and to accept it as part of the prevailing culture of the school.
This reaction to a serious issue motivated some teachers to raise their concerns in the staff room, to talk to others with expertise and to do further reading and research in gender issues. Other women on the staff felt they were victims of both sex based and culturally based harassment which often denied them recognition of their professional abilities and devalued innovative programs they were implementing.
A catalyst for positive action
A directive from the central education office that sexual harassment contact officers (SHCOs) be appointed at all schools provided a catalyst for positive action. It was also the trigger for many more disclosures from staff about their experiences of harassment. The SHCO sought advice and assistance from others with experience in developing a harassment policy and its implementation. A whole staff approach was decided upon and a guest speaker who had been involved in developing the education system's sexual harassment policy was brought in to in-service the staff. Teachers' knowledge and recognition of what was happening in the school was subsequently sought through a `brain storm' workshop. These observations were used as the basis for action, keeping the focus on the specific needs at that school. The SHCO and another staff member sought additional training through in-service programs and workshops and began to develop the school's policy.
Funding support to develop and implement policy
Funding was received through the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, providing an opportunity for the school to develop a school focus on harassment. The aim of the project was to improve the learning outcomes of non-English speaking background (NESB) girls by eliminating sexual harassment from the school. Professional development was a component of the submission and pilot programs were run for students with the ESL and mainstream teachers collaborating by taking boys and girls in separate groups. The relationship between gender and language usage and the critical examination of attitudes and values were seen as integral to relevant curriculum development. Lesson plans were devised using resources from the State Education Department publications as the starting point and more resources were purchased to support teachers in their classroom work on gender issues.
Initially the focus was on Years 5 and 6 and later emphasis was also given to the junior primary years where there was a group of boys whose behaviour was identified as needing attention.
In-service programs were organised for junior and upper primary teachers in separate groups. Parents were informed and a workshop on understanding and eliminating harassment was held for parents. This was seen as being very successful.
Moving on
Further work and observations have led teachers to look at more subtle forms of harassment and to begin to explore the concept of the construction of gender and empowerment. Naming harassment and insisting on its inappropriateness resulted in the students being able to verbally articulate their grievances and identify better ways of responding. The attitudes and values that informed those behaviours were still observed to be present but less overtly expressed. The need to position gender issues centrally within curriculum areas was recognised.
The work done with boys who presented behaviour problems and who resisted some of the strategies, included exploring different masculinities and using `triggers' to help them to express their own feelings, for example, individual writing about an emotive illustration. This was seen to begin to change the behaviours, language and attitudes of the boys who were then better able to express their needs and feelings without `put downs'.
Student work and responses have been a source of ongoing information for teachers in evaluating their successes and in seeing where future emphasis would be placed. Within the school a more positive climate of mutual respect has been developed.
* NOTE: The National Action Plan for the Education of Girls uses sex based harassment as the broad term which includes sexist harassment, sexual harassment, gender based harassment and homophobic harassment. Different States and systems may prefer the use of different terms.
