Case Studies Case Study 6: Investigating inappropriate behaviours ]
The school is situated in a coastal town of rapid population growth. There is a wide socioeconomic range among students who come from an extensive feeder area and from several different primary schools. Approximately 650 students attend the school in Years 8 to 12. Features of the school include an agricultural section, a school pool, a special needs centre and a very active student council.
Needs analysis was based on:
The school programs
The school developed and implemented a discipline policy and monitored its success through the number of students addressed by their Managing Student Behaviour (MSB) program. Another focus was on Life Issues for Teenagers (LIFT) which incorporated all Government initiatives such as HRE (Human Relationships Education), AIDs education and drug and alcohol education.
Gaining an understanding of student culture
MSB and LIFT were both seen as dealing with social justice issues and were therefore developed to be complementary to each other. To achieve this the MSB coordinator who was Head of the Social Justice Department within the school, wanted to gain more information from students and to better understand student culture. She felt that teachers dealt very well with behavioural incidents but they were often unable to determine the underlying issues which may have been the trigger for inappropriate behaviours or be the cause of their repetition. She realised the issues were very complex. She had read widely about sexual harassment, violence and gender and she wanted to determine just what was the prevailing student culture in this school community. She thought it was important not to make assumptions but to gather data from the school and to use this as a basis for program development. Information about the types and acceptance of inappropriate behaviours was to be used within the LIFT program to enhance or develop appropriate curriculum for each year level.
Development of an environmental scan within a social justice framework
The MSB coordinator sought assistance from within the school and from outside sources in the development of the environmental scan. The framework in which the scan was shaped was provided by school community needs in relation to the following documents and priorities of both the Federal and State governments:
Input to the scan came from a Senior Guidance Officer as well as the Gender Equity Unit and the data collection branch of the State's Education Department. Computing teachers at the school collated the raw data.
Data gathering
The scan was done by gathering information in two ways. A sample of 10 students from each year level was interviewed. This activity included mapping areas of the school where students felt safe or unsafe. The school chaplain and a parent were given training to conduct the interviews in single sex friendship groups of five. Non-teaching personnel were chosen to encourage open discussion by the students. The interviews were taped and notes were made and analysed by the MSB coordinator. The second phase was the completion of a survey by twenty students from each year level. The responses were collated and analysed by sex.
Often seen, but not questioned
These two data gathering activities provided the school with information from which new insights were gained by teachers, recommendations were made and new strategies were developed. Analysis of the data highlighted different concerns in some cases for each sex and for some year levels. The interviews were seen to add an important dimension to information gained from the survey, information about behaviours that were `often seen but not questioned'. For example, students' preference to go to the toilets during class time rather than during recess was found to be not a lesson avoidance issue but harassment avoidance. The toilets were therefore selected as one of the target areas for monitoring and changing behaviours. Other areas were selected for targeting and modifications were made within the LIFT and HRE programs to address the issues there.
It was planned to administer the scan in following years to see if changes occurred in students' perceptions of school behaviours. The MSB coordinator, however, felt that a wealth of information had already been made available to staff from the initial survey and highlighted several areas on which to work for improvement.
