Whose Knowledge? Parents As Sources Of Data ]
While students and teachers have first-hand knowledge of what is happening at school, parents are also an important source of data. Apart from their perspectives on what is happening at school, they can provide important data on student background. Additionally, their involvement at the data-gathering stages might be an impetus for their involvement in ongoing action and awareness raising with respect to gender equity. One of the most common concerns from schools involved in gender equity reform is about the mixed gender messages students get outside the school.
Varied procedures
In this study there were many examples of schools tapping into parent knowledge as a way of determining what their gender equity needs were. Again, the procedures were varied, from the most informal `being free to come and have a chat' to formally surveying parents to seek the particular perspectives of groups of parents. An example of the former comes from the principal of a secondary school in a very diverse community, culturally and socio-economically:
We try to make the point that we are open to anybody coming in and talking to us. And sometimes they come and talk to us and tell us exactly what they think is wrong in the most vehement terms. Once we have got over that we usually get down to the basis of the problem and we can talk through it. Parents usually end up leaving happy as they feel they have achieved something by coming in and pointing it out to us. We take everything that they say on board and try and look at it.
The same principal also talked about the Parent and Citizens (P&C) Association being a formal channel the school could tap for parental data on gender equity. However he went on to qualify the usefulness of using the P&C in that:
... our parent contact here is very poor; it is very low. We have got people who live 30 kilometres away up the river and they work all day from sun-up to sun-down. They don't want to come in and talk to us because they either haven't got time or they are just too tired. Or maybe they are fishermen and they are out to sea. So it is very difficult and we can only hope and assume that we are doing a good job. In addition to this we have a huge reluctance on the part of Aboriginal people to come on site and talk to us. This is a worry because a lot of them are ex-students and are probably still living out their fears from when they were students. I think if we can manage to get them on site and on side we actually start to make some moves with that group.
These concerns about the level of involvement of parents through the formalised channel of the P&C Association highlights the need for schools to be places where parents do not feel alienated. As indicated in the example quoted above, a particular concern in the school was the lack of involvement of Aboriginal parents. One of the school's approaches was to use a variety of parent advocates working within the system, as well as other community workers visiting the school.
We have got Aboriginal Education Workers, an Aboriginal specialist teacher and an Aboriginal Liaison Officer. We also have some Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) workers who have worked in various areas around the school. They have been invaluable in making some contact because they are here working with us, they see all that goes on and they understand much better what happens.Surveying parents
There were other school situations which emerged in the study where mechanisms were put in place to ensure the views of particular parental groups came to the fore. One secondary school that was part of the study group, has `something like 30 or 40 different cultural backgrounds within the school' and also has a large full-fee-paying international student program operating. The school is very conscious of the different cultural backgrounds of the students and the gender-based experiences and understandings that form the backdrop to the students' school experiences. In the development of their bullying and harassment policy, the school undertook an extensive survey of students, parents and staff.
It was really interesting both from parents and students. Those from an Anglo-Saxon background seemed to be far more assertive than some others. We have got a number of people from the Middle-east and the male response was very different from the female response. That was quite noticeable and it raises issues of how we can deal with that at school when they have got a different expectation level at home. So that was an interesting one and I don't know how we will deal with it. It is just something we will keep working on, I think.