Make Change in Your School
Make Change in Your Community
Make Change in Your Workplace
Link to: Make Change in Your School
Make Change in Your School
Schools have a critical role to play in changing the wider cultural attitudes that underpin family violence.
Schools are centres of learning, workplaces, and community hubs. Everyone who is involved in a school community deserves to be treated respectfully and equally, and has a responsibility to behave in a way that promotes values of respect and gender equality.
Modelling and enacting respectful, gender equal behaviours, combined with classroom learning, has been shown to achieve significant change in attitudes and behaviours within school communities.
By embracing a whole-school approach that encompasses students, teachers and all school community members, we can embed a culture of respect and equality across all facets of school life from classrooms and staffrooms, to the sports field and events.
Students
Respectful relationships education is most effective when it includes teaching that supports students to understand and analyse gender roles, norms and healthy relationships in age-appropriate ways.
Secondary School
Relationships and consent
Healthy relationship boundaries and skills.
Masculine stereotypes
Challenging and reframing gender stereotypes.
Gender roles and norms
Disassociating character traits from gender norms.
Relationships power and control
Recognising unhealthy relationships.
Bystander action
Teaching ‘purpose before popularity’.
Learning stream
Whole school approach to change.
Primary School:
Gender roles and norms
Disassociating character traits from gender norms.
Power and control
Recognising unhealthy relationships and what to do about them.
Bystander action
Teaching ‘purpose before popularity’.
Learning stream
Whole school approach to change.
Parent, Families and School Community
Schools are centres of learning, workplaces, and community hubs. Everyone involved in a school community deserves to be treated respectfully and equally, and has a responsibility to behave in a way that promotes values of respect and gender equality.
There are a number of ways parents, families, and the wider school community can make change in schools by modelling, living and promote gender equality and make change in schools:
Work proactively as a school community to support gender equality and respectful relationships.
Communicate with, and engage, families and the wider school community to proactively prevent gender-based violence and support respectful relationship education.
Establish a program of gender equality and respectful relationship- focused activities within the school and school community.
Forge partnerships between your school and organisations in your wider community that provide education about the prevention of – and response to – violence against women.
Teachers and educators
Studies have shown that modelling and enacting respectful, gender equal, when used in combination with classroom learning, can achieve significant change in attitudes and behaviours within schools.
By embracing a whole-school approach that encompasses students, teachers and all school community members, we can embed a culture of respect and equality across all facets of school life from classrooms and staffrooms, to the sports field and events.
Schools can make change by allocating financial, staffing and planning resources to promote gender equality and respectful relationships, and include key issues and actions in annual strategic planning.
Teachers and educators can make change by incorporating teaching into their syllabus that supports students to understand and analyse gender roles, norms and healthy relationships in age-appropriate ways.
More learning:
Respectful relationships
Whole School Approach
- White Ribbon – Breaking the Silence Schools Program.
Gender norms
- Tomorrowman & Tomorrowwoman – Schools Programs
Gender equality
- ABC – How to teach students about gender equality.
- Our Watch – Change the Story
- The Equality Institute – Services promoting equality and prevention of violence toward women and girls
Bystander action
- Doing nothing does harm.
- Pedestrian TV – Here Are A Coupla Pointers To Help You Call Out Disrespectful Behaviour.
