What is Respectful Relationships Education?

Respectful relationships education (RRE) is work undertaken in schools (primary or secondary), the wider education context or other youth settings. It aims to address the root causes of violence against women: gender inequality and rigid gender roles.

Respectful relationships education encompasses a range of topics. It explores power and control, respect, gender, sex, love, consent and the broader social structures which enforce, legitimise and normalise a whole range of expectations and views around these topics. Respectful relationships education examines the way these ideas are informed and created in young people and reconstructs them with a positive influence.

Respectful relationships education mirrors the themes which work to prevent violence against women before it occurs. However, respectful relationships education focuses on students and teachers in a school, education or youth setting.

Respectful relationships education aims to:• Promote gender equality between women and men and girls and boys

• Promote equal and respectful relationships between women and men and girls and boys

Whole-school approachRespectful relationships education must be considered as part of a whole-school approach. Such an approach brings together school leaders, staff, teachers, students, families and the broader community. It is a process of continuous improvement, rather than one-off projects. A whole-school approach to respectful relationships education includes coordinated action across the following themes:

School organisation, ethos and environment

Good practice in respectful relationships education involves looking internally at the broader school policy and practice - the school ethos, culture and environment.

• Arethereschoolpoliciesinplacewhichclearly articulate a commitment to respect and gender equity?

• Areteachersmodellingrespectfulrelationshipsbetween each other to ensure their behaviours are supporting and reinforcing messages taught in the curriculum?

• Isthereaculturewhichsupportsteacherstoadopt roles which challenge gender stereotypes and validate that gender is something that doesn’t have to be rigid and can be shifted?

Curriculum, teaching and learning

The concepts of gender and power should be explored when working with young people and building the capacity of teachers to deliver effective respectful relationships education in the curriculum. Such concepts can be explored with students through inquiry-based learning. This technique involves students in the learning process through focusing on questions and utilising critical thinking. Ideas can be considered at the individual and relationship level, but must be linked to the broader social norms, expectations and attitudes which impact the individual and relationship level.

continued over page.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood (DEECD) identifies a whole-school approach as

a fundamental element of Respectful Relationships Education. There are a number of good practice

principles which should be embedded within the whole-school approach.

1 IUHPE 2009. Achieving Health Promoting Schools: Guidelines for promoting health in schools, Paris,International Union for Health Promotion and Education

For more information on the Generating Equality and Respect Program, please visit www.monash.vic.gov.au/community/equality-respect.htm or contact Laura Wood, City of Monash:E LauraW@monash.vic.gov.auT 03 9518 3568

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/health/respectfulrel.pdf

Questions such as the following could be explored:

• Whatattitudes,behavioursandexpectationsexist regarding what it means to be male or female?

• Cantheseideasdisadvantagemalesorfemales? For example, what social expectations are there around females and their role in the home? Does this impact their ability to pursue a career, to access money, and so on?

It is important to place these kinds of individual and relationship ideas in a broader social context. This supports discussions about the social structural inequalities between women and men, girls and boys. These ideas can be explored through questions such as:

• Onasocietallevel,whataresomeexpectationsor assumptions made regarding male and female roles?

• Howdoesthatimpactideasaroundgender expectations and power?

• Howaresomeofthesesocietalpressuresplayed out in our broader institutions: in government, schools, business and the mass media? Where does the power lie?

Partnerships and services Research demonstrates that partnerships have the ability to increase student learning and wellbeing, and provide students with additional opportunities and access to services. Families are also key partners and can be encouraged to become active participants in their child’s learning about respectful relationships education.

• Aresupportservices(suchasthosethatrespondto family violence and sexual assault) consulted with and informed of respectful relationships education programs so appropriate responses can be made if students come forward with disclosures?

• Arefamiliesengagedindiscussionsabout respectful relationships education through forums, school newsletters, information flyers or parent information days?

Five criteria for good practice in respectful relationships education in schools

1 Awhole-schoolapproach – a concerted approach across the entire school to effect cultural change. It includes integrating violence prevention into curriculum, school policy, processes and practice; and specialised training for teachers and support staff, and involves the whole school, including parents and the community.

2 Aprogramframeworkandlogic – clearly articulating and incorporating a theoretical framework that addresses the links between gender, power and violence, and having a theory of change that demonstrates how the program will achieve its intended outcomes.

3 Effective curriculum delivery – that is informed by feminist theory and includes consideration of the content of curriculum, the teaching methods, the staff involved, and the structure and duration of the program. Content should avoid focusing on minimising personal risks, instead addressing systematic constraints.

4 Inclusive, relevant, and culturally sensitive practice – integrated into all stages of program design, implementation and evaluation.

5 Evaluation – a comprehensive short, medium and long-term evaluation of the program that examines the impact on attitudes, skills and behaviours, and processes of change.

DEECD, (2009) Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Melbourne.

Continued from pg 1.

Whatnottodo in respectful relationships education • Take action only after violence has occurred.

• Focus only on strategies of support and welfare.

• Ignore the wider contexts in which violence occurs and is sustained, including formal and informal school cultures, policies and processes.

• Focus only on the production and dissemination of a resource.

• Make programs unsustainable: neglect policy and institutional support, ignore teacher capacity, and do not establish partnerships with stakeholders.

• Use one-off sessions, isolated from other curriculums.

• Lecture students without interaction or participation.

• Evaluate only students’ satisfaction with the program and not its impact.

DEECD, (2009) Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Melbourne.