Forum: Cutting Edge Issues in Sexuality and Relationships Education (Adelaide)
Transport
Employment Opportunity: WA Health Sexual Health and Blood-borne Program
Youth, Health & Practical Justice Conference, UTS, 4-5 Dec, – submit your abstracts!
Join us for the first national interdisciplinary conference for those working to promote young people’s wellbeing and health in education, health service, community, and youth work settings.
Youth, Health and Practical Justice is hosted by the UNSW Practical Justice Initiative and the UTS Faculty of Health explore themes of inclusion and participation, equity, assets and responses, and justice and social exclusion. For information on submission of abstracts and conference registration see: https://pjiconference.arts.unsw.edu.au/
We invite contributions of the following topics:
- Understanding young people and health
- Health and wellbeing of recent migrants and refugees
- Digital cultures and youth
- Communities, parents and young people’s health
- Health promotion for youth: methods and approaches
- Indigenous youth: priorities and perspectives
- Youth-led initiatives: local and international experiences
- Sexuality, education and health
- Putting justice and rights centre stage
- Popular pedagogy and informal education
- Critical perspectives on drugs, alcohol and risk
The Youth, Health and Practical Justice Conference is organised by the Practical Justice Initiative at UNSW Australia and the Faculty of Health at UTS, Sydney. We acknowledge the support of Sexualities and Genders Research within the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University, and the School of Education and Centre for Educational Research at Western Sydney University.
Academic employment: Principal Research Fellows, Melbourne
Casual employment: Reproductive and Sexual Health Project Roles, Brisbane
True Relationships and Reproductive Health (www.true.org.au) is building a pool of casual staff to work on variety of upcoming projects and programs in areas of reproductive and sexual health, gender equity, child safety, disability, diversity and inclusion. Applicants may have skills in areas of training and facilitation, research, health promotion and education, international development, community planning or monitoring and evaluation.
Successful applicants will be expected to participate in an induction process, attend a bi-annual community of practice meeting and would preferably be based in Brisbane. The level of engagement and hours of work will depend upon the skill set of the employee, current projects and available resources.
The position description is advertised here: http://www.true.org.au/about-true/employment/project-officer-education-and-community-services
Should you have any questions about the role, or current and upcoming projects, please contact Bonney Corbin at bonney.corbin@true.org.au.
Save the Date: Sexuality, Citizenship and Youth workshop, 8 June, WA
In partnership with the Australia Forum on Sexuality, Education and Health (AFSEH) and the WA Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Applied Research and Evaluation Network (SiREN), we are pleased to invite you to a free pre-SiREN symposium workshop event.
Join us for afternoon tea followed by a fun and stimulating discussion with speakers from across WA and Australia!
Peter Aggleton from UNSW Australia will talk about the importance of sexual
citizenship for all young people.
Rob Cover from UWA will talk on emergent sexual diversities in and on social
networking sites, and their potential to help young people learn about sex, sexuality and
relationships.
Dani Wright Toussaint from the Freedom Centre youth program will talk about LGBTIQ youth support – contemporary conditions and programs.
Kyra Clarke from UWA will talk about her recent work on teenage film and television.
Olivia Knowles from Safe Schools Coalition WA will talk about the work schools are
doing to become safer places, as well as the continuing need to create inclusive
environments for all in schools.
This event, which will take place at Shenton Park, is targeted at health and education
professionals, teachers, researchers, policy makers and community leaders who are working to fuel progress in the fields of sexuality, education and health.
To gain insights into these issues and more; expand your professional development and network with like-minded professionals, register here your interest in attending the seminar, which will take place 8 June 2016, 4:00-6:30pm.
Will you feed me?
Absolutely! We will begin this workshop with a 30 minute afternoon tea and networking session. Short presentations will begin promptly at 4.30pm.
We will write to you with full details of the event. Places are limited so an early response is much
appreciated.
Free UNSW seminar: sexuality education in the Liberian Ebola epidemic
Reconceptualising sexuality education in the context of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia
When: 9 Mar 2016, 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Where: Room 221/223, Level 2, John Goodsell Building, UNSW Kensington
Dr Ekua Yankah, Centre for Social Research in Health
This seminar will comprise a personal reflection by Ekua Yankah on her mission to Monrovia, Liberia in July and August 2015 as the Ebola epidemic was declining in West Africa. Ekua was hired as part of a two-person team on behalf of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“The aim of our mission was to update the Ministry of Education’s HIV and Life Skills Curriculum and for me to develop a complimentary sexuality education curriculum targeted to out-of-school children and young people. In order to realise our goal we facilitated the late Dr Doug Kirby’s 5-day logic framework training Reducing Sexual Risk Behaviour Among Young People for a large group of government and NGO stakeholders. The same group of stakeholders also attended our 5-day curriculum design workshop. We encountered many challenges along the way – not the least regular reports of rape occurring among girls of school-going age all over the country, and a nation emerging from the Ebola crisis that claimed 4,809 deaths, the hardest-hit in the region”.
Please see this report for background information prior to attending the seminar.
Dr Ekua Yankah is an Afro-German social scientist and activist. She is a former Programme Specialist with the Section on HIV and AIDS at UNESCO headquarters in Paris where she initiated and led UNESCO’s Global Programme on Sexuality Education. Since 2010 she has been working as an independent consultant for various United Nations agencies. In early 2015 Ekua was appointed Adjunct Lecturer in the Centre for Social Research in Health, where she works with Scientia Professor Peter Aggleton. Ekua holds a PhD in Social Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London and a Masters in Public Health from George Washington University.
Registration essential: https://csrh.arts.unsw.edu.au/othersites/?path=othersites/fass/form/index.php&i=712
Reminder: Respectful Relationships education forum. Brisbane, 18 Feb.
Professional Development Programs for Effective Sexuality and Relationships Education – WA
Curtin University provides an extensive range of training programs in the area of school‐based sexuality and relationships education (SRE). We offer training opportunities for both pre‐service and in‐service teachers, and strive to provide all our attendees with ongoing support. Our programs are also suitable for school administrators and community health nurses who work in schools.
Additional events will be scheduled throughout the year, so please email jacqui.hendriks@curtin.edu.au if you wish to join our mailing list.
Please contact us if you are interested in enrolling in any of our undergraduate or postgraduate units dedicated to school‐based SRE. Students from other WA universities may be eligible to enrol.
2016 Calendar of Events
Visit www.sreteacherproject.eventbrite.com.au for more information and to register
(Registrations open a few months prior to each event)
| 17th & 18th March 2016 | All day | SRE Professional Development Workshop (2 days) |
| 31st March 2016 | 4‐6pm | Seminar
Pornography and young people |
| 7th June 2016 | 4‐6pm | Seminar
Innovative ways to teach respectful relationships |
| 30th September | 4‐6pm | Seminar
Cyber safety, sexuality and young people |
| 12th November | 4‐6pm | Seminar
Supporting male teachers who deliver SRE |
How do sexuality/gender diverse students experience schooling?
Design and Aims
This report details the findings from a 2013 nationwide survey of sexuality and gender diverse Australian secondary school students.
The project’s core aims were to 1) gain a better understanding of how sexuality and gender diverse students experience their school’s ethos, referred to here as school climate, with regards to sexuality and gender diversity in the broad sense, and to 2) investigate links between students’ reported school climate and various measures of their school wellbeing and associated academic outcomes.
Demographics
Seven hundred and four young people between the ages of 14-18, representing every state and territory in Australia, participated in the online survey. In terms of sexual identity, the majority of participants identified as lesbian/gay (43%) or bisexual (24%), with a sizeable minority of participants identifying as pansexual (12%).
The majority of participants identified as either a girl/woman (57%) or as a boy/man (34%), with just over 7% of participants identifying as either genderqueer or transgender. The term sexuality and gender diverse is used throughout this report to signify the array of sexuality and gender identities highlighted by the young people.
Schooling Experiences
The young people in this study attended schools from across the sector, with the majority of participants attending government schools (62%). Participants overwhelmingly depicted a secondary schooling environment in which marginalising (e.g. homophobic/transphobic) language was rife and where school staff did not respond with consistency.
A startling 94% of students had heard homophobic language at school, with 58% of these young people reporting hearing this language daily. Of those who reported classmates using this language within earshot of school staff, less than 5% reported that these adults always intervened to put a stop to its use.
Although somewhat less commonly reported, 45% of participants indicated that they had witnessed school-based physical harassment of classmates perceived to be sexuality and/or gender diverse, with 12% of participants witnessing such harassment on a weekly basis. Only 12% of young people who witnessed such physical harassment occurring in front of school staff reported that these adults always intervened.
Participants depicted inconsistencies in adults’ responses to school-based marginalisation ranging from purposive ignoring (and, in the worst cases, active participation in the marginalising behaviours) to addressing the discrimination and attempting to educate around the incident. Most participants who described an educative intervention highlighted specific teachers at their school who would respond in such a manner, in contrast to a majority of others who would not.
Approximately 40% of students reported that they knew where to go to locate information and support regarding sexuality and gender diversity and similar percentages of students could recall their teachers engaging with sexuality and/or gender diversity in a positive or supportive fashion at least “some of the time” or more frequently. However, only one quarter of participants’ could recall classroom learning about topics related to sexuality and/or gender diversity in any kind of formal capacity, with a mere 3% of students reporting that it was “definitely true” that they had learned about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities during their Health and Physical Education instruction.
Findings suggest that some school staff work intentionally to support sexuality and gender diverse students in a variety of informal ways, including general positivity with regards to related topics and the provision of inclusive resources, but that formal curricular inclusion is far less common.
Participants attending schools in which their school harassment policies explicitly included sexual orientation as a considered and protected cohort of the student population (16% of participants) were significantly more likely to report their teachers’ intervention in instances of verbal and physical marginalisation of sexuality and gender diverse students, as well as their general positivity and support.
Relationships between School Climate and School Wellbeing
Students attending schools with fewer instances of marginalising behaviours, and more consistent adult intervention when those behaviours did occur, were happier and more connected at school, safer and more likely to feel as if their teachers were invested in their personal academic success.
Likewise, reported teacher positivity and support for both sexuality diversity and gender diversity were significantly correlated with students’ school wellbeing outcomes, with the strongest relationships present between teacher positivity and both student morale and sense of connection to school. Similar relationships were found between school wellbeing outcomes and students’ reported formal inclusions (e.g. within health and physical education and elsewhere within the curriculum).
Academic Outcomes
Participants with elevated school wellbeing outcomes also had higher reported academic outcomes, including higher academic self-concept, greater intentions to attend university and fewer reported incidences of truancy. Students’ truancy behaviours were significantly correlated with their teachers’ reported positivity with regards to sexuality and gender diversity, highlighting the links between school climate, school wellbeing and academic outcomes and behaviours for sexuality and gender diverse students.
Conclusions
Most of the sexuality and gender diverse young people who contributed to this research attended secondary schools in which marginalising practices occurred on a weekly, if not daily, basis and where teacher positivity and formal inclusions of sexuality and gender diversity were the exception rather than the norm. Project findings highlight the relationship between sexuality and gender diverse students’ perceptions of their school climate and their own school wellbeing, including connection to their peers, teachers and investment in the schooling environment more generally, and demonstrate how these key factors are linked to academic outcomes for this cohort.
Project-based recommendations can be found within the body of the report: http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:32727
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