clarekelly3-blog

[clarekelly3-blog]

When my classroom burnt down :(

[clarekelly3-blog]

Public vs Private schools -  The age-old barometer of socio-economic disparity

Scrolling through the ABC news app throughout the week, I came across the above article which investigates more than 8,500 schools and 96% of Australia’s students.  The top of the list of Private schools with the biggest capital expenditure in the nation; my school – Wesley College.

The statistics are damning.

Wesley College spent $96.7m in capital expenditure, with $30,747 from Government funding. According to the ABC, ‘Extensive redevelopment includes a $21m music school, $16m boarding facility and $2.3m visual arts and design precinct. Wesley is currently fundraising for $2.5m refurbishment of Wesley Boathouse.’ Wesley’s income was reported at $104.6, which comprises of fees, private funding, and state and federal government funds. This is without a doubt an astonishing amount of money, for an elite few.

Whilst richest 1% of schools in Australia spent $3 billion on redevelopments, the poorest 50% spent a comparative $2.6 billion combined.This disparity is all the more shocking, when you consider that the poorest 50% of schools teach nearly five times as many students (ABC, 2019).

The socio-economic divide between rich and poor schools reflects global neoliberalism and the marketization and privatisation of education. It calls us to question, where is the social justice here and where does the Government’s responsibilities lie in evening up the playing field.

Gerrard (2018) asks us to question what is public and education and who is it for? ‘The ‘public’ in ‘public schooling’ symbolises something more than schools that receive state funds; something that goes to the heart of equity and democracy – or at the very least the idea of, and hope for, equity and democracy. The many defences of public schooling signal the hope that is placed in public education to create a ‘common good’ and equitable future (Gerrard, 2015, p.855)

Having taught for many years in both public and private sectors, these statistics are both challenging, yet unsurprising for me. I consider myself to be a ‘inner-city latte sipping leftie’ and as such, this travesty of injustice is profound professionally and ethically. I have enjoyed the complexities teaching within both sectors and I have found a multitude of positives and drawbacks working in these diametrically opposed systems. My personal experiences teaching in the public system saw me teach students from a wider socio-economic background, with less resources, less support and more pressure to meet standardised testing benchmarks. This diversity and range of experiences was only a value add. I did find though that the system was full of older teachers simply ‘going through the motions’ and during my time in the system I was an advocate for performance-based pay incentives floated by the Education Union. Unsurprisingly, teaching in the public system is inherently more politicised. From pedagogy, to curriculum, to assessment; my identity as a professional instantly becomes dinner party fodder and political ammunition. No doubt public and political discourse are essential for our public education system to be just that – public. Owned by everyone. I went on strike numerous times and attended a rally at the MCG against Kennett’s cuts to education. I am happy to walk the talk. But somehow then everyone has an opinion and because they have been educated in a school, some people feel they are an expert on how and what children should be taught. I found this hypocrisy and bureaucracy endlessly frustrating.

As a teacher currently teaching at Wesley College, I am well aware of my privileged positon. My reaction to seeing my school’s spending splashed around the media was complex. Initially I felt defensive and angry. This is because the article neglected to mention that on April 20, 2016 there was a 50m x 50m fire at Wesley College that burnt down 10 classrooms and an atrium. One of those classrooms was mine. The fire was devastating for both my students and I. Any teacher knows that a classroom is more than bricks and mortar – it is culture, it is community, it is growth and a hell of a lot of hard work. So, of the $96.4 million dollars spent, $60 million of that was insurance money spent on the rebuild. Yes, still an enormous amount of money.

My next response was shame. What greed. I am a part of this machine that reaffirms the inequities of wealth.

However, I quickly shifted my thinking towards howand why I choose to teach. I am a fierce social justice advocate. In my class room we debate and take action on social justice issues. While there’s no doubting their economic privilege, they are still children. They are as culturally diverse, with the same behavioural, emotional and learning needs as their public-school counter parts. Issues such as family violence, sexual abuse and mental health issues do not discriminate. However, the fundamental difference is the access my students and their families have to opportunities and resources to support them.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-13/rich-school-poor-school-australias-great-education-divide/11383384

Jessica Gerrard (2018) Whose public, which public? The challenge for public education, Critical Studies in Education, 59:2, 204-217

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/wesley-college-campus-fire-in-glen-waverley/news-story/2b885ceee227c16888e606b03241e3f2

[clarekelly3-blog]

The Australian Dream?

Adam Goodes; Adnyamatheanha and Narunggaman, fierce social justice advocate and champion AFL player. A man all at once personifying a nation’s deepest shame, racist foundations and yet, the spark of reconciliation.

As an AFL player, Goodes holds an elite place in AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, dual premiership player, four-time All-Australian team, member of the Indigenous Team of the Century and representative of Australia in the International Rules Series. In addition, he has held the record for the most AFL games played by an Indigenous player. He is a bonefide champion of the game. But more importantly, it is his work off the field where he has had his biggest impact. Goodes is a proud Aboriginal man and leader of his community. He works tirelessly with aboriginal communities and is a strong anti-racism activist and was awarded the honour of Australian of the Year in 2014 for his exceptional social justice advocacy.

Yet, during the Indigenous round game in 2013, Goodes was subject to racial abuse by a 13 year old supporter of the opposition, who called him an ‘ape’. This event proved to be the catalyst for a tumultuous 3 years in which Goodes’ actions, motivations and ‘Australian-ness’ became public fodder. He was subjected to targeted, loud and sustained ‘booing’ at the game by opposition supporters. The motivations for, and acceptability of this booing became the subject of rabid national debate. Everyone from Tony Abbott to Sam Newman shared their varying opinions as to why they felt it was occurring. Sadly, the media coverage of the issue only served to escalate the booing. These same supporters who had vilified Goodes, were incensed during the Indigenous round in 2015, Goodes celebrated a goal by performing an indigenous war dance in which he mimed throwing a spear in the direction of the Carlton cheer squad. Goodes said after the incident that the dance was based on one he learned from under-16s indigenous team the Flying Boomerangs, and that it was intended as an expression of indigenous pride during Indigenous Round, not as a means of offending or intimidating the crowd. In an act of advocacy and bravery, paralleled with Nicky Winmar’s iconic lifting of the jumper, Goodes yet again, inadvertently fuelled racially motivated supporter booing and commentary from the media. Tragically, the toll of the sustained systemic, institutional and direct racism suffered by Goodes led to him prematurely retiring in 2015. Goodes has yet to engage with the AFL on the matter.

Was this booing an opportunity for racists to jeer or simply, tall poppy syndrome? Where did the AFL stand on the issue? And what were the responsibilities of the clubs to educate their supporters on issues of racism and Australia’s dark history?

Two recent documentaries offer records of this sad chapter of Australian sport and have reignited discourse on the racism suffered by Goodes. The Final Quarter (2019),offers archival footage, unaccompanied by narration. Whereas, The Australian Dream (2019) serves as the perfect sequel, and explores the racism surrounding these events and offers a glimmer of hope towards reconciliation. Interestingly, on the eve of the premiere of The Final Quarter, the all too silent AFL and all of its 18 clubs issued an unreserved apology for the sustained racism and events which drove Goodes out of the game. They said: ‘Adam, who represents so much that is good and unique about our game, was subject to treatment that drove him from football. The game did not do enough to stand with him, and call it out. Failure to call out racism and not standing up for one of our own let down all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, past and present. Our game is about belonging. We want all Australians to feel they belong and that they have a stake in the game. We will not achieve this while racism and discrimination exists in our game... We will stand strongly with all in the football community who experience racism or discrimination. We are unified on this, and never want to see the mistakes of the past repeated’ (AFL, 2019).

Too little too late, AFL.

The national and institutional racial violence and suffered by Goodes during these years serves as a grotesque reminder of the deeply racist and misguided attitudes held by many Australians. Goodes’ experience echoes Ahmed’s idea that ‘those who embody diversity should pay increasing costs for not inhabiting institutional norms would further the injustice of how those norms support and enable the progression of some more than others’ (Ahmed, 2017 p.129). Australian Dreamdirector, Stan Grant offers ‘Australia needs to get past the idea that because you speak up and you speak against the idea of what other people may think Australia is, it doesn't mean that you don't also love your country and want the best for your country’. This echoes Ahmed’s (2017) experience of being a minority, where she shares that you can try to pass by not trying to be ‘that’ kind of minority. That you should not try to make demands because you know they will perceive you as being demanding before you even turn up; because you turn up. Goodes turned up. He was outspoken. He ‘took up space’, and made people feel uncomfortable by reminding us of Australia’s past genocide, the Stolen Generations and the continuing intergenerational trauma experiences by Indigenous Australian.

Baldwin wisely said ‘To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought (Baldwin, 1995, p81, as cited in Rudolph (2018) et.al).’  Thisis our challenge as social justice educators. It is essential our students understand, genocide and all, our colonial history. They must understand the ongoing ramifications of intergenerational slaughter, poverty, incarceration, health and vocational discrimination and disadvantage. Further, our students need to appreciate, celebrate and actively engage in our rich national history. With over 65, 000 years of continuous habitation, cultural richness, language groups and connection to country, students have many and varied ways to engage and learn from and with our Indigenous peoples. We want them to accept, not drown. We want them to learn how to use this knowledge. We want our students to act.  ‘We need to deal with what Aboriginal people call the 'unfinished business of Australia', what is left over from our settlement. We are the only Commonwealth country not to have a treaty with our first peoples. The only one’ (Grant, 2019 as cited in The Age). We need to work alongside our students to fight for constitutional recognition, to close the gap and works towards genuine reconciliation.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-06-07/afl-statement-in-response-to-adam-goodes-films

Ahmed, Sara (2017) Living a Feminist Life, Duke University Press. ProQuest Ebook Central

Darling, I, (2019) The Final Quarter, Madman films

Gordan, I, Grant, S (2019) The Australian Dream 

Sophie Rudolph, Arathi Sriprakash & Jessica Gerrard (2018) Knowledge and racial violence: the shine and shadow of ‘powerful knowledge’, Ethics and Education, 13:1, 22-38

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-australian-dream-watch-adam-goodes-doc-with-an-open-mind-and-feel-hope-20190801-p52d20.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Goodes

[clarekelly3-blog]

#metoo

[clarekelly3-blog]

Reporting on violence against women in the #metoo era

The #MeToo movement is a viral movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault, which hasundoubtedly reverberated through our social, cultural and political landscapes. It is hard to deny its impact. However, is it changing the media’s discourse on gender-based violence and gender equality?

The consequences of gender-based violence are vast and ongoing. The entrenched stigma around reporting means that it is difficult to identify precisely just how many women experience or have experienced this violence. Estimates drawn from the 2005 Personal Safety Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggested that ‘one in three women (33 per cent) have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and around one in six adult women (16 per cent) have experienced actual or threatened physical violence or sexual violence by a partner since the age of 15’ (VicHealth 2010, p 11). As described by VicHealth, ‘intimate partner violence contributes to more ill health and premature death in Victorian women under the age of 45 than any of the other risk factors, including high blood pressure, obesity and smoking’ (VicHealth 2004, p. 8). It is confronting to consider that the statistical leading cause of death for a woman of my age is ‘intimate partner violence’. Toxic masculinity and rigid gender social constructs that reinforce the ‘boys will be boys’ rhetoric perpetuate the ‘violent, cumulative, durable, hegemonic and restrictive oppression’ (Bell, 2016) of women at the hands of men. As Annabelle Crabbe insightfully stated ‘If a man got killed by a shark each week, we would probably arrange for the seas to be drained’ (Facebook, 2017).

The prevalence of violence against women at the hands of men is a national tragedy of endemic and epidemic proportions. But I ask, what are the media’s responsibilities here? How does their reporting of gender violence impact discourse and in turn, the impacts on its victims?

The media play a key role in the creation of people’s attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of gender roles and gender equality. The editorial choices made around the communication of information are inextricably linked to the formation of social norms and beliefs around these issues. A longitudinal study commissioned by VicHealth tracked The Age and Herald Sun’s reporting of sexual violence, intimate partner homicide (or attempted), other murder (or attempted) and ‘violence against women’ (when this term, or related phrase, is used) from headlines and articles from 1986-2018. The results found that in comparison to like studies overseas, The Age and Herald Sun’s journalism was overall less salacious, with less that 2% of articles ‘victim blaming’ and the reporting reflected the genders of the perpetrators. Conversely, it found that the tone of these articles were largely classified as ‘events-based’, and discussed violence against women in relation to incidents of violence (particularly criminal events) and are often framed in relation to law and order. Researchers have pointed out that the tendency towards events-based coverage means violence against women is commonly represented in individualised terms, rather than through contextualised accounts (Carlyle et al. 2008; McManus & Dorfman 2005; Taylor 2009). Maxwell et al. (2000) argue that this tendency to cover individual incidents of violence against women, rather than the social factors of the crime, is problematic because it shifts the responsibility for solving the problem from society to the individual victim and abuser. The study also found that articles rarely used terms like ‘domestic violence’, ‘intimate partner homicide’ or ‘violence against women’ when reporting cases of violence against women. The inclusion of such language would be a simple way to situate individual incidents of violence within the broader concept of violence against women. Finally, these findings suggest that there is room for more contextualised and informative coverage in cases of violence against women. It should be noted that the limitations imposed by Australian laws on contempt of court may in some circumstances restrict the ability of journalists to fully report the social context of violence against women. (VicHealth, 2018

The implications of the media’s reporting on gendered violence on education is profound. Our responsibility as social justice educators are to teach our students to become critical consumers of the media, to question and to consider the wider implications of such journalism. This evokes Freire’s ‘anti-banking’ approach (1970) to education, whereby students “no longer docile listeners, are critical co-conspirators in dialogue with the teacher’ (Friere, as cited in Adams 2016). As social justice educators, we would call our students to consciousness raise to dismantle the oppression both within and beyond the classroom. Further, we call upon our students to recognise and challenge their own internalised domination and externalised subordination and to take action. Lorde (1984, p.123, as cited in Bell, 2016) said it best when she said “The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors' tactics, the oppressors' relationships.”

Adams, M and Bell, A (2016), Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, Routledge. 

Carlyle, Kellie E., Slater, Michael D. & Chakroff, Jennifer L. (2008). ‘Newspaper Coverage of Intimate Partner Violence: Skewing Representations of Risk’. Journal of Communication 

Maxwell, Kimberly A., Huxford, John, Borum, Catherine & Hornik, Robert (2000). ‘Covering Domestic Violence: How the O.J. Simpson Case Shaped Reporting of Domestic Violence in News Media’.Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 77

United Nations (1993). Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Resolution 48/104 (444), proceedings of the 85th Plenary Meeting, United Nations General Assembly, Geneva.

VicHealth (2004). The Health Costs of Violence: Measuring the Burden of Disease Caused by Intimate Partner Violence: A Summary of Findings. Melbourne: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.

VicHealth (2007). Preventing Violence Before It Occurs: A Framework and Background Paper to Guide the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women in Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.

VicHealth (2010). National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence Against Women 2009: Changing Cultures, Changing Attitudes – Preventing Violence Against Women. Melbourne: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.

https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/PublicationsandResources

[clarekelly3-blog]

Inclusivity

[clarekelly3-blog]

"These kids (with autism) have a right to an education, by all means, but, if there are a number of them, these children should go into a special classroom and be looked after and given that special attention. Most of the time the teacher spends so much time on them they forget about the child who is straining at the bit and wants to go ahead in leaps and bounds in their education. That child is held back by those others, because the teachers spend time with them. I am not denying them. If it were one of my children I would love all the time given to them to give them those opportunities. But it is about the loss for our other kids. I think that we have more autistic children, yet we are not providing the special classrooms or the schools for these autistic children. It is no good saying that we have to allow these kids to feel good about themselves and that we do not want to upset them and make them feel hurt. "I understand that, but we have to be realistic at times and consider the impact this is having on other children in the classroom." -Pauline Hanson, One Nation Senator, 22/6/17

[clarekelly3-blog]

Ableist education

Cue: Face Palm.

Oh Pauline, you’ve done it again. And again. And again….

One Nation Senator and one-time fish and chip shop owner, Pauline Hansen has stunned disability advocates with her call to remove children with autism from mainstream classroom. The comments were made during a Federal Government debate on school funding legislation. Autism Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson, whose 21-year-old son Jack has autism, said she felt sick when she heard Senator Hanson's "repulsive, bigoted and hurtful" comments and argued they took "the discussion about inclusive education back about 50 years" (ABC, 2017).

The notion of segregating children with autism from the mainstream environment is not only fundamentally ableist, but downright discriminatory. Rutherford’s stance that ‘education is an apprenticeship in humanity’ (2016. P.135) profoundly proposes that it is the diversity of our classrooms which is our biggest strength. For many students, the classroom may be one of the first times they have learnt alongside and together with anyone with individual learning needs; and this experience is of itself an invaluable education. Sadly, Hansen’s comments reaffirm entrenched ideological forces that promote the notion of ‘the other’, the students that sit beyond the boundaries of societies narrow construction of normal. The notion of removing students because of their learning needs supports Lalvani and Broderick (2015) concerns about the implicit idealogy of ‘separate, but equal.’ King’s (1991) theory of dysconsciousness, was initially applied to race, however one can see that applications of this idea are particularly relevant in discussions around inclusivity in education. Dysconsciousness is ‘an uncritical habit of mind (including perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs that justify inequality and exploitation by accepting the existing order of things as a given’ (King, 1991. p.135).

This narrow-minded perspective also serves to highlight the key differences between special education and social justice education, as presented by Villeas (2012). The former is typically informed by biologically determinist theories that connect failures at school with deficiencies in the students mind and body. Whereas the latter is grounded in a multicultural educational perspective, where ‘failure’ at school is because of biased socio-political systems that structure and reproduce inequality. These implications support the evidence that students with a disability perform much worse when they are put away in segregated settings and denied the benefits of a mainstream face-to-face education (People With Disabilities ACT campaign manager Craig Wallace.) The Monash University research found that between 2009 and 2015, the inclusion of autistic students in mainstream classes dropped from 18.8 per cent to just 3.3 per cent. During this period, the proportion of students with autism in special schools increased from 37 to 52 per cent.The research, which was published in the International Journal of Inclusive Education and draws on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, found students with autism were being segregated at much higher rates than students with other disabilities (The Age).

As an inclusive teacher, I understand that striking a balance between in class support in a mainstream environment and targeted, relevant withdrawal teaching consistent with individual evidence-based learning plan, is best practice. I share Slee’s perspective that viewing the general and special education as parallel systems not only reaffirms the ideology of ‘separate but equal,’ it is inconsistent with education in a democracy.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-21/pauline-hanson-under-fire-repulsive-bigoted-comments-autism/8640328

Lalvani, P., Broderick, A. A., Fine, M., Jacobowitz, T., & Michelli, N. (2015). Teacher education, InExclusion, and the implicit ideology of Separate but Equal: An invitation to a dialogue. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice

Rutherford, G, (2016) Questioning special needs-ism: Supporting student teachers in troubling and transforming understandings of human worth, Teaching and Teacher Education ed.52

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/it-was-heartbreaking-the-discrimination-in-our-schools-20180628-p4zobh.html

[clarekelly3-blog]

Epic lip sync on RPDR

[clarekelly3-blog]

Ru Paul’s Drag Race and Trans representation in the mainstream media

[clarekelly3-blog]

RuPaul’s Drag Race and Transgender (mis)representation

‘If you don’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love someone else?’ purrs RuPaul, slaying in full drag.

Cut to a worn out heterosexual couple collapsed on the couch after a day of running around looking after two tykes under 5. Together, we are the privileged, dominant heteronormative archetype – cisgender, heterosexual, married, white, professionals, home owners and lucky parents of a healthy and happy little boy and girl.

As nuclear as it gets.

And here we are binging on RuPaul’s DragRace (RPDR) and gagging over the fierceness of the Drag Queen’s talent, passion and strength. This show is a celebration of love in all its forms. A celebration of transgenderism and gender fluidity.  

On first glance, the show is like any other reality television show – wigs, gowns, makeup. But you only need to scratch the surface to see that RPDR is deconstructing rigid gender binary constructs and bringing often misrepresented LGBTQI oppression to a mainstream audience in a celebration of queer culture and performance. To date, the show has won 9 Emmy’s and is the only show to do so that is made by ‘by Queer people, for Queer people, about Queer people’ (RuPaul, 2018). This carries more weight when you consider that in 2012, GLAAD consolidated 10 years of research into a study called “Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television.” In the examination of trans portrayal on television, the study found that of the “102 episodes and non-recurring storylines of scripted television that contained transgender characters,” 54 percent were described as perpetuating “negative representations.” Only 12 percent were considered thoughtful and non-stereotypical portrayals (Huffpost, 2018).In a world where a reality television show personality can become President, the notion of ‘celebrity’ is as vital as it has ever been; fortunately, RuPaul is choosing to use his profile as a platform for subverting hegemony and challenging socially constructed categories.

These archetypically dichotomous ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ identities, traits and social roles are the status quo; deeply socialised, and innately reinforced. “A central endeavour of feminist, queer, and trans activists has been to dismantle the cultural ideologies, social practices, and legal norms that say that certain body parts determine gender identity and gendered social characteristics and roles” (Spade, 2011, p. 61). Once this construction is challenged, the way is open to imagining a system of gender self-determination for all people and to eliminating coercive systems that punish gender variance (Adams and Bell, 2016) RPDR takes the concept of gender, and the intersectionalities of identity, homosexuality, race, transgender and class and empowers members of these oppressed minorities to deconstruct these ideologies that have subjugated them in many varied ways. The queens on RPDR have each experienced degrees of exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism aligning with Young’s (1990), 5 Form of Oppression which internalise and externalise their suboridination. Often, (but not always) these queens come from impoverished backgrounds, have had a lack educational opportunities, suffered abuse in its many forms, have health issues, have overcome religious ‘conversion therapy, have experienced horrific consequences of ‘coming out’, are people of colour, are gay and transgender. The power and the beauty of RPDR is that these same queens are given a platform to subvert these socially constructed categories through High Art. Their brilliant makeup, costuming, styling, choreography, singing, acting, comedy, political satire and biting wit scream with rapturous celebration of diversity, inclusiveness and self-expression.

The implications for shows like RPDR being a part of popular culture and mainstream media on our students is significant. Consciousness (King, 1991) and action around LGBTQI issues in social justice education is evidenced in actions my school has taken recently. A student initiated, created and led LBGTQI rights group approached the teaching staff to form a coalition to take action on these social justice issues. This group comprised mainly of LGBTQI students who were ‘out’ in the school community and their supportive friends. The teachers relished this opportunity to collaborate with students to ‘consciousness raise, examine and challenge oppressive attitudes and assumptions that have been internalised and imagining and enacting new ways of being’ (Bell, 2016 p.xxviii) As a result, we have installed several non-gender binary toilets and change rooms, celebrated Pride events and even have two students who are currently transitioning.

I concur with Bell, that social justice isboth a goal anda process. This is evidenced in the vital role television shows such as RPDR has in examining and challenging deeply ingrained social constructs and providing oppressed minorities with a literal and figurative stage to deconstruct these toxic ideologies. The ‘conscientization’ of students and colleagues alike around these issues sparks the changes that we want to see in the world.

Adams, M and Bell, A (2016), Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, Routledge. 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/rupauls-drag-race-gender-theory