Response-ability for Addressing Sexual Violence in Educational Contexts: Theoretical Considerations

• In Event: 18.012 - Challenging Dominant Narratives of Sexual Violence Through Participatory Visual Methodologies

Abstract

Context:
In Canada, Indigenous women and girls are three times more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women and girls (Statistics Canada, 2016). Acknowledging the impacts of colonization on the security of Indigenous women and girls is one of the greatest challenges of reconciling colonial histories (Jacobs & Williams, 2008). In June 2018, within weeks of being sworn in as Ontario premier, Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative government made swift moves without legislation in two areas: 1) rewriting sex education using the province’s late-1990s curriculum; and 2) cancelling curriculum that would increase Indigenous content including the history of residential schools in Canada. The regressive moves regarding sex education sparked a national civic debate on whose responsibility it is to teach youth about issues including consent, cyber safety and gender identity – all examples of topics not covered in the late-1990s curriculum. The discourses denying curricular inclusion of colonial histories and traumas are deeply troubling in the era of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). What happens if we shift our attention from studying structures of power and responsibility to structures of feeling and ‘response-ability’ in civic debates on such topics as gender, sexuality and Indigeneity in education?

Objective:
This presentation provides theoretical considerations on the ability to address sexual violence in educational contexts by exploring Frankl’s (2006) notion of ‘response-ability’ and its relevance to reimagining the persuasive power of citizen engagement, particularly that of Indigenous girls and young women, in education policies and programs.

Perspectives:
With heightened public awareness of MMIWG (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2015), there is a civic responsibility for non-Indigenous educators to deepen our understanding of the history and enduring legacy of colonialism. Decolonizing education, which includes integrating Indigenous perspectives and experiences into curricula, must be supported by efforts to deconstruct and de-center non-Indigenous perspectives and experiences (Vowel, 2016). Frankl’s (2006) concept ‘response-ability’ argues that the ‘power to choose’ reflective over reactive responses lies within the ‘space between stimulus and response’. I posit that the intercultural work of decolonizing education is located in the ‘space between stimulus and response,’ and that the ‘response-ability’ of educators is to critically examine the self (e.g. racial privilege and cultural difference) in relation to settler-Indigenous contexts.


Methodology:
This presentation will highlight a review of current literature in the areas of decolonizing education and girl-led arts-based approaches addressing sexual violence (e.g. Mitchell & Moletsane, 2018). The purpose is to chart the transformational or emotional impacts of this arts-based research on audiences, demonstrated through audiences’ ability to respond.

Results:
The resulting theory illustrates how affective encounters with girl-led participatory arts-based work may shift knowledge hierarchies with respect to the response-ability of addressing sexual violence in educational contexts (Author, 2018). Reflections on feelings that are evoked, and why these feelings matter, may better position arts-based researchers to acknowledge the oscillations between vulnerable and powerful subject positions of researchers and participants. In theses ways, participatory arts-based research with Indigenous girls and young women can be a powerful intervention in decolonizing sex education curriculum.

Author

• Pamela Lamb, McGill University