Understanding the interrelated factors of gender and social norms to reduce school related gender based violence for safe, equitable education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

School related violence in all its forms is an infringement of children’s rights to education and health and well-being. School violence, including school related gender-based violence (SRGBV), impacts children’s physical and mental health as well as educational outcomes. Patterns of school violence reflect broader inequitable social and gender norms, and power dynamics, such as unequal power dynamics between men and women, and adults and children. Children from a minority background, or those who have a disability or those whose sexual orientation or gender identity does not conform to expected norms are especially at risk.
School violence and SRGBV are complex and multifaceted. The root causes do not lie in any one particular culture, tradition or institution but are part of wider structural issues, social norms and deep rooted-beliefs and behaviours that shape gender relations and power dynamics. Violence is often institutionalised within the education system and embedded within influential power structures within the community and wider society. The laws, policies and practices within these institutions, often fail to protect the rights of students and at times overtly discriminate against them on the basis of their sex. A school’s culture, structures and processes educate children on gendered expectations and social behavioural norms, and can challenge or reinforce gender inequalities within any society. By addressing school violence, including SRGBV, for the current generation of children, the cycle of violence within wider society can be broken. Improved child well-being, including the development of healthy and positive relationships between girls and boys, children and adults, can provide a foundation for empowerment and respect for future generations and have positive impacts on children’s learning and development. Conversely, without addressing school violence and supporting teachers, school administration, communities, caregivers and children to challenge negative social and gender norms, cycles of violence and inequality will be maintained.
Teachers play a critical role in ensuring that schools are safe, enabling and supportive environments for children to learn and develop values of equality, inclusions and positive interpersonal relationships. Understanding how the interrelated factors of gender and social norms impact knowledge, understanding and practices related to violence in and around schools allows for more nuanced and effective approaches to support teachers in creating feelings of safety and equality, reducing violence and improving education systems for all children.
This panel will be comprised of three main presentations highlighting learning from a series of studies and programmes aimed at understanding and improving the quality of SRGBV prevention and response interventions to ensure safer more equitable education opportunities for all children. The first presentation will discuss emerging evidence from two multi-country studies examining teachers’ readiness and capacity to recognise and respond to different forms of violence in their school. The studies highlight the need for further investment and focus on teacher orientation to forms of violence, teacher preparation on curriculum approaches and classroom management as well as the need for increased institutional support within schools for violence prevention to create enabling environment for teachers to become agents of change and act on their stated desire to promote safe learning environments. The second presentation will present findings from the Commitments programme, revealing the potential of Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) approaches to address SRGBV and important insights for future SBCC work in schools. The presentation will discuss how the more nuanced understanding of how social norms influence teacher attitudes and behaviours can help us understand why some behaviours have been so hard to change, and how using an SBCC approach can help to change them. The final presentation will focus on findings emerging from the Safe Learning Model study that draw correlations between children’s feelings of safety with a teacher, the nuanced contextual understanding of violence and self-reporting of violence, including SRGBV. The presentation will discuss the important role of the teacher and how gender and social norms and the concept of silent victims highlighted by this study impacts understanding of SRGBV prevalence data, monitoring intervention effectiveness and research findings.

Sub Unit

• Gender Justice SIG

Chair

• Joanna Herat, UNESCO

Individual Presentations

• How can teachers be prepared and supported to address violence in schools? Lessons learned from multi-country studies - Joanna Herat, UNESCO

• How do social norms influence teachers’ attitudes and behaviours? Lessons Learned from Commitments - Catherine Kennedy, Save the Children US

• How does feeling safe impact a child’s self-reporting of violence? Lessons Learned from the Safe Learning Model - Abu Bakarr Koroma, Concern Worldwide