Delivering a workshop about domestic violence and misogynistic attitudes to students.
| Does it work? |
Promising
|
|---|---|
| Focus |
Prevention
|
| Topic |
Ethics and values
Violence against women and girls
|
| Organisation | |
| Contact |
PC Matthew Shakespeare |
| Email address | |
| Region |
West Midlands
|
| Partners |
Police
Education
|
| Stage of practice |
The practice is implemented.
|
| Start date |
|
| Scale of initiative |
Local
|
| Target group |
Children and young people
|
Aim
To raise awareness around misogynistic attitudes and domestic violence.
Intended outcome
To increase understanding of the dangers of misogynistic attitudes, the bystander effect and domestic violence. This is measured through Microsoft feedback forms.
Description
Following a reported issue between two students arguing about the murder of Sarah Everard and misogynistic attitudes, a discussion workshop to raise awareness with young people was created.
This is focused on men’s attitudes to women and girls. A schools’ officer was trained to do a 'mentors in violence prevention' (MVP) delivery in schools. MVP is a programme that has been developed to give people guidance on how to challenge gender-based violence and misogyny. Foundations is used as an initial input before MVP takes place.
The workshop
This is a no cost input delivered within schools. The workshop takes around two days to organise and is a one hour session aimed at sixth form students. It has been delivered at Colmer’s Sixth form and the University of Birmingham school to over 400 students. After each session a feedback and evaluation form are sent to students on Microsoft Forms, with positive feedback received.
A resource pack is given to students with space for them to write down their thoughts throughout the session. The pack also contains the numbers of support agencies, such as Crimestoppers. They can take these home and they act as physical reminders of the session content.
The session covers:
- definitions of masculinity
- victim blaming
- the bystander effect are covered
Different examples of victim blaming are used to explain its impact. Powerpoints are created to support the learning. The session starts by outlining the learning objectives, learning outcomes and climate for learning. A baseline assessment takes place at the beginning of the presentation to find out students' current beliefs around misogyny.
Interactive learning
There is opportunity for interactive learning with anonymous forms online through a QR code used for students to share their opinions on subjects such as social beliefs around misogyny and ways individuals feel they protect themselves. Scenarios are given where students can use the anonymous online form to share how they would act. Police statistics are used to show the amount of violent and anti-social behaviour (ASB) crime in their area.
Signs of abuse are explained, as well as how domestic abuse can be present in either gender and in different types of relationships. The session also talks about the bystander effect. Then the presentation discusses the next steps to take if you or someone you know is being abused, signposting the young people to different hotlines they can contact, including the police.
Overall impact
Feedback from the schools received on Microsoft Forms, submitted by the students indicates that the programme was beneficial. Approximately 50 sixth form students participated in the session and 32 students provided feedback.
- 32/32 responses gave the programme content three or more stars, with the majority giving the programme five stars.
- 32/32 responses gave the programme delivery three or more stars, with the majority giving the programme delivery five stars.
- 32/32 responses felt that the programme was a good use of time.
- 31/32 responses gave the programme three or more stars based on whether they will demonstrate increased knowledge in relation to the programme content.
- 10/15 responses stated that they learnt something new from the session.
- 20/32 responses stated that they would definitely recommend the programme to other schools.
There was also an open text box on the form where students could write their thoughts on the input. Students described the session as eye opening and found the session informative. This further suggests the input was positively received and increased level of understanding.
Two schools have asked for further foundations inputs to their year 12 students indicating a positive response.
Learning
The input has evolved with certain topics after initial delivery to better engage the students. This was guided by the feedback provided by students.
Feedback suggested that the discussion portion of the session was preferred to a simple lecture style input. Students wanted the opportunity to share their experiences and opinions on the subject. It was also suggested that the sessions should be longer due to the seriousness and wide range of topics covered.
Students highlighted the local police data on domestic abuse most eye opening, to portray the prevalence of the issue and why topics like misogyny should be taken seriously.
The use of Microsoft Forms to hear back from the students was successful, with 32/50 students completing the feedback survey. Having a digital survey was beneficial in encouraging students to provide feedback, as it was easy for them to scan the QR code on their phone.