If you’re a teacher at a participating school, you can take part in the project in two key ways:
- As a co-researcher
- As a focus group participant
Teacher co-researchers
You are eligible to be a co-researcher if you are from the teaching body or school executive of a participating school. Following a presentation about the research at your school, you’ll be invited to submit an expression of interest to take part. Your expression of interest can be in video, audio or written form, and just needs to explain why you’d like to work on the project.
Over the duration of the project, teacher co-researchers will meet between ten and fifteen times at school. Overall, commitment to this group will be for about 45 hours of meeting time over three years, and may include collaboration with the student co-researchers group on some occasions. In these sessions, you will help shape how the research takes place, explore and analyse the data, and to inform what kind of resources the school invests in- whether it be books, professional learning, posters, guest speakers, or other aspects that you think might make your school a more inclusive, welcoming place.
We know the value and importance of co-researchers to this project, and schools will receive remuneration for teachers’ time away from their normal workload in order to facilitate meetings.
Becoming a co-reseacher will build your capacity to participate in and potentially lead future community-led research, and strengthen your ability to identify and confront problems that concern you.
Teacher focus groups
After the whole school student questionnaire, you will have the opportunity to volunteer for a focus group. In these, you and between four and six of your colleagues will talk about some of the data generated from the questionnaire for around 60-90 minutes. This data will be used alongside the quantitative results of the questionnaire to give more in-depth understanding about what’s happening at your school.
What are the benefits of participating in this project?
In addition to capacity building and school remuneration, participating in this project allows for your experience and perspective on your school’s cultures of gender and sexuality to inform the design of the project. Your unique vantage and rich experience of classroom and broader school cultures are vital to understanding how your school community already disrupts gendered violence or recognising the most effective alternative approaches for teachers.
Will I be identifiable?
Multiple measures will be used to de-identify your responses in any publications and outputs from this study. All data will be carefully reviewed by the researcher to ensure that no teacher is identifiable either individually or as associated with a particular school. The project will be conducted in line with Ethics requirements at the University of Sydney, adhering to the strictest measures around ethical conduct and anonymity.