A 'respectful relationships' approach : could it be the answer to preventing gender-based violence?

Secondary Schools have been involved in Gender Based Violence (GBV) Prevention Education for many years. What, when and how this is done has always been difficult to assess. Programs come and go as governments react to public concerns and teachers and schools are expected to implement initiatives that are often reactions to public outcries. Teachers decide what they will teach and how they will teach it.  Last year I returned to work on a new initiative after a near 20-year break. I was surprised by the lack of change that had taken place over this period. There was still a lack of focus in schools, teachers were still reluctant to teach about it and ‘best practice’ appeared to be little different to that developed and implemented twenty years earlier. 

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experience of teachers and students involved in a pilot of the Respectful Relationships curriculum materials trialled in Victoria in 2010. Using data collected from teachers and students as part of research to update the materials this paper explores the usefulness of the materials for teaching about GBV in secondary schools.