Context matters: the take up of Respectful Relationships Education in two primary schools

Violence against women remains a serious and widespread problem in Australia with enormous impacts and social costs. Recently, there have been renewed government efforts to address gender-based violence in schools through a whole school approach. This approach has come to be known as Respectful Relationships Education (RRE) and supports schools to build cultures and practices of gender respect. Recognition of the need for RRE is well established in Australia with states and territories implementing a range of policy and programme initiatives. This paper presents data generated from a mixed methods evaluation of the implementation and impact of RRE in eighteen Australian primary schools. Our focus is on case study data gathered from two of these schools to illustrate the significance of context in shaping the capacity of schools to take up RRE in the ways it is intended. We identify and analyse the specific situated, professional, material and external factors at these schools that enabled and constrained the implementation of this reform. In light of the continued tendency within policy for schools to be dematerialised (i.e. not seen in relation to the complexities of context), the paper argues for greater attention to matters of context in understanding the differential impact of reforms such as RRE in schools. In particular, we draw attention to the urgency and imperative of differential support to schools in relation to such matters.