Sex and gender : what parents want
Paper presented at the AARE Conference, Hobart, 1995

Lori Beckett, Margaret Bode and Kerrie Crewe
ACSSO

Introduction

The Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO) is the 
national organisation representing parents of over 2 million children 
in government schools.   It is comprised of eleven affiliates from the 
states and territories, one each from the ACT, the Northern Territory, 
Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania, and two from South 
Australia, NSW and Victoria.    These affiliates elect their parent 
representatives onto national committees like the MCEETYA Gender Equity 
Taskforce, and national projects such as DEET's Gender and Violence 
Project, as well as the state-based forums on violence in schools.   
ACSSO also had a representative on the Schools Commission committee 
that wrote the National Policy for the Education of Girls.   In this 
way, ACSSO is very much a part of the education reform agenda.   

ACSSO is built on a commitment to a public education system which is 
fully funded by the state; inclusive, that is, available, accessible 
and attractive to all young people from all social backgrounds; and 
determined by administrators, teachers, parents and students (ACSSO, 
1994/5).   Gender equity and anti-homophobia are part of this 
commitment, and feature in ACSSO's own policy document which is 
determined by parents from across the country when they meet in 
conference once a year.   Gender equity and girls' education are 
located under the policy section on 'equality of outcomes', and 
anti-homophobia in the 'human development programs' under the policy 
section on curriculum and assessment.  They are included because of 
ACSSO's commitment to equity and parents' deep seated concerns about 
the number of children who struggle with their sexuality, and about the 
spate of gay-hate violence that effects so many people in our school 
communities.   The ACSSO policy document published yearly is regarded 
as a part of the historical record of the thinking of the parent 
movement in Australia since its establishment in 1946 (ACSSO, 1994/5).  
Next year, the organisation celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.



Parent participation

To talk about what parents want is to invoke a political rationale for 
parent participation in their children's schooling.    ACSSO is also 
built on a commitment to the principle of participatory democracy, 
which underpins the provision of public education insofar as those 
students, parents and teachers involved in the system are enabled and 
empowered to be partners in the decision-making about their needs and 
concerns (ACSSO, 1994/5).    Brown, Cahir and Reeve (1987) recognised 
that parents, teachers and students have some authority to participate 
in determining the school experience.    For parents, that authority 
derives from their role as parents and their responsibility to and for 
their children, and their right to participate in decisions affecting 
their children's education (ACSSO, 1994/5).  

In  ACSSO's 1994/5 Policy Document, the principle of participatory 
democracy is combined with the principles of equality and excellence to 

form an essential statement of principles to guide the organisation's 
practical activities, which are geared towards achieving a high quality 
public education system for everyone.  ACSSO's brief involves parents 
arguing on behalf of girls and boys and putting the case that schools 
and school systems should take the responsibility for ensuring equality 
of outcomes for all young people.   Through schooling, all young people 
should have independent access to knowledge and the skills and 
understandings necessary to shape their own lives and to participate in 
shaping society.  Learning outcomes should not be effected by gender or 
sexuality, nor ethnic origin, racial background, class, 
ability/disability, and geographic location (ACSSO, 1994/5).

Ross Free (1995), the Federal Minister for Schools, Vocational 
Education and Training, acknowledged and welcomed the parent 
perspective that ACSSO contributes to the educational debate.   He 
invited all government and non-government education authorities to 
recognise the need to strengthen the role of parents in school 
education.   "When this occurs, the quality of schooling in Australia 
will be further enhanced as parents, teachers and education authorities 
work together to improve the learning outcomes of students" (p.3).  
Other state and territory Ministers of Education have done the same 
with respect to the state-based parent organisations' contribution to 
educational reform.

At the time of writing this paper, the MCEETYA Gender Equity Taskforce 
has completed its work and developed a national Gender Equity 
Framework, which is about improving educational outcomes for girls and 
boys in Australian schools.  The final draft goes to the MCEETYA 
meeting on December 8 for approval to release the document for 
consultation, so we are unable to comment on it now; but whatever 
happens, ACSSO wants to see that work put to good use.  

ACSSO also wants state and territory governments to undertake research 
into the different needs and concerns of girls and boys, and different 
groups of girls and boys, from different language backgrounds, from low 
socio-economic backgrounds,  those who live in remote areas, and 
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.  ACSSO wants schools to develop 
strategies that attends to teaching, learning and assessment suited to 
the different needs of girls and boys; that breaks down male and female 
stereotypes, including paid and unpaid work in and outside the home; 
and that addresses the separate areas of disadvantage particular to 
girls and boys (ACSSO. 1994/5).    

Parents have challenged the meaning of gender equity, and the way some 
"gender" programs have focussed on girls, but looked like they ignored 
boys.    That said, ACSSO recognises that the problems boys experience 
are not simply "gender" problems.   A lot of children struggle with 
learning, different approaches to teaching, quality of teaching, the 
curriculum content, competition and assessment, and various behavioural 
problems and their effects.   Parents want a thoughtful and imaginative 
response to their concerns about girls and boys, and different groups 
of girls and boys, through programs that identify the gender dimension 
in children's struggles at school.  They certainly want boys to benefit 
from gender equity initiatives, particularly on the construction of 
masculinities.   They recognise that some versions of masculinity, 
especially the 'macho' version, can be harmful and damaging to boys as 
well as girls.  Parents also want gender work to move beyond critique 
to provide hope and possibilities, so that girls and boys can learn 
about thoughtful ways of being and living in a society which is not 
characterised by domination and oppression. 


Productive partnerships

ACSSO wants Departments of Education to provide the opportunities for 
parents to participate in decision-making about educational goal 
setting for girls and boys at the state level and the school level, and 
to ensure collaboration before decisions are made and then during the 
implementation of sensitive curriculum issues (ACSSO, 1994/5).    ACSSO 
recognises there is some resistance to parent participation, when 
principals and teachers have little regard for parents, when schools do 
not have a policy on parent participation, and do not bother to develop 
the appropriate infrastructure of support.  As Brown and Reeve (1993) 
pointed out, parents are often relegated to the roles of fund-raising 
or lobbying the Ministers in centralised school systems.

In an effort to break down these barriers, ACSSO encourages productive 
partnerships between parents, teachers, and students.  Productive 
partnerships demonstrate not only more equal power relations in the 
school community but good relations between men and women, boys and 
girls, and respectful ways of working together.  Everybody needs to 
feel secure and valued in terms of what they have to offer.    This is 
different to parent involvement which simply means informing parents 
about what is happening in school and education more generally.   This 
is also different to the common approach to parent participation, where 
teachers and others acknowledge the influence of parents and families 
on students' learning and their behaviour, and initiate a form of 
parent education to complement the school's teaching program.  For 
instance, programs on violence in schools which revolve around student 
behaviour often use parent education in the form of parenting courses 
to reinforce the school's work, to develop parent effectiveness, 
conflict resolution skills and positive parental role models.  

ACSSO recognises the limits of this approach to parent particpation.   
To continue with the example, parental programs and behaviour 
management are simplistic solutions to addressing violent behaviour in 
schools. Violence in schools is a part of the complex problem of 
violence in society.  Parents' role modelling and behaviour change 
strategies are not enough to address the incidence of violent 
behaviours, including homophobic violence.  Encouraging more positive 
role models and managing student behaviour does not challenge the 
practices and power relations that contribute to the social problem of 
violence in schools.    As the Gender and Violence Project's "No Fear" 
kit (forthcoming) pointed out, these sorts of programs are limited 
because they do not necessarily problematise the underlying attitudes 
and assumptions that underpin and perpetuate violent behaviours.  At 
the same time, they do not address the school practices that may 
unwittingly reinforce the particular behaviours that are of concern.
 
ACSSO agreed with the 'Sticks and Stones' Report and the "No Fear" kit 
that violence is a critical social issue.   The parent organisation is 
concerned about students' and teachers' experience of violence, and 
wants to address girls' and boys' involvement in sex-based harassment, 
bullying and other forms of violence.  Parents are disturbed about the 
effects of violence on schooling and learning outcomes.   When the 
Gender and Violence Project materials are released (and they went to 
print on November 16), ACSSO wants its affiliates to have copies of the 
"No Fear" kit.  We are hoping to produce and distribute  a "parent 
pack" that will develop an understanding about violence and its 
relationship to gender and power within the networks of school parent 
organisations, and through them, the wider parent body.   

Sexuality education

In an ironic twist to parent participation, parents are supposed to be 
invited to participate in discussions about sexuality education, which 
is about teaching children, or helping them learn, about all the things 
that constitute sexuality (Murrow, 1995).   Wilson (cited by Murrow, 
1995) provided a list of ways to make parents partners in the 
decision-making.  She suggested teachers should invite parents on to 
advisory committees to review and approve the teaching program and 
resources.  Parents should be invited to meetings to discuss and view 
all the resources.  Parents should have the opportunity to undertake 
the course, and be asked for an evaluation of the teaching program to 
determine its effectiveness.   Children should be asked to complete 
homework with their parents.  Most importantly, parents should be given 
the opportunity to withdraw their children from classes.

Parents' entitlement to participate in their children's schooling 
experience is particularly significant in sexuality education.  
However, the idea of consulting parents on sexuality education has had 
more to do with the sensitive and controversial nature of the teaching 
program, and with Ministers and school administrators wanting to 
minimise conflict.  The rationale for parent participation should not 
be built on the fear of teaching sexuality education.  Whatley (1992) 
called it a defensive teaching position that is designed to avoid 
conflict and controversy.   

Parent participation in sexuality education, like parent participation 
more generally, rests on the importance of parents in the teaching and 
learning process.   ACSSO's (1994/5) policy asserts that parents have a 
unique knowledge and understanding of their children.  Parents are the 
child's first educators, and they have talents, interests and energies 
that can enrich and diversify the school's teaching program.  ACSSO's 
policy is underpinned by the educationale rationale for parent 
participation spelt out by Brown, Cahir and Reeve (1987) and Brown and 
Reeve (1993), where parent participation is integral to the development 
of curriculum which builds on the knowledge and experiences of students 
(and their families).  Parents are important because they provide 
access to the social backgrounds and cultural frameworks that are part 
of the known world each child brings to school.  This is crucial to the 
school's task of building a relevant curriculum, responding to 
children's needs and concerns, and moving girls and boys forward in 
their educational and social lives.

In sexuality education, productive partnerships mean parents and the 
home join with teachers and the school to work together in a way that 
takes into consideration young people's different family backgrounds 
and the different cultural expressions of what it means to be sexual.   
It means teachers, parents and students draw on the knowledge that 
derives from  their experience of living in traditional family 
settings; of living in settings characterised by separation, 
estrangement, and divorce; of living in defacto relationships; of sole 
parents with or without partners; and of people who live in different 
family situations; not to forget those young people who experience 
homelessness.   This helps girls and boys and adolescents learn about 
the complex social processes of sexuality. 

Murrow (1995, citing Calderone and Johnson) indicated that sexuality 
has to do with "the entire self as girl or boy or man or woman, 
including 'sexual thoughts, experiences, learnings, ideas, values and 
imaginings, as these have to do with being male or female" (p.2).    It 
has to do with gender identity in that a person is male or female, and 
gender roles in that a person acts like a man or woman, but it is not 
just about biological definitions of men and women.   Sexual identity 
is complicated by the ways people actively negotiate meanings about 

sex, sexuality and sensuality from home, school, popular culture, the 
media, sport, fun times, friendships and relationships.   For young 
people, sexual identity is determined by age-related social definitions 
of sexuality, which find expression in intimate homosocial friendships, 
'mixed group' activities, and teenage romance. 

In the absence of parents and teachers, young people rely on youth 
culture to inform their expectations of sex and sexuality.    As 
Thomson and Scott (1992) pointed out, the possession and acquisition of 
sexual knowedge for adolecents is not straight forward.  The most 
popular form of peer sex education is built on male sexual discourse or 
dominant male 'sex talk', which positions and defines boys and girls in 
particular ways.   This sort of thing teaches adolescents about a 
dominant sexual order where the agenda revolves around boys, 'who is 
going out with who', and often actual sexual experience.   It is naive 
to think that young people are not sexually active.  In a report on 
adolescent sexual involvement in New Zealand, Murrow (1995) cited two 
studies which indicated that sexual activity is relatively prevalent 
among 15 year olds.   

The traditional response to sexuality education staunchly promotes 
family life education, youth abstinence from sexual activity, the 
avoidance of disease, reproductive heterosexuality, and conformity to 
moral absolutes.  We cannot assume that this sort of sexuality 
education is useful to young people.   There are some who simply do not 
identify with the biological reproductive model; there are some who are 
not interested in delaying sexual activity; and there are some who 
refuse and reject the moralistic approach.    Young people need more 
than information about sexual activity and genital contact, 'the birds 
and the bees', and married life.   They need more than "Chinese 
whispers" from their peers (Thomson and Scott, 1992).  They certainly 
need more than ridicule and hostility if they question their sexuality.

To counter this situation, parents, teachers and students can work 
together on understanding the friendships and relationships between 
girls and boys, and between girls and between boys.  They can determine 
what constitutes an acceptable sexuality, given that young people live 
in different social groups and come from different cultural 
backgrounds.  Kitzinger (cited by Murrow,1995) provided a lead for 
discussion.  "Sexuality... is seen as an integral part of human 
existence.  (It) is about the acceptance of ourselves as sexual beings, 
our feelings about being male or female, the way we express our sexual 
feelings, and the way we communicate those feelings to others" (p.2).   


Overcoming conflict and controversy

ACSSO offers the advice to individual teachers or groups working on 
matters of sex and gender to tap into the parent network.   ACSSO and 
its affiliates have a huge network in place to support the operation of 
parents working in schools, where parents are active in 
decision-making.  The parent organisations also have guidelines that 
provide some direction and instruction to school teams of parents, 
teachers, students and others wanting to work together in the school 
setting on projects of interest.  

ACSSO supported the Gender and Violence Project's encouragement of a 
whole school approach to understanding the problem of gender and 
violence, and the "No Fear" kit's intention to create a non-violent 
school community.  Productive partnerships are an important ingredient 
in the whole school approach and in groups working together on 
sensitive and controversial issues.   The school parent organisation 

would be receptive to teachers wanting to make a presentation at a 
parent meeting.  The parents would then have an opportunity to hear 
about teachers' proposals to address matters of concern, and express 
some support.  The parents at the meeting would also be able to share 
their concerns and anecdotal stories, and hear the teachers' response 
to what they want.   Another strategy is for teachers to invite the 
school parent organisation to identify two "key parent representatives" 
to work on a school team, which would be supported by the school parent 
organisation and the school generally.   

The idea of a genuine partnership between the two "key parent 
representatives" and others is also informed by the educational 
rationale for parent participation, which has to do with the knowledge 
the parents bring to the task of working on the school team.  As Brown, 
Cahir and Reeve (1987) pointed out,  parents' knowledge embodies their 
insights and understandings about the world which comes from life 
experiences as well as knowledge that is relevant to the task of 
teaching and learning.  The task of developing an understanding of 
violence, power, gender, and sexuality  requires not only the school 
team working together but regular and on-going discussions in the 
parent forum and parent newsletters.   As Brown, Cahir and Reeve (1987) 
reminded us, parents in government schools will distill a set of common 
understandings and principles from their collective knowledge through 
the on-going process of discussion and negotiation.    Parents, 
mothers, fathers, men and women, will relate to discussions about 
gender and what it means to be male and female, and about the exercise 
of power.  Their own life histories and their children's daily 
experiences provide them with first-hand knowledge of the way power and 
violence, gender and sexuality impacts on their life chances.  

By discussing and negotiating national and state gender equity 
strategies and the contents of the "No Fear" kit, the school parent 
organisation and the wider parent body will support and contribute to 
the school team's efforts to provide hope and possibilities for girls 
and boys.  As the "No Fear" kit indicated, "Schools have significant 
potential to be the agents and contexts for positive change in 
responding to such concerns by developing understandings, positive 
values and skills about gender relations and violence among students, 
staff and parents" (p.5).

Endnote

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the editorial suggestions made by 
Joan Brown (Australian Centre for Equity in Education); and Warren 
Johnson and Peter Ellston (NSW P&C Federation).

References

ACSSO (1994/5)  Policy Document  Canberra : ACSSO, C/- Hughes Primary 
School, Kent Street, Hughes ACT 2605.

Brown, J., Cahir, P., and Reeve, P.  (1987)  The educational rationale 
for parent participation.  Unicorn, vol.13, no.4.

Brown,J. and Reeve,P. (1993)  Parent participation, equality and 
democracy.   Chapter 8 in Smith,D.L. (ed.)  Australian Curriculum 
Reform : Action and Reaction.  Canberra : Australian Curriculum Studies 
Association (ACSA) P.O. Box 884, Belconnen ACT 2616.

Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET).  (forthcoming) 
 The "No Fear" kit for the Gender and Violence Project.  Canberra : GPO 
Box 9880, Canberra City ACT 2601.


Free, R. (1995)  Parents as partners in school education at the 
national level.  Canberra : Office of the Commonwealth Minister for 
Schools, Vocational Education and Training.

Murrow, K.  (1995)  Draft Literature Review on Sexuality Education.  
Wellington : Learning and Evaluation Policy Unit, New Zealand Ministry 
of Education.

Thomson,R. and Scott,S.  (1992)  Learning about sex : Young women and 
the social construction of sexual identity.  Women, Risk and AIDS 
Project Paper 4.   London : The Tufnell Press.