Techniques to train others: secondary schools

Caroline Ellis

• Variety of exercises for you to use, adapt, reject

• Examples of ways to use the existing resources

• Top 10 tips for training others

9 out of 10 teachers say they have never received any training on how to prevent and respond to homophobic bullying

But: 80% of secondary school teachers say they feel some confidence addressing gay issues in the classroom

Confidence ruler

NOT AT ALL VERY

How confident do you feel challenging homophobic language in the classroom?

Confidence ruler

NOT AT ALL VERYExample questions:

Why are you at 3 and not zero?What would it take for you to move to 5?

The Wall

What are the barriers that prevent you from challenging homophobic language in the classroom?

The Wall

Example questions:How might you remove these barriers

in the immediate situation?How else might you remove these barriers ?

Facilitated discussion• Pick an example from one of the training resources• Use it to facilitate a discussion• Can be an extended interaction – e.g. show a clip, discuss

and then show more• Have prompt questions ready:

– How do you feel about this situation?– What could improve this situation? – What could we do to prevent this kind of situation?

• Have other relevant resources at hand to refer to– Supporting lesbian, gay and bisexual young people– Spell It Out teachers’ guide, tackling homophobia in our schools– Challenging homophobic language

Facilitated discussion - example

(Karmel’s story from FIT: for more information contact Stonewall: education@stonewall.org.uk)

•How do you feel about this situation?•What could improve this situation? •What could we do to prevent this kind of situation?

Ways to practice – Case studies

• Pick examples from the resources that are relevant to you

• Use the 3 aims of the public sector equality duty as a framework to focus the questions. In this situation:– How could you eliminate discrimination, harassment

and victimisation in this situation?– How could you advance equality of opportunity?– How could you foster good relations between

different groups?

Case study exampleJordan has come to see you after class. He tells you he’s upset because he keeps hearing friends and other students using the word ‘gay’ all the time, to mean something bad. He’s tried telling them to stop but they just laugh and start calling him gay. He tells you he’s not gay but his older brother Solomon is, and it really bothers him that they are saying his brother is not OK. Solomon is also a student in the school and he’s told Jordan he can’t wait to leave as he is fed up with being called names. Jordan says that a few weeks ago he asked another teacher for some help dealing with it, but she told him that he should just ignore it.

In this situation:•How could you eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation?•How could you advance equality of opportunity?•How could you foster good relations between different groups?

Ways to practice – role plays• Pick examples from the resources that are

relevant to you• Assess levels of confidence• Can be delivered in different ways: – Individual – pairs/ trios/ small groups– Interactive – facilitators or participants: “stop the

action”or “good practice/ bad practice” • Give clear instructions• As with case studies, you can use the 3 aims of

the public sector equality duty as a framework to focus the discussion

Role play example

(‘Coming out’ section of Stonewall ‘Spell It Out’ DVD. For more information contact Stonewall:

education@stonewall.org.uk)

How could this situation be improved for Sally?

Top 10 tips for training others1. Use the group2. Use selected statistics that will engage your

audience3. Frame the training positively 4. Use the legislation as a framework and a tool, not

as a weapon 5. Use the resources to inform sessions, not as

complete sessions

Top 10 tips for training others6. Make it manageable – one well delivered exercise

may be most effective7. Consider the flow of the session – don’t start with

role play8. Use exercises like the wall to inform future sessions

such as case studies or role plays9. Involve others in the planning, and possibly delivery10. Encourage others to champion change by building

in individual action planning