Where to find gender identity
in teaching materials
‘Respectful’ Relationships
Look for a program in your school called
“Respectful Relationships”
or
“Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships”
All Victorian children are taught the Respectful Relationships program.
The Respectful Relationships program is marketed as a family violence prevention strategy.
There is no evidence that Respectful Relationships Education reduces family violence.
There is evidence that these types of programs are harmful.
In their early work designing ‘Respectful Relationships’ back in 2009, the Victorian Education Department cited the reason for a whole-school approach as:
Children and young people in schools are a mass and captive audience
Respectful Relationships Education, p10
Why is gender identity embedded throughout the Respectful Relationships teachings materials that was designed to reduce family violence?
The lead author of Victoria’s Respectful Relationships teaching materials has revealed the intention to “disrupt and subvert cultural norms” and “moving beyond heteronormative cisgender frameworks” in her published articles on using scenarios and role play in education.
Respectful Relationships – Its Harms and Dangers
RRE programs teach gender identity as a fact rather than as one belief system among others. Gender identity is deeply embedded throughout RRE programs.
Harms created by teaching gender identity as a fact rather than as a belief system include:
- Resulting lack of clarity means students miss out on learning important facts about themselves, reproductive health, and sexual development.
- Normalising and affirming body-hatred and rejection.
- Promoting an unhealthy mind/body dissociation that undermines mental health and encourages children to consider permanent alterations to their bodies.
- Encouraging students to constantly examine and assess their ‘gender’, which is contrary to the natural development of robust mental health.
- Encouraging adolescents who don’t fit regressive gender stereotypes or who experience distress about their developing bodies at puberty to seek a solution inpuberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and body-changing surgeries.
RRE programs skim past and minimise the biological basis of sex, typically adopting language such as “body parts,” “sex assigned at birth,” or “sex born with,” while emphasising gender identity.
Sex and gender are conflated, resulting in the presentation of sex as a social construct that can be changed, rather than a biological reality.
Harms caused by the conflation of sex and gender include:
- Undermining the foundational understanding necessary for teaching about relationships and sexuality.
- Resulting lack of clarity meaning students miss out on learning important facts about themselves, reproductive health, and sexual development.
- Misleading students about the objective reality of biological sex, which puts girls at risk by suppressing their awareness of a person’s biological sex. This denies them the right to set boundaries and undermines their ability to give or withhold consent.
- Disempowering children by teaching them that using clear language may cause offense. This may render them less confident to use the correct language to report abuse.
Respectful Relationships Education programs contain age-inappropriate content that does not align with the developmental stage of the intended students.
Complex topics are introduced at alarmingly early ages and case study materials and examples are often explicit and age inappropriate. Children are still in the process of developing their understanding of identity, healthy relationships, and sexual boundaries.
Harms from premature exposure to age-inappropriate content include:
- Initiating and/or encouraging students’ exposure to ideas and content beyond their developmental readiness, leading to distorted perceptions and confusion.
- Desensitisation, blurring the lines between appropriate and inappropriate content.
- Children may become more accepting or tolerant of content that is not suitable for their age or developmental stage
- Normalizing age-inappropriate behaviors, causing children to become more accepting or tolerant of such behaviors.
- Confusion, anxiety, and the development of inappropriate attitudes and behaviors
- Disrupting children’s sense of safety, instilling fear, and increasing the likelihood of emotional trauma.
- Hindering a child’s ability to establish and maintain healthy boundaries and behaviors in various social contexts. Hindering a child’s ability to form healthy relationships and develop a balanced view on human sexuality
- Normalization of age-inappropriate behaviors, increasing the acceptance and/or tolerance of such behaviors.
- Elevation of confusion, anxiety and fear
- Increased fear of intimacy
Respectful Relationships programs often downplay the primacy of the parental-child relationship.
Teaching materials prioritize teachers and other adults as key people of trust in preference to parents who are portrayed as problematic or needing improvement. As a result, children may internalize the implicit message that adults outside the family are more reliable and trustworthy than their own parents.
Harms include:
- Distorted perceptions of family dynamics that can strain parent-child relationships and disrupt the crucial sense of trust and security that comes from a strong familial bond.
- Weakened emotional bonds, reduced open communication, and diminished trust, ultimately impacting the child’s sense of belonging and emotional well-being.
- Emotional distress and feelings of insecurity.
- Children may experience confusion, anxiety, or a sense of abandonment, which can adversely affect their emotional well-being and overall mental health.
- Missing out on the support and guidance that parents are uniquely equipped to provide, hindering overall development and resilience.
- Increased susceptibility to grooming tactics employed by individuals seeking to exploit a child’s trust. Diminished awareness of warning signs of potential abuse or exploitation, which can impede their ability to effectively protect themselves.
Links to Respectful Relationships Materials – Concerning Content
Look at the ‘Respectful Relationships’ teaching materials (by year level) in the links below. To the right of these links we provide a 2-page Summary (downloadable) of themes of concern that arose when the materials were viewed in totality
| Year levels | Link to Respectful Relationships Teaching Material (Department of Education) | Stop Gender Education – 2 Page Overviews |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Foundation | Foundation-1Download |
| 1-2 | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Level 1-2 | Level1_2Download |
| 3-4 | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Level 3-4 | Level3_4Download |
| 5-6 | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Level 5-6 | Level5_6Download |
| 7-10 | Stepping out against Gender Based Violence – recommended for years 7-10 – it takes the place of Topics 7&8 in the Years 9-10 RRRR Teaching materials | |
| 7-8 | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Level 7-8 | |
| 9-10 | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Level 9-10 | |
| 11-12 | Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Teaching Materials – Level 11-12 |
The ‘evidence-based’ MYTH of Respectful Relationships
Respectful Relationships programs are promoted as “evidence-based”. They often reference extensive lists of citations purporting to evidence effectiveness in fostering long-term positive behavioural changes. Yet, the “evidence-base” is deemed of low quality.
No evidence of behavioural change
There are no longitudinal studies demonstrating positive behavioural change resulting from Respectful Relationships programs or similar violence prevention programs.
Limited impact on attitudes
Some programs have shown improvements in students’ knowledge and attitudes. This does not achieve shifts in behaviour.
Increased rates of violence
Studies have shown higher rates of perpetration and victimisation among program participants in violence prevention programs like Respectful Relationships.
Poor quality research
Many “supporting” citations for Respectful Relationships are news articles, opinion pieces and other non-peer reviewed sources