3. Types of violence

Show the overhead Types of Violence and discuss the points.

Reflection

I struggled with choosing an overhead on Types of Violence and ended up using one from Take on the Challenge (Morrish, Horsman and Hofer, 2002) but am still not completely satisfied with it. Perhaps putting up categories of violence seemed somehow scientific and impersonal. Is numbering the categories of violence somehow rating them? Yes! Next time I will take the numbers out, if not the whole overhead! Maybe an overhead on promoting the idea that any kind of violence is unacceptable would be more effective.

During discussion in the first workshop, the word, "victim" kept coming out of my mouth and I was disgusted with myself for using it so much. Even survivor doesn’t work for me. By the Edmonton workshop I solved the "victim" problem by simply talking about "person" or "people." Interestingly, I never once used the word "victim." It simply wasn’t in my mind.

4. What if abuse is suspected?

Reflection

We did not have time to do this activity in the second workshop. The participants in Pincher Creek came up with a number of responses. (See p. 138.)

Show the overhead If you suspect a child is.... Stress the legal importance of passing on information about child abuse to the next support system.25 (In the PAL project, we ask our tutors to speak to the coordinators first.)

5. How does violence affect learning?

In groups of two or three, participants write on flip-chart paper about some behaviours they have noticed in their students which indicate violence might be an issue affecting their learning. Post papers and discuss.26

25 In Alberta, people are legally responsible under the Child Welfare Act to report abuse or suspected abuse to a child to a delegated child welfare worker. For more information, refer to: Responding to child abuse. A handbook. (1999). Edmonton, AB: government of Alberta. [On-line]. Available: http://www.child.gov.ab.ca/whatwedo/childwelfare/pdf/child_abuse_handbk.pdf
26 The purpose of identifying possible behaviours is not to provide a means to assess if a student has experiences of violence. Rather, it is to start a discussion about how these experiences can affect learning. Awareness can also help tutors and teachers look beyond the behaviours to try to understand why a student is behaving as he or she does.