1/9/2008

Ref: QD068A

Quizzes help open discussion about homophobic bullying.

By Liam Kernan, Sex and Relationships Education Consultant, Healthy Schools Development Team, Gloucestershire County Council.  Liam uses Qwizdom’s handheld voting system to open discussion about potential homophobic bullying in secondary schools.  By answering questions as a class, a voting system encourages every pupil to participate anonymously with confidence, removing the embarrassment or fear of speaking in front of peers.  It can be used as a teaching tool across National Curriculum subjects and to discuss wider issues surrounding school life.

Tackling perceptions
We work with 41 secondary schools in Gloucestershire to open discussion about sensitive issues such as bullying, using a voting system to gather opinions and open debate.  Almost two thirds (65 percent) of young lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils have experienced homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools, three quarters of whom have never seen lesbian and gay issues addressed in class.*  I conducted quizzes with Year 7 and Year 10 pupils to establish their perceptions of homophobic bullying, as this is an issue one school wanted to address.  Both groups said that using the word ‘gay’ to describe an inanimate object such as a handbag was not a homophobic act.  However, when I ran the same quiz with teachers, most did not share this view and felt it was a form of homophobic bullying.  Due to the development of the English language and etymology of words, young people have come to use the term ‘gay’ extensively to express when they think something is rubbish.  Through such quizzes we can begin to address these perceptions.

Quizzes – a good conversation starter
Introducing quizzes into the first hour of each session opens up conversation and eases pupils into the topic.  They feel comfortable with the voting technology and often compare the handsets to mobile phones.  I lead them through the questions and stop to discuss each answer.  Year 7 pupils tend to be more reluctant to express their opinions than Year 10s so they appreciate the fact that their responses are anonymous.  By running the quizzes we have discovered that whilst Year 7s are aware of homophobic bullying, their knowledge on the issue is limited.  Forty-four percent of Year 7 pupils said they would feel uncomfortable being at a party where gay and lesbian persons were present compared with just seven percent of Year 10s.  The results show that between Year 7 and Year 10 they have become more educated about homosexuality.

Keep an open mind – kids will surprise you!
My advice to other schools wanting to open discussion on homophobic bullying is to have an open mind about the responses you receive - kids will surprise you! 

*Stonewall, The School Report 2007: http://www.stonewall.org.uk/documents/school_report.pdf

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