Two instructors at the University of Windsor have created a resource designed to better equip educators with important tools for teaching students about gender-based violence.

Catherine Vanner, a professor in the Faculty of Education, and her project partner, postdoctoral fellow and sessional instructor Salsabel Almanssori, developed the Gender-based Violence Teaching Toolkit, offering resources and lesson plans to align with curriculum expectations in several subjects. They worked with Bachelor of Education students Keith Trent-Rennick and Alexandra Lai, both of whom have since graduated.

“With the toolkit, teachers do not have to try to fit in a lesson about gender-based violence in addition to what they already have to teach. It specifically addresses the curriculum requirements they’re responsible for meeting. The kit also includes corresponding assignments that align with the lesson plan, allowing teachers to follow it comprehensively,” Vanner explained.

She noted that while the curriculum has a course that explicitly includes the topic of consent, other aspects of gender-based violence are optional to teach in the classroom.

“For example, in Grade 10 history and civics, gender-based violence issues are listed as possible topics, but it’s up to the teacher to decide what to cover from a range of options. Our hope is that with these ready-to-go lesson plans and the support on how to carry it out, teachers will be more likely to include these topics in their teaching,” Vanner explained.

“By gender-based violence, we mean a whole range of connected issues — any kind of physical, sexual, or psychological violence based on perceived gender, gender identity, or gender expression. It covers topics including human trafficking, intimate partner violence, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, transphobia, and homophobia.”

Vanner felt developing the toolkit and encouraging teachers to discuss these issues with their students was important, as gender-based violence is a societal issue that also affects children and teens.

“Some might say children are too young to learn about these issues. Unfortunately, the reality is that many children are already experiencing a lot of this. One local school board requested we include human trafficking as a topic because they were seeing it happen here, targeting high school students in our community,” Vanner said.

“Gender-based violence is a real issue in our lives and communities. While it’s important to teach about self-protection, which our toolkit also includes, it’s crucial to address it as a significant social issue affecting so many people in our community.”

She was inspired to develop the toolkit during her postdoctoral research, where she interviewed teachers about what their gender-based violence teaching already looked like and how it could improve. Teachers cited a need for more resources, education, and professional development opportunities to better tackle the subject, Vanner said.

She and Almanssori consulted with school boards, teachers’ unions, social workers, and other experts, and hosted a two-day workshop to present the toolkit to educators. First, they trained teachers on the different components and then received their input for any improvements before releasing the final draft to the public.

“Our goal is to have resources that both incorporate the knowledge and experience of the teachers I’d interviewed, along with the calls for more resources and more support,” Vanner said. “A teacher is going to have to work to adapt something to be specific to their context, school, class, and students, but we wanted to minimize the work that fell on the teachers, and to try to make it as accessible as possible to teach these really important subjects alongside other more conventional parts of the curriculum.”

In addition to lesson plans for students in Grades 8 to 12, the toolkit includes notes on inclusive language, creating a classroom agreement, and setting up expectations for students, as well as guidance on reporting gender-based violence and disclosures of abuse. Vanner said they are in the process of having materials translated into French as well.

The toolkit can be downloaded online through the Gender-Based Violence Teaching Network, which also offers additional resources and information.