did you know that?
- Over a third (37%) of female students at mixed-sex schools have personally experienced some form of sexual harassment at school
- 66% of female students and 37% of male students in mixed-sex sixth forms have experienced or witnessed the use of sexist language in school
- Over a third (34%) of primary school teachers say they witness gender stereotyping in their school on at least a weekly basis
Sexism is an issue for every school in every community. Sexual harassment, sexist language and gender stereotyping are commonplace in school settings, yet teachers report feeling unsupported and ill-equipped to respond.
UK Feminista supports students and teachers to promote gender equality in the classroom by offering practical tools, implementing school initiatives and running campaigns to drive change. Taking action in the classroom can open up a conversation about sexism, send a strong message that it is not acceptable and inspire students to take action for equality.
But making change happen requires a ‘whole school approach’; and educating teachers is a vital place to start if we want to set up different expectations for the next generation.
To help educate and promote awareness, UK Feminista sourced the services of Onclick to develop a series of bite-sized, interactive and design-led e-learning modules around how to challenge sexism in schools. As part of the project, they also required a dedicated leaning platform to host a range of resources for teachers and complete the whole digital learning experience.
the approach
Module 1: What’s the problem?
Understanding what sexism is and how it looks in schools and colleges across the UK.
Module 2: What’s the solution?
How and why school communities should work together to tackle sexism effectively.
Module 3: What can you do?
Exploring the changes teachers can make to their daily teaching practice.
Action Plan
Interactive personal action plan, outlining how the user will put their learning into practice.
Resources
Downloadable resources to use within the classroom.
UK Feminista had a very clear idea of their message and course content from the start. Onclick worked with their team to turn factual information from their in-depth research into interactive activities and memorable lessons for the end user. Our ultimate goal was to equip teachers with the tools and confidence to tackle sexual harassment, sexist language and gender stereotyping in their own school.
We worked in line with UK Feminista’s brand guidelines to develop a bespoke Adobe Captivate e-learning template and dedicated Moodle learning platform, showcasing their bold and striking identity; Tackling Sexism in Schools – Online Teacher Training. All digital resources needed to work seamlessly alongside their own website.
Each slide was kept simplistic in message and design to really highlight the learning objectives. We mixed a range of interactive activities, infographics, mini quizzes, embedded animated audio clips and video content throughout, to further enhance user engagement.
Humanising the effects of sexism in schools was key to deliver the severity and impact of such discrimination. We therefore felt that adding audio narrative to the impactful quotes from students and teachers alike worked to give more context and impact. Here we used professional voiceover and animated kinetic typography to bring the anonymous volunteer words to life. These were placed sporadically throughout the content to break the overall learning narrative.
We also filmed a short film with Noor Hasan, documenting how she challenged sexism in her East London school. Hearing her experiences, the steps she took and recommended tips and techniques for other teachers helped to promote others to take action. This was filmed in our studio at HQ Kent and edited with animated title captions.
the results
My experience of working with Onclick has been fantastic. The team have been flexible and responsive, working collaboratively with us to develop a very professional and engaging online training course.
We wanted to produce an accessible digital learning tool that would equip teachers with the tools and confidence to challenge sexism in the classroom. Onclick understood and responded to the brief brilliantly. They created a strong visual identity for the learning modules and produced a fantastic film, interactive activities and engaging content.
The appearance, usability and interactivity of the online training course have exceeded my expectations and we are looking forward to disseminating the training to teachers and trainee teachers across the country.
I would highly recommend Onclick to anyone who is looking to create a professional and engaging digital learning package.
Sophie Bennett
Policy and Development Manager, UK Feminista
