<p> Faculty of Education and Social Work</p><p>ABN 15 211 513 464</p><p>Catherine Keeley Room 812 Lecturer Education Building A35 The University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA Telephone: +61 2 9531 2304 Facsimile: +61 2 9531 2606 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.sydney.edu.au/</p><p>Feedback and thank you for your contribution</p><p>31st October 2015</p><p>The following is an acknowledgement of the contribution of the Darby and Giverny to EDSE5010 Meeting the Needs of Cultural Diversity – a twelve credit point unit in the combined undergraduate Arts/Education degree here at the University of Sydney in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. I initially approached this part of the unit with some trepidation – mostly because I do not have a research background in sexual diversity and I was worried that I would not do the topic justice. With your contribution a whole week was spent on Sexual and Gender Diversity in Schools – a part of the unit entirely developed by the Safe Schools Coalition. This meant that Giverny and Darby spent the whole day on Monday 2 Sept with the class – some thirty students. These students will be entering the teaching profession in 2016 and it was important that they finish their education studies with this unit. </p><p>Please forgive the lateness of this letter to you but I wanted to access all the Student Evaluation Feedback sheets in order to give you informed and thorough feedback. Without doubt the contribution of Darby and Giverny was significant and important for these pre-service teachers’ future careers.</p><p>So to start off this acknowledgement of the contribution Giverny and Darby made to the professional development of this future group teachers and most importantly the children in their care as teachers I’d like to quote some of the formal feedback from the Student Evaluation Form, an anonymous feedback survey conducted at the end of the unit.</p><p>Feedback Student 1 ‘all the topics covered were excellent. I really enjoyed the LGBTI week …this course has helped me to gain ethical, social and professional attributes which will assist my career’.</p><p>Feedback Student 2 It was one of the most relevant subjects for my future career</p><p>1 James Beaufils University of Oxford Feedback Student 3 Expanded my knowledge about the world/current context … interesting course, inspires passion</p><p>Feedback Student 4 It was relevant and I learned so much</p><p>Feedback Student 5 This unit remained engaging and relevant each week with really interesting topics. I enjoyed how controversial some topics were so that it facilitated meaningful discussions and debates. Thumbs up for the collaborative component of the course</p><p>Feedback Student The information was extremely useful. I also really liked the variety of cultures we studied including LGBTI perspectives</p><p>Feedback Student In terms of relevance – my best education unit</p><p>On my own reflection I will seek specific feedback on the Sexual and Gender Diversity in Schools part of the unit if we are to do this again next year. The Unit of Study Evaluation survey is one developed by the university and has 12 standardised questions. The overall feedback from the students was twofold – one that the unit was very relevant to their future careers and two that every education student should do the unit. </p><p>Other comments (mostly oral casual comments) from the students that I think are important for you, and the work you do, is that this is the only unit where they have covered Sexual and Gender Diversity in Schools in their entire studies. I was surprised by this and thought that it must be covered somewhere but it’s not in the mandatory parts of their units and as far as they know only in my elective that they were undertaking. I would and on my experience in schools advocate that there needs to be somewhere mandated coverage of Sexual and Gender Diversity in Schools. </p><p>My own comments on the day that Giverny and Darby presented are:</p><p> The presentation was thoroughly prepared and well thought out  Each of the segments on the day were interesting and relevant  Giverny and Darby are sophisticated presenters of this type of program – they used imagination, allowed interaction throughout with student discussions and importantly listened to the students stories  Knew all the current research on LGBTI issues and especially as they related to schools and the education of every individual student  The resources handed out were superb – well developed, relevant and useful</p><p>On my own reflection I would advocate that this presentation by Giverny and Darby be made available more widely but especially to pre-service teachers in their teacher training units. The importance of the issues discussed is seminal and many children’s lives will have been changed by the work of Giverny and Darby on the day. Don’t underestimate this – individual children’s journey to establish their unique sexual identity is central to who these children are and who they will become. For many it is </p><p>Page 2 of 2 a traumatising and confronting time, especially if they are in any way not conforming to the dominant ‘norm’. As a season teacher I know how important the pastoral care of students is in the work of teaching and this is an important lesson to pass onto the next generation of teachers.</p><p>My final comment would be that it’s not possible to really measure the work of Giverny and Darby or indeed the Safe Schools Coalition because the impact will be on the better outcomes for the children these new teachers will be teaching. In this audit society, the emotion work of teachers – of which this is a significant part – is not measurable in numbers and hence no one knows how important this aspect of teachers work is. Don’t for a moment stop doing what you are currently doing and keep seeking more funding as this is very, very important work and an investment in the lives of young people today and tomorrow.</p><p>Yours Sincerely</p><p>Catherine (Kate) Keeley BA LLB Dip Ed Curriculum Coordinator HSIE Secondary Combined degree Masters of Teaching.</p><p>Page 3 of 2</p>