Increasing rates of gender-based and sexual abuse, coupled with a rise in misogynistic influencers online, have become a growing issue in UK and Irish schools. This paper reports on the findings of a post lockdown study in England and Ireland that piloted workshops on gender-based and sexual violence. While most student responses were positive, we…

The problematisation of a social phenomenon is a political process that both constructs the problem and, in doing so, suggests possible remedies and occludes others. Based on the first-ever comprehensive analysis of 129 UK university policies to address Gender-based violence (GBV), we examine how the 'problem' of GBV is conceptualised in…

This article explores whether secondary school English teachers can contribute to consent education in Australia. A scoping study involved reviewing research on consent education, examining both commonly taught and contemporary adolescent literature for themes of sexual consent, and conducting focus groups with English teachers. The textual…

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in schools in England is a pressing concern, especially since the 'Everyone's Invited' movement laid bare the extent of the problem across the country. This article analyses the national policy context, asserting that SGBV is a systemic problem rooted in young people's school and online peer cultures that…

The dominant 'heterosexual script' positions men as sexually desiring subjects who initiate sex and use active displays of power to attract women, and women as passive sexual objects who use indirect means to attract men (e.g. physical appearance). While much research has highlighted how this script is deployed in high school settings, less work…

This paper reflects on teaching a postgraduate degree which aims to support students to understand and challenge gender violence and contribute to gender justice. It explores three dilemmas: (i) epistemological -- how to create a curriculum which embraces diverse knowledges and decentres perspectives which can produce violence; (ii) pedagogical --…

Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with students who had attempted to report staff sexual misconduct to their higher education institutions in the UK, the article analyses interviewees' experiences of 'grooming' and boundary-blurring behaviours from academic staff where the possibility for consent was affected by the power imbalances…

This article explores how young people in Sweden talk about and understand violence, with a particular emphasis on how violence, gender, space and time are co-constructed in this discourse. We found that young people display an ambivalent attitude to violence, reinforcing several contradictory discourses of violence. Young people adopt various…

This paper examines four interviews with student survivors about their experiences of reporting sexual harassment and violence to universities in the United States and England, and their experiences of how their universities protected the perpetrators. Interview participants revealed that their assailants were not held accountable because the…

Sexual assault is sexual activity without consent, but what is consent? Undergraduates' understandings are often messier than the consensual/non-consensual binary. U.S. university undergraduates watched videos depicting consensual sexual interactions and sexual assaults. Scenes were drawn from popular television programmes and pornographic…

This paper examines activist spaces for gender justice within two elite independent schools situated in an affluent part of the USA. Drawing on student interview data gathered as part of a broader study that sought to identify new educative approaches to addressing gendered violence, the paper explores attempts at these schools to engage boys in…

In studies of gender and preservice teacher education, sexism is often a silent force that undergirds the inquiry, findings, and implications. This study explores how a group of preservice social studies teachers (n = 25) reify discourses about gender and gender issues within the context of discussing a current event involving sexual violence and…

This research uses feminist methodology to investigate the multi-contextual narratives of pre-service teachers in sex education when they were K-12 students, their emerging understandings of sex and sexual violence, and their experiences learning about prevention in undergraduate and teacher education. Participants experienced inadequate sex…

Programmes for sexual violence prevention have focussed historically on university, school or college students rather than staff working at these institutions. The "Universities Supporting Victims of Sexual Violence project" (USVreact), co-funded by the European Commission, worked across universities in Europe to address this gap in the…