Beyond the face: cultivating change beyond the classroom
Esther
Our sisterhood of young women have been out schools delivering the “our voices, our stories” workshops, with the most recent sessions unfolding at Ipswich Girls Grammar School.
Ipswich Girls Grammar, located in Ipswich, just 40kms from Brisbane city, in South East Queensland, has provided girls-only education to young women ranging year 7-12 in both day and boarding school capacity since 1892. With a commitment to growing global citizens and fostering future leaders within a school community that is inclusive and celebrates cultural diversity, Ipswich Girls Grammar invited Ehtni to enhance their learning and expand their curiosity.
Ethni were honoured to deliver “Beyond the face” – an interactive and reflective session using photos and story to focus on conscious and unconscious bias - to two separate cohorts of young women at Ipswich Girls Grammar during July.
Ethni Facilitator - Jannine
unpacking biases
The students were courageous in their curiosity as they worked together to explore a series of photographic portraits of young women from culturally diverse backgrounds. They moved from photo to photo, with prompters that questioned their interpretation of each photo. As the groups gathered back together, students shared their take on each of the stories beneath the images. Some creative responses (future job: tattoo artist!) combined with some honest unfamiliarity emerged, then a few students were invited to read from the photos the personal and poignant stories behind each young woman.
From this, the students moved towards a time of considered reflection, quiet humility and an examination of the unconscious and conscious biases we all carry with us. The Ethni facilitators spoke to their lived experience of moving through the world as young women with culturally diverse backgrounds, smashing down stereotypes and fostering a process of unlearning within the group of students they connected with.
“Beyond the face” continues beyond the workshop, with the minds and conversations about conscious and unconscious bias open wide for this curious cohort of young women and Ethni providing the tools for the learning (and unlearning) to continue.
Senior Facilitators - Nasteho and Sara
curious to have us visit your school?
With the support of funding under Queensland Governments Thriving Cohesive Communities project, Ethni’s schools workshops have been subsided, with schools only required to make a contribution of $100 towards the cost of delivering the workshop.
Engage your students in Ethni’s powerful peak experiences to contribute to the cultivation of students that are more curious, compassionate and inclusive in their classrooms and their communities.
