Reading with Consent

In early 2021, in the wake of the global #MeToo movement, an online petition in Australia generated more than 500 testimonies from school students, depicting experiences of sexual assault during their time at school and asking for more emphasis to be given to consent education in secondary schools.

In response, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA) advised that consent education would be introduced into the Australian curriculum in holistic, age-appropriate ways.

This event explores research conducted by the Literary Education Lab (University of Melbourne) in collaboration with the Stella Prize. The ‘Reading Consent’ report looks at the ways high school English curriculum can best highlight diverse perspectives on issues of consent, and demonstrates that the teaching of literature is an important site for consent education.

At this in-conversation event, young adult author and report contributor Rebecca Lim, high school English teacher Antony Monteleone, and Emeritus Professor in the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education Helen Cahill, joined the report’s lead author Professor Larissa McLean Davies to discuss its findings. They considered the implications of this research for pre-service English teacher preparation and in-service professional learning, as well as the support that teachers need to lead conversations about consent in English classrooms.

Presented in partnership with Melbourne Graduate School of Education, the Stella Prize & the Literary Education Lab.

Please note: Cath Moore, who was scheduled to appear in this event, could not attend.

Reading with Consent was recorded in June 2022.