Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Partner Discussion

20 minutes

Part B: Values

25 minutes

Part C: Jamal’s Story

10 minutes

Reflection: Journal Entry

Part A: Partner Discussion

Step 1. Explain to students that this lesson will allow students to understand the importance of acting with kindness in difficult and confronting situations. The activities in this lesson are designed for students to understand their core values and work on developing a growth mindset.

Step 2. Invite students to turn to the person next to them, and discuss this question for two minutes:

What does the opposite of kindness look like?

Step 3. After their discussion, introduce the concept of ‘dehumanising’ to students by explaining that dehumanising behaviours occur from people seeing others as ‘less than’ them. This leads to people believing that some people are less deserving of humane treatment, such as kindness. Someone can demonstrate dehumanising behaviours towards someone because of their race, colour of their skin, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, disability, gender expression or socioeconomic status. Dehumanising behaviours can manifest in ways which we are now familiar with, such as racism, othering, stereotyping and generalising.

Step 4. Invite students to turn to their partner and reflect on how kindness could be the antidote to dehumanising behaviour. Please provide students with the following discussion questions:

What makes kindness a ‘humanising’ practice?
Why is it important to show, think and act with kindness?

Part B: Values

Step 1. Explain to students that values are fundamental beliefs that guide the actions and attitudes of an individual. Values allow people to determine what is important to them, and can influence the way they treat themselves, others and the world around them.

Step 2. Display this values map to the students using your desired presentation method:

Source: https://www.commoncause.com.au/resources

Note: You can also print this map along with the list of values. If you choose to do so, we recommend you print it in colour.

Step 3. Invite students to write their favourite five values in their Student Worksheet. Whilst students are writing their values down, divide the whiteboard into the following ten categories:

Self-direction
Universalism
Stimulation
Hedonism
Achievement
Power
Security
Tradition
Conformity
Benevolence.

Step 4. Allow students two minutes to reflect back to the values map to assess which category (as above) their values align most with.

Step 5. Provide each student with a sticky note, and invite each student to place their sticky note on the whiteboard in the category (or top 2-3 categories) that their values align most with. Once each student has had their turn, invite the class to observe the whiteboard, noting how diverse the class is.

Part C: Jamal’s Story

Step 1. Play the following video:

ABC Kindess Hero | One Love Australia (https://youtu.be/caJGeEPU8j8)

Note: You might like to explain that Jamal is the founder of One Love Australia which has created the Reflect Forward program (including this unit of lessons) alongside Australia’s athletes.

Step 2. After viewing the video, explain to students that they will be involved in a Conversation Circles activity where students will reflect on Jamal’s story and discuss a series of questions with their peers.

Step 3. Place students into groups of five. Provide each group with a discussion question to talk about. In the first round, invite students to discuss the following questions for five minutes:

Why did the dehumanising treatment that Jamal experienced inspire him to begin One Love?
If everyone acted with kindness, do you think that dehumanising behaviours such as racism, othering, stereotyping and generalising would still exist? Why or why not?

Step 4. Ask two students from each group to rotate to a different group of five.

Step 5. In their new group, invite students to discuss the new following questions for five minutes:

How can we challenge dehumanising behaviours by acting with kindness?
What humanising behaviours do you hope to display more of?

During this time, students can share some of the key points from the previous discussion whilst reflecting on their new questions.

Step 6. For the final rotation, ask another two students from each group to rotate into a different group of five.

Step 7. In their new group, invite students to discuss the final question for five minutes:

How can we respond to dehumanising behaviours with kindness?

Step 8. Invite students to return to their original seats in the classroom (if they have moved) and proceed with the reflection.

Reflection - Journal Entry

Step 1. Explain to the students that they will have 10 minutes to journal their thoughts. They will complete their journal entry in their journals if they have one, or else on lined paper. Students can draw, write or dot-point their feelings in this journal entry. Please explain to students that their journal entries will be private and they will not be expected to share them with anyone, including the teacher.

Step 2. In their journal entry, invite students to reflect on this statement from Jamal, and their experiences of generalisation and judgement:

“I haven’t seen anything more powerful than kindness... It is infectious”.

Step 3. Invite students to begin their journal entry using the following guiding questions:

Guiding questions:

How might acting with kindness have changed the outcome/response of a scenario you were involved in or witnessed?
How may this improve the mental health of those who experience generalisation and judgement?

Step 4. Invite students to discuss their responses with a peer.

Differentiated Learning

Extension -

In Part A, students may like to research the links between dehumanising behaviours and racism. Direct them to the following links:
- We're Still Dehumanizing Others (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-09/a-new-study-finds-evidence-of-blatant-dehumanization-toward-certain-racial-groups)
- Dehumanisation, Superhumanisation and Racism (https://othersociologist.com/2015/02/07/dehumanisation-superhumanisation-racism/)
- The Rise of ‘Dehumanizing’ Anti-Asian Racism in the U.S. (https://asiasociety.org/video/rise-dehumanizing-anti-asian-racism-us)
- Racism, Black Life, Breath, and Dehumanization (https://www.racialhealthequity.org/blog/2020/7/10/racism-black-life-breath-and-dehumanization)

Provisions for Learning Support -

In Part A, provide the student with extra time to complete their responses; this will allow for increased thinking time which may assist students with synthesising their ideas, concepts and knowledge.

Teacher Reflection

Tackling Racism - Acting with Kindness

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

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Tackling Racism - Acting with Kindness

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

In this lesson