Australian Journal of Teacher Education - Teacher Education to Meet the Challenges Posed by Child Sexual Abuse - Vol 36 - Issue 11 - November 2011

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Aldword

Child sexual abuse creates serious implications for teachers’ pre-service preparation and ongoing professional development. Teachers must balance a pedagogical role with a legal and professional obligation to report suspected abuse. Effective support and training are required to build specialised knowledge and confidence for identifying indicators and responding appropriately. This article reviews the social, health and educational consequences, and the legal context, then reports findings on Australian teachers’ received training levels and satisfaction, informing strategy improvements.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Social Context

Incidence and Prevalence

Australian Journal of Teacher Education Teacher Education to Meet the Challenges Posed by Child Sexual Abuse Ben Mathews Queensland University of Technology Abstract: The phenomenon of child sexual abuse has significant implications for teachers’ pre-service training and professional development. Teachers have a pedagogical role in dealing with abused children, and a legal and professional duty to report suspected child sexual abuse. Teachers require support and training to develop the specialised knowledge and confidence needed to deal with this complex context. This article explains the social context of child sexual abuse, its health and educational consequences, and the legal context, showing why teachers require this specialised training. It then reports on findings from an Australian study into the amount of training received by teachers about child sexual abuse, and teachers’ satisfaction with that training. Results have implications for teacher training strategies in pre-service and in-service settings. Introduction Children who are sexually abused often suffer severe health, behavioural and educational consequences. Due to its prevalence, many and perhaps most teachers are likely to have to deal with sexually abused children. Many teachers will also need to comply with legal and policy-based duties to report suspected cases of child sexual abuse. Teachers’ preservice education and in-service professional development must develop teachers’ social and legal literacy to equip them with the necessary specialised knowledge to identify indicators of child sexual abuse, and to enable them to feel confident in fulfilling their role as reporters of child sexual abuse. This article first demonstrates why teachers deserve to have sufficient training, knowledge and confidence in this context, by reviewing evidence about the social context of child sexual abuse, the educational consequences of sexual abuse, and the legal and policy requirements placed on teachers. The article then reports descriptive findings of a recent study in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia about the levels of teachers’ pre-service and in-service training regarding child sexual abuse, and teachers’satisfaction with the adequacy of the training. These findings are important because they suggest that significant improvements can be made in the breadth and nature of pre-service and in-service teacher education, to better equip teachers with the knowledge and confidence required to respond appropriately to cases of child sexual abuse. Findings have implications for education systems already having approaches to teacher training and reporting of suspected child sexual abuse, and for those which have not yet developed such systems. Vol 36, 11, November 2011 13 Australian Journal of Teacher Education Social, Educational, Legal and Professional Contexts of Child Sexual Abuse Social Context Incidence and Prevalence Sexual abuse of a child who is not legally capable of consenting to the acts can take many forms, as is made clear by Australian criminal laws and authoritative humanitarian organisations (New South Wales Crimes Act 1900; Queensland Criminal Code 1899; Western Australia Criminal Code Act Compilation Act 1913; World Health Organisation, 2006). It can be inflicted by an adult, or by an older child where the victim is not developmentally capable of understanding the acts. Sexual abuse includes acts not only of penetrative abuse, but also acts of masturbation, oral sex, fondling, voyeurism, exposure to sexual acts, exposing the child to pornography, involving the child in pornography, and other acts done to sexually gratify the abuser. The officially recorded incidence of child sexual abuse in Australia has been stable in the past five years, with between 3400 and 3735 Australian children in substantiated cases annually from 2004/05 to 2008/09 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2006, 2007,

FAQs

What responsibilities do teachers have regarding child sexual abuse?

Teachers have a pedagogical role in dealing with abused children and a legal and professional duty to report suspected cases.

Why is specialist training considered necessary for teachers?

Teachers need support to develop specialised knowledge and confidence to identify indicators and fulfill their reporting role in a complex context.

What does the article report about teacher training in Australia?

It reports findings from an Australian study on the amount of training teachers received about child sexual abuse and their satisfaction with that training.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Aldword