AWE-Some Women
The Association of Women Educators
Leading Social Change

Since its inception, the Association of Women Educators has worked to address social and economic disadvantage for women and girls.  Although particularly cognizant of the ways systems and practices generally privilege males, through our work we also acknowledge gender and power dynamics which disadvantage some boys and men. 

Through our publications, lobbying, and professional development activities                      

we respond to identified key areas of leadership, work education and career choices, wellbeing, and violence. 

The Association of Women Educators Leading Social Change project has been funded by the Australian Government through the Women’s Leadership and Development Programme.  Through the project our aims are to:
  
Build our community and its capacity to represent and support members

• generally enhance our organization as a caring, collaborative learning community of “energy and knowledge creators” (Fullan, 2001, p.270)
• facilitate increased communication between existent and potential members of the AWE throughout Australia, particularly those in rural and remote areas
• seek feedback about member involvement in the AWE, support needs and  recommendations
• investigate perspectives and concerns about issues for girls and women throughout the wider community
• develop our community and provide access to community forums and current research and resources for women educators who are marginalized by their geographical location or otherwise disadvantaged by their inability to attend networking or professional development opportunities

Increase our member and organization capacity for leadership and influence on education policy and practice

• generally promote and model the conceptualization of leadership as productive pedagogy and facilitate conversation about pedagogy and leadership to inform the development of professional learning communities
• provide models and examples of successful practice throughout Australian communities in a range of locations   
• identify and critique simplistic, essentialist and antifeminist perspectives, and political agendas, which are constraining progress in our systems and schools, and heighten individual and systemic awareness of gender justice issues and  specific key areas of concern for educators
• support reflection about personal gender identity constructs and their influence on our interpretative frameworks and foster collective professional responsibility, confidence and courage to resist the popular discourse, silencing and inertia around gender justice
• support and influence educators to better utilize management and curriculum opportunities, and the wealth of existent resources

To achieve these goals the proposed strategies are:

1. Research by survey, interviews and focus groups with questions relating to participants personal and professional experiences in education for social change.  These may be in any context or for any length of time.  Information about motivations, pathways and challenges, and advice and recommendations for support and resources, will be used to inspire and develop our capacity for leading social change. A questionnaire will be distributed by email, accessed on the AWE website, and issues discussed in the site Leadership forum.  A website feedback survey will ask about visitors experience navigating and seeking information, and their needs and recommendations for developing the site.
    
2. Website development including a new look and features including information about the project, the research tools (questionnaire and website feedback survey), and discussion forum. The research findings will be published on the website as profiles, anecdotes, case studies, and a summary report. 
    
3. A new online social change discussion forum which will enable any interested members of the education and wider community to raise concerns, discuss issues, and share advice and resources.
    
4. A virtual library of links, articles and resources in the key areas to be informed by the identified needs and recommendations from the project research.  
    
5. Focus groups and leadership seminars for teachers and administrators.  These will explore the themes and issues, gaps and silences, and questions which are revealed by the initial survey and will be held at centres in various national locations before April 2009.