Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Introduction

10 minutes

Part A: The Facts

20 minutes

Part B: Unpacking The Media

20 minutes

Part C: The Race Debate

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will...

understand that there are different types of racism, and all of them are harmful
understand that racism isn’t always obvious to everyone, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an impact
understand that commercial media is powerful and is in a position to persuade vast numbers of people to believe in a particular perspective
understand the responsibility of sports organisations, such as the AFL, to care for its players and make a stand against racism.

Students can...

analyse the issue of booing in sport from various perspectives
evaluate the role of the supporters in establishing atmosphere and safety for each other and the players
identify the implications of booing of an individual player, including harm caused by bullying and racism.

Introduction

Hand out the Student Worksheet and invite students to write down examples from the video that relate to physical health/wellbeing and emotional health/wellbeing.

View this video made by people from Coen in Cape York.

‘IHHP Coen Central Remix’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpE4JoY5t1g)

Using a soft football or other soft ball explain that you will throw it to a student. When they catch it they are to call out one reason why people play sport (e.g. for fun) and then throw the ball to another student who calls out another reason (e.g. competition). Keep passing the ball for two minutes or so.

Part A: The facts

Step 1

Advise students that this class will focus on the story of Adam Goodes as told through the film The Final Quarter. This film explores the treatment of AFL star Adam Goodes and the media and community responses. An Aboriginal player, and number 37 for the Sydney Swans, Adam Goodes was singled out for verbal abuse, booing and jeering by spectators from a range of clubs during the last three years of his career in 2013 - 2015, until he retired from the game.

Step 2

Invite students to fill in the diagram below while they are watching the following clips from The Final Quarter:

Booing At The 2014 Grand Final and Rob Bonnet Interview (https://vimeo.com/348311955/d28794a65e)

The Booing (https://vimeo.com/348314025/f46ed3e703)

Step 3

Have students discuss their responses in pairs and share any questions they have about the booing. Invite students to ask their questions to the class and allow other students to respond.

Where necessary, clarify the following:

The booing started after multiple incidents where Adam Goodes called out someone for being racist. Many people were unhappy with Adam Goodes pushing his anti-racism agenda.
The booing went on for over 17 weeks, any time Adam Goodes got possession of the ball. This indicates that the crowd wasn’t booing his specific actions in the moment, they were booing him as a person.
Some people were angry at Adam Goodes for publicly calling out a 13-year-old girl for calling him an ‘ape’ during a 2013 Indigenous Round match. However, he didn’t press any charges, accepted her apology and asked the media to go easy on her, confirming that she was 'still so innocent'. These comments were largely ignored by the media, which led to biased views on the issue.
In 2014 Adam Goodes was first accused of staging for free kicks (one reason given for the booing in the 2015 season), but in fact he ended at 194th on the list for free kicks during the 2015 season with only 14 free kicks overall. This suggests that accusations that he was staging for free-kicks in the 2015 season were largely unfounded and an insufficient excuse for the booing.
Some people didn't like Adam Goodes' war cry at a 2015 Indigenous Round match, calling it "violent and aggressive." Adam Goodes explained it was simply a performance to honour the Flying Boomerangs, the Under 16s side, that had taught him the moves. These comments were also largely ignored by the media leading to biased views again.

Note: Refer to these articles that explore some of the dialogue around why Adam Goodes was booed, if you need some more information:

Step 4

Invite the students to discuss the following:

What is sportsmanship?
- Definition of ‘sportsmanship’: “Fair and generous behaviour or treatment of others, especially in a sporting contest.” (Source)
Does sportsmanship also apply to spectators and umpires? Should it? Why/why not?
How might sportsmanship have helped in this situation?
Who could have acted to stop the booing?
- Possible answers: the umpires, the AFL, the media, the players.

Part B: Unpacking the media

Step 1

Divide the class into five groups and provide each group with one of the following articles. Print these using the Media Articles PDF.

a) Making a Stand for Adam Goodes, The Age, Martin Flanagan, 7/8/2015
b) If Goodes was booed by racists, why was Rioli cheered?, Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt, 26/5/2015
c) Booing Adam Goodes – racism is in the stitching of the AFL, The Conversation, Keith D. Parry, 29/7/2015
d) Whether or it’s racist or not – it’s time to stop booing Adam Goodes, www.news.com.au, Anthony Sharwood, 28/7/2015
e) Only Adam Goodes can stop the booing, Daily Telegraph, Miranda Devine, 29/7/2015

Allow the groups time to read and discuss the articles, then invite them to share some key points from their article.

Step 2

Explain the following to the class:

All major newspapers in Australia are owned either by News Corp Australia or Nine Entertainment Co (who merged with Fairfax Media in 2018). (Sources: Media of Australia, Fairfax Media, Wikipedia, accessed 19 July 2019)

The articles you just read are held by the following:

The Herald Sun, www.news.com.au and The Daily Telegraph are all owned by Newscorp (headed up by Rupert Murdoch)
The Age is owned by Nine Entertainment Co (headed up by James Packer, son of Kerry Packer)
The Conversation is a not-for-profit charity

Invite students to discuss the following questions:

Did you realise that only two companies owned such a vast majority of Australia's media channels?
What have you noticed about the values demonstrated by each company?
Are these values embedded into their journalism? E.g. do all News Corp articles share similar arguments?

Step 3

Invite groups to discuss their article and individually fill in the summary table below:

Who is the writer of the article? Who is the publisher? Who owns this publisher?	What is the writer’s background, context and aim? E.g. are they a sports reporter or an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person?	What perspectives have been included in the article? Are there diverse perspectives included (such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives)?	In your opinion, what emotions does the writer want the reader to feel? What do they want the reader to go away thinking?

Step 4

Invite groups to prepare a one-minute presentation for the class sharing what they found.

Step 5

Invite groups to present their presentation.

Part C: The Race Debate

Optional: If you would like to ground the following activities within the broader context of race relations in Australia, you can view the charts in this article (https://theconversation.com/twelve-charts-on-race-and-racism-in-australia-105961) focusing particularly on ‘Feelings Towards Specific Groups’.

Step 1

Show students ‘The Invisible Discriminator’:

‘The Invisible Discriminator’ (https://youtu.be/7FUdrd0Mg_4)

Invite students to answer the questions:

Is racism always obvious?
Are there different types of racism?

Step 2

Clarify that there are three types of racism - direct (overt), indirect (covert) and institutional.

Explain the following:

Direct racism is when someone is clearly treating a person differently because of their race.
Indirect racism is when someone treats a person differently, but it is not clear that it is because of race.
Institutional racism is when organisations or governments have systems and habits in place that treat people differently on the grounds of race.

You might like to use the Different Forms Of Racism factsheet to explore this further.

Step 3

Invite the class to imagine the following scenario:

It is Friday 27 May 2015. On Monday 30 May, the CEO of the AFL, Gillon McLachlan, will hold a media conference to give the AFL’s response to the booing of Adam Goodes. He is under pressure to say that the booing is based on race.

Step 4

Invite three volunteers to join together to play the role of Gillon McLachlan, CEO of the AFL.

Divide the remaining students into three groups and tell them that each group will be developing an argument that they will present to Gillon McLachlan about how he should respond to the booing issue at the press conference.

Invite each group to consider the questions:

What was the booing based on? Was it based on race?
How can you tell? Consider that racism can be direct, indirect and institutionalised.
What should the response of the AFL have been?

As groups are working on their presentations walk around the room and support groups to think about:

How racism can become ingrained in organisations (institutional racism)
Reasons why it may not have been in the interests of the AFL, at the time, to admit that the booing was based on race
Why the AFL may have been reluctant to take drastic action to stop the booing (such as removing spectators or calling off the matches).

While groups are planning their responses, get the ‘CEO’ to review the following article and video (both of which were published at the time) and jot down anything they may need to consider when making their decision:

Step 5

Invite each group to prepare and present a 3-minute argument directed to the CEO, but delivered in front of the whole class.

Step 6

Invite the ‘CEO’ to consider each group’s arguments and formulate the final position that the AFL will adopt, including any actions the AFL will take to address racism in the sport or to support Adam Goodes. Once they are finished, have them present their statement to the class.

Reflection

While the ‘CEO’ is formulating their response, the remaining students can complete this reflection:

Describe your feelings when watching the film excerpts
Did your feelings change during the class presentations? How/why?
Do you think you would find it difficult to respond to an issue like this if you had a public position like Gillon McLachlan?

Differentiated Learning

Extension

Ask students to respond to the following question:

If you were to write a headline for this topic or issue right now, what would that headline be?
How has your headline changed based on today's class? How does it differ from what you would have said yesterday?

Provisions for Learning Support

Consider how you create small groups. It may be worthwhile for this lesson to mix students from different backgrounds and perspectives so that they can learn from each other. Be careful, however, not to create a situation where minority voices are outnumbered and they may not feel comfortable sharing.
Students may be unfamiliar with words pertaining to racism. You might like to share this Racism Vocabulary factsheet with them.
This lesson requires teacher sensitivity to students' feelings and experience in relation to racial discrimination, bullying, and harassment. Teachers are encouraged to create an environment where students feel supported in their emotional response throughout the lesson and after the lesson.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Final Quarter - Revealing Racism

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

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