Authors: Dominic Cappello, Nan D. Stein, Ed.D.

The purpose of this teaching guide is to explore power, inequities, and violence in relationships as well as friendship, interventions, justice, and courage in relationships. The large subject of gender violence, which includes hazing, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, can be deepened, reinforced and strengthened by connections to and infusion into social studies and humanities courses. Classroom discussions on these topics can be extended beyond a particular lesson through literature, writing assignments, case studies, mock trials, and research assignments. The unique feature of this teaching guide is that it is literature- and history-based. Going beyond discussions of negative interpersonal interactions, the teaching guide makes use of selections from literature and history to include lessons on the themes of friendship, mutuality, affection, courage, and loyalty – some of the qualities that we hope will replace violence and coercion in interpersonal relationships. It is one thing to find books and historical incidents that highlight violence; it is quite another to find literary sources and historical incidents that bring out the positive and allow us to imagine relationships without violence and coercion.

Project: Sexual Harassment and Gender Violence in Schools: A Research and Development Project Linking Schools and Community-Based Organizations with Title IX