Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: Hard And Soft Power

30 minutes

Part B: Analysing Power

20 minutes

Part C: Judging The AFL

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

the difference between hard and soft power
the impacts of the use of power
how power can be used effectively or ineffectively.

Students can...

analyse the intended impact of usages of power
identify the impacts of use of power
apply their knowledge of hard and soft power to analyse a written policy
form opinions, and respond to the opinions of others, about an organisation’s actions.

Part A: Hard and soft power

Step 1

Ask for two student volunteers. Place one chair at the front of the room and ask one of the students to sit in it.

Step 2

Tell the other student to convince the seated person to give up their seat. If the seated person feels convinced, they should stand up. The convincer can use any (verbal) tactics they wish - they could try gaining sympathy (pregnant or elderly), scaring them through threats, disgusting them, nagging them, or tricking them, for example.

Step 3

Once the seated person has been convinced, or the convincer has tried several strategies, stop and ask the class:

What strategies did you notice being used?
What strategies would you use?

Step 4

Repeat the game if you have more interested volunteers, but confine the activity to no more than eight minutes.

Step 5

Introduce to students the concept of hard power versus soft power using the definitions below.

Hard power (coercive)

Soft power (convincing)

Influencing people through coercion (forcing them or making them feel afraid to not comply)

E.g. military power, threats of violence

Attracting or persuading people to do something through positive motivation (e.g rewards, encouragement, shared values)

E.g. a sense of belonging, celebrating a way of being

Step 6

Ask students to come up with examples of how hard power and soft power could be used in the chair game. How about in other arenas?

Step 7

Explain to students that today you will be looking at how the AFL uses its power, focusing particularly on the story of Adam Goodes told through the documentary, The Final Quarter.

Invite students to discuss:

What types of powers does the AFL have as an organisation?

Note: Students can consider the players and members of the organisation in general when delivering their responses.

Step 8

Distribute the Student Worksheet and invite students to think about this question, noting their answers:

Why might the AFL want to use hard or soft power on their fans?
What purposes might they have?

Suggested answers: to get them to buy more tickets, to get them to support a particular cause/player, to get them to change behaviour at games.

Invite students to discuss their responses with a partner, noting down any new ideas. Then invite students to share key points with the class.

Step 9

Ask students to generate examples of how a sporting organisation (like the AFL) could use hard power and soft power on its fans. They should write their responses in this table on the Student Worksheet:

Part B: Analysing power

Step 1

Show students a list of actions that were taken by the AFL in the case of Adam Goodes:

A fan being asked to leave after making a racist comment
Having an Indigenous round to celebrate Indigenous culture
AFL having players run out under a ‘Respect’ banner
Players wearing wristbands with Aboriginal flag colours on them
AFL boss asking fans to not boo.

Divide students into groups and have them sort the examples listed onto this continuum line:

Hard power ----------------------------------> soft power

You could also print out the actions on strips of paper, giving each to one student. Label one side of the room ‘hard power’ and the other side ‘soft power’, then have the class direct each of the students (based on their assigned action) to a place along the continuum, justifying their choices.

Step 2

Show students the following clips and ask them to complete the table (examples provided below):

‘Ape’ Comment - "Unconditionally" (https://vimeo.com/389149929/ea4510fba9)

Indigenous Round 2015 - Away we go (https://vimeo.com/389150192/5ba120b675)

Gill McLaughlin issues a warning (https://vimeo.com/378672394/53e301c7e8)

Examples of hard power used by the AFL	Intended impact	Examples of soft power used by the AFL	Intended impact

Step 3

Invite students to free-write for five minutes in response to these questions:

What balance of soft and hard power did the AFL use in the Adam Goodes’ case?
Why do you think it chose one over the other?
Do you think the AFL used appropriate power under the circumstances?

Step 4

Read to students, or have students read the following introduction to the AFL’s Racial Vilification Framework:

“The AFL industry does not tolerate vilification in any form and is committed to ensuring safe, welcoming and inclusive environments for all people involved in Australian Football. To achieve this, the AFL adopts a consistent approach to a range of social issues, underpinned by education, awareness-raising activities, support services, social responsibilities, research and evaluation and compliance. This document exists to provide a framework for the AFL’s commitment to social inclusion through the achievement of the objectives outlined in section three.

The aim of the AFL Vilification Framework is to:

Promote an inclusive environment for all people within the AFL industry irrespective of their personal characteristics, status or orientation;
Identify strategies targeted at the prevention of vilification before it occurs;
Ensure that individuals that have been subject to vilification within the AFL industry are supported by best practice services focused on their individual needs;
Educate and raise awareness of the AFL industry to the impact that vilification can have on individuals, clubs, the industry and the wider community;
Build the capacity of the AFL industry to recognise, respond to and provide support to persons who are affected by any form of vilification.”

(Source)

Step 5

Invite students to discuss:

How does this statement reflect the AFL’s power?
What sources of power are mentioned?

Step 6

Divide students into groups and allocate each group a segment of the AFL Vilification Framework as follows:

Segment 7 (p 10)
Segment 8 (p.11)
Segment 9 (p.12)
Segment 10 (p.13)
Segment 11 (p.14)
Segment 12 (P.15-16).

Groups should read their section and consider the types of power and/or influence discussed in the document.

Step 7

Invite students to report back to the class about their segment, answering the following questions:

What type of power did your segment deal with? (Hard/soft/both)
What opportunities for influence did the AFL describe in their segment?
In their opinion, what are the benefits and limitations to these steps being taken by the AFL?

Part C: Judging the AFL

Step 1

Have students stand up and clear enough space for free movement from one side of the room to the other.

If this is too disruptive, you could use another means of showing support/disagreement such as hands up/hands down, standing/sitting, etc.

Step 2

Explain to students that the left side of the room is for agree and the right side is for disagree. They may stand somewhere in between if they have reasons for both sides.

Step 3

Read out the statements below and ask students to move to a position along the line to demonstrate their agreement or disagreement with the statement. Ask students to turn to others near them and ask them the reason for their stance. Pick a few students from across the room and ask them to explain their stance.

Statements:

The AFL did not use its power effectively
The AFL could have done more to stop the booing
The AFL cannot control its fans
The AFL is not responsible for its fans’ behaviour
Organisations like the AFL should not use hard power on its fans.

Step 4

Tell students to choose one of the statements that were just discussed and write an argumentative paragraph about their view. This should include:

Their stance
The reasons for their stance
Evidence from the clips and/or article/s to support their stance
The thoughts shared by a peer (who either agreed or disagreed)
A counterargument to possible refutations.

Step 5

Inform students that the AFL has released an apology for its failure to act during the booing of Adam Goodes. Have students read the statement/apology:

AFL, clubs unreservedly apologise to Goodes for not 'standing with him' - https://www.afl.com.au/news/77460/afl-clubs-unreservedly-apologise-to-goodes-for-not-standing-with-him

Step 6.

Ask students to identify four sentences in the article that convey the concept of power or powerlessness. They should write these in the first column of the table below (also on the Student Worksheet) and answer the question in column two for each sentence listed (an example is given below):

Quote	What it conveys about power/powerlessness E.g. Who does it make look powerful? What does it tell us about the use of power? What does it tell us about the impact of powerlessness?

Step 7

Invite students to turn to a partner and discuss whether their views on the AFL’s use of power changed after reading its apology? They should explain how and why.

Reflection

Invite students to write responses individually to the following questions:

What is more effective in your view - hard or soft power?
When have you experienced an organisation using hard or soft power against you?

Differentiated learning

Extension

In Part C, students could write a response to the prompt "How does authority meet with the power of the masses and which is actually more powerful?"
Students could read this article and annotate the AFL Vilification Policy with the changes they think should be made to address issues surrounding crowd behaviour: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-to-tighten-discrimination-policy-20180531-p4zir2.html

Provisions for Learning Support

In Part C, students could write about one example of power and if it worked well - for example, the AFL putting out a statement saying that the booing should stop.

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 - Organisational Power

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students understand...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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