Teachers Have Options (Classroom Management Series #1)

Classroom management is an important topic for teachers and brings up a great deal of debate on which methods produce results. Ultimately, it appears some teachers can manage a classroom and others just cannot. Those teachers who are inadequate managers typically find themselves quickly and unwillingly pushed out of the education industry. However, teacher attrition rates are more important now than ever with a growing school-aged population, vast numbers of teacher retirees, and fewer and fewer new teachers entering the industry. Additionally, the cost of on-boarding new teachers only to deem them inadequate within a few months is crippling an already struggling financial system. Obviously, the industry isn’t ignoring this problem. No school district, administrator, or consultant wishes to be considered permissive towards poor classroom management or dismissive about teacher attrition. Why then has this problem not been solved?

In many ways the problems surrounding classroom management have been solved too well and that is the problem. The important thing for teachers and the education industry to remember is that there is no "one size fits all" model. This is an especially salient point for school districts and administrators to note. Once a “new” model is rolled out in a district from a consulting firm, the school district wants to see consistency across schools and wants a solid return on their investment. The consulting firm has a vest interested in implementation with fidelity in order to add to their track record of access. The district often mandates the new model be followed to the letter. New teachers adopt that model as gospel during the on-boarding process and step into their classrooms on day one ready to implement the district model with extreme fidelity while veteran teachers have experienced enough paradigm shifts to know how to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Veteran teachers survive and thrive in this new shift (as they have successfully done time and again), some of those new teachers find they were given the perfect model, while others are daily beaten down by a classroom management model that turns their classrooms into leaking, quickly sinking ships. In administrative efforts to save those sinking ships, mentor teachers, department chairs, deans, and district support staff try to help the teacher patch the holes; more often than not, the ship is taking on water more quickly than the bilge pumps can push it out. The ship, still transporting a teacher and twenty to forty students, is left to sink. The teacher is shortly jobless, and the students are now left a grade level behind their peers.

STOP!

Everyone, just stop!

We live in a world inundated with options. People thrive when they have options. Americans are obsessed with having options. The world of education is presented with a vast array of options for textbooks, discipline philosophies, scheduling models, district structures, nutrition plans, etc. The options are overwhelming, which is why it is so tempting for districts to narrow a teacher’s options down for them. We must be cautious with this filtering, however. Districts and administrators can filter too much.

I consider myself to be an accomplished classroom manager. In sixteen years of teaching, I can count on one hand the number of students who have been truly disruptive in my classrooms. I can count on two hands the number of times I have referred a student to the office. With that in mind, I am not permissive of disruptive behavior either. My classes have consistently produced excellent test scores across a variety of academic achievement levels, grade levels, and subject matters in schools of varying student demographics. However, I have never felt pinned down to a single discipline model. I strongly credit my school district and the excellent administrators in my career with that privilege. I know I am blessed to be able to say these things about my career. I have been able to select the discipline models that produced results for me in the varying teaching contexts I have experienced.

I challenge districts and administrators to be as much like those I have worked with as possible. Present teachers with options not mandates. As a district, it is perfectly fine to have a discipline model to train on and “mandate.” However, when a sinking ship of a classroom is found, work with the teacher to find an alternative model—get them a different ship—rather than trying to make the mandated model work for them by patching the holes.

Teachers must remember they have options. Education majors, have already been exposed to research on a variety of behavior models, pick what is comfortable and works. Non-education majors should try a google search. Research what the options are and weigh out what is likely to work best in a specific teaching context. Through all the models I have encountered in my years of teaching, here is what works for me no matter what my teaching context is, my school's discipline procedures are, or my district's discipline policies are.

TEACHERS ARE LEADERS.

It is labelled classroom management, but teachers are not typically thought of as managers or leaders. Rarely do teachers receive “leadership” training. But teachers are leaders. They lead a group of people (students) to success or failure annually on a project (the year’s curriculum and year-end exam). The best classroom management system for me has been internalizing my own responsibility and capacity to lead.

These are the leadership powers I have in my own classroom. As the captain of that ship, I have the duty to bring all of my students to academic success safely. At times, that requires me to be a coercive leader who must punish students. At other times, my leadership responsibilities require me to reward my students. I prefer and believe that referent classroom leaders are the strongest, most successful teachers; however, I know that Referent Power is but one tool in my leadership tool box and will not do every job that must be done. This is John French and Bertram Raven’s Bases of Social Power from 1959. There are numerous information sources about this online. Generally speaking, however, I see the bases of power in this manner:

• Coercive Power — Students do what is expected of them in the classroom because the teacher can punish them through the school discipline process. In my opinion, this is last resort power in a classroom. Unfortunately, all too often, this is the first weapon in a teacher’s arsenal that they wield. This mindset is typically the reason the classroom sinks.
• Reward Power — Students do what is expected of them because there is a reward for their compliance: no homework, treats at the end of the week, etc. This is power, but it is weak power. It will only carry a teacher as far as the students desire the reward. If the reward is no homework, that reward will not influence a student who has no intention of doing the homework.
• Legitimate Power — Students comply because of the title and office of teacher. As a result of their acculturation in education, they cooperate with their teacher. There is not much a teacher can do sway this balance of power. Students either recognize this power or they don’t. Administration can work to develop a school culture that empowers teachers with Legitimate Power and ardently supports that power dynamic, but that is ground work beyond the scope of a teacher’s classroom interactions.
• Expert Power — Students feel a new teacher does not have this power and this often what starts the ship taking on water. It is the same thing that happens with substitute teachers. Students feel that the teacher can be taken advantage of because the teacher “doesn’t know any better.” Teachers in this situation of perceived inexperience should seek out alternative ways to establish their Expert Power or credibility in the classroom: the highly respected university they attended, their mastery of the subject matter to be taught, their professional background prior to teaching, etc. In some cases, Expert Power can be “street credibility” from the teacher’s past. Depending on what a teacher’s Expert Power is this can be a long-term or short-term benefit to a teacher managing a classroom. Much of that depends on what the teacher is an “expert” in and how much the students care. This is the subject of the article, "Building Expert Power Beyond Your Curriculum."
• Referent Power — Students cooperate with a teacher because they respect the teacher. This power takes time to kick in, but in my mind, this one is the ultimate goal for classroom management. I know that once I have my students on this level, the rest of the year is smooth sailing. I begin working to build this dynamic from day one. I know that every interaction I have with each student contributes to this dynamic. One bad day, one unfiltered comment can ruin weeks of work toward this goal. Over time, the reputation and rapport I have developed with students at my school contribute greatly to my Referent Power. Students now walk into my class on the first day expecting this dynamic from me, so it is easier to maintain this classroom dynamic than what it was years ago building it. The specifics of how I work to build Referent Power will also be the subject of a future article.

Ultimately, over a successful career in education, I have come to believe that classroom management issues are issues of leadership. When a class or student presents as a difficulty for me, I do not turn to educational research, I turn to leadership research. I seek out ways to correct the problem by examining the power dynamic at work and leadership-based solutions to navigate that situation.

So many factors contribute to a successful classroom that it is crucial to recognize “one size fits all” mandates do not work. New teachers interviewing for jobs should be aware of districts and administrators who preach a party line of mandated discipline models. Prospective teachers are a highly needed, highly limited resource. In the interviewing process, make sure that professional judgment in the classroom is respected. Look for administrators and districts who want to foster professional growth and who believe that the greatest return on their investment is a teacher’s ability to maintain a professional career with the district.

Amanda McCallister is the Co-Founder and National Advisor of Sigma Alpha Sigma, Inc a non-profit organization dedicated to building educational excellence and opportunities for student leaders.