Culture is the key word. The school culture has to be developed on many fronts. The initial task is to develop a concept of professional care. This can be approached on 2 fronts:

1. Professional development on aspects of psychology and sociology to build the idea that all people devlop their ways of thinking in relation to the environment they live in. Teachers should be helped to realise that they are who they are because their development took place in a positive environment. They were lucky. They also need the corrolory, that tne children who behave badly are not at fault. Their behaviour is not acceptable, but it is not their fault. They therefore deserve professional care to try to help them improve. The difference between professional care andnpersonal care is important. We also carefully define professional relationships with students as separate from personal relationships. The teachers jeed to maintain a good professional relationship with every student even 7f they don't find them likeable.

2. Engage leaders in the school to act as reframers. When teachers voice complaints about students, these people advocate for a different view, of the child as victim of his or her circumstances that the teacher, with a godd professional relationahip may change.

This requires a few prior environmental factors. Teachets need to trust and value each other and the leaders in the svhool. Leaders in particular need to ensure that teachers understand and believe that they, the leaders, trust teachers to TRY, not necessarily succeed in their classes. Teachers need to feel that while they are professionally responsible for their efforts, they are not responsible for the behaviour of every student and they have a protective safety net if the student behavior exceeds what is bearable by the teacher and class. By the way, reducing the emphasis on academic achievement during the early stages can help. Teachers find it difficult to be supportive of students who disrupt the learning of others, if they feel their primary task is achievement. This emphasis on achievement can be reinstated when the school culture improves. It helps if the teachers can be made to believe that the achievement will take care of itself if the classes are running more smoothly.

A lot of this is a reframing process. Increasing teacher acceptance of responsibility for care, while reducing teacher responsibility for success (in changing behaviour). Increasing their empathy and acceptance while providing a safety net for when situations that are beyond their ability arise

The worst thing is for teachers to be asked to be responsible for everything while feeling unsupported. As things improve, the need for support will diminish.

It isnuseful to have an 'expert' talker to discuss, reframe and support teachers during the first few or more years. Someone who understands sociology, psychology , behaviour at leadt to a reasonable level.

I am particularly touched by your -framing Theory Mark as a main solution to help teachers institutionalize a 'Culture of Care' in their classes. i never saw teachers' constant complaints about students' behaviour as a source of hope, indicating that they want changes in the students' behaviour . I always viewed this as teachers' total frustration. Although High schools are bound by Educational Regulations and should conform to teaching specified numbers of subjects to certain grades even though some classes have not mastered the core subjects of Maths and English. I share your opinion and strongly believe that academic approaches can be relaxed in the early part of a school year to allow discipline to take the lead and structure the school culture desired, even though I find this to be easier said than done.

You have introduced me to some creative approaches and the separation of personal and professional care are areas i need to pay careful attention to. You have mentioned other points in your discussion and I will be following up on to see how best I can use them to improve the teaching learning encounters in the school. I really appreciate your discussion.

Much of my early schooling K-2, 6-8 grades, was in violent neighborhoods. I was physically bullied a great deal. It seems to me that the problematic children's parents need to be educated/involved to help reduce the violent behavior - not only where the teacher can see what is going on, but also in other places outside of view. In other words the changes in the problematic child have to come from within the child. This will require EMPATHETIC counselors in one-on-one situations, probably not the teacher - who has a dual role, most important of which is educating the class.

With respect, I will disagree with Antonio. In the first stages of change the teacher is critical. The trick is to make school a separate place from outside, where the expectations are of mutual respect and seeking solutions to problems. Teachers MUST be central to this because students see their place in school through their interactions with their teachers. For a while at least, teachers need to believe that their role is helping students to engage in learning, not that their role is to teach everyone the same thing at tne same time. Teaching parents is desirable, but often outside the school's control.

Although many schools adapt or adopt a maxim that children should be 'safe, happy and successful', the degree of emphasis on each will vary as will the interpretation of the meaning of each. Here the focus is on 'safe', and the creation of a place in the life of children in which they feel safe. The resistance to the violence will be through alternative challenging rituals that become established in the creation of a distinctive way of life, a shape and a pattern of association. The set of values adopted will need to be meaningful and ideas that come from those values part of the customs of the school. The school needs to develop a distinctive way life or pattern of experience that is separate from the experience of children beyond the school gates.

(reference The porpoise and the elephant: Birmingham on class culture and education in Which way is Up? R W Connell).

I have found the work you pointed me to. Glancing through it seems to offer valuable solutions to dealing with the violence problem. I will be giving it my full attention. Thank you for your guidance.

The respect/disrespect school construct is also debated here in Trinidad. The national culture values courtesy but we have high levels of gang violence/murder and the schools report high levels of disrespect. There isn't the resources available for community outreach or getting parents involved (and I suspect the same is true in Jamaica) and parents still tend to think that schools should beat their children until they are good. But children might not naturally be well-behaved and they might benefit from a reason to behave, so establishing a culture of care means establishing something to care about. It is no good asking them to care about far off futures, they need to care about something that impacts upon them there and then. I don't have the answer to this one but feel that such a project should start by assessing what it is that students currently care about.

Erik, building a culture of empathy, of care for what is here now in this place, of the person in front of you is what is needed. It is admittedly not easy in the face of opposing entrenched values but is the only way forward. You are right when you say the future is too far away. If possible, building a futures perspective in thenkids is useful, but I have found it more difficult tha working on their (mostly) natural empathy for people who they meet day to day. Not an easy problem to solve.

I wondered if you've seen Mary Gordon's work on Roots of Empathy? She is quite well known in the early education sector and has been spreading this methodology not only nationally but also internationally...I would advocate for this type of method to further develop a sense of caring among students, regardless of age, as we all come from families.

Thanks Ss Sheika. I was not acquainted with the work you mentioned but I have found it. Thanks also to Mark and Eric for the emphasis placed in establishing a 'Culture of Care' to achieve the needed transformation. We are however a school deeply entrenched in institutionalizing a 'Culture of Care' but we find that there are several set backs that in a second can wipe out all that was achieved over a long period but we are highly motivated to continue the transformation of our school, communities and students.

Set backs are to be expected. It is what comes from those that help to build a resilence in the students. The process of maintaining care in the face of adversity and of clawing back the fragile calm is a lesson worth learning for the students, but not easy for them to learn. A quick violent retaliation is always easy, controling the impulses are much harder and will take time and setbacks. If teachers are anything like the many I have worked with, they want students to ge fixed and can be deeply disappointed and even resentful when there is a relapse, so teachers need support to learn resilience too.

Mark, I like your emphasis on developing teacher resilience as I feel that teachers are central to developing and maintaining a culture of care. We all know the impact of a good teacher on an individual student. And we all know the impact of a weak teacher on classroom morale and behaviour. Therefore a culture of care needs to be something that is evident in all teachers' practice and all the teachers need to be addressing this with the same level of commitment and a common language of care. So training and continued support for staff is clearly an essential ingredient.

Erik I just responded in a question on body language, in which you also posted and I think it is relevant here. Body language of teachers is an important issue. A few years ago we were having trouble with bullying of other studente and teachers. I was deeply involved in reframing the school culture to try to solve the problem. We did it by being LESS punitive and focussed on creating good professional relationships with students and other staff. A major part of this is helping teachers understand that their body language is critical. I have helped staff become more aware of their body language so that they reflect what they truly intend. Thi is quite profound for some teachers. By becoming aware of body language they question their underlying beliefs and assumptions. By changing their beliefs they change their body language. I described how I manipulated my face so that I naturally smile as I walk around school. The impact of tjis has been positive and interesting. Students not only respond more warmly to me but they carry that warmth away with them. My impression (not tested) is that this has a ripple effect on positive feeling in the school culture.

Mark, having read your discussion I am now aware that we were not extending the 'Culture of Care' in the school to fully cover 'Teachers' Care' thoroughly. This could be a factor hindering progress. Sometimes in the struggle to transform students teachers are developed but not pampered enough to achieve the needed commitment in the school. This is an oversight that must become one of our strong focus.

Your discussion has pointed me to a major gap in our Programme since I have identified room for strengthening the 'Language of Care' among the teachers and the entire school population for fueling educational transformation.

I am impressed with the 'Body Language' discussion of 'Teachers' Care' Mark and know that it has to be addressed if students are to feel that they have their teachers' 'Love' and 'Care' even though some teachers have become so seasoned in this communication method and are often unaware of what they are communicating and the impressions students are getting of them along side the serious alienation their body language create for the students.

Eric,we will be implementing strategies which could get rid of some teacher's disgust for in-disciplined students which should help to develop caring attitudes among the teachers for these students. Once we have achieved this school wide we will be able to strengthen the 'Culture of Care' on which we need to build as the spring board for harmonious relations among teachers and students for empowering the entire school community. The challenges at every point have been great, demotivating at times but with determination the process is moving forward.

Olivia, another issue that you allude to and we have dealt wit to some extent, is the demotivation of teachers and the disgust or disdain felt for ill disciplined students. I'm sure you have looked at this but one bit of PD to help teachers cope with the negative impression of ill discipline is to explain functional behaviour. Once they get this iddea, it will help some get over their negative feelings. The other side of the coin is to work on an empathy approach by reframing their innate feelings. I spend time talking to teachers about why students who misbehave need our care more than the others. These students should be viewed as missing out on a fair go because they have been put in a position of being unlikable. This approach helps with some teachers. The last approach is to carefully frame success with the students as 'slight improvement so thay they might be better for the next teacher' and getting teachers to make this sort or success a professional challenge. This has worked with a number of my teachers. In the end it is empathising with these students issues that is the desired result.

Thanks Mark.I believe the next step for fueling the needed transformation progress of the students is establishing a school wide 'Culture of Care Programme' to help institutionalize 'Care' in the school.

Jacqueline not Olivia. Sorry.

Jacqueline,

The Flippen Group has done a good deal of work with establishing a caring culture in schools. Their Capturing Kids' Hearts process is transformational. It changed my school! You can go to their website and read the research. They training process involves the entire staff, and teaches teachers to demonstrate an empowering, affirming, and caring attitude.

Bonnie

Thanks very much Bonita. I never knew of this group prior to your discussion. I like their all embracing, full school approach.

Their website will give you a good deal of information. I just submitted my mid year report; attendance up, suspensions significantly down, office referrals significantly down, ... All that with a significant increase in our poverty numbers.

Flippengroup.com

Very useful and insightful discussion. Thanks Jacqueline for starting it. I particularly like the distinction being made between personal and professional care. There really is need to highlight the latter in the professional development of the teacher.

Very tough problem. I went to schools in which many of the pupils acted more like they were predatory prisoners than students.Knowing some of the hard core kids that were physically abusive to others (bullies), I can't see how one could possibly get through to them, enough so to make a lasting change. They must have had home environments and neighborhood environments that made them mean. Throughout their early childhood they had to have learned and acquired habits of being cruel and abusive. Good luck in changing these hard core bullies!

Olabisi, I share your view for the need to highlight Pofessional Care in Teachers' Professional Development as a solution to dealing with violent students. I do believe though that the behaviour teachers encounter in some violent prone schools from students can help to minimize their ability to provide a Culture of Care for these students. I am seeing this un-raveling before my eyes in my school and I am currently working to see how best this problem can be addressed.

Antonio, as hard as the difficulties are in managing violent schools and students it is worth our effort or we will have a really hard time existing peacefully when these students become the leaders of the society.

Jacqueline.

Dear Jacqueline,

There are some teachers that can devote their all - their life and soul - to helping their students; but what a sacrifice - for example, see the movie "Freedom Writers." Such teachers are my heroes. (I would not be able to make the sacrifices they do.) What is really needed to bring problem students out of their funk, is a team that will involve/educate the parents, as well the student and the teachers and the administrators and the government official who fund/regulate the schools.

The restorative justice model is seemingly increasing as a pathway to resolution and healing. I have not done sufficient study to fully understand the implementation of this model, but it is emerging as a viable alternative to traditional forms of discipline in the United States. The Culture of Care could be fostered through this model because teachers and school leaders become partners in the resolution and understanding sessions that are part of the restorative justice model.