Promoting Positive School Climates to Reduce Bullying

1. Leslie Whitelaw EDU 615 Promoting Positive School Climates to Reduce Bullying

2. School ClimateMeans • Quality and character of school life • Based on school experiences • Reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships between all stakeholders • Reflects leadership of the organization itself

3. Positive School Climates Promote • Academic engagement • Teacher satisfaction and retention • Students sense of belonging

4. Positive School Climates Have More • Collaborative relationships • Meaningful academic and social interactions • High expectations • Mutual respect

5. Positive School Climates Have Less • Crime • Discipline problems • School avoidance • Bullying

6. Positive School Climates • Are crucial to School Safety • Teachers are key components • Disparities exist in the quality of teachers and their classrooms. • Students perceive same climates differently.

7. Teachers Impact On Students • Teachers are role models: • Challenging students can cause teachers to use control strategies that are counterproductive and negatively affect academic achievement. • Can result in teachers becoming bullies. • Teaches students that bullying is the best defense against having it happen to them.

8. Negative Climate Created • Teachers’ behavior can set a precedent for the way other students treat difficult students. • Climate created in which such behavior becomes a precursor, giving sanction to student bullying behavior and mistreatment on the playground, in the unsupervised areas of the school, in after school activities, within teams and cliques, in homes, neighborhoods, and on the internet (Page, 2007).

9. What is Bullying? • A perceived imbalance of power between individuals where the more powerful intimidates the less powerful. • Power can be based on physical size, strength, position, authority, superior knowledge and competence: all things teachers posses as a part of their positions. • Does not have to be intentional • Perception of teacher’s power is enough to intimidate student into compliance.

10. Bullying Behaviors in Teachers • In a study on student aggression and teacher behavior (Spaulding & Burleson, 2001), teachers reported that they see the following behaviors in fellow teachers: bullying, derogatory comments, gossip, disrespect of authority, harassment, predetermined expectations of others, discord between individuals and groups, and angry outbursts. Not only did teachers witness these actions among their peers, but when asked to label these behaviors, they identified them as either violence or precursors to violence…some of the very behaviors schools are trying to eradicate from the student population.

11. Statistic on Teacher Bullying • At least fifty to sixty percent of all students experienced mistreatment by an educator (Hymen & Perone,1998) .

12. Why Do Teachers Bully? • Don’t understand reason for students misbehaviors • Use teaching strategies based on erroneous beliefs regarding student motivation • Have not been given training on using alternatives to punitive methods with uncooperative students

13. How Schools Contribute to Bullying Behaviors in Teachers • Schools may unwittingly contribute to bullying through inappropriate classroom placement, irrelevant instruction, inconsistent management, overcrowded classrooms, rigid behavior demands or insensitivity to student diversity • (Spaulding, 2005).

14. Conclusions • How a teacher treats a student has a profound impact on student behavior, instruction, classroom and school climate. • If administrators and teachers want to change student behavior and attitudes, they should start by modifying their own behavior and attitudes. Students learn to act in the ways we have taught them to act. • Teachers model expectations: if they show aggression, they will get aggression (Spaulding & Burleson, 2001).

15. What Can We Do a provide a Positive School Climate? • Don’t just blame teachers • Provide professional growth opportunities that teach classroom management using positive behavior supports instead of punitive measures. • Make teaching less isolating -Administrators should help facilitate development of teacher study groups to discuss teaching beliefs and everyone’s role as models of anti-bullying.

16. Providing a Positive School Climate in the Classroom • Provide relevant interesting work that is at the proper level. • Give clear classroom rules. • Have consistent , high expectations. • Avoid power struggles. • Be aware of early warning signs of violence and have response plan in place.

17. Providing a Positive Schoolwide Climate • Goal is to promote an environment where students are successful learners because they feel accepted, supported and safe. • We can do this by developing positive relationships between staff, students, families • Administration must address teachers concerns about student behavior in a timely and appropriate manner.

18. Conclusion • We must all have a shared vision of working together to promote and provide a positive school climate where students can learn without fear of being bullied.

19. Online References www.schoolclimate.org/climate/standards.php www.ncsvprp.org/resources_assets/cps v%2520fact http://cie.asu.edu/volume8/number17

20. Online References www.indiana.edu/~safeschl/psv.pdf www.educationnews.org/articles/20389/1/ The-Teacher-As-Bully