Class Management

Not on your own

What's the problem?

It's the traditional one, and the one I experienced in that primary school class so long ago. You are on your own in the classroom, and discipline has become a battle of wills between you and the class. Older and more experienced teachers have no difficulties: their mere shadow on the glass of the classroom door is sufficient to instil calm and work.

It's just me! It's my personal inadequacy, ineptitude and incompetence which causes this! I'll never make it!

What does it mean?

It means an abrogation of responsibility by management.

Let's be realistic. The fact that you have some problems and other people do not does suggest that you have something to learn. But everyone has to start somewhere, and it is not your "fault".

The management of the institution has a responsibility to establish a culture in which you are free to get on with your job (teaching) and the students are equally free to get on with theirs (learning) —whether as individuals they like it or not.

How can I handle it?

Do not feel that going to your line manager to discuss class management problems is an admission of failure (even if they try to dump it back on your shoulders).

• To be fair, establishing disciplinary policies in a college is not as easy as it is in a school. The institution is more amorphous, the students less committed to it as a whole, and the sanctions less clear, but:
• The college will have a policy. It is their responsibility to ensure that you know what it is (for their sake and that of the students as well as yours). It is the responsibility of course tutors and programme area managers or their ilk to ensure that it reaches into the classroom, and that it works.
• The policy is a back-up. It should not be invoked for every minor transgression in class, but you are entitled to have the confidence of it standing behind you at all times. You are in the classroom in three capacities:
• You are the authority on your subject. Basically, that is what gives you the right to presume to teach (leaving aside the odd occasions when you have to cover on something you haven't a clue about).
• You are the representative of the college in the classroom: behind you, the students should see the ghosts of the whole panoply of the authority of the college, up to the Principal and the governors.
• You are you. But that is the informal role. From it follows the credit you can claim for your achievements, but the safety-net for your limitations is the college's job. After all, they appointed you.

So what should you know?

1. Whom do I go to if I am having problems? The policy should spell this out clearly.
2. What sanctions are available to me? Can I exclude students from the class? Can I dock marks from assessments? Can I contact parents or employers? Can I insist students talk to a manager or student services? Can I hit students round the ear with a board-rubber (even if it is made of expanded polystyrene)? (I make no judgements about the appropriateness or otherwise of these moves! You may well find that you have fewer sanctions than you would like, but better to know than not.)
3. What sanctions are available to the managers: and what are the procedures and safeguards? What may I be letting both me and my student in for if I invoke a procedure? These things have a tendency to develop juggernaut momentum.
4. What information am I entitled to? This is particularly an issue if students in your class have special educational needs (from dyslexia to ADHD). This is a delicate issue, balancing privacy with pragmatism, and may be interpreted differently between institutions. Sometimes it comes down to whether you ask or not—so make sure that you do.
5. What happens if I get it wrong? This may be verging on the cynical or the paranoid, but there should be procedures to protect you as well as to call you to account, and they should be transparent.

Take this "shopping-list" to your manager, or to whoever is engaging you if you are a visiting lecturer, and do it matter-of-factly before you encounter problems. Do not be put off by the response, "Why, do you think you are going to have problems?" which is the traditional manipulative tactic to put it all on your shoulders. Simply reply that you don't know—perhaps add (if true) that you have not had any such problems in the past—but that you like to be clear about the contractual elements of any business deal you enter into.

• You should in any case be offered induction opportunities and ideally, a mentor, when you start. This will become a requirement when the "Equipping our Teachers for the Future" proposals are implemented in 2007.

My apologies if you end up with a ring-binder full of formal memos no-one ever expects to have to act on! At least you know where you stand, and that is better than guessing.

Peer Support

Newly qualified school-teachers (NQTs) already get organised support, but as noted above it is not as common in further (FE) and higher education. Indeed, since many FE teachers start by undertaking just a few hours' work a week, many of them have little chance to get to know their experienced colleagues, so that they can rely on them for support.

It is however well worth going out of your way to make friends with them, by spending time in the staff-room, rather than just rushing in to teach your session and then disappearing afterwards. Not all the gossip and advice will be constructive, but most will be.

As a final back-up, join the trade union.