Josephine Walton S00170561

EDAC314: Positive Behaviour Approaches

Assessment 1, Part A REACTION PAPER

The power of the classroom teacher has been significantly eroded due
mainly to the excessive involvement of parents.

We live in a society where everyone has to have their say, and everyone is
entitled to have their say. This is certainly true with the parents of the students
that we teach. With their childs best interests at heart, they have a lot to say
about how they believe a classroom should be run. It also does not help that
parents love to talk, and compare notes, and before you know it you can have an
angry mob outside of your door. The power and control that a teacher has over a
classroom can be significantly influenced by the involvement of parents in the
classroom.

In my experience, the involvement of parents has led to both positive and

negative outcomes. I have seen parents who have come in to help in the
classroom (for example, during a literacy block) and proceed to be nothing but a
nuisance. They insist on working only with the group that their child is in, they
allow their child to sit on their lap and be cuddled when they should be listening
and they try to manage student behaviour in a way that is not appropriate. I
have seen parents who compete with each other, desperate to know why their
child is not at the same reading level as another child or why they have not
moved onto the next set of coloured words. Additionally, the words that parents
speak have more power than they realised. Children are like sponges, and a
casual remark that a parent makes about a teacher when they think their child is
not paying attention could definitely have a lasting impact on them and how they
then interact with their teachers. This is where the power begins to come into
play. Parents do not even have to directly challenge the authority of the teacher
to have an influence on the behaviour of students, how the child regards their
teacher and the power that the teacher has over the room.

There is of course a flip side to this. I have seen parents who are nothing but
helpful and show complete respect for the teacher. They are only too happy to
help out in the classroom, coming on excursions, making costumes for
performances, running errands and helping appropriately in the classroom during
learning time (for example the literacy block). This is of course what we want. We
want parents to be involved in the learning of their child, to be a part of the
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school community and contribute in a positive and respectful way. Ideally,

parents would boost the power that a teacher has in the classroom by working
collaboratively with them to achieve the best possible results for their child.

The shift in our society has now lead to a certain amount of trepidation in
teachers, as they often fear the repercussions of an activity or an action of
discipline. Children love to go home and tell their parents about what happened
at school, but nowadays alarm bells will go off in the parents head at the
slightest indication that their child has been mistreated in any way. Often the
response is then not to talk to the teacher, but to go straight to the principle or
to the school gossip chain. A whisper on the playground or a phone call to the
principle does not give the teacher a chance to explain themselves. Parents of
course will instinctively take the side of their child, but this has reached a whole
new level as parents tend to believe their children are perfect and can do no
wrong.

Instinctively, I want to put the word power in quotation marks; i.e. power. I do
not believe that teachers should think of themselves as having power over their
classroom. Respect is a two-way street, and just because a teacher is the one
standing at the front of the classroom does not automatically mean they get to
have power over their students. Finally, I came to the conclusion that this is
not a blanket statement; I do not think you could argue yes or no to this question
definitively for all classrooms. Like each group of students is unique, so are their
parents and the relationship that they all have with each other. That being said, I
do strongly believe that parents can influence the balance of a classroom and
the way that a teacher is able to manage the behaviour of their students.

In beginning to research this topic, I first looked to define exactly what power
and, more specifically, teacher power in the classroom is. Kearney, Plax,
Richmond and McCroskey (1985) said that power can be regarded as the
perceived bases of control that a person has over another persons behaviour
that would otherwise not have occurred. Schrodt, Witt and Turman (2007)
explored the idea that the power of the teacher is evidenced when a teacher
communicates in a way that influences students to achieve desired individual
and class goals. There are also five different types of power: coercive, reward,
legitimate/assigned, referent and expert (Kearney et al., 1985; Schrodt et all.,
2007). Power in the classroom is an important part of classroom management;
but of course is not the only skill required. Communication is essential to the
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teaching process and the importance of effective classroom communication

cannot be overstated. In the classroom, power and communication are closely
related; as the use of power requires communication (McCroskey, J. C. &
Richmond, V.P., 1983). The quality of teacher-student relationships is also an
integral part of classroom management and has an enormous impact on the
success of students at every level (Alderman, G.L. & Green, S.K., 2011).

There are many factors that influence power in the classroom, and one of these
is the involvement of parents. Parental involvement can be a bit of a balancing
act, and different teachers can have varying opinions on the subject. Since the
1980s parental involvement has swept through the educational landscape
(Miller, A., 2003) and mainstream education has acknowledged the benefits of
engaging parents in the education of their child (Zurcher, M.A., 2016). These
benefits extend to all; the students, staff and parents. However, many teachers
feel unprepared to partner with parents, as the literature and their time at
university has failed to communicate the positive effects of parent participation
and the relationships between teachers and parents always have the potential to
become confrontational and tension filled (Miller, A., 2003; Zurcher, M.A., 2016).
Many teachers perceive parents as being indifferent to educational issues
(Zurcher, M.A., 2016) and that there is a distinct lack of support and back up for
the teacher and student coming from the home (Miller, A., 2003). What teachers
have to keep in mind though is the other side of the coin, which is the fact that
the majority of parents would embrace the opportunity to form a partnership
with their childs teacher and work together to support their learning (Zurcher, M.
A., 2016). Family involvement is a stronger predictor of student literacy
achievement than the socioeconomic status of the parent or the prior education
that the child has received (Zurcher, M.A, 2016), so working to include the
parents should be a priority for every teacher. Some teachers may resent having
to spend time co-ordinating and communicating with parents when they are
already so busy, but that time will be recovered and multiplied as the parents
become allies of their teaching and work to support what is being achieved in the
classroom.

This research does align with my views on parental involvement in the

classroom: which is that, when carried out in an appropriate manner, the
involvement of parents can be beneficial for the parents, the teachers and most
importantly, the students. My mind was opened to the use of the word power
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when it comes to classroom management, and I can see how power is in fact an
important part of how a teacher is able to conduct and control a classroom. The
research however did not explore how teachers should handle difficult parents,
and the impact that a negative parent can have on the child and then the power
of the teacher. I still believe that this does play a major role in the power of the
classroom teacher, and something that teachers do need to know how to handle.
The addition of social media, the internet (which gives people access to a wealth
of information and can lead them to believe they are an expert on the subject)
and a growing belief that children are perfect are also challenges that teachers
have to overcome. In conclusion, I would rewrite the statement that I was given
to be as follows: The power of the classroom teacher can be challenged when
there is excessive, negative and inappropriate involvement of parents.

REFERENCES

Alderman, G. L., & Green, S. K. (2011). Social Powers and Effective Classroom
Management: Enhancing Teacher-Student Relationships. Intervention in
School and Clinic, 47(1), 39-44, doi: 10.1177/1053451211406543

Kearney, P., Plax, T. G., Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (1985). Power in the
Classroom III: Teacher Communication Techniques and Messages.
Communication Education, 34(1), 19-28. doi: 10.1080/03634528509378579

McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (1983). Power in the Classroom I: Teacher and
Student Perceptions. Communication Education, 32(2), 175-184. doi:
10.1080/03634528309378527

Miller, A. (2003). Teachers, Parents and Classroom Behaviour: A Psychological

Approach. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.

Schrodt, P., Witt, P. D., & Turman, P. D. (2007). Reconsidering the Measurement of
Teach Power Use in the College Classroom. Communication Education,
56(3), 308-332. doi: 10.1080/03634520701256062

Zurcher, M.A. (2016). Partnering with Parents in the Writing Classroom. The
Reading Teacher, 69(4), 367-376. doi: 10.1002/trtr.1421