Reflections On The Experience of Teaching & the Ties to Community Practice Social Work

Even though I often talk about my experience as an elementary school teacher, and draw connections from the classroom to the practice of social work, I haven’t genuinely reflected on the experience until last week, when it began to “hit me like a truck.” It wasn’t that I hated teaching, or that I was completely terrible at it - but so many things about it felt so wrong to me, that until very recently, I had found ways to kind of block out the experience. This week, through my community practice social work lens, I finally started to critically evaluate my time as a teacher, and discover what might be my entry points for intervention as a future community social worker in the education field.

What stands out as most egregious to me, are varying styles of discipline between schools. Since leaving the field, and gaining a little bit of distance from teaching, I’ve started to look critically at the models of different schools, and what I think might actually be a good starting place for improvements.

Gardner Pilot Academy (GPA), where I spent my 2.5 years, is technically a Boston Public School, with certain “autonomies” only allotted to Pilot or Charter schools. As a full service school complete with a public health clinic, eye and dental care (periodically), counseling services (via two different providers), two universally provided meals per day, a social worker as vice principal, and highly experienced/dedicated staff - the combination of characteristics sounds like an absolute recipe for success! With the exception of a school wide Positive Behavior Incentive System (PBIS), teachers are granted full autonomy over their disciplinary styles, which again, sounds amazing.

For about a million different reasons tied to systems failures and complications, however, the idyllic school model is far from high achieving. Student behavior at the school is a massive issue - and speaking from experience, in attempts to do the very best I could, absolutely found myself reacting in lieu of thoughtfully responding to challenges. Inconsistencies in expectations and outcomes among staff are huge, making any sort of predictability difficult for kids to navigate day to day and year to year.

While in theory I love the idea and intent behind this specific model, I also know that as is, this model is not working for students, teachers, or administration - people are burning out.

Check out the Gardner Pilot Academy Website

On almost the opposite of the discipline spectrum, is the UP Academy “takeover” organization (also functioning within the BPS). UP schools are highly regarded for their structure, rigid discipline, and increases in test scores post take over. Among urban schools, this model has proven quite effective in working with challenging populations in that it provides consistency throughout an entire school, and universal accountability.

I’ve definitely had misgivings about this sort of model, but have at least tried to stay open - because if it works, who am I to judge.

Interestingly, the latter model just had a scathing article written about it via NPR which revealed some astonishing data around kindergarten suspensions (see below) and the insanity driving some of this discipline.

[Click here to read the NPR Article]

Removing my “teacher hat” and allowing myself to explore school disciplinary models as a social worker - I feel totally ideologically lost. Do I think either are perfect? Absolutely not. But, from a realist perspective, a variation of one or the other is currently used in nearly every urban public elementary school. Just because discipline is a certain way does not mean that it is necessarily right.

I realize that this entire blog post is somewhat of a personal rant, however, I find comfort in having a public space to write about this. Putting on my “community, participatory practice hat,” a reasonable first step in remedying some of the woes of public school discipline might begin with enlisting the help of MANY diverse parents, and students, in creating a “unique to each school” system in addressing the behavioral needs of students. A large sample of parents, students, teachers, and social worker(s) could collaborate to identify behavior expectations and agreed upon restorative practices so that there is more “buy in” from students, and support from parents. It would have to be an ongoing process - each year would require unique and repeated attention to the matter to make sure that the model reflects the current needs of the students, and approval of the families. These kinds of participatory meetings could, and should be administered by school social workers, using participatory practice organizational methods - at least as a starting place.

I’m not entirely sure what this might look like, however, I (and many other teachers) feel a huge sense of exasperation in “business as usual” and know that in regards to both of the earlier mentioned models… we could do better by everyone.

It’s easy to allow myself these creative approaches to discipline while also not faced with the challenge of running a classroom daily, but my sense of reflection is honest, and growing daily as I finally begin to process my experience, this time as a social worker.

Reference:

Weil, M., Reisch, M., & Ohmer, M. (2013). The Handbook of Community Practice. 2nd Edition. Sage.