Group Vibe: Your Classroom Culture Shapes You Too

I wasn’t aware of my demeanor until a colleague (gently) observed, “You seem different with that group: your voice gets louder and more high-pitched when you talk to them.”

My colleague was correct. Something about the nature of that Third Block afternoon class made me feel rigid and controlling. To be honest, I disliked the way I acted around them. 

The reason for my uptightness was easy to identify. Mira and Evelyn (pseudonyms), two lead figures in the peer network, regularly withdrew from discussions and made silly faces at each other when I demonstrated math concepts. They also glared or rolled their eyes when anyone actively participated in learning. 

Due to Mira and Evelyn’s rank in the social web, their attitudes impacted others: children seeking acceptance emulated the goofiness, and those wanting to avoid judgment tried to make themselves invisible. The class’s general resistance to learning was holding them back on content, and I felt concerned that this group was falling behind.

Still, there was more to my intensity than merely feeling annoyed that kids were missing out on learning. Deep down, I also sensed that my personal worth was at stake in that environment (more on this point soon). Therefore, the classroom dynamic was shaping my tone.

As I mentioned in Why We Stink at Creating Classroom Culture, I find it interesting that classroom culture is often presented as something we create or build. Teachers should take the lead in shaping classroom culture (e.g., through strategies like setting behavior norms and inviting collaboration), but we do not construct culture single-handedly. 

Human wiring interlaces our own demeanors with the conduct of people around us. Accordingly, each member of a learning community both contributes to its culture and experiences the tug of that culture on their own actions. In The Microbes Infecting Your Classroom Culture, I described certain vulnerabilities that enable behaviors to spread like viruses among children. Here I want to explore one of the ways in which classroom dynamics affect teachers and consider how we might offset that influence.

Self check

The particular tender spot in my classroom scenario is status (the urge to feel respected or admired). Anderson and colleagues argue that status is a fundamental human motive. For example, status has been shown to impact wellbeing, self-esteem, and health. Moreover, as we vigilantly monitor status dynamics in the environment, we tend to behave in ways that protect or advance our status, and we react strongly when we feel our status is at risk. 

If status is a universal drive, my demeanor in Third Block is explainable: two children who disregarded my teaching held more sway over the group’s motivation than I did. Consequently, my personal worth felt deflated, and my biological makeup was inducing an unconscious reaction.

Could anything be done to alleviate the internal ache and ultimately position myself to lead the class on my terms instead of theirs? Whereas the status urge appears inborn, Scripture suggests that we do have some control over it. Listen to Christ’s perspective on status-seeking: 

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. . . . (Matthew 20:25-27. New International Version.)

Self management . . . with God’s help

Accounting for both empirical research (which contends that status is a natural drive) and biblical teaching (which instructs us to redirect this urge), I follow two strategies when prominent children make me feel second rate and limit my capacity to lead. First, I monitor my biological responses when my status feels at risk (a constricted throat and inflamed ears). I thank those body parts for alerting me to the perceived threat, then I self-soothe with focused breathing. Secondly, I bring to mind my calling as a teacher: not to be seen as cool or popular, but to provide a space where children can learn and where all students feel safe and valued.

How did I bring our classroom into alignment with those goals? As a preventive measure, I switched from using my whiteboard to working with a document camera. This change boosted my surveillance and limited opportunities for students to make silly faces, shoot glares, or roll their eyes at each other. 

I also met individually with anyone who disrupted the learning environment. In those dialogues, I focused not on calling out mischief, but rather on asking mischief makers to work in ways that would help us learn. Why this approach? Gently drawing connections between behavior and its effect on the learning community protects the status of children and draws attention to their role as class members instead of their need to save face.

Finally, I worked at softening my instructional voice and using a more inviting tone. These strategies, among others, gradually shifted the group dynamic. If you would like to learn more about managing the vulnerabilities that bog down our ability to lead, I invite you to read my book, Solutions That Heal: Responding to Infectious Behavior in Learning Spaces.

The next post in this series digs into classroom culture work from a posture of healing rather than creating.