Humanising Language Teaching
Year 3; Issue 4; July 2001

How to deal with negative students and totally reframe your own role in their negative behaviour – early experience of an inexperienced teacher

During a session on a teacher training class I was intrigued by a comment from one of my colleagues. The comment concerned students' attitudes to their subject, in this case English. " They are too tired to work with English, they don't like English, etc etc". What actually intrigued me was the teacher's attitude towards the students. They hadn't had the chance to speak for themselves, which I think is a major mistake many teachers make, and this attitude is a wall you can hide behind when you don't want to deal with the basic problem. My suggestion is to tear the wall down and I would like to show one way of doing it which I tried many years ago.

In 1976 I was employed to teach Swedish, History and Social science in an eighth grade (secondary level, 14 –15 years old, mixed class). I was also their class teacher, which implied that I was also responsible for the contact with their families, other teachers and of course the social atmosphere in the group. From the very start I felt uneasy when I came into the classroom. There was animosity in the air so to speak. One thing that might be high lighted, is that their former class teacher was still at the same school but she had chosen to become class teacher of another class because of a much better schedule. This I knew but was not supposed to tell the students.

Weeks went by and the situation grew worse: noisy boys and cheeky answers from the girls and I felt more like a prison warden than a caring teacher. I knew that I wasn't a complete disaster as a teacher, since the lessons in a ninth grade were the total opposite: active and happy students with excellent results and I being more of a supportive coach. Perhaps I subconsciously compared the two groups and thought it was their fault more than mine.

If I was going to survive as their class teacher, I realized that something must be done and quickly. When I think about it now I must honestly admit that I thought more of my own well being than theirs. On a sports day, after about a month of the term, I had my chance. I decided to take the girls separately before lunch and the boys after lunch. Having them together would not promote honest answers I thought. They would have been more interested in each other than in the situation I presupposed.

They looked confused when I said I wanted us to have a talk about the situation in the class. Then I asked them why they were so negative and why the climate was so bad. I don't recall the actual questions asked, but I do remember the answer given by Eva, one of the cheekiest but also the most intelligent girl: "You're always so moody! One can never tell what mood you're in when you enter the room!"

I was totally stunned. Another girl, Ann-Britt joined in and said something similar to Eva. The rest of the girls were silent but their silence as well as their facial expressions could only be interpreted as consent.

The boys didn't express themselves as straightforward. One of them said they were angry because they didn't get their formal class teacher since she was at the same school anyway. They had been getting on well together as well, so they couldn't understand why the situation was altered. You could tell by their body postures and facial expressions, they found the discussion awkward, but the atmosphere felt honest. They really tried to analyze the situation.

So what did I get out of this? First of all I had to analyze myself. Were Eva's comments adequate? Was I the one to blame for the situation? Recalling my feelings just before the lessons in this particular class, I realized that I had probably been unable to pretend I enjoyed being there, which had been obvious to the students. I didn't like them, so what did I expect? I was supposed to represent the grown up world, being a role model, but had behaved more like a teenager myself.

The atmosphere improved a lot after this, not to become perfect but as good as it possibly could considering the circumstances. During the spring term I started to really like the students, as well as they started to like me.

Two years ago they celebrated their twentieth anniversary with a party where all their old teachers were invited. We had a great time together recalling both gloomy (including the one above) and happy moments from our time together. By the way, I was the only teacher there, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world.

During the past 25 years of teaching I have always thought about this experience as being the kick-off in becoming aware of myself as a teacher.

Thank you, Eva, for helping me tearing down the wall I had started to build without knowing I was the builder!

Inger Fong
Teacher of Swedish and English at Komvux (adult education),Norrkoping, Sweden