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A THREAD, and I never do threads. Some thoughts and some research re the recent twitter discussions on what parents’ responses to chn saying they are being bullied or discriminated against by teachers should be...
Firstly, this debate seems to be being framed by some as if there are only two extreme ways to respond: to give teachers ‘a piece of your mind’ or to disbelieve the child and back the teacher, or perhaps having a quiet word with the head.
Is there not a pretty big middle ground here? i.e. taking the child’s concerns seriously and speaking to both the teacher directly and the head, making ‘a fuss’ but not abusing any educators maybe?
But meanwhile, let’s think about some of the specific points that have been made.
1.The argument that teachers will give up on or expect less from a child if they receive a complaint IMO does many teachers a disservice.
1.The argument that teachers will give up on or expect less from a child if they receive a complaint IMO does many teachers a disservice.
Furthermore, if a teacher did respond in this way that highlights how likely they are to be susceptible to, and act on, biases. If they're unfair because of a complaint, we best believe that they could be unfair on the basis of the unconscious biases we know most people hold.
2.The assumption that ‘a quiet word with the head’ will be effective is also flawed. We could consider ‘always back your staff’ as a feature of good leadership, so if the parent backs the teacher and the head is likely to back the teacher, who is backing the child?
Not to mention that if teachers are biased, there is no reason that heads would be magically free of such bias.
3.The assertation that 99% of the time a child is lying is based on…nothing that I know of. There's some research about abuse (rather than teacher bullying/bias) that suggests false allegations to be in the region of 2-5% or less. This is about ‘more serious’ allegations though
We can’t rely on our judgment to tell if a child is lying. Studies show that adults have ~54% success rate at telling whether a child is lying or not, almost chance then https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201702/when-children-lie
Children do lie, but taking a position that assumes they are lying is dangerous
Children do lie, but taking a position that assumes they are lying is dangerous
4.The premise of the argument to ‘back the teacher’ seems to be founded on an assumption that bias/discrimination/racism/bullying from teachers is so rare it’s almost non-existent. This isn’t true.
Firstly, let’s listen to the many POC who have, in this discussion and elsewhere, highlighted their own experiences of bias in the edu system and give their LIVED EXPERIENCE the credit it warrants. Then, let’s look at the research..
Teachers asked to watch a vid of 4 year olds playing and behaving well and highlight any misbehaviour watch the black children more than white children (and boys more than girls). 42% of the teachers said that the Black boy ‘required the most attention’.
None of the kids do anything naughty, but if they were to, who is more likely to be seen? This tells us about teacher’s biased expectations.
Teachers reading vignettes about a child’s behaviour rate the behaviour as more severe if they believe the child is Black.
Teachers reading vignettes about a child’s behaviour rate the behaviour as more severe if they believe the child is Black.
Studies show that teachers have lower expectations for Black pupils’ future education achievement. The graph is from a US study, but if you want to see some UK stuff you’ll find similar trends (see Crozier,09; Ladson-Billings, 04; Abbas, 02; Strand, 11; McDonald&Hayes, 03)
Finally, many people wiser than me have already highlighted that any advice that implies a child should be disbelieved or not necessarily believed goes against safeguarding advice. So here is some better safeguarding advice:
1.Receive children’s concerns, worries and accusations with openness and LISTEN
2.Don’t expect a child to ‘prove’ what they are saying
3.Ask only open questions to help the child expand their story, this is different from demanding proof.
2.Don’t expect a child to ‘prove’ what they are saying
3.Ask only open questions to help the child expand their story, this is different from demanding proof.
