Schools have a tremendous impact on how students learn to interact with others in the future. They learn and practice these skills in class and in the hallways everyday. If we are honest, most of the subjects taught in school are not transferable to an individual’s life outside of school. However, interpersonal and communications skills learned in school do transfer to life outside of school.
Author's Note: Today's blog focuses on defining a problem. Future blogs will look at potential solutions and ideas for teachers.
Most of what students learn in school has little to do with the formal curriculum. The informal curriculum (skills and subjects outside the texts or not taught officially) does shape what students take away from school. Unfortunately in recent years the informal curriculum has continued to transition from problematic to harmful and from harmful to toxic in many schools. This should not surprise any people. After all the informal curriculum mirrors, or at least takes significant cues, from the larger world around us. The social, cultural, and political world provides a context and that framework has increasingly become toxic. In this article I would like to extend the conversation on toxic leadership to look at how classrooms can represent a breeding ground for toxicity.
Toxicity takes several forms within the classroom - bullying (both physical and verbal), sexual harassment, power & privilege, as well as racism, sexism, and homophobia. These negative interactions can be broadly categorized as overt or covert interactions. Overt negative interactions represent the loud and obvious toxic interactions. Covert toxic interactions are the more subtle, under the radar negative interactions. Again, that these things happen should not surprise anyone. That toxicity in classrooms continues to happen probably doesn’t surprise many people either.
Teachers have difficulty undoing the various trends that allow toxic interactions in the classroom to continue. Some teachers do not feel equipped to intercede. Other teachers ignore or dismiss these harmful actions. These teachers point out that they don’t have time to get involved or that their job is to teach a specific subject matter. There are teachers who do try to combat toxic interactions or create change in their classrooms. Yet when these individuals work to alter the social dynamics of learning at best they face a big challenge or worse, their peers tell them a version of ‘boys will be boys.’ We can look at the several factors that support toxicity in the classroom.
- The structure of many schools does not support getting involved. If you only have 40 minutes to teach and your job depends on you getting through material at a predetermined pace, can you afford to stop and address non-academic issues? Factory schooling does not allow (or have much interest) for issues to interrupt the production of knowledge.
- The continued demeaning of teaching as a profession strips teachers of the power to confront toxic individuals. Teachers have so little power and what power we do have is being dismantled in many places. A part of this relates to rise of parents exercising their “squeaky wheel” options. Another aspect of marginalizing teachers in education comes from principals who fear lawsuits. As a result admin around the country practices a ‘the customer is always right’ mantra. So if you are a teacher with little power or status are you going to invest in a struggle you probably aren’t going to win - will you have the energy to fight for the for what is right? Some will… many will not.
- Another trend could be organized around the notion that teachers are overwhelmed and underprepared. Schools around the country implement or develop programs to address specific negative behavior (eg. anti-bullying programs). Yet too many teachers see these programs as an add-on or something extra they have to do. Now if you’re a teacher with an already overflowing plate of things to do, the last thing you want is something else to do or someone adding to your plate. Most teachers have little training in group dynamics and management. Teacher training programs still focus primarily on the transmission of subject matter to students.
As these trends continue some students will continue to abuse their peers while other individuals will think they are alone in facing a multitude of hostile dynamics during their school experience.
I consider toxic interactions in the classroom a form of school violence. When asked, almost every teacher wants to prevent violence in school but few consider toxicity a form of violence. If we reframe sexual harassment, etc. as a type of school violence would more teachers invest in stopping these interactions in their classroom?
When toxic interactions happen in the classroom, students absorb messaging around what society values. Power and acceptance are two critical values for students to recognize when negotiating the social landscape of school. Some students come to understand that they can increase their social power or gain acceptance by those in power by demonstrating toxic interpersonal violence. Other students will see the teacher ignore these interactions and understand that they should also turn away and stay quiet. If we model acceptance or allow toxic behavior to take root in our classrooms students will learn to adapt to and live within this damaged community. Changing and educating toxic entities within our classrooms is a daunting and never ending challenge. However, if we don’t accept this challenge as part of our job as educators, schools will continue to produce more Harveys and more Donalds to assault and bully others down the road.