The Need for Positive Classroom Culture in Schools
Understanding how children are influenced by their peers and their classrooms, and determining key steps and policy changes that can create strong classroom culture.
The death of a class 10 student in Kerala last month during an altercation between students came as a shock to many. Student rage leading to fights may be common, but the fights leading to death have been rare. Reports claim that the altercation was pre-planned by the students. Many are of the opinion that the case is a reflection of the changing nature of adolescence in the era of radically networked societies.
‘Adolescence’, a web series recently released by Netflix, presents the mindset of children passing through the phase. The series tells the story of a boy who is accused of murdering a fellow student. Of the many themes that the web series presents, what lingers on is how a child is influenced by his peers, his school, and social media.
In this article, we look at how children get their influences from people and things around them. We also try to understand how creating a strong and positive classroom culture will help address the problem to an extent.
How Children Are Influenced
A child is shaped by a variety of actors. In their formative phase, parents and the environment at home play a significant part in the cognitive and emotional development of the child. Studies and tools put out by agencies like the Harvard Center on the Developing Child present the critical role played by caregivers during the formative period.
While the influence of parents is important during early childhood, peers and school play a significant role during adolescence. Judith Rich Harris, in her work ‘The Nurture Assumption’, challenged the long-held belief that parents were the primary shapers of a child’s personality. She argues, instead, that peers play a far more influential role in a child’s development, intelligence, and beliefs.
She also puts forward the idea of the ‘Group Socialization Theory’, which asserts that the influence of peers on a child is so strong that even if parents were changed, children would become the same adults if the contexts of school remain unchanged. Therefore, her primary argument is that children are influenced primarily by their peer group and schools and not as much by their parents.
This is important for parents and policymakers to understand in order to respond to the growing challenges and problems children face, tackle criminal tendencies in the child, and remove negative influences.
How Classrooms Shape Children
One of us (Neha) was part of the Teach for India fellowship and is an educator who has been working to identify and improve classroom cultures. A classroom culture can be broadly defined as the shared beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors that define the learning environment within a classroom.
For a child, classrooms are spaces beyond lessons and curriculum but are a place where they are seen and heard. Classrooms with strong and positive cultures make significant difference. Studies have shown that schools and classrooms with positive culture tend to have improved child health, youth development and influence the mental well-being of students. This will have impacts that extend well into adulthood.
Creating classroom cultures is of course not an easy endeavour. It is not created by framing rules or hanging charts with positive messages on walls. A strong classroom culture requires effort and routine interventions by teachers to set positive models. It is created when a child stops teasing others because she knows that kindness matters in the classroom and is a cultural value. She can see others, including her teachers, practicing that in the classroom.
Every child enters a classroom with three questions: Am I safe here? Will I be understood here? Can I grow here? For a student to grow, we need to find positive answers to the first two questions, which is where classroom culture will play a part.
Creating Positive Classrooms
How can we create positive classrooms? Over the years, Neha used key strategies to build a strong and positive classroom culture. Some of them are:
Strong Relationships as the Foundation - A teacher should listen, dig deeper, and identify the contexts that make a child behave the way they do. They need to support consistently, even when children succeed or fail. This generates a strong feeling of trust between the teacher and the student, which becomes the first step to meaningful engagement.
Shared Identity to Build Belonging - Every child wants a classroom where they belong. Neha and her students called their classroom “Our Little India,” and every one of them became citizens of their dream India. This created a sense of belonging and identity as their actions were valued and all of them played an equal part in building their India.
Norms not Rules - Rules are enforced from the top, while norms are collectively devised from below. In Neha’s classroom, she and her students made norms that are to be followed by all. There were no rules like “Students should not run in classrooms”. But they got together and answered questions like “How do you make sure everyone is safe here?”. This makes the classroom a collective and shared space where every child can discuss and create norms.
Accountability as Gentle but Firm - Once norms are ready, accountability is a shared exercise. Every student is accountable to each other. If any one student impinges on a norm and, for instance, disrespects another student, she will be firmly asked to adhere to the norms.
Everyday is Culture-Building Day - All of us, including children, learn by routine. A teacher should create this routine through every interaction. How a teacher greets the children, how they respond to a child's worries, how they react when a kid is late - everything gets registered in the culture.
One magic potion Neha suggests is for teachers to visit children’s homes. This will help understand a child’s background, the situation at their home, parent expectations, and why children behave the way they do. All strong and good cultures emanate from understanding.
Policy Changes for Better Classrooms
While the National Education Policy 2020 tries to correct many of the long-standing issues in education, like foundational learning, there is no clear mention or plan for classroom culture. Considering that classroom culture is the foundation that will impact the educational and emotional well-being of children, there should be strategies and policies for the same.
We prescribe the following changes in the educational policy landscape of the country and in Kerala:
Formal recognition of classroom culture in curriculum and observation - Include a dedicated section for creating and maintaining classroom culture, student voice, and inclusion in school inspection rubrics, teacher observation tools, and report cards. Once culture becomes measurable, only then can it be changed.
Time and space for culture-building activities - Allot dedicated weekly hours for learning circles, student discussion, emotional check-ins, and community-building games in schools.
Community context as curriculum input - Education policies in India and Kerala consider ideal situations. They ignore students' lived reality, like poverty, caste, gender bias, and traumas. Teachers and schools should understand contexts while setting goals and structures. This requires home visits, community surveys, and an understanding of local history and culture. All of this should be institutionalised as part of what a school does.
Support structures for teachers’ emotional well-being - Teachers are expected to create safe spaces for children while receiving little to no emotional support themselves. Mandating peer mentoring, counselling support, and emotional wellness workshops for teachers is necessary. Teachers, like students, need to feel seen, valued, and acknowledged. Such teachers are far more likely to build a positive culture for their students.
Way Ahead
The educational landscape of India, and even Kerala, can offer a lot more for children. Schools and peers are the strongest influences on adolescent children and will impact their emotional and social well-being even when they turn into adults.
We need to institutionalise a strong and positive culture in our schools with concrete and routine steps. It is only through schools and their culture that we can shape and develop the future citizens who will lead our country.
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