Why I’m Failing At Participative Rule Setting
Yesterday I tried to have a participative rule setting session with my students. Since I’m obviously not a big fan of imposing rules on children or using a system of rewards and punishments I wanted to attempt a group discussion on what classroom rules we should have. Here’s the basic idea behind participative rule setting:
This process can be initiated by teachers at the beginning of the term to establish rules that the whole classroom finds fair and are willing to follow. Students are more likely to keep to their end of the bargain when using No-Lose Conflict Resolution and participative rule setting because of a simple bit of common sense called The Principle of Participation.
Simply stated, the principle holds that people who are invited to participate in making decisions or setting up rules that affect them somehow are more willing to abide by them or keep to their part of an agreement. We all like feeling that our views are being represented.
Sounds great. But it isn’t easy to do. Yesterday’s class didn’t go well. I’ll explain some of the reasons I think I failed.
I Don’t Speak Chinese
This is a pretty obvious one but I think it’s important to understand how hard it is to communicate with children that don’t speak the same language.
There are some native English speakers and a few kids who are semi-fluent. But for most our interactions involve very basic, merely functional English communication. It is simple stuff like hello, how are you, go outside, go to the bathroom, who wants to play and whatever phrases we’re learning that day.
Oh yeah, there is also upside down. (This is a frequent request from the girls who want me to pick them up and carry them around upside down. It’s like some kind of drug; they get high on having blood rush to their brain. Anyway, I love the game too so I’m not complaining.)
The rest of the communication is nonverbal. This shouldn’t be underestimated. I know 100% that the kids can tell from my body language, the way I smile or laugh, how I pick them up, and everything else that I’m different from the Chinese assistants.
But when it comes to communicating an idea it gets much harder. I said to the whole class “I know this classroom has a lot of rules and I know that you guys don’t like some of them. I was hoping that we could spend ten or fifteen minutes and talk about the rules and see if we can come up with some that everybody agrees on.” The English speaking kids understood this sentence (partially at least, more on that later) but the Chinese kids had no clue. And how could they? I tried to simplify what I wanted but it isn’t easy to do. And it just confused them more. This led to the second problem.
The Chinese Translators
In my classroom there are a couple Chinese teachers who are there to help. One of them is my assistant and part of her job is to translate for me.
Usually, this isn’t a problem. She’s the nicest of the Chinese assistants and treats the kids very well. Unfortunately, this whole Principle of Participation thing wasn’t something she was even remotely familiar with. So when I said “I know you guys hate the no-talking-during-lunch rule” she translated it to “no talking during lunch.”
She wasn’t doing it maliciously or anything. When I told her I wanted to talk about the rules, she probably just assumed that it meant we were going to recite the rules. What else could it mean?
Either way, her translations essentially came out the exact opposite of what I wanted. She turned it from a participative rule setting session into a reminder about all the rules currently imposed. Fail.
This Idea Is More Foreign Than A Second Language
This is the issue that even had the English speakers confused.
Children in schools are not used to getting a say in the rules. Even if they have great parents that practice these techniques (and there is probably a 1-in-2-billion chance of that being the case) there are even fewer schools that do. Kids are used to being ordered, prodded, pushed, commanded, controlled, subjected, restrained, adjusted, confined, directed, punished, silenced, and finally questioned. They’re like terror suspects minus the water-boarding (or not).
I’m some foreigner, that they’ve only known for a week, sitting them down and essentially saying “we’re going to do things the exact opposite of every thing you’ve previously experienced.” They had no idea what I was getting at. It was kind of like when I first told them we weren’t going to do rewards and punishments back on day one and they all just looked at me like confused puppies. Only then it was cute and funny. This time it was sad.
So What Do I Do?
I think I’ve laid out the biggest three issues. I can’t speak Chinese, my translators don’t know what the fuck is going on, and my kids aren’t used to this sort of thing at all.
So how can I make this work? I don’t know actually. I’m going to keep trying. But short of learning Chinese myself or hiring my own excellent translator I’m not sure what to do. I can’t go back in time and make their parents start them on this system. And I can’t change the way the entire school works.
This is why I’m writing this post. I want your ideas. I know there are some extremely intelligent people who visit this blog and I’m sure you are one of them. Help me.
Leave a comment or email me. Or, if you have no ideas, maybe you could pass this post on to a friend. Thank you!
User Comments
Casey
03/09/10
I don’t have any particularly brilliant advice, since I had almost the exact same scenario play out when I tried having that discussion with my class. But I can tell you what I’ve been doing, and maybe that will be helpful. I haven’t really tried to implement the school rules, but I have focused on a couple of areas that I think are the most important.
For example, my class’ major issue is hitting, pinching, yelling and taking each other’s things. So every few days, I’ll talk with them about why hitting is bad, how it hurts other people, why we don’t like other people to take our things, etc. And if I see it happening in class, I go over and talk to whoever is involved about what exactly happened, go over why we have this particular class “rule,” and try and do it in a way that helps them understand, rather than having it seem like me ordering them not to do something and they don’t really know why.
So that might be one way to approach it. Until you can communicate well enough to have the participative rule discussion, go over the things that are most important in your class, and work with them individually so they feel involved and not like you’re imposing rules on them. And after awhile, when they speak more English and are more accustomed to your way of doing things, you can try and set the rules as a class again.
Paul Crowder
03/09/10
Considering that you have to overcome cultural, linguistic, and conceptual barriers to try and implement this system, which are huge tasks individually, let alone combined, I think you’re looking at a monumental task. Not to say it’s impossible, but just very difficult. I’d love to see you succeed though. So to try and help you work out some possible solutions, I’ve got to have something I can imagine. And right now I’m struggling to imagine what it’d look like if this system “worked”, as I’m not sure what you mean here. Could you elaborate on what you mean by getting the system to “work”?
Anderson
03/09/10
I think this is what I would consider “working.” If the students were just able to understand that I wasn’t trying to impose the rules on them but that I wanted them to have a say in what the rules were — and that they deserve to have a say in such things. Even if they didn’t follow the rules or whatever, I wouldn’t care as long as they got that basic concept.
Ideally, after a few weeks (or months or however long) the kids and I would get into a groove where rules weren’t even necessary. Where we’ve all negotiated to the point where we understand each others’ needs are in a comfortable no-lose position. But this can take a really, really long time.
I watched a video of one of England’s best teachers. She started the participative rule setting in September, and they didn’t really reach the “groove” until January. She had to spend 3 months referencing the rules they agreed to, amending them, doing problem solving and conflict resolution with the kids.
But then, after all that time, it finally works. And she has a working, as-mutual-as-possible relationship with the students. And there is almost no need for things like rewards or punishments or discipline and only rare reminders of the rules.
That’s not my goal. It’s too far off. Right now I would consider it a success if I could just make them understand the idea.
Paul Crowder
03/09/10
Well, you’re dealing with kids, so while culture is a problem, unless the adults interfere, they should adapt pretty easily.
Obviously language is a problem, as you can’t speak to them in pure English. But you can always supplement whatever you do with broken English!
If the goal is just to get them to understand the idea, perhaps you could use pictures, games, or some other visuals to express the concepts. I can’t draw, but I can imagine a comic strip with one frame where a teacher is showing a list of rules, with a cruel face, and violent gestures. Then a frame where the students are following the rules, but they have sad faces. The next frame would be a comparison. The students and the teacher are talking about the rules. They all look excited, and as they negotiate, the teacher makes a list of the rules they agree on.
I think something like this would be very successful with kids of all ages. What do you think?
Nathan
03/09/10
Paul’s idea sounds good to me I think.
This sounds incredibly challenging and I would find it a challenge even with children who speak English.
Kudos for you for trying, though if it proves impossible, it may be better to focus on the things you *can* do.