Balancing Authenticity With Authority: How a No-Excuses Teacher Residency Approaches Relationships Amid Strict Discipline

• In Event: Innovations in Teaching, Classroom Management, Learning Environments, and Culturally Responsive Communities

Abstract

Classroom management and teacher-student relationships both influence student achievement. But some forms of classroom management, like the strict “broken windows” approach used in no excuses schools, can “strain” teacher-student relationships (Golann, 2015). This paper draws on a broader ethnographic study to explore how one no excuses teacher residency program attempts to alleviate this strain by equipping residents with discrete moves to form relationships with students. In the process, residents must learn to balance their interactional authenticity and warmth with the mandate to uphold strict authority in the classroom. And their resulting relationships with students become an extension of their classroom management, one-directional and explicitly geared around improving students’ classroom behavior and academic effort.

Author

• Victoria Marie Theisen-Homer, Northern Arizona University