Positive Modeling: Building Strong Positive Relationships

Black male teacher wearing glasses kneels at the students' level and smiles warmly at the student he is helping.

Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.

– Rosabeth Moss Kantor


EXPECTATIONS

  • Staff treat students, staff, and families with respect.
  • Demonstrate openly how to communicate, and resolve issues in positive and productive ways.
  • Modeling is an expectation for administrators, staff, older students, and key family/community members.

STRATEGIES

Demonstrate transparency: Teachers can achieve buy-in from their students when we explain our use of power and authority. Students are more likely to accept power and authority that they understand.

Share power where possible and appropriate: Though it is not always possible or appropriate to share power with students in all situations, students can learn to trust a teacher who shares power and authority in appropriate situations.

Provide learning opportunities through natural consequences: When students understand that an internal logic justifies the consequences for their actions, they are often more able to accept those consequences. Punishment, in contrast, is often arbitrary and aims to inflict suffering or humiliation on the student.

Enable healthy development through respectful interactions: Teachers can always find a way to protect students’ dignity and express our respect for students’ basic humanity through our mode of communication. We can demonstrate that even anger can be expressed in a respectful way.

Demonstrate assertiveness: Teachers transmit an extremely important message when we constructively assert ourselves with students. Through non-aggressive self-assertion, teachers communicate that everyone has the right to respect, and that it is possible to stand up for oneself without taking away someone else’s right.

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