Let's Start with Relationships
First Presenter's Institution
Georgia Southern University
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Jarvais Jackson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy at GSU. Dr. Jackson's research highlights Black people's learning experiences seeking an equitable learning experience for Black students. His research and scholarship extend internationally. Through his research and service, Dr. Jackson seeks to bridge the gap between research and practice.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Restorative Practices
Relevance to Primary Strand
Related to restorative practices, this session seeks to look at relationships as a proactive method to behavior and academic success in classrooms.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
Student Learning and Development
Brief Program Description
This session explores teachers' relationship development and maintenance as a proactive response to a healthy classroom community. This session explores examples of teachers who have built community and the various ways they establish and maintain it resulting in healthy behaviors and academic achievement.
Summary
With reflections of my own classroom practices and other teachers, this session explores relationships as a proactive component of restorative practices. At the core of all that was done during my teaching was relationships. Not only the development of relationships but the maintenance that is also associated with them. Milner et al. (2019) emphasized the importance of sustaining trusting relationships in conjunction with being student-centered, partnering with families and communities, and having high expectations for all students. Sharing my experience around relationships does not indicate that the year went without incident, rather, we shared the ups and downs that came with any relationship. What I do emphasize is the need to build relationships, maintain relationships, and share responsibility for the relationships with all parties in the classroom community. In the time spent building relationships, I did get behind slightly on district pacing but instruction required substantially less interruption to address behavioral concerns. Further, students held the agency to address classroom concerns whether it was with a peer or with me as their teacher. Our classroom community honored differences, honored African American Language (Baines et. al, 2018; Boutte, 2016; Jordan, 1988), honored academic achievement, and, most importantly, honored each other as a collective family. Rather than a primary focus on research, this session is designed to show a variety of approaches that can be extrapolated to various needs.
Evidence
This research is grounded in works of scholars such as Milner et. al (2019) and personal experience and research. The research is cumulated research over a number of semesters to see the effectiveness. Some of this research has been published in scholarly journals and books.
Learning Objective 1
Participants will be able to understand academic literature that supports relationships from the restorative practices lens.
Learning Objective 2
Participants will be able to find actionable tasks to take back to their classroom.
Learning Objective 3
Participants will be able to reflect on personal approaches to relationships and make notes of potential adjustments
Recommended Citation
Jackson, Jarvais J., "Let's Start with Relationships" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 74.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/74
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Let's Start with Relationships
With reflections of my own classroom practices and other teachers, this session explores relationships as a proactive component of restorative practices. At the core of all that was done during my teaching was relationships. Not only the development of relationships but the maintenance that is also associated with them. Milner et al. (2019) emphasized the importance of sustaining trusting relationships in conjunction with being student-centered, partnering with families and communities, and having high expectations for all students. Sharing my experience around relationships does not indicate that the year went without incident, rather, we shared the ups and downs that came with any relationship. What I do emphasize is the need to build relationships, maintain relationships, and share responsibility for the relationships with all parties in the classroom community. In the time spent building relationships, I did get behind slightly on district pacing but instruction required substantially less interruption to address behavioral concerns. Further, students held the agency to address classroom concerns whether it was with a peer or with me as their teacher. Our classroom community honored differences, honored African American Language (Baines et. al, 2018; Boutte, 2016; Jordan, 1988), honored academic achievement, and, most importantly, honored each other as a collective family. Rather than a primary focus on research, this session is designed to show a variety of approaches that can be extrapolated to various needs.
