This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
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The following message was enclosed:
Have you experienced a lack of civility in any of your
classes?
If so, how did you deal with it?
Thanks.
Alan
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Dealing With Nasty Students: the Sequel
By JILL CARROLL
NastyStudentNation.com. Bitter&Longsuffering.edu.
WitsEndFaculty.org.
These are some of the Web sites begging to be started, judging
from the deluge of e-mail messages I've received -- and
continue to receive -- in response to last month's column
about dealing with nasty students. I mean, I knew there was a
problem, but I surely didn't realize just how frustrated many
faculty members are in dealing with difficult students.
Students are more apathetic, more infected with an unwarranted
sense of entitlement, more lacking in basic civility, and more
downright rude and abusive than they've ever been in the
history of American education. At least that seems to be the
conclusion of the vast majority of you who wrote to me,
including faculty members, deans, administrators, and even
some schoolteachers.
One adjunct recounted how some of her students, angry at their
poor test scores, verbally assaulted her, then stood up and
blocked her from leaving the classroom until she muscled past
them to safety. Dozens of adjuncts and full-time faculty
members told of being "reported" to the higher-ups for giving
low grades or assigning demanding projects, and then of being
forced to adjust their requirements by those higher-ups.
Several teachers in secondary education told of being verbally
and physically assaulted by their students -- shoved, called
"bitch," "whore," and other names, and pelted with wadded-up
paper in the classroom -- and of being required to keep those
students in their classes.
Indeed, the schoolteachers who wrote to me suggested that
faculty members in academe are struggling with our students
more than ever because the climate and culture of elementary
and secondary education has declined in this country,
especially in public schools. For a host of reasons,
problematic behaviors are tolerated, by both parents and
school officials, in today's public schools. Students grow up
thinking those behaviors are OK, and they bring all that with
them to their first day of college. Then, shocked and enraged
when their behavior is challenged by faculty members, they
complain to the dean. Since the students have critical mass
and tuition dollars to withhold, many deans and administrators
bend to their will.
The most common suggestion I got this past month for dealing
with problematic behaviors in class is one I didn't mention in
last month's column: Call security.
Many of you who wrote recounted horror stories in which an
armed officer, or at least the threat of calling such an
officer, seemed the only workable solution. One adjunct told
of a group of three students who refused to stop talking
during lectures, even after the adjunct asked them several
times, both in and after class. Finally, after a few warnings
during one class period, she ordered them out of the
classroom. They refused to leave, and simply sat in their
seats, staring her down. She finally stepped out to call
security. The students left, escorted by an armed guard. The
adjunct discussed the matter extensively with her hiring
administrator, who was very supportive, and went on about her
business. Two of the students dropped the class, and the
remaining one finished the semester without incident.
Well, that's one way to establish authority in the classroom.
Certainly, in situations of disruptive or downright abusive
behaviors, calling security is probably the best option.
I have to hope, however, that calling security is a rarely
used, last-resort approach. Maybe I'm naive, but I think that
most instances of problematic classroom comments or behaviors
can be solved through creative and focused teaching
strategies, or through respectful but firm conversations with
the student outside of class.
I know, we shouldn't have to have these conversations in a
college environment. Students should have learned basic
civility long before they show up in our classrooms. But
apparently, some of them haven't. So we can either generate
creative ways of dealing with bad behavior or leave the
education business. One administrator who wrote to me is doing
just that -- leaving academe -- because he believes that we
are powerless to do anything about bad students other than
improve our "performance" in the classroom and hope it
entertains the students well enough to keep them from
complaining to the dean. He is surely not alone in that
opinion.
Rather than advise them to quit, I would offer the following
advice to adjuncts and other faculty members struggling with
difficult students:
Document everything. Record every incident and every verbal
exchange. Keep a log. Keep hard copies of all e-mail messages
or other correspondence between you and the student, as well
as all written assignments, especially if those assignments
are part of the "issue."
Make sure you have witnesses. If at all possible, try to
address the problem in front of the entire class or within
earshot of other students or faculty members. You need other
people who can corroborate not only the student's bad
behavior, but your attempts to deal with it.
I did this once with a particularly volatile student who
habitually stayed after class to talk with me, often venting
her views about the class readings and about other students. I
listened patiently and steered the conversations to a
conclusion, but could hardly ever make it out of the classroom
without her following me to the parking lot. She scared me a
little. So I enlisted the aid of three students in the class
who often hung out together in the hallway afterward --
students who had taken my classes before, who I trusted, and
who knew me well. Without telling them why, I asked them if
they would stay in the classroom after class instead of going
out in the hallway. They agreed. That way, I could talk with
the volatile student in the presence of others, and then
conclude the conversation and send her on her way by turning
my attention to the other students in the room. It worked,
that time at least.
Communicate with your supervisor. Tell your boss about the
situation from the beginning, and ask for advice. If the
student ever makes a formal complaint about you, it will help
that you've been in contact with the administration from the
outset.
I say these things from experience. Twice in the recent past
I've had students pursue their issues with me to the highest
level of university committees and formal hearings. In both
instances, the committees voted in my favor, not merely
because the students' complaints were ridiculous, but because
I had handled the situation from the beginning in conjunction
with my supervisors. Get the administration on your side as
soon as you can -- let your side of it be the first they hear
of it. That, along with consistent documentation and
unwavering professionalism, will help cover your tail if the
student pursues formal action against you.
Finally, a few faculty members who wrote asked for advice
about how to go back into the classroom after you've lashed
out at students for being apathetic or unprepared or rude;
that is, assuming you've not been fired.
I asked around for input on this question. One full-time
colleague of mine told of how she had gotten sharp with her 20
students one day because of their lax participation, telling
them they were lazy and ungrateful. She immediately felt bad
about it, and told them that she was bringing doughnuts to the
next class period as an odd sort of punishment. Every time she
called on them and they had nothing significant to say, they
had to eat a doughnut. It assuaged her guilt for lashing out
at them, it "broke the spell" of languor that had been over
the classroom, and it rejuvenated the class for the rest of
the semester.
Most of us aren't in a position to do this kind of thing,
either because we've got far more than 20 students, or we as
adjuncts can't afford to buy doughnuts for all of them, or
because we don't want to start a dangerous "food for
participation" trend in our classrooms.
I think the bottom line is you have to do what is consistent
with your personality, your own professional and personal
ethics, and your rapport with the students. That's something
only you can gauge.
But consider these options after you've "snapped" and lashed
out: Don't do anything. Just go back into the classroom,
resume your normal professional stance, and proceed. This can
communicate that you're on a "clean slate" with them. No
residue of hostility remains. If you feel that your rapport
with the students has been ruptured a bit, you could go in and
briefly apologize for the harsh language or attitude. Your
goal is to restore rapport without minimizing whatever they
did or said to bring about your outburst.
Whatever you choose to do, don't let students off the hook if
their behavior was truly objectionable. Like it or not, we
have to maintain some sort of authority in the classroom, or
else the whole thing is a wash. Too much groveling will leave
you looking weaker than ever.
If all this fails, you could always start up one of those Web
sites I mentioned above. Misery loves company, and you'd find
plenty of it.
Jill Carroll, an adjunct lecturer in Texas, writes a monthly
column for Career Network on adjunct life and work. She is
author of a self-published book, How to Survive as an Adjunct
Lecturer: An Entrepreneurial Strategy Manual. Her Web site is
http://www.adjunctsolutions.com and her e-mail address is
adjunctsolutions@aol.com. You can find an archive of her
previous columns here.
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You may visit The Chronicle as follows:
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Copyright 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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