Maintaining a Respectful Climate for Young Children in Schools: No Trumpet Solo - Let the Orchestra Play!

"An authoritarian response to violence is less effective than approaches which shift school values towards mutual respect and dignity. But how does such a process actually work in real life and real time? In what way does it vary across schools? To what extent does a three-year programme leave lasting effects? What factors affect long term success or failure?"

This paper from the Bernard van Leer Foundation addresses these questions by looking at the experiences of elementary schools in Israel that participated in the "Human Dignity" programme of the nonprofit organisation Person to Person: Association for the Advancement of Human Dignity. The programme was launched in September 2004 in 9 schools across Israel, including secular and religious Jewish schools as well as Arab schools, especially in disadvantaged locations. As part of this programme, the school is approached as a system, within which all actors - adults, as well as children - must take responsibility for a positive and conducive school climate. (This signifies the "orchestra approach" referenced in the report's title: Many creative solutions and activities come into play to bring about change.)

Specifically, the process of change in each school began with the principal looking anew at school culture and dynamics and his or her role within this, aided by a facilitator. Staff and students held discussions and conducted surveys using questionnaires to assess human dignity levels within the school at the start of the process. Teams to lead the process of change were convened, and a series of workshops on mutual respect and dignity - both as general values and within the school routine - were held for teachers. Later, teachers were supported in taking key ideas and reworking them along with the students in class, and then developing mechanisms to embed mutual respect in relationships within the classroom and across the school, between individuals and within groups.

The evaluation process involved interviews with principals, teachers, and students carried out during visits to the schools during May and June 2008. Only 8 of the 9 schools is included in this evaluation report; the ninth could not be compared to the others because the Human Dignity programme there took the form of an "empowerment centre" that provided psychodrama, movement and music therapy, craft, and other activities oriented to help children with special needs maximise their potential and integrate successfully with the general school population.

Brief narratives describing findings at the 8 schools that were evaluated follow. The first 4 describe schools in disadvantaged locations achieving a "turn around" in school culture through the lasting influence of the Human Dignity programme. Here is an example from one "success" narrative: "All classroom and corridor walls are covered with pictures, children's art creations, texts and symbols, all revolving around the subject of human dignity. According to the principal, the programme transformed the school....Children learn to respect others and are also treated with respect. As a result, they develop the ability to think independently, to express their opinions freely and with confidence, and to maximise their intellectual potential....Traumatic violent events that occurred in the town emphasised the importance of carrying the message of human dignity beyond the school walls and out into the community....[P]arents' leadership groups were formed and trained by the school to work with the town's residents....Other examples include the use of video clips of students and teachers talking about a significant human dignity experience to stimulate discussion; periodic surveys carried out to assess human dignity levels at the school, and workshops held to integrate new staff members." A single account follows of a school where the Human Dignity programme achieved limited success at the individual level. Three stories then tell of schools where the programme was not only unsuccessful, but may have further undermined the school climate.

Chapter 2 of the paper analyses this variation in schools' responses to the Human Dignity programme. In short, a human dignity culture was maintained at schools that integrated 2 separate, seemingly contradictory modes of behaviour: On the one hand, they adopted a dignified and respectful norm of conducting personal relations with students, while on the other hand they upheld a clear and uniformly recognised system of rules and regulations. At the schools where the programme was successful, the rules were created through a respectful process: The problem was identified, the relevant parties were included in making the necessary decisions, the new norms were propagated and an ongoing process of assimilation took place throughout the school. Also, schools that successfully implemented the programme were found to have no central mechanism for propagating human dignity, but rather a system of many smaller mechanisms to be found at various junctures: between the principal and the teachers, between teachers and students, and among the students themselves.

The discussion then proceeds to identify the factors that suggest whether a Human Dignity programme will have lasting results in a school. Key points include:

• Compatibility between the programme, the principal, and the school;
• A significant level of dissatisfaction with the situation before the commencement of the programme;
• A systemic approach that takes all members of the school community into consideration;
• The school principal's leadership and management style (e.g., a cooperative spirit and a commitment to human dignity radiating through personal behaviour);
• Coalitions for leading change (e.g., a leadership team in addition to a "second circle", the homeroom teachers who come into daily and direct contact with the students);
• Respectful relationship between facilitator, principal, and teachers;
• Frequent and visible change;
• Relevance of workshops to everyday school life; and
• Emphasis on early childhood.

In short, the evaluation's 3 main conclusions are as follows:

1. Emphasis must be placed on two principles, simultaneously: personal, emotion-based relationships combined with a clear and uniform set of behavioural rules.
2. Schools should forgo the attempt to create a single, central mechanism to promote human dignity, but instead channel their energies into developing a wide variety of smaller methods that together bring about the desired transformation.
3. Younger children within a school benefit most from the positive change; they then play a key role by continuing the spirit of respect and the techniques that support this when they move to higher school grades and provide guidance to young children who enter the school in following years.