It seems that the role of project workers and their relationships with children are very different from those of teachers. Some project workers described the difference between teachers’
control over children and the potential for children to have self-control over their actions:
‘Sometimes teachers think that they have to keep their distance from children, whereas in Circle Time everyone is equal within a circle. Some teachers are really concerned about that as they think that if they don’t remain the boss, children are going to run riot. But when they see how it does work by changing their teaching methods around, at the end of 10 weeks, they realise that it does work and children still do respect the teacher. I think that if teachers control children all the time, they are never going to learn self-discipline.’
‘It’s a very different relationship to that of the teacher. I’m an ex-teacher and I really have to modify the way that I used to work with youngsters where control was absolutely essential in a particular kind of way because you have educational targets to hit. With the project, I pull much more from my experience of a drama workshop leader.’
Many project workers also described a role of a teacher as a controller, which differs from that of a project worker as a facilitator, who encourages children’s self-control:
‘I would like to see myself being as a facilitator of the group, not as a controller. If the group is working very badly together, I would say something like, “It seems like it’s really hard for us to get on with each other this afternoon. I wonder what’s going on. I wonder what’s happening,” and try and help the children think about their relationships with each other, and offer ideas about what they could do about it. But I have observed and imagine a teacher as a controller. I think that the teacher in that situation would identify particular children as trouble makers, and would ask those children to stop doing what they are doing or to leave the group. So that would be a fundamental difference.’
‘We don’t shout at them and we have more choices. I think that our role is very different from a role of a teacher where the children do what they are told. I think that rules are quite important. Actually you’re not working to your rules, you’re working to the rules that children set in Circle Time. Once you have those boundaries, my role as a facilitator is like a referee in football. The rules are there and all you’re doing is keeping the rules.’
‘The role is generally more informal than that of a teacher and with the responsibility for choices about good and bad behaviour firmly handed over to the pupils.’
‘We try to encourage the group to exercise self-control. So they are doing the controlling because they want to get more activities and games into the time.’
In particular, one project worker pointed out two main ways of facilitating in the project:
‘Other things in terms of teaching in some of the work, particularly to do with conflict management, are didactic, which means that I’m imparting knowledge or ideas to them, for example, the conflict escalator [a graph showing different stages in the development of conflict] or anger rules [rules for the management of anger] ... But most of the time, I would hope that my teaching style or rather the way of encouraging them to learn is through their experiencing. So having experiences and then facilitating the children to try and understand their experience and to come up with their own understanding of their experience. So I suppose those are the two main ways.’
The same project worker described how to encourage children to learn from their experience:
‘I hope to have a non-punitive but questioning approach to conflict so that if children in a class get into conflict or the whole group gets into conflict, I would hope to say, “I wonder what’s going on. Can anybody tell me what’s happening?” So I ask them those questions for them to observe and to reflect on what’s happening instead of telling them off.’
While WMQPEP uses this approach to encourage children’s self-control, teachers are asked to support and trust the children’s learning process, as another project worker explained:
‘…teachers are asked at the beginning of each project if they will in effect sit on their hands when they become part of the circle, and not intervene. If there are disciplinary problems coming up, we try to resolve them as a group. A teacher doesn’t come in as a teacher because that would completely destroy the atmosphere that we try to create.
Always at the introductory meeting with teachers, we try to alert them to what to expect if it’s the first time they go through Peacemakers, and to encourage them to trust the process that we go through with the youngsters - actually it will work if you let it happen. Because teachers often have to jump in at a first sign of trouble, they can’t wait for the group to self-regulate whereas we can. We are helping the group self-regulate.’
In this way, teachers can see the potential of the approach, as one project worker noted:
‘We sometimes work with a group of teachers, but the advantage of working with children ourselves is that teachers can see it [children’s self-control] is possible.’
In the process, one project worker emphasised the importance of facilitating the whole group, rather than removing the causes of problems, which may happen in normal lessons:
‘Instead of controlling the situation and removing the elements of the class that are causing problems, I would like to facilitate the whole group to take responsibility for the more difficult elements in the group.’
The same project worker also explained the way to ensure that children experience success:
‘In a preliminary meeting, we do ask if there are particular children who might have particular difficulties in a circle. Because it would be very unfair on a child to be expected to do something that they are not capable of, because they would then get experience of failure straight away… It’s important to know that, so that we can adjust to it and they can get experience of success from the beginning.’
At the same time, it is also important not to discriminate against particular children according to their ability, as the same project worker mentioned:
‘We aim not to discriminate against children according to what we’ve been told about their ability.’
Moreover, several project workers said that they have more flexibility to respond to the needs of children, in comparison with teachers who are often governed by educational and disciplinary targets:
‘Teachers have targets in the National Curriculum and discipline, and they also have ultimate discipline over the children who are particularly difficult in order to get on with the class. They are more directed to that. But we can set up our own programmes and can be more flexible with delivering the programme each time according to children’s condition… We know what we’re aiming at in the session but we don’t have the same sort of targets as the teachers.’
‘If I had set learning outcomes, I would be constantly trying to get back to them in order to achieve the outcomes. If I don’t set outcomes, it gives me that flexibility to respond to the need or the mood of the class that afternoon.’
In particular, one project worker emphasised their role in helping children deal with their problems, which differs from the teacher’s role to work towards targets:
‘In another way, my role is to enable children to find their own solutions to their problems rather than having a learning outcome which they have to achieve. Particularly at the moment in education, it’s very oriented to target setting and learning outcomes. So a teacher’s job by and large would be to make sure that children have achieved their learning outcome. I don’t set outcomes, and therefore, I’m different from a teacher.’
The same project worker also pointed out that if children are told what their learning outcomes should be, they are given the mentality of expecting to be told what they are meant to achieve. This also creates a situation where children experience failure:
‘In some schools in all the core lessons; English, Maths and Science, children are actually told what their outcome is for that lesson… I think that gives the children a whole mentality of being told what they are meant to be learning, and being able to judge whether they have achieved that learning or not, and therefore, whether they are successful or not successful. I don’t do that, so that is another major difference. I don’t set outcomes… I may think that in my head… But I don’t tell them that’s what I expect them to have, so I would say much more generally like, “We are going to talk about ways you might be able to handle conflict differently.” But I don’t set it as a desired outcome.’
‘If I set targets or gave children the outcomes…my concern with that is that there may be children who have found it really hard for all sorts of reasons. Then they are failing to do it and feeling that they failed because they haven’t done what I wanted them to do, or they are doing it because they want to please me and get a smiley face or something. But actually it’s very superficial because they’ve done it for me, but actually they don’t really want to do it.’
Finally, one project worker said that they could make suggestions about structures in a school since they are independent from the school:
‘I don’t have my work measured by the management of the school, therefore, I could, if I find it necessary, point out factors within the management of the school that I felt are contributing to conflict between children, for example. Whereas teachers find it very hard because they are part of the staff, because they are employed by the school, and they would probably feel that they would risk losing their job or getting a bad reference... But I do have the independence as a project worker, which enables me to comment on structures within a school that promote conflict between children and to make suggestions about how those could change.’
7.3.3 Summary and Discussion: Project Worker’s Role and Relationship with Children