Building positive respectful relationships between adults and children in a classroom community

Abstract

A 1997 survey of Canadians revealed that bullying occurs once in every seven minutes on the playground and once in every twenty-five minutes in the classroom (Craig and Peplar, 1997). It is my feeling that educators need to be positively proactive and pursue interventions in the classroom, that have the potential to improve relationships, discipline and respect in order to reduce this statistic. This study explored how the adults and students in an individual grade one classroom might build positive relationships in the classroom community. The study was based on the discipline policy of my school division, as stated in the “School Divisions Standard of Behavior” (2006) document and the ideas of Michelle Borba explained in “The Accentuating Respect and Defusing Disrespect Model” (Borba, 2007). Action research data, obtained from the participants, indicated that respect grounded in positive relationships and effective discipline can be introduced to students in an intense one month program, but requires an ongoing relationship between the child and the adult and life-long learning in order to be maintained.