Creating Environments of Success and Resilience

TLDR

Creating safe, productive environments for diverse students demands more than traditional classroom‑management strategies. The authors examined three novice teachers’ first‑day classroom practices in urban elementary schools, drawing on culturally responsive management, psychological support, and resilience literature, and analyzed videotaped and interview data inductively. The study shows that novice teachers create resilient, success‑oriented classrooms by building relationships, insisting on respectful behavior, and fostering a caring, task‑focused community for students who have historically struggled.

Abstract

Creating safe and productive environments with a diverse student population requires more than the strategies recommended in the original classroom-management literature. Drawing from the literature on culturally responsive classroom management, psychologically supportive classroom environments, and building resilience, the authors describe the practices used by three effective novice teachers in urban elementary classrooms during the first 2 hours of the first day of school. The study was based on videotape and interview data that were qualitatively analyzed using an inductive approach. The novice teachers focused on developing relationships and establishing expectations through the use of “insistence” and a culturally responsive communication style. The study provides clear pictures of the ways in which teachers teach and insist on respectful behavior and establish a caring, task-focused community. As such, it demonstrates how teachers create environments of success and resilience for students who have historically floundered in school.