The student who complained about me!!

Hi new teachers,

How should we react to student and parent complaints? 

Many years ago, when I was working for an an international school in India, we were doing dual programmes, MYP and IGCSE. Some students in the MYP4 class were doing MYP-eassessment and some students were doing IGCSE. The Head of Secondary (HOS) came to me and said that a parent of a student complained to him that I was not preparing the student for MYP e-assesssment, I was only preparing the IGCSE students. 

Now if I had calmly and objectively thought about this, I could have explained to the HOS that the current IGCSE and MYP content for the unit I was teaching was the same with very minor differences in skills, so I was preparing both groups equally. I could have told the HOS that I am happy to speak to the parent to explain this. I could have shown the evidence of this and the parent would have been satisfied.

But my first response was based on my hurt ego and probably years of the traditional teacher idea that teachers are always right and cannot be questioned. "How could the student complain"?  I asked. Then I began verbalising moral indignation and anger..."I am doing so much for the students, I go out of my way to teach them in the best possible manner, to give them formative and summative assessments,  to give constructive feedback, to clear doubts and answer queries. Inspite of this, the student has complained to the parent".

Then indignation and anger turned to self pity. "MYP is all I know", I lamented. "Now the parent is saying that I don't do MYP. If I don't do MYP, what am I really doing?". Tears starting flowing and I was crying. The Head of Secondary very patiently sat by me, said words of encouragement and waited till I calmed down and was better. 

Much later, when I was calmer, I realised that it was not 'them' vs 'us' and it was just that the student had a certain perception. Even if I did justice to both sets of students, that perception had been created. So I needed to do something to stop that and make the student believe that I was preparing both groups of students. I then began a series of steps.

1. In class, every time I would teach a skill that was for both MYP and IGCSE like writing extended responses, I would explicitly say "this is for both MYP and IGCSE"

2. If it is a skill for IGCSE like source analysis,  I would say "this is for IGCSE, but MYP students would benefit as this is a skill required for DP"

3. If it is a skill for MYP like OPVL, I would tell the IGCSE students that this is for MYP, but they will benefit as DP has OPCVL so it will prepare them for that.

The complaints stopped. The student who was listening to this would have communicated to the parent that it is clear to which part is MYP and what has to be done to prepare for it. 

So how did this complaint get resolved? 

1. I decided that it was not 'them' vs 'us' and that I should be on their side, on the side of the students!

2.  After my first emotional outburst, I analysed this objectively and not defensively.

3. I accepted that I even though it was not my intention, the student had developed a perception and it was my responsibility to make sure that this wrong perception was removed (as it was I who had inadvertently created it!)

4. I accepted that somewhere I needed to do things differently. 

5. Once I accepted this, I made intentional changes to the way I taught so that the student's perception changed.

6.  I realised that if students think that their needs are not met, they have every right to air their grievance. That should not upset teachers, but they should use this as an opportunity to reflect and help students.

I am now my students' greatest advocate and share a great relationship with them. I ask each one of them for their views on whether they understand what I teach, where I should improve, whether they are comfortable in my class etc.  I constantly seek feedback. 

When I grade student assessments, I tell them to go through their responses and my comments and any area that they think they have not got the grades they deserve, I ask them to bring it to me so that we can discuss it. There have been instances where the grade has stayed the same and there have been instances where the students and I have re-looked at the rubric and this has resulted in an increase in the students' grade. 

The student's perception now is that they can come to me with any grievance and it will be addressed in a fair and just manner. I create a safe space for them to come and tell me if something does not work for them rather than complaining to their parent.

The next year, a new student joined us and the parent complained at the beginning of the year that IGCSE was not being done, only MYP was being done!!!  The reverse of the previous year's complaint! 

😀

The Coordinator told me about it. This time, there were no tears, no angry outbursts. I knew that I had to continue reinforcing in class as to how both sets of students were being taken care of!! And with my seeking student feedback and checking if they were comfortable and doing all the things I have listed above, the fears quickly vanished and both the parent and student had confidence in me as a teacher!!

I had evolved and become a better teacher by giving students voice and agency!!


Cheers!!

#homework,#relationships,#behaviour,#school,#testing,#learning,#leaders,#teacher-student relationships,#myp,#newteachers,#teaching,#assessments,#students,#learning support,#ib, #complaints




Popular posts from this blog

Child Series - Student safety

Image
I remember being scared of many of my teachers. They would hit students. I remember that our craft teacher was extremely strict. If we misbehaved or were caught talking or did anything to upset her, she would take a wooden ruler, ask us to put out our hand, close our fists to and make our knuckles visible, which she would hit our knuckles with the ruler, so we were very scared of her. I also remember an English teacher who would remove the pants of boys and make them parade through the school in case of any mis-behaviour. I remember the boys in my class screaming and crying and begging the teacher not to remove their pants. This is a problem at so many levels. First, you are shaming the child and humiliating him. Second, you are sexualising the problem.Third, you are scarring the children emotionally and traumatising them for years to come. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which has come into force with effect from 1 April 2010, prohibits 'phy...
Read more

Child series - Five articles

Image
     Child series - Five articles  I was perhaps in the sixth grade. We had a teacher - a craft teacher.  Craft period was when we would make products out of paper, cardboard or other material.   The culmination activity at the end of the year was creation of any five three-dimensional articles. Now the teacher told students that if they bought a plastic doll from her, some velvet material and some other accessories like sequins, she would help them make a dress for the doll from the velvet cloth and the doll in the velvet dress could be one of the articles. As this is so long ago, I cant exactly remember if students had to buy the doll from the teacher for a fee or if the students had to buy the doll and the velvet cloth themselves from a shop and the teacher would help them stitch the velvet dress for a fee, but a fee was involved. Craft was not something I was good at, but I could not dream of asking my parents for money for the doll.  Money was spe...
Read more

Child Series - Importance of Consent

Image
Child Series - Importance of Consent “Love Our Children Day” is celebrated in USA on the first Saturday of April, focusing on raising awareness about child abuse and promoting loving, respectful relationships with children. As this is the month of April, this post is to raise awareness about child abuse, honor all children, encourage the development of loving and respectful relationships with children and raise awareness of the importance of consent. My cousin sister and I (we lived together in a joint family) were a year apart and walked to school. We had to reach school by 7.15 am. It was a ten minute walk. Seven minutes walk to the main gate from our house in a housing colony and then 2 minutes to cross the main road and a minute to reach the school that was diagonally across. The last five minutes of walking in the colony to the main gate was walking in a lane with a compound wall on both sides - no buildings or houses. At that time in the morning, the lane was usually deserted. Wh...
Read more