We all have roles.

Teacher, learner, parent, friend, sibling, manager.

Most of us have multiple roles.

In any culture, whether it be the larger culture of which we are a part or a more specific culture, such as the culture of our classroom, different roles are loaded with different expectations.

These expectations are usually in the form of norms we expect the role-holder to fulfil and values we think they ought to uphold.

While there may be competing visions of what roles should entail, there is usually a lot of overlap.

Disagreements tend to relate to specific aspects of a role.

Two examples help illustrate the point.

The Role of Prime Minister

In the United Kingdom, the role of Prime Minister exists.

Whoever takes on that role is expected to behave in certain ways.

There are competing views as to what this ought to entail, but even the most divergent positions have a great deal of common ground.

Anybody who becomes Prime Minister knows they will have scope to make the job their own, but that this scope is limited by the expectations connected to the role.

In the case of the Prime Minister these cover things like prime ministerial duties, ways of behaving in public, and working for the national interest.

The Role of ‘Friend’

All of us play the role of ‘friend’ for part of our lives.

This role comes with expectations; norms and values that if broken bring into question whether we are indeed a friend or not.

Asking one hundred people to define the role of ‘friend’ might produce a hundred different responses, with associated norms and values varying considerably.

But we can be confident that all the responses would retain a central core of similarity, given as how there is widespread agreement on the general nature of friendship.

Now, let us draw this back to the classroom.

There, two roles stand out above all others: teacher and learner.

The nature of these roles differs depending on the age group you teach.

The norms and values associated with learners in Year 3 is different from those associated with learners in Year 13.

However, there is also significant overlap.

In your classroom, it is for you to establish the culture you want. You can do this by defining, communicating and maintaining the norms and values you want.

But there is also the important idea of defining roles:

• The role of teacher.
• And the role of learner.

Doing this means developing a clear understanding of how the norms and values you set out translate into the specific roles played while teaching and learning takes place.

This is important for a few reasons.

Clarity is key when it comes to behaviour management.

Everybody needs to know where they stand, what is expected of them, and why.

If you can give clear guidance to yourself and to your learners about what should be happening every time you work together, then behaviour management becomes simpler.

Learners are at a disadvantage if they do not know what you expect from them in their role as learners.

They will not have the information necessary to tailor their efforts.

They may be able to infer this, or they may pick it up over time, but why risk it?

Life is much easier for you and for them if the criteria for successful, positive, learning-focussed behaviour are outlined and communicated from the off.

It is easier to cultivate norms and values if you can hang them on a role.

For example: ‘This is what I am looking for from a fantastic learner. That’s what I know you can be.’

Here we are providing something concrete learners can grab hold of.

Instead of having to remember a long list of norms and values they can remember the role of learner, connecting the varied and disparate elements to this single, memorable idea.

It provides a locus through which expectations can be communicated and remembered.

All of this leads us to the final element of culture (alongside norms, values and roles): status.

Status is the recognition, rank and standing we possess.

Status may be achieved or ascribed.

In the first case, consider how you have achieved your status as a teacher.

In the second case, consider how your family name was ascribed to you at birth, or how children of the Royal Family have the status of royalty ascribed to them from birth.

Our status can and often does vary depending on the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

I have one status at school, another at home.

I have one status when I am with my friends, another within my family.

Everyone desires some level of status.

To be denied status is an unpleasant, sometimes painful, experience.

If our desire for status is frustrated, we may seek it in other ways.

And these may not always be positive.

For example, consider a learner who is labelled a failure and comes to regard themselves as such.

If they believe the label that somebody has attached to them it follows that they will not believe they can achieve status through the traditional classroom route.

As a result, they may seek it through other means – by taking on the role of class clown, by disengaging, or by being disruptive.

There is also a hugely positive point attached to the universal desire for status.

As teachers, we can help all our learners gain status.

We can help all of them to learn, grow and achieve. To be successful and to fulfil the roles we set out for them.

And this leads us to the following points:

• We should consider the opportunities we provide in our classroom, through which learners can gain status.
• We should think about the way status in our classroom is connected to positive, learning-focussed behaviour.
• We should pay close attention to whether this status is achievable and accessible to all.

It is not so much about the teacher conferring status.

Rather, it’s about the teacher helping learners to understand that everyone can gain status by engaging positively with learning and by being a supportive member of the group.

A final example to conclude.

You’ll be familiar with the technique of improving a learner’s behaviour by giving them responsibility.

That responsibility does not have to be anything big.

It could simply be the responsibility for handing out and collecting in the books.

It is the gesture that indicates status, as much as the content of the gesture.

The content plays a role, but the form (the attribution of responsibility with the concomitant implication that the learner to whom it is attributed both deserves it and can carry it off successfully) is key.

The example shows us how something (poor behaviour) that is often caused by frustrated attempts to gain status can be arrested by achieving of status.

It also indicates why learners in purposeful classrooms often seem happier and more at ease than those in classrooms of the opposite type.

In such classrooms, the path to achievement is clear; all learners can travel along it with relative ease.

And, therefore, all learners know what they need to do to achieve status.

If you can create that in your classroom, behaviour management will always be easier for you.