Redefining School Culture With Listening
June 01, 2020
Appears in June 2020: School Administrator.
The authors vouch for a process that hears the voices of students, teachers and administrators equally for building a responsive climate
![Patty Jensen](/images/default-source/school-administrator/2020-june/60-ratcliffe-co-author---patty-jensen-principal-lone-mountain-elem-school.jpg?sfvrsn=7d3a1060_7)
An elementary school teacher with well-established classroom routines for instruction is about halfway through the school year when a new student arrives, disrupting the learning environment with challenging behavioral, social and emotional needs.
The teacher, after unsuccessfully trying to deal with the new student in her classroom, resolves the problem by sending the student to receive specialized support for the full school day. With the student gone from the classroom, the teacher
resumes her regular instructional practices. The challenging student receives her learning in a restrictive environment. Although her academic needs are being met, two negative consequences also ensue: The social and emotional gap between her and
her peers widens, and differences are marginalized.
How might this situation have been approached differently?
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Authors
About the Authors
Patty Jensen is principal of Lone Mountain Elementary in Cave Creek, Ariz.
Krista Ratcliffe is a professor and chair of the English department at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.
Additional Resources
To learn more about rhetorical listening and its application to K-12 schooling, the authors suggest these two works:
- Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why by Paul Tough.
See chapters 15-22 in particular. - Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness by
Krista Ratcliffe.
Read chapters 1 and 5.
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