with the professional learning community (PLC) model and as professional development in an effort to align a coherent vision for classroom culture, establish a common language, and set a schoolwide approach to support staff and students. Immense growth occurs in schools when staff work collectively toward practices that embody empowered mindsets and efficacy (Hattie, 2016).
Mindsets refers to the beliefs that affect educators’ attitudes and how they view, interpret, and respond to interactions with students and their families. Teachers’ cultural beliefs influence their mindsets and impact their points of view, values, and assumptions. Mindsets influence decision making and can empower or disempower relationships with students. However, when teachers understand and reflect on their own mindsets, they can transform them to help build stronger relationships and increase student achievement (Dweck, 2007).
The reality is, the overwhelming majority of teachers, particularly those teaching in traditionally disenfranchised communities or diverse communities, unknowingly harbor disempowering mindsets about the abilities and cultural experiences of their students (Hudson, 2012; Marzano, 2010; Siwatu, 2011). While this may be unintentional, harm to students is immeasurable, as it reflects the larger deficit narrative that much of the education system harbors. Often, this deficit orientation is magnified when teachers haven’t had opportunities to reflect on how their mindsets may be impacting their actions. Mindsets impact classroom management more than any other part of education. Why? Because as we manage our classrooms and work to establish cultures for academic success, we bring in our own cultural norms that may or may not match those of our students (Aloe et al., 2014; Hammond, 2015).
Approximately 82 percent of teachers in U.S. public education are of European descent, while only 50 percent of students share a similar background (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). Students in U.S. classrooms are far more diverse than their teachers, and this can be cause for miscommunications and misinterpretations when it comes to classroom expectations. Understanding the cultural and socioeconomic similarities and differences teachers share with students can significantly improve our abilities to support, build relationships with, and teach our students. The authentic relationships we build with students empower our mindsets because they teach us about what is important to students in their communities and in their homes. It is only when we build authentic, deep relationships and learn about students’ cultural experiences that we can provide highly engaging, student-focused classrooms.
Overcoming disempowering mindsets, therefore, is essential to teach all students. The good news is that research and experience highlight the most effective way to dismantle disempowering mindsets—by building relationships with students. Students can teach us about their cultures. They can teach us what we need to know about them. Relationships are going to form in your classroom, one way or another, and they need to benefit both you and your students!
Even when educators do not share the same cultural or socioeconomic background as their students, they can still be very effective. While some teachers we studied shared backgrounds with their students, the majority did not (Klei Borrero & Canter, 2018). In short, regardless of your culture and background, you can become a No-Nonsense Nurturer and support the needs of every student, every day. It requires a deep desire to unlearn some of your assumptions about students with humility and through self-reflection about your own learning and teaching, and passion for building meaningful relationships.
The Need for No-Nonsense Nurturers
As a young administrator, I failed to adequately support teachers in my school with classroom management. This was a harsh but true reality of my early administrative years. However, my failures were not for a lack of trying. I bought every book I could find, watched any video I could get my hands on, and sent teachers to seminars and professional development sessions that promised to help them improve classroom management. None of these books, videos, or seminars, however, seemed to answer the one question we needed answered: Why can some teachers establish a classroom culture where students are on task, engaged, and achieving at high academic levels, while their peers struggle?
This question is actually quite complex. In pursuit of an answer, I collaborated with a well-esteemed colleague, Lee Canter. Together, we studied educators across the United States. During these studies:
A consistent finding across our research indicates that these educators create caring environments for students through consistency, accountability, and high expectations (Klei Borrero & Canter, 2018). These educators establish effective classroom cultures by creating orderly, predictable environments so all students can meet their full potential.
Theoretical Foundations for the No-Nonsense Nurturer Model
It is important to note that the No-Nonsense Nurturer model is grounded in sound education theory. While I consider myself more of a practitioner than an academic, my coursework and my continued work with youth, families, teachers, and administrators has taught me the importance of grounding educational practice in contemporary learning theory. When it comes to applying classroom management models and systems—which can be reactive and rigid—theory must guide our practice. Educators have learned this from decades of research about the most effective ways to promote meaningful learning and teaching in the classroom.
Key research regarding meaningful learning and teaching in the classroom, which was influential in the work of the No-Nonsense Nurturer model, is Sonia Nieto (2002) and her writings about the application of sociocultural theory (Vygotsky 1978). Foremost in sociocultural theory is the tenet that learning is social—it happens through relationships, and the context in which it occurs is vital. Thus, for our purposes as teachers, the classroom culture matters. In her work, Nieto (2002, 2008) applies foundations of sociocultural theory to diverse classrooms and shows that effective learning is rooted in the interrelated concepts of agency, experience, identity, context, and community.
Sociocultural theory stresses that students learn in social and culturally embedded contexts. The concept of agency dispels old myths that students are empty vessels teachers fill, and instead asserts that students learn through mutual discovery and relationships with teachers and their peers (Freire, 1970). Teaching is not the practice of transmitting knowledge but rather working alongside learners as they reflect, theorize, and create (or recreate) new knowledge (Nieto, 2002; Picower, 2012; Stefanakis, 2000; Yosso, 2005).
Experience is the second concept of Nieto’s (2002) application of sociocultural theory. In education, we tend to take for granted that experience is necessary for learning. Why? Because we may ignore that our students’ experiences can differ greatly from our own. In order to share and understand a student’s experience, a teacher must build a relationship with each student. When we learn about and better understand our students’ experiences, we can then deliver content and pedagogy that is relevant and worthy of our students’ learning time.
Closely tied to a student’s experience is a student’s identity and context. Identity is closely tied to culture. Culture is complex, and in schools, we
