Dual authority problems in classes for the emotionally disturbed

Abstract

Junior Guidance Classes Program Board of Education of the City of New YorkADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A MULTI-AUTHORITY SETTING Recent departures from the traditional classroom structure of one adult to one class group have appeared in the form of team teaching; the use of sub-professionals in the classroom; and the inclusion of two or more adults in special classes for emotionally disturbed children. There are also situations where kindergarten and nursery groups are often supervised by two adults. This dispersion of authority in a classroom setting has resulted in a number of unique problems, heretofore nonexistent when one teacher was responsible for one class. The apparent advantages of using two or more adults for one class, assuming the group is not enlarged, are: an increase in the individual attention that each child receives; a pooling of the specific educational strengths that each adult brings to the situation; greater opportunities for meeting individual educational needs and interests through small group instruction; a flexibility in dealing with student crises when the need arises; and the moral support they offer one another when confronted with the emotional stresses emanating from a class of disturbed youngsters. However, these benefits, at times, may be vitiated and/or the educational process undermined by the subtly destructive effects growing out of the same multiple teacher-class relationship. The negative interactions between the adults, as well as the easy opportunities for children to play one adult off against another, add complications not present in a one-teacherto-class relationship.The situation can be further exacerbated when working with classes of emotionally disturbed children, many of whom already have a history of problems in relating to adult authority figures. Moreover, the reduction in emotional distance that frequently accompanies a reduced teacher-student ratio tends to stimulate more profound levels of emotional reactivity in both participants. Similarly, the sheer weight of time that teachers experience in one another's presence during a working day tends to elicit, both consciously and unconsciously, a range of feelings that cannot but have a significant impact on their interactions, as well as have an effect on the class in general.