Impact on Professional Practice

In her book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Dr. Ruby Payne introduces the language of negotiation that consists of three voices, the child voice, the parent voice and the adult voice. It is important for all teachers and administrators to understand the differences between these voices because the art of negotiation is used with students and parents from all socio-economic backgrounds. She says that teachers almost always use the parent voice when speaking to students in poverty because these teachers assume that poverty equates with lack of intelligence (Payne, 2005). As a result, students invariably get angry and the situation has the tendency to get blown out of proportion. When a teacher assumes that a student or their parent is not intelligent, when they truly are, and treat them accordingly, of course the situation is not going to end well. The adult voice is much more effective in dealing with students, whether they are a behavior problem or not. It also works well even when dealing with sensitive issues between colleagues because the voice is non-threatening and respectful.

When I first started teaching, I had two freshman boys in my class that absolutely despised each other. Of course, I had no prior knowledge of this until they wanted to fight each other in the middle of class. I immediately stepped between them and calmly said, "Now gentlemen, I have six brothers. There will be no fighting in my room, but if you insist, I suggest you try me and see what happens." I wish I had a camera to capture the look on their faces since they both were much taller and bigger than me. But I was very matter-of-fact and respectful in my responses to their thoughts on the topic, but the fight never occurred, not even later. Many times just talking with a student like they are a valuable human being with opinions and ideas that matter and that they deserve to be listened to is all that is needed to guide that student to a different path than the one they are currently traveling. Often, respect is not a trait they ever see at home. These are the type of students that other teachers can't stand to have in their classroom because they are such discipline issues. Treating students with respect and using an adult voice when speaking with them would go a long way to bringing order back to chaotic classroom.

Payne, R. (2005). A Framework for Understanding Poverty (4th ed). aha! Process, Inc: Highland, TX.