Why teachers exit the staffroom
Sanctuary
or battlefield? The staffroom means different things to different teachers, but
some new schools are doing away with it altogether.
The lunch bell in school had just sounded and out with the tiffins came the knives. The new girl was about to be shredded. She had the misfortune of arriving from a wealthier school. Worse, she had replaced the old favourite. There was bound to be blood...in the staffroom.
"It's a political quagmire," says one teacher of the school staffroom. But another feels it's "an island of sanity in an otherwise maddening workplace". "The equivalent of a smoker's lounge," is how the third describes it. Whatever the metaphor, the staffroom has been a vital part of the social architecture of a school, a place for teachers to regroup and recoup.
For some, however, it is no asylum. "There were territorial wars, groupism and bullying - it was pretty much a facsimile of the classroom," recalls a former teacher from Bengaluru who quit the profession in four years. "The best seats by the window or under the fans were reserved for veterans or 'important' teachers of maths, science or English," she says.
While the staffroom is different things to different teachers, several modern schools are doing away with it altogether. At Lancer's International School in Gurugram, instructors don't retire to a staffroom, they have classrooms of their own. "It's not the teacher who goes from class to class, but the students," explains school director Rohit Mann. Every teacher has her name and bio on the glass door, and a large desk in a corner, which is invariably personalised with picture frames and curiosities - a private space, but with 15 students routinely dropping in.
"Teachers can find the staffroom intimidating," says Suparna Das, primary years programme coordinator at Lancer's, who feels a separate room creates a comfort zone for teachers to engage with students and peers. "It's easier for a student to approach a teacher in a classroom than a staffroom," she adds. Her colleague, Archana Nagpal, coordinator of the middle years programme, says teachers meet in each other's classrooms. "It's in an interdisciplinary approach to learning in which teachers collaborate, and this can happen anywhere — on the basketball court, in the cafeteria, and increasingly online," Nagpal says.
Valli Subbiah, founder-director of KC High in Chennai, says this development speaks for the way we're beginning to look at education. "It is integrative, necessitating spaces that are integrative," she says. Which is why new school buildings like her own are being designed with more collaborative spaces for staff and students.
"We
didn't particularly see the need for a staffroom," says V Arun, co-founder
of Marudam Farm School, an alternative school in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. Teachers here
even have their meals with the students. "The philosophy is simple: when I
hang around with one bunch of kids over time, getting to know the rhythm of
their life, I'll be better able to understand what's going on with them,
catching the reasons they're unable to grasp something. The aim of this
approach is to help a child learn holistically and not simply to teach,"
says Arun.
"While it's good for teachers to have a space to engage, these spaces also invariably become places where teachers 'dissect' students, discussing them and possibly preconditioning each other about the child, based on personal experiences," he points out.
However, Kavita (an alias), a temporary teacher of Hindi at a government school for girls in Delhi cannot imagine surviving the school day without the sanctum of the staffroom. "Private schools can do without one because the number of students is smaller," she reasons. "Imagine facing a raucous class of 60 students every day without the promise of a mid-day escape, if even to this," says Kavita, gesturing to the cramped staffroom lined with rusted cupboards, some resting on stacked bricks. A month ago, Delhi's deputy CM Manish Sisodia pointed out to the directorate of education the deplorable condition of government school staffrooms, and promised to not only refurbish them but also furnish them with tea and coffee machines.
"That would be nice," says Kavita. "But what would be nicer would be a more transparent and responsive system that addresses problems we face in the staffroom. In almost all the government schools I've taught at, I've seen instances of teacher bullying." She says temps are at the bottom of the pecking order, with teachers of physical education, art and optional subjects only a rung above. In fact, at a Hindi-medium school, it is commonly believed that a Hindi teacher has little work. 'What Hindi does he teach Hindi speakers in any case?' is the barb. Socially isolated or ridiculed, the confined space of the staffroom becomes oppressive to these teachers who seek alternate spaces to take their meals or relax. "It's a lesson no teacher training course covers," says Kavita wryly, "How to survive the staffroom."
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
No comments:
Post a Comment