Laissez-faire it isn’t!

It is only safety that need be unconditional

It is clear from my recent research that making people feel safe (and safety here is unconditional) is the key to having teacherly authority-based relationships.  Once these relationships are in place students self-regulate to avoid disruptions and willingly do their best work.

When what we offer is conditional, then all the student needs to do is what they are told (and many won’t even do that).  When what we offer is unconditional safety, the student feels obliged to do their best.

How does the teacher then convert this promising environment into the highest possible performance? The literature in this area suggests there are two further steps.  The teacher has high expectations for their students’ performance and provides direct, and sometimes uncomfortable, feedback where those expectations are not being met.

Such feedback is effective because the recipient knows that there is no threat to their safety.  They can take in the feedback, however painful, because their fight-flight mechanism is not being triggered, which would otherwise make the feedback feel like a threat and be treated as such.

So far, it seems that unconditionality need only be offered around safety – so such an approach is not laissez-faire in any sense of the term and is, in fact, more demanding of the student than the alternative.

Looked at from this perspective, working out how to offer safety unconditionally becomes a priority.

So that is what we will be focusing on in the new year.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas and a well-deserved rest! Back in January …

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation.  At the core of this work is the concept and practice of teacherly authority.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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