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Circles of Adults ACADEMIC Article

Teacher Circles of Support:

Reflecting and Problem Solving Around

Emotional Needs and Behaviour

By Colin Newton and Derek Wilson

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Introduction

So often the last person in the world to understand why you have done something is yourself.  People you spend most of your life with may be much better placed to understand why you have behaved as you have. Your closest anchors, allies and friends may still find you difficult to be around because of your behaviour, even though they understand you best.  The task facing teachers and other professional carers and educators of understanding and coping with emotional turmoil and hard to manage behaviour is perhaps made more challenging with children and young people who are clearly not immediate allies or friends and certainly not anchors or family members.

Circles of support can and do make a difference to us all.  They are an inescapable and significant part of life.  Our circles may include our families, staff groups, professional organisations, friendships, social groups and so forth.  Some we choose, some we are stuck with.  Likewise young people find themselves in families or care situations, class groups, friendships and other forms of social grouping in and out of school.  These groups may have a very significant impact on the way any of us think about ourselves and the social world of which we are a part.  Peer pressure as well as peer support are critical factors in human behaviour. More than any other factor pupils rate peer influence as affecting their involvement in truancy, drugs, and a range of what are viewed by society as anti social behaviour. Circles can be vicious or virtuous. This book is about working with adult circles of support, particularly groups of teachers but may well be applicable to work with other groups such as young people and their carers or parents.

Background

There is a long and well-established psychological history to group work in the mental health field, social work and more recently in education.  Orientations have ranged from the traditional psychodynamic (Foulkes, 1957), family therapy (Skynner, 1989), problem solving (Cameron and Stratford, 1987) and non-directive (Rogers, 1961) to the consultative approaches (Caplan, 1970 Gutkin and Curtis, 1990).  The shared belief behind most of this work has been that groups can change individual behaviour.  Early approaches from the late fifties used group consultation to develop the skills and personal resources of individual professionals, as well as to explore how social systems function as forms of defence.  What has often emerged since is that groups can be more supportive and less personally threatening than individual work or therapy.  They are thus well suited to learning about work on personal growth and change.  Other themes include the rejection of  the notion of expertise residing in other people and the need to urge individuals to develop their own resources as human beings.

Whilst mental health workers in the Health Service and social workers have increasingly benefited from individual or group support and supervision carried out in a structured way, it is clear that in education for individual teachers and other workers this has been much more erratic and infrequent.

Few school managers have been able to put in place a stable organised and effective means of support and supervision for their staff.  This is despite widespread acknowledgement and recognition that individuals are experiencing a strong sense of low self worth.  Also many are finding out that trying to meet the emotional and behavioural demands of their pupils can be personally and professionally debilitating.  The reasons for this is well documented elsewhere and include initiative overload and excessive imposed government change on schools (Newton and Tarrant, 1992).  Thus many individuals working in and with schools find themselves increasingly exposed and vulnerable with little opportunity to engage in reflection on their own relations to individual pupils or to think and plan proactively about what might be the best strategy in a given situation.  Despite this teachers need to become 'reflective practitioners' if they are to tackle effectively the full range of individual needs to which they are exposed daily. (Ainscow, 1991).

Influences on the Present Work

One approach that has gained some influence in education in this country is that of Gerda  Hanko (1990, 1999).  Her approach is well placed to form the backbone to any work with groups of staff.   Gerda stresses the need to ask answerable questions and encourages groups to find their own educational answers to the difficulties presented by the behaviour and emotional needs of young people.  By this, she means that rather than simply advising individuals or groups, consultants need to ask questions which empower and lead the recipients to finding their own way forward from their own resources, knowledge and experiences.  Thus a group might well be asked "Where do you instinctively feel this pupil needs emotionally to move to?" or "What ideas do you think might be worth exploring if we are going to improve this pupil's educational experience?"  Such questions do not prescribe, but rather invite perspective and experiences.

'Each case was jointly explored, with consultative guidance towards asking oneself the kinds of questions which might lead to better understanding of a child's exceptional needs and which might enable teachers to adapt their approach to the children in the course of their daily encounters.  This took account of the teacher's needs for immediate support as well as of their need for information, which would highlight issues and evoke the skills necessary to put insights and principles into practice beyond the immediate difficulty.  The solutions which they attempted were their own and arose from their active involvement in the joint exploration of workable alternatives.' Hanko (1990).

Phil Stringer led work in the early 1990s among educational psychologists in Newcastle upon Tyne (Stringer et al, 1992) to set up teacher support groups using Gerda Hanko's approach with considerable success.  They established a programme to train teachers to facilitate their own school-based staff consultation/support groups. 

Another important influence on my own work with groups comes from ideas originating in Social Services work, especially of Hawkins and Shohet (1989).  They provide a model for group support and supervision, which, like Hanko's is unapologetic in being psychodynamically, referenced, yet which seeks to avoid becoming too esoteric, impractical or impenetrable.

Problem solving approaches and approaches to consultation stemming back to Caplan (1970), together with plenty of other behavioural and action-oriented perspectives thrown in, have been a major influence on the work of most present day educational psychologists.  The whole consultation paradigm well reflected and developed by Patsy Wagner (  ) of  situational understanding, problem analysis, hypotheses generation, target setting, strategy development, review and evaluation has continued to be the for many educational psychologists the key process when working with teachers. Brief therapy (  ) has influenced this work considerably emphasising problem free exchanges, focusing on miracle change, small steps, scaling questions and so on. The inclusion movement has brought its own very powerful tools and strategies which EPs are increasingly using such as MAPs, PATH, Solution Circles, Circles of Friends and so on.

All this has influenced the work we have engaged in with groups and what follows.

The groups of which we have been a member, include Nottingham City CEPS, Nottinghamshire Educational Psychology Service and Essex EPS, also significantly influenced us.  As with any venture, encouragement from group peers, together with the sharing of ideas, useful resources and experiences support new behaviours and exploration.  Fellow team members supported our work with another group but may well have been quite unaware of the fact.  Mutual support is an'unsung hero'.  It often occurs at a less than virtually undetectable level and yet you know it when you experience it. Of course the lack of mutual support is even more vivid!  Interestingly support can often be vividly recognised within a complex web of conflict and stressed relationships.

Setting up a 'Teachers' Circle of Support

Prerequisites

1. Agreement from senior managers in a school that this work will take place and be supported
2. A group of staff commit to attend a number of sessions. An initial session may be needed to demonstrate the power of this process. Following this a series of sessions should be agreed. Between 4- 8 sessions on a regular basis across one school term would be rich for developmental or professional development purposes. Building the process into ongoing pastoral processes of staff and pupil support and guidance, a much bigger goal, would be even more likely to bring about major change across as school system.
3. A place to meet which is safe from interruption, offering some privacy, a true 'place to be', or 'place to talk'(ref...) as one UK organisation has helpfully described therapeutic gathering places in schools. Key is some degree of quiet, comfortable seating, low lighting, a clear wall space that a large piece of graphic paper can be taped to.
4. Time to meet. Possibly the toughest requirement in todays' overheated school weeks. At least 90 minutes is required to do such a meeting real justice.
5. Two facilitators available to lead the sessions. Initially these may well be recruited from outside agencies visiting schools such as psychologists and behaviour support teachers. Longer term the aim should be to develop the skills in house to run such sessions. Year managers or other senior pastoral teachers could take on such facilitation role following the described processes with training, support and preparation. Support and supervision for such leaders would also be extremely useful and desirable if not essential.

Aims

·                         To provide opportunities for:

·                         Shared problem solving in a safe exploratory climate in which the group will find its own solutions.

·                         Individuals to reflect on their own intervention methods and receive feedback from the group.

·                         An exploration of whole-school processes and their impact on individual staff attempting to meet pupil needs.

·                         Emotional support and shared understandings of issues at a pupil, family, school and community level.

·                         Feed back to school staff on issues, ideas and strategies that are agreed to be worth sharing with them.

Ground Rules

Effective group work requires clear boundaries and one way of providing these is to agree ground rules.  We drew the following from the influences described above, which emphasised the need for individuals to take personal ownership of their own comments and to avoid giving others in the group ' good advice'.  Many writers have described in detail the horrors of groups pouring helpful advice upon one member who ends up feeling deskilled, disempowered, dispirited, resistant or simply overloaded.  Thus we agreed the following;

·                         Speak from your own experience. 'Own' your statements!

·                         Don't give 'good advice'/don't preach.

·                         Give feedback to other group members that is owned, specific and balanced.  Speak for yourself and of your own experiences in detailed and precise terms, providing both positives and negatives in balance.  For instance: 'For me, my feelings about Paul are that he can be both likeable and totally infuriating.'

·                         Maintain confidentiality regarding all personal materials unless agreed otherwise.  Don't discuss outside group unless clearly in interests of those concerned

Step-by-Step guide to running Circles of Adults

As a result of the influences outlined earlier, as well as reading, discussing and drawing together a number of experiences of past group work, the following group process was devised out of a synthesis of what appeared to be the best of the approaches examined:

1. Group members are welcomed:
   Introductions are carried out, ground rules and aims clarified whilst coffee is drunk.
2. A recap from the last session is carried out:
   To follow up developments and reflections after the last meeting.
3. New issues are gathered from the group:
   One case is selected that appears to reflect shared concerns: For instance, the case of 'John' who was mentioned by several group members.  He appeared to be pushing a number of staff to shout, reprimand, exclude or in any way reject him.  At 14 years John still regularly soiled himself at night, was greatly underachieving in schoolwork and was hated by other pupils.  He was at great risk of permanent exclusion.
4. Case presentation:
   The teacher who raised the concern is asked questions to elicit the child's 'story', including their looks, and metaphors to describe them.  The teacher is asked to keep a clear focus on the child and is guided so as not to let their own 'ideological editor' allow judgemental thinking or inaccurate generalisations.  The teacher sis asked to make observations about what it is like being with the pupil.  Positives and negatives about their behaviour are elicited.  'What does it feel like being with the child?
5. Additional questions/information from the group about pupil is gathered:
6. Ground rules may need to be observed carefully here.  Individual staff need to be kept focused and prevented from leaping to premature conclusions or to making 'helpful' suggestions about strategy.  What is the child's family situation?  What other experiences of teaching him/her can others share?
7. The process of relationship is described:
   The story of the teacher's relationship with the young person is described.  Metaphors and analogies are invited.  How would a fly on the wall see your relationship?  If you were alone together on a desert island, what would it be like?
8. Impact of previous relationships/spillage from one relationship to another

(Transference/Emotional resources explored): Teachers are asked who or what situation they are reminded of?  They are asked whether there has been any transfer of past relationships onto the child or projection of their feelings into the child?  For instance, does this situation remind you of any of those angry but helpless feelings you had with your own son when he was and adolescent?
Exploring the child's possible transference, questions are posed such as, is any role being transferred onto teachers by the child?  For instance, are you being treated as if you were her dad? Is any emotional material being projected?  For instance, are you being blamed for not liking or hating the pupil?  Is she projecting her own anger into you? How much is being taken in?  Are you beginning to feel that you too want to reject or exclude him just as his parents have?

9. Counter transference:
   What feelings actions or thoughts are being used to counter this transference from child to the teacher?  For instance, are you doing anything to avoid being treated as if you were his parent?  Perhaps being extra strict or extra indulgent?

10. System/Organisation factors:
    What aspects help or hinder this pupil's emotional/behaviour development?  What areas of the curriculum provide successful experiences for the child?  For instance does the pastoral system of the school provide space, or time and skilled personnel able to counsel this young person and work actively with their parents?

11. What understandings/hypotheses can we draw out from above?
    This is an important stage and it is essential to keep thinking rich and open ended, inviting as many as possible hypotheses.  Participants need to be led through a creative brainstorm o understandings, and theories that might partly explain what is happening.
    Avoid the thinking 'locking in' prematurely to a single way of understanding what is going on.  Equally, either/ors need to be avoided, such as, 'exclude him or give him support all day long, one to one'.  Such thinking becomes rigid and unfruitful and will be unlikely to lead to practical educational responses to a young person's needs.
    Hypotheses might include the young person's need for attention, the impact of the loss of their father, perceived rejection from the mother, the influence of the peer group, lack of support at school, physical abuse two years ago and so forth.
12. What alternative strategies/interventions are open to be used? Brainstormed and recorded.
    'Either/ors' need to be avoided at this time also.  This needs to be a shared session in which the teacher who is presenting the concern contributes as much as anyone.  Care is needed to ensure that this person is not overloaded with other people's strategies.  The final selection of strategy from the brainstormed list is their choice.  Strategies might include: a special time for the young person with her head of year, a meeting with the pupil's parents to explore how she is being managed at home and to share tactics, a home-school diary, counselling, or an agreed action plan that all staff are aware of, agreed sanctions and rewards and so forth. More recently strategies have productively  involved processes of restitution and restoration, when 'sorry' is not enough.

John's Story

Key themes that emerged during a typical session regarding 'John' included:

a)      Rejection.  This had occurred with both his parents, but there were many attempts by the young person to trigger rejection from pupils and teachers by behaving in a totally unacceptable way when at school.

b)      Separation and loss.  His mother had left the parental home at a critical point in his life and then his father had remarried and was working away a lot.  A year manager who he was close to had less time for him as he moved year groups.

c)      Desperate need for attention and acceptance.  John was coming to school giving cash and sweets to other pupils, a desperate form of gift-giving.  He was grossly underachieving and often clowning about in lessons.

d)      Confusion, fluctuating between hating/rejecting and accepting/valuing.  Staff related to him positively at one level but could not bear his behaviour and so wanted him out of sight.  Adults described their pity whilst other pupils said they actually hated him.  The group remembered other adults, about whom they had felt the same ambivalence.

e)      Helplessness.  What can we do, these difficulties are too immense and unfixable?

f)       Testing out limits.  Those who cared for him and taught him were constantly being pushed to see what would happen if all the boundaries were crossed.

g)      Being 'not there'/'scary'/'switched off'/'matter of fact'.  John was regularly described in this way, a child who had developed a mask to hide his inner pain. 

h)      Not fitting in.  Adults and pupils felt that John did not fit into the culture of the school.  In some ways he was considered too tidy, too smart and too well spoken.

i)        Transference.  The group were aware of how they had behaved and felt about a fellow teacher who had eventually left the school.  He reminded them of John and vice versa.  The emotional issues regarding this colleague had been left unresolved for the teachers.  Some members of the group remembered a similar child to John whom they had successfully taught.

j)       Transference for young person from past 'rejectors' to key adults in his life in and out of school.  This was well encapsulated by actual comments from the young person such as, 'You're just like my mum, I hate you'.

Pupil Planning Meetings

These shorter 40-minute sessions are deliberately designed for school staff members to use when making Pastoral Support Plans for pupils or to inform Individual Education Plans in the UK. Pupil Planning Meetings are key to successful reflective inclusion of challenging pupils and key staff need to learn how to carry these out most effectively.  The suggested design is based on what had been learned already about the group processes of reflection and problem solving within a restricted time frame.  Heads of year and other pastoral leaders are encouraged to lead these groups and time has to be made available for this critical work to occur. Making time available to them for this work still is the biggest obstacle of all.

Who attends such meetings will vary. There will be times when a core of key staff will need to have an extremely clear, coherent plan that they need to work at around a table.

Richer and more creative will be meetings that are diverse in membership. Such meetings will deliberately include the focus young person and their friends, extended family members, community and wider school representatives.  

Step by step guide

This process not unlike what has been described earlier consists of the following steps:

1. Accurate description of the situation gathered outlining the young person's story so far and their present relationships.  Both positives and negatives are listed. The emphasis should always be upon the young person's gifts and capacities, rather than an overemphasis on deficits, problems and needs.
2. Key worker's relationship with pupil explored and action carried out already is described and reflected upon.
3. Other information from the group members on the present situation and their relationship with the young person is shared.  Strategies tried and implemented are shared, including any action plan already carried out by the pupil's core support group. Focus should be mainly on what has worked or showed some indications of possible success rather than on what has failed.
4. The group members generate hypotheses.
5. What do we want to see happening?  Both dreams of future possibilities and grounded positive and possible goals are stated and recorded.
6. A brainstorm of strategies is carried out, each one being carefully minuted.
   
   Immediately After Meeting
7. Action Plan - the pupil's key worker completes this, with support from another group member.  This is negotiated with both the parents and the young person if they have not been involved in the group.
8. A fortnightly follow-up of the action plan implementation occurs, which allows for reviewing and amending as appropriate.
   
   One Month After Meeting
9. Follow up review of Action Plan is called, to involve the key worker, young person and their parents or carers.  The action plan is amended and updated with new targets, and strategies, selected and agreed.
   
   

Outcomes, Reflections and Evaluation

Whilst such sessions are not without tensions, rivalries and conflict we are usually able to stick to the structure of the process and when things go well the discussions are well marked by the honesty of individuals, the open admission of mistakes, quality insights into classroom, school and family dynamics and mutual support. Understanding and tolerance at many levels appears to be increased and tolerance also as the process allows deeper exploration of individual stories.  Self-reflection and exploration of transference and counter transference has often struck us as particularly rich.  'Yes he reminds me of my sister, I really hated her ...'

We have often explored unfinished emotional business brought to mind dramatically by individual cases where it is unconsciously affecting teacher behaviour.  All the time it is important to draw a careful boundary between what we are doing in the interests of the young person and for professional and personal development of staff and what could have been a full blown 'therapy group' for staff.

Simply asking good questions, such as 'what would it be like if the two of you were on a desert island together?' seems at the heart of the success of what goes on  as does having a structured process for discussion.  We continue to be unsure whether simply broadening the understanding of the group to the situation of the young person is sufficient, or whether it is crucial to agree strategies and plan  action.  Similar ponderings and echoes can be found in the work of Hawkins and Shohet (1989) when they talk of having the courage not to know the answer.  Similarly, Hanko (1990) talks of the problem solving process making it less likely that there will be a premature jump to a solution before the issues have been fully explored.

Future Circles

Group work or circle work would seem to have a promising future and is only really in its infancy after 30 years or so exploration. The following circles may hold some very important educational keys for young people whose emotions are difficult to understand and behaviour difficult to manage.

1. Circle of Friends/Support
   This Canadian idea (Pearpoint, Forest and Snow, 1992) is concerned with maximising the inclusion of pupils and minimising their exclusion, by enlisting peer group support from individual's classmates. Working with colleagues we have found this to be a very powerful approach to the effective inclusion of pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties (Newton and Wilson 1999).

2. Mixed Circles
   Groups that include parents, carers, teachers, the young person and some of their classmates, plus other valued adults meeting with a facilitator to explore ways forward in a context of mutual support.
   
   

3. Circles of Parents
   Mutual support and problem solving can be very rich between parents if set up supported and structured appropriately and seriously.
   
   

4. Circles of Teachers and Parents
   Mutual support and shared learning can occur in such ventures if all involved are granted equal group status and encouragement.
   
   

5. Community Circles
   Networks of statutory and non-statutory agencies can work together in mutual support if they share a set of aims and objectives.  These can greatly improve and strengthen the effectiveness of individual efforts.
   
   

Conclusion

We have ended by looking forward to the development of a range of circles of people reflecting and problem solving.  Surely money spent on mutual support and understanding to promote understanding and inclusion of young people must be to everyone's long-term benefit?  The alternative may be much less effective and is likely to lead to the spending of even more thousands of pounds on segregated options for pupils when their behaviour becomes too challenging.  We all exist in and rely upon groups, but participation in them requires encouragement, support and development.  What price well integrated adult group members of society?

References

Ainscow, M. (1991) Effective Schools for All. London: Fulton

Cameron, R.J. and Stratford R.J. (1987) 'Educational psychology: a problem centred approach to service delivery', Educational Psychology in Practice, 2(4), 10-21.

Caplan, G. (1970) The Theory and Practice of Mental Health Consultation. New York: Basic Books.

Foulkes, S.H. and Anthony, E.J. (1957, 1984) Group Psychotherapy: The Psycho-analytic Approach.  Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Gutkin, Tl and Curtis, M. (1990) 'School-based consultation: theory and techniques'.  In Reynolds, Cl and Gutkin, Tl (eds) The Handbook of School Psychology, Second Edition, New York: Wiley.

Hanko, g. (1990) Special Needs in Ordinary Classrooms.  Hemel Hempstead: Simon Schuster Education.

Hawkins, P. and Shohet, R. (1989) Supervision in the Helping Professions. Milton Keynes:  Open Univeristy Press.

McConkey, R. (1986) Working with Parents, For Teachers and Therapists. London: Croom Helm.

Newton, Cl and Tarrant, T. (1992) Managing Change in Schools. London: Routledge.

Newton, C., Taylor, G and Wilson, D. (1995) 'Circles of Friends' Paper in preparation.

Newton, C., Taylor, G., and Wilson, D, (1996)   'Circles of Friends; An inclusive approach to meeting emotional and behavioural needs' , Educational  Psychology in Practice,  vol 11, No 4.

 Newton, C. (1995)  'Circles of Adults',  Educational Psychology in Practice, 11(2),  pp.8-14.

Newton, C. and Wilson, D.(1999) 'Circles of Friends', Folens, London 

Pearpoint, J., forest, M. and Snow, J. (1992) The Inclusion Papers, Strategies to make Inclusion Work.  Toronto: Inclusion Press.

Perske, R. and Perske, M. (1988) "Circles of Friends"  Nashville, Abingdon Press.

Reynolds, C., Elliot, S., Gutkin, T. and Witt, J. (1984) School Psychology - Essentials of Theory and Practice. New York: J.Wiley.

Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming a Person. London: Constable.

Schein, E.H. (1987) Process Consultation (Vol.2) Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.

Skynner, R. (1989) Institutions and How to Survive Them, London: Routledge.

Stringer,P., Stow, L., Hibbert, K., Powell, J., Lomas, E. (1992) 'Establishing staff consultation groups in schools', Educational Psychology in Practice. 8(2).

Shaw, L. (1990)  "Each Belongs- Integrated Education in Canada"  The Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education (CSIE),  Bristol

Sibbet, D. (1981)   "I See What You Mean!  Empowering through Visual Language" .  Graphics Guides Inc. San Francisco.

Snow, J. (1994)   "What's Really Worth Doing and How to do It"  Inclusion Press, Toronto.

Thomas, G. (1997)  "Inclusive Schools for an Inclusive Society"  British Journal of Special Education, Volume 24, No. 3. pp.103-107.

Villa, R.A. and Thousand, J.S. (1995)  "Creating An Inclusive School" Paul H. Brookes Publishing. Baltimore.

Wertheimer, A. (1995)   "Circles of Support-  Building Inclusive Communities" Published by Circles Network. Bristol.

DVD Showing Circles of Adults Process in Action: See Books/Video section