Methods: As part of a year-long study of social relationships in 1st, 3rd, and 5thgrade classrooms, 109 teachers completed 20-25min audiotaped interviews regarding their role in managing patterns of peer affiliation, social status and aggression in the classroom. Teachers completed Likert-type rating scales on these same topics after the interview, including one 6-item scale describing efforts to Mitigate Status Extremes. Based on a review of the responses of 21 teachers to questions about how they would handle issues related to low peer status or social isolation, we identified 3 general approaches (i.e., talking with student directly; pairing student with peer; addressing whole class) with several specific strategies under each approach. All instances of each strategy use were coded for each interview. Coders also rated each teacher’s Social Management Self-Efficacy -- a belief that s/he could improve social problems.
Results: Preliminary results based on an analysis of 35 interview transcripts indicated variability in the overall quantity of strategy use (range 1–10, M=3.85), with more instances reflecting more varied strategy use (e.g., the teacher with 10 instances used 7 different strategies). Teachers who described more instances of strategy use rated themselves as making greater efforts to Mitigate Status Extremes (r=.56, p<.05) and were rated by coders as higher in Efficacy (r=.80, p<.01). High-efficacy teachers reported satisfaction with success: “We modeled [approaching other children to ask them to be friends], which seemed to help him…it’s really neat to see that happen.” In contrast, low-efficacy teachers expressed feeling overwhelmed (“it’s hard to see everything”) or ineffectual: “[isolated child] would just swing on the swings by themselves. You’d approach and [try to engage them], but that’s pretty much how they were at that time.” Final analyses will include all 109 teachers.
Discussion: Teachers’ descriptions of their own strategies provide insights into practitioner-relevant strategies for managing social relationships as well as perceived obstacles to effective practice. Linking strategy use patterns to data on student outcomes in these classrooms will provide a basis for evidence-based professional development programs.