Examining Student Engagement and Authority: Developing Learning Relationships in the Middle Grades

Fostering engaged learning for middle grades students is a significant challenge for teachers everywhere, and in some jurisdictions, it has even become a government priority. For example, in Manitoba, a province in western Canada, all seventh grade students must be assessed annually for their level of engagement in learning. Students' ability to interact with others, to self-reflect, and to submit assignments on time have now become indicators of student engagement (Manitoba Education, Citizenship & Youth, 2007). As one might expect, this policy has raised broader questions about what we actually mean when we talk about engagement and whether or not these criteria are, in fact, valid indicators of when learners are engaged. Certainly young adolescents who listen, ask questions, and dutifully complete assignments seem to be conscientiously assuming their responsibilities as students, but does that necessarily mean that they are engaged as learners? Further, although a significant body of middle grades research highlights the importance of self-reflection and the active involvement of students in their learning (Brodhagen & Gorud, 2005; Jackson & Davis, 2000), should the discussion surrounding the notion of "engaged learning" be reduced to a set of ideal behaviors and student performances? With these questions in mind, some members of the Manitoba Middle Years Association purposefully worked to move the organization toward becoming a "community of learners" (Lave & Wenger, 1991) engaged in collaborative inquiry about the nature of student engagement and the pivotal role played by middle grades teachers. Based on the group's discussions and ongoing observations in schools, it soon became evident that the dialogue on student engagement needed to extend well beyond the assessment of student behavior to an exploration of the various ways in which teachers and students interact. This led group members to the literature on authority, particularly the work of Roberts and Clifton (1995), and the role that authority assumes in developing strong learning relationships between teachers and students. In this article, we summarize what we learned about student engagement and discuss how teachers can influence engagement by exercising authority in the classroom. Furthermore, we argue that it is the unique blend of an individual teacher's social and pedagogical authority in daily teaching that fosters engagement by encouraging students to "push through" challenging yet meaningful learning experiences. Fostering engagement: The importance of authority Vignette 1: Student Engagement In Ms. Jones's eighth grade Math class of 25 students, there are always a few who are constantly asking how they can move to the next letter grade or percentage on their report card; they will do whatever work needs to be done to get the A or A+. Then there are a number of students who seem more "into" the actual learning; whether they are working on projects in groups or individually, they seem to enjoy the work, although they don't always get the best marks or complete the best work in relation to their peers. There are also a few, though, who seem to need her to constantly push or coerce them with such statements as, "Get your work done or you're not going to the dance" or "Get your work done or you're staying in at lunch to complete it. " And, of course, there are those who appear not to do much of anything. They sometimes attend class, although they are often caught wandering in the halls or loitering in the washrooms, and they rarely complete assignments. Ms. Jones tries to gently support them, to take the time to get to know them, and even to pressure them with some serious consequences, but they just don't seem to care about schoolwork. Who are the "engaged learners" in this scenario? We might argue that students whose primary motivation is to "get As" and those who "enjoy learning" are engaged; they have learning goals, they self-reflect, and they submit higher quality work on time. …