Adam Russell

Establishing Presence in the Classroom

As I was reading Goffman, I kept thinking about Harry Wong’s First Day of School.  In Wong’s book, he stresses the importance of presence in the classroom.  Throughout my 8 years of teaching, I am constantly conscience of the presence I give off to my students.  Wong’s book was instrumental in how I established myself the first day of class, and how my authority carried for the entire term.  The idea of presence differs from grade to grade, and even within the span of a few years.  For example, the way I present myself to sophomores is much different than how I present myself to seniors.  However, even though I acknowledge these differences, there are some things that stay constant in terms of how I structure the feel of my classroom to create a pedagogical environment. 

Goffman writes that “the interaction that is initiated by ‘first impressions’ is itself merely an initial interaction in an extended series of interactions involving the same participants, we speak of ‘getting off on the right foot’ and feel that it is crucial that we do so” (11).  So much depends on that first impression; it often sets the tone for the entirety of the class and how the interactions that Goffman writes about will transpire.  He then goes on to quote from an interview of a teacher where they talk about the importance of “getting the upper hand” on the students (13).  Although the rhetoric the teacher uses in the interview might sound authoritarian on a more extreme level, the teacher does in fact express what all effective teachers must do in order to maintain control in the classroom (at least on the secondary level).  The interviewee goes onto say that the teacher can ease up once their presence is established because the students know their boundaries. 

In many ways, this logos coincides with Goffamn’s analysis of what is and what others see as what “is”.  To be an effective teacher, both “isses” must coincide.  People can read through the hidden agenda of people through their body language, the subtleties of what they say, the inflection of their voice, and how they react to certain situations.  When the students see a consistency with what the teachers say (the first “is”) and what they do (the real “is”), then they have effectively created a highly pedagogical environment.  If the two “isses” do not coincide, then students realize that the teacher is not in control of the classroom, because they are not in control of themselves.  The instructor will then spend most of the time with discipline, rather than doing any actual teaching.  F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that “there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well”.  In many ways, that same idea applies to the effectiveness of teachers who either have good classroom management and bad classroom management.  A teacher may thoroughly know their content, but if they do not have control in the classroom, the students will not learn. 

When I’m doing my observations, I take note to observe how the instructor transmits the information to the students, but now that I’ve read Goffman, I realize that there is so much more to take in besides what the teacher says.  Instead, I need to focus on the subtleties of how they carry themselves, respond to minor setbacks, handle discipline, and even the minutia of how they speak and inflect their voice.  All of these things create that presence that either creates a pedagogical environment, or allows the power to shift from the teacher to the students.