{"id":104674,"date":"2025-09-22T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=104674"},"modified":"2025-09-22T17:23:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:23:18","slug":"co-operation-key-to-combating-incivility-in-the-classroom-and-beyond-brock-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/09\/co-operation-key-to-combating-incivility-in-the-classroom-and-beyond-brock-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-operation key to combating incivility in the classroom and beyond: Brock expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expectations for how people treat one another in public spaces have recently moved beyond unspoken social contracts and into more formal codes of conduct.<\/p>\n

A civility policy<\/a> rolling out in Quebec schools this winter and the recent signing of an Elect Respect<\/a> pledge by municipalities across Ontario are among examples of organizations seeking to create safer and more respectful learning and working environments, says Natalie Spadafora (BA\/BEd \u201913, MA \u201915, PhD \u201921).<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter who you are or what environment you’re in, civility makes a difference in how you go about your life,\u201d says the Assistant Professor in Brock University\u2019s Department of Child and Youth Studies. \u201cAlthough doing things like saying please or holding a door open for someone may take extra time or consideration, we’ve collectively decided that it\u2019s worth it and makes for a better functioning society overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngaging in civil behaviours is a signal that we’re open to co-operating as part of a wider group.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Natalie Spadafora (BA\/BEd \u201913, MA \u201915, PhD \u201921), Assistant Professor in Brock University\u2019s Department of Child and Youth Studies.<\/p><\/div>\n

Spadafora\u2019s work focuses on incivility \u2014 the breach of the basic rules of social life \u2014 and low-level antisocial behaviour in school settings. She\u2019s investigated the rationale behind and increased engagement<\/a> in actions like talking or texting on a cellphone while a teacher is talking or packing up books before a lesson is done, for example.<\/p>\n

She and her research team found that these and other similar acts of incivility, although seemingly harmless, can be predictive of future bullying and more serious acts of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne instance of incivility is often not a big deal; almost everyone engages in incivility to some degree,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if individual actions continue and then everyone starts doing them, that has a cumulative effect and becomes disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

These actions, when left unchecked, are also a potential precursor for escalated \u2014 and even more concerning \u2014 behaviour, Spadafora says.<\/p>\n

She says intervening in lower-level incidents of incivility early is often easier than trying to curtail bullying or other school violence down the road, which can then spill out of the classroom into broader society.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our research team\u2019s most recent focus groups, teachers have talked about the importance of setting expectations and enforcing school rules at the beginning of the school year, and of coming up with these together as a class,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s not just about promoting basic manners like calling teachers Mr. and Mrs., it\u2019s about what doing that represents. Although rules don\u2019t necessarily solve everything, reinforcing these seemingly basic actions is part of teaching civility overall, which is a skill that children don\u2019t just learn on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says educators have also highlighted the importance of taking a \u201cteam approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a student is sent to the principal\u2019s office for acting out in class, for example, Spadafora says the administration and student\u2019s parents must be on the same page when it comes to recourse.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers have told us that it makes a big difference in their abilities to address these acts of incivility when everyone has their back,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Just as important, Spadafora says, is understanding why students are engaging in these actions in the first place.<\/p>\n

The motivation behind a student packing up their books early because they’re excited to get to see their friends at recess, for example, is often different than someone calling a teacher a hurtful name.<\/p>\n

\u201cBehaviours aren’t isolated. There’s always a broader context to consider and thinking about those differences is important,\u201d she says. \u201cIndividually, there might be reasons to engage in incivility, but cumulatively, we have to think about how we work together as a group to best address these things co-operatively.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expectations for how people treat one another in public spaces have recently moved beyond unspoken social contracts and into more formal codes of conduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":104680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4767,1,38],"tags":[45,522,13797,10464],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104683,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104674\/revisions\/104683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}