Female behaviour 'gurus'... LIST THEM!

[Cat0115]

As per title
.. I'm holding my breath here...!

[WhyNotMe40]

[Cat0115]

Tapping foot.
Looking at watch...
Don't make me twirl my thumbs!

[LizzieVereker]

Does Sue Cowley count?

[LizzieVereker]

Ooh wait, I know - NANNY MCPHEE!!!

[BodenGate]

Jenny Moseley?

[123bananas]

Nanny Plum - She's lots of fun ...

[Cat0115]

For excellent book title, yes. I mean whole school behaviour really.

[WhyNotMe40]

Professor McGonagall

[Cat0115]

Jenny Moseley is more primary I think? I didn't specify secondary but that's what I'm thinking.. Sick of Dix!

[Xiaoxiong]

Supernanny...?

[BodenGate]

Ah sorry! I don’t know any secondary. Is Sue Cowley both?

[noblegiraffe]

Not many female gurus on anything in education despite it being a female-dominated profession.

Sue Cowley was secondary drama I think.

If you’re sick of Dix, why does it have to be female? There are good male non-Dix ones out there.

[Cat0115]

Noble, it just occurred to me that all the behaviour leads I've ever known are male and all the 'gurus' we've ever known are also male. I don't think wholesale adoption of 'solutions' is a good policy as it doesn't take individuals into account. Our problems are all with boys so I wondered if anyone had tackled this. My dept is all female bar one very tall and imposing man.

[Piggywaspushed]

Sue Cowley, definitely.

Getting The Buggers To Behave is fairly seminal. Not recent, though.

[noblegiraffe]

Ah piggy you and I disagree over Getting the Buggers to Behave. It’s the dog food bit!

Although I did see Sue Cowley give a behaviour talk and she was pretty entertaining. She did the dog food bit and it didn’t sound as bad when she was saying it, but it did strike me as one of those ‘personality’ behaviour management tips. Being a maths teacher and not having a personality means I don’t get on so well with more flamboyant suggestions.

I like Tom Bennett because he insists that behaviour management advice shouldn’t rely on personality or charisma, and because he fully admits he was shit at behaviour management to start with and his classes ran wild till he figured it out. I also like that he puts responsibility for behaviour management on SLT and a whole school culture. I think that helps female teachers who can’t rely on being physically imposing.

[Piggywaspushed]

Didn't say I agreed with it : it's just seen as a core behaviour text. And is pretty much unique in being written by a woman.

I also quite like TB but do think he is in denial that his presence and maleness have given him advantages.

I think OP is right that we could do with more female voices in behaviour management. I used to deliver training in this all the time and was then deposed by two males with loud voices...

[noblegiraffe]

We could do with more females in everything. I see quite a lot on twitter some male edu-voice with a prolific output posting a picture of them with a brand-new baby and thinking ‘there’s a woman behind them doing a lot of the heavy lifting’.

Our current behaviour lead is a male PE teacher. The previous one was a male PE teacher.

I was walking down a corridor once and some kids who weren’t meant to be there were walking towards me. I kept telling them to turn around and they totally ignored me and walked past. Then they spotted the male PE teacher behind me and without a word as a group turned around and went back the way they came.

Bloody male PE teachers don’t know they’re born.

[Piggywaspushed]

Yup, sounds about right. They don't tend to be PE teachers at my place but otherwise it all applies.

[NicelyStarched]

I agree, the dog food gimmick put me off Sue Cowley.

Did anyone read the post on the long thread last week about behaviour where a well meaning, concerned parent suggested that a female teacher should stand on a misbehaving child’s desk? I was about to butt in with my two pennies’ worth but restrained myself.

[Piggywaspushed]

Whaaaaaat?

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

Pffffff.... Jenny M came to our school. When doing a demo circle time with my tricky class she gave in. Then spent my lunchtime giving me feedback about how they had a 'broken dynamic'.
No. They just didn't like being called Angels and talked down to... just like our staff didn't during the training day.

[noblegiraffe]

Our problems are all with boys so I wondered if anyone had tackled this.

Just thinking about this. Aren’t most behaviour management issues with boys? That Boys Don’t Try book is interesting, but also (obviously) written by men.

I find that whenever there’s talk about behaviour on MN someone comments about their grandmother who was a teacher for decades and despite being tiny and soft-spoken ruled the class with an iron will. Not very helpful!

[Scarydinosaurs]

Jo Facer Simplicity Rules

[Piggywaspushed]

That's not about behaviour though scary?

[Piggywaspushed]

Sadly, I know two colleagues who have met one of the authors of Boys Don't Try. The male colleague hero worships him; the female one sad he conformed to type and is rather arrogant...