Berry Street Education Model: Embedding relationship strategies – Say my name

Our names are far more important to us than just being labels. They can be considered the core of our identity, how we see ourselves, and may be amongst the first ways we engage with others.

As educators, we frequently use names to gain attention, direct, or affirm. In this article, we explore how we can use names as an intentional strategy to increase relational attachment and attunement with students in the service of learning.

Increasing connection for learning

Welcoming our students by name is a simple and effective strategy to increase students’ sense of belonging and proactively strengthen relationships of support to reduce disruptive behaviours.

Studies have shown a significant increase in student engagement and learning outcomes in classroom environments that individually acknowledge students. (See for example Cook et al., 2018). Further, teachers report their own wellbeing is fortified when student-teacher relationships are improved (Brunzell et al., 2021).

Check out this great new resource of Brain Breaks and Positive Primers designed to help you use, and remember students' names.

Culturally responsive practice

Taking the time and care to learn students’ names and pronounce them correctly is an important step in committing to culturally responsive practice.

Many names have been drawn from culturally important legacies, lands, and communities across time. Parents and carers often give a considerable amount of time and thought in naming their child and naming practices often carry cultural, spiritual, and social meaning (Marrun, 2018). When some of us hear our names, we use that as opportunity to reflect on what is important to us and our cultures.

However, many students continuously experience cultural or racial bias in connection to their names either by having them mispronounced, anglicised, changed, or avoided.

This is particularly harmful when names are said in dismissive times of hurry or more seriously in times of rupture. Avoidance or mispronunciation can lead to feelings of invisibility or inferiority and may shift students’ self-perception (Kohli & Solorzano, 2012).

There are indicators that students’ sense of belonging increases when the same name is used across multiple situations such as home, education or other social interactions.

Students receiving an anglicised name at school can lead to confusing and sometimes conflicting understanding of selves (Kim & Lee, 2011). Educators are best placed to drive for more inclusive practices, and studies have shown that when teachers model interest and take care to learn and use correct pronunciations of names, that young people’s peers will follow suit (Tualaulelei, 2020).

Strategies to support educators

There are a multitude of strategies available to support teachers in the classroom when connecting with students and remembering their names. Learning names can be particularly challenging when working in schools or positions with large volumes of students. We feel for specialist subject teachers or secondary teachers who often teach far more than 25 students each day.

However, even in high-volume settings, there is evidence for the benefit of using students’ names regardless of whether teachers remember students’ names (Cooper et al., 2017). Teachers in such settings might utilise class lists, seating plans, name tents, or nametags.

Brain Breaks and Positive Primers or introduction activities can all help to ensure that we frequently hear students’ names.

This also supports students in learning each other’s names. It is not uncommon, particularly in secondary schools, that students are not familiar with all names in their classroom. We all know how hard it is to ask someone for their name when we know we should know by now, so it is important that name activities are repeated throughout the year.

Educators have the advantage of having access to a roll or class list and a seating plan when they forget a student’s name. However, it is important to make a deliberate effort to learn names at the beginning of the year.

Often culturally responsive practice can simply begin with deciding to try. If you find a name tricky to pronounce, we encourage you to use that as an opportunity to model taking in fix-it feedback.

Ask the question: “How do you pronounce it?”, or “Is that how you pronounce it?” (Kohli & Solorzano, 2012). To honour students’ names, you should emphasise the correct use of their name in sound and writing. You could also explore name giving traditions and origins and their importance to cultural identity (Peterson et al., 2015).

Learning about naming traditions could involve exploring different customs around the world such as order of first and family names. (For example Hungary and Korea put family name first).

Another valuable idea is to look at the important kinship systems of Australia’s First Nations people which are often indicated by skin names. Additionally, exploring social and cultural implications of names through literature is a great way of engaging students.

The reading of My Name is Sangoel could be followed by the rebus activity that is featured in the book.

All BSEM strategies work best when implemented as a whole school strategy. Schools therefore need to ‘walk the talk’ and use as many relational opportunities as possible to co-regulate students. Hearing our own name said in a positive way can be inherently co-regulatory.

Learning names and keeping teachers accountable and committed to the practice of learning students’ names, particularly for students who may go unnoticed by busy adults, supports whole school implementation of co-regulation as a strategy.

Face, name, connection

The activity requires photos of all students displayed and two different coloured sets of sticky dots.

Step 1:

All staff place one colour dot if they know student’s name.

Step 2:

All staff place a different coloured dot where they know something about the student, for example loves dogs, speaks a second language, enjoys certain music.

Step 3:

Analyse the data and identify students who may have gone unnoticed. Discuss strategies to counter this trend.

For an example, check out this video with the face, name connection strategy in action!

In summary, greeting a student by saying their name in a positive manner and using a warm vocal tone is an important part of welcoming them into the learning space.

Students may not have heard their name said in a positive manner on any given day, and by doing so we signal that they are seen, appreciated, and recognised. We affirm their identity.

Acknowledging each other by name can also serve as an unwritten contract whereby all agree to come together to do what we are supposed to be doing; learning. “I am here, and you are here. Let’s do this together.”

References

Brunzell, T., Waters, L., & Stokes, H. (2021). Trauma-informed teacher wellbeing: Teacher reflections within trauma-informed positive education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 46(5), 91-107. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2021v46n5.6

Cook, C. R., Fiat, A., Larson, M., Daikos, C., Slemrod, T., Holland, E. A., Thayer, A. J., & Renshaw, T. (2018). Positive greetings at the door: Evaluation of a low-cost, high-yield proactive classroom management strategy. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 20(3), 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300717753831

Cooper, K. M., Haney, B., Krieg, A., & Brownell, S. E. (2017). What's in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom. CBE Life Sciences Education, 16(1), Article 8. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

Kim, J., & Lee, K. (2011). "What's your name?": Names, naming practices, and contextualized selves of young Korean American children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(3), 211-227. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

Kohli, R., & Solorzano, D. G. (2012). Teachers, please learn our names!: Racial microagressions and the K-12 classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 15(4), 441-462. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.674026

Marrun, N. A. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching across PK-20: Honoring the historical naming practices of students of color. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 17(3), 6 25. https://doi.org/ 10.31390/taboo.17.3.04

Peterson, B., Gunn, A., Brice, A., & Alley, K. (2015). Exploring names and identity through multicultural literature in K-8 Classrooms. Multicultural Perspectives, 17(1), 39-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2015.994434

Tualaulelei, E. (2020). Agency and power in classroom names and naming practices. Ethnography and Education, 16(1), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/174578...