Contextualising Team Teach for Your Country or Culture

While many aspects of children and young people’s behaviour are universal, how behaviour is expressed and understood can vary dramatically across different countries and cultures.

For that reason, how we support behaviour needs to be tailored for our context, so we can make sure we are always offering the most appropriate support to the children and young people in our schools.

The Team Teach approach

As teachers and educational leaders, we know that Team Teach training equips us with a range of proactive behaviour support strategies focused on de-escalation, building positive relationships, and reducing risk – all of which are essential for the creation of a positive behaviour culture.

The values, ethos, and principles advocated by the Team Teach approach can be applied in any context. After all, it could be argued that no matter where we are in the world, ‘behaviour is behaviour’, and we always have children and young people’s best interests at heart.

As committed professionals, we strive to create environments that are safe, secure, inclusive and supportive, and one of the most effective ways to do this is through taking a child-centred, holistic and individualised approach to behaviour support, something that Team Teach advocates and, through its practical methodology, seeks to facilitate.

However, we also acknowledge that every school and every student is different, so we need to develop creative ways to contextualise Team Teach training to match the exact needs of our individual setting. By doing this, we can maximise the effectiveness of our behaviour support strategies and meet the needs of every child and young person.

Reflective questions:

• • What types of behaviour could be considered ‘universal’?

• • How might behaviour vary in different countries and cultures?

• • What does behaviour support currently look like in your school?