The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Inclusion and challenging behaviour : a study of primary teacher's perspectives

Inclusion and challenging behaviour : a study of primary teacher's perspectives
Inclusion and challenging behaviour : a study of primary teacher's perspectives

This study examines the way in which teachers perceive and interpret a current political initiative.  In the spotlight are seemingly competing Governmental demands for schools to raise standards and to promote the right to inclusion as part of a national social exclusion agenda.

The research aimed to find out the views and attitudes of twelve teachers in four mainstream primary schools and to explore how their personal and professional lives were affected by their work with children with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties.  Building upon the notion that where teachers change their practices, so does the person who is the teacher (Fullan and Hargreaves 1992; 36), the research uses the teacher’s voices to tell their stories with multi-method analysis.  It identifies the similarities and differences of the teachers’ perspectives in respect of children whose behaviour presents significant challenge, the pupil behaviour teachers find to be challenging and what they say they do to include such children in their classroom.  Personal constructs and narratives of critical experiences and / or epiphanies reveal how teachers claim their personal and professional lives are affected by the inclusion of pupils with challenging behaviours.

The participants are all teachers whose work with challenging pupils is highly regarded in their schools.  A typology of three different teacher perspectives is identified.  Some schools are more supportive than others, helping teachers through epiphanies by enabling them to have access to discourses that are more useful in enabling them to think in ‘connected’ terms about pedagogy and inclusion, as well as emotions and behaviour of challenging pupils.  In such schools, teachers are most likely to succeed and feel rewarded.  The research offers implications for senior managers in schools and to agencies involved in supporting schools to reach those children who are often the very hardest to teach.

University of Southampton
Jacobs, Linda Jane
b7c4440f-9956-4f15-8fa8-5ad69cf87833
Jacobs, Linda Jane
b7c4440f-9956-4f15-8fa8-5ad69cf87833

Jacobs, Linda Jane (2003) Inclusion and challenging behaviour : a study of primary teacher's perspectives. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

This study examines the way in which teachers perceive and interpret a current political initiative.  In the spotlight are seemingly competing Governmental demands for schools to raise standards and to promote the right to inclusion as part of a national social exclusion agenda.

The research aimed to find out the views and attitudes of twelve teachers in four mainstream primary schools and to explore how their personal and professional lives were affected by their work with children with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties.  Building upon the notion that where teachers change their practices, so does the person who is the teacher (Fullan and Hargreaves 1992; 36), the research uses the teacher’s voices to tell their stories with multi-method analysis.  It identifies the similarities and differences of the teachers’ perspectives in respect of children whose behaviour presents significant challenge, the pupil behaviour teachers find to be challenging and what they say they do to include such children in their classroom.  Personal constructs and narratives of critical experiences and / or epiphanies reveal how teachers claim their personal and professional lives are affected by the inclusion of pupils with challenging behaviours.

The participants are all teachers whose work with challenging pupils is highly regarded in their schools.  A typology of three different teacher perspectives is identified.  Some schools are more supportive than others, helping teachers through epiphanies by enabling them to have access to discourses that are more useful in enabling them to think in ‘connected’ terms about pedagogy and inclusion, as well as emotions and behaviour of challenging pupils.  In such schools, teachers are most likely to succeed and feel rewarded.  The research offers implications for senior managers in schools and to agencies involved in supporting schools to reach those children who are often the very hardest to teach.

Text
944463.pdf - Version of Record
Available under License University of Southampton Thesis Licence.
Download (7MB)

More information

Published date: 2003

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 465339
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/465339
PURE UUID: abffe29f-f986-43d3-b416-ed2244551ae0

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 00:38
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 20:07

Export record

Contributors

Author: Linda Jane Jacobs

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×