Ready, set, grow: The nature and power of teacher behaviour

As teachers it is imperative that we interrogate our reality as to why student behaviour continues to occur in our classrooms. The implications of not doing so are significant: the fallout from the perpetual cycle of student behaviour, low self-efficacy and poor teaching can be substantial in terms of social, systemic, and economic costs to teachers and students. The aim of this research was to explore why different teachers, from the same school, who have access to the same professional development and behaviour support practices, respond differently to student behaviour. Specifically, information was gathered regarding the participants’ experiences and relationships with significant others during their childhood and schooling, and now as a teacher, their expectations and experiences of student behaviour. Bramley and Eatough (2005) suggest that designing the research in this way allows me to initially “capture the essence” (p. 225) of participants’ individual perspectives and then collectively as their commonalities and differences are analysed and discussed. Within the research paradigm of Interpretivism, a qualitative approach comprising of a six ideographic case studies (individual participants) within one unit of study (sample school) was undertaken for this research study. Data was gathered from six teachers with varying levels of experience who were employed full-time at one regional primary school in Queensland, Australia. Teachers responded to set questions via written responses, with data supplemented by observations in the field by the researcher. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith & Osborn, 2004) was utilised to make meaning of the finding findings. Individual and cross-analyses of each case study led to the formation of subordinate and superordinate themes. This was followed by a discussion of the superordinate themes across all case studies and detailed through the lens of attachment theory. Consistent with IPA, findings are presented in a narrative format that paints rich, thick descriptions for the reader. Key findings from the study indicate that the quality of childhood relationships, especially those with their mother, predicated a strong connection to their adult teacher-student relationship. Further, the quality of childhood relationships with teachers challenged or confirmed participants’ own adult teaching expectations of their own students. Of significance was the finding that teachers’ childhood response to discipline from significant others was repeated in adulthood in their reaction to student behaviour. Whilst this study contributes to the understanding of the complex interplay of teachers’ beliefs, expectations and responses to student behaviour, it is acknowledged that teachers view and respond to student behaviour through their own, personalised lenses. The challenge for schools is to monitor and tweak this collective kaleidoscope of views so that the whole-school approach to student behaviour become synergistic rather than fractured. This study proposes professional development in the form of a business model, the People Equity Framework, which incorporates both reflection and refraction into teaching practices that support individual and collective growth. The implications for teachers from this study are three-fold, each with equal importance. Firstly, this study highlights the importance of creating and maintaining positive teacher-student relationships. Secondly, understanding and describing teachers’ attachment style and the connection to student behaviour offers an opportunity for teachers to increase their awareness of why their expectations and the students’ responses do not always align. Thirdly, by transposing a business model into an educational context, this study provides a way for differentiated professional learning needs to be identified and measured. As this was a small case study, further research utilising the interpretive, qualitative methodology across one or a combination of factors such as a larger sample size, diverse demographic, and different data instruments, has much potential in deepening our understanding of why different teachers respond differently to student behaviour.