'A goal to the eye' : teacher strategies in dealing with misbehaviour

Abstract

Many teachers argue that teaching is becoming increasingly stressful due to the level of misbehaviour experienced. This ethnographic study looks into the strategies teachers use to deal with misbehaviour. After presenting the literature available on this topic, the methodological approach used during this study is described. The approach involved an interview with the Head of the school, fourteen interviews with teachers and another nineteen interviews with students, as well as observations in a girls' secondary school. Later on, the description of the school is provided to contextualise the misbehaviours exhibited together with the causes leading to such behaviour. This is followed by the presentation of the results which reveal that these girls are influenced by school factors and their working class culture which contrasts the middle class hegemony of the schools. Teachers employed a variety of strategies to deal with disruptive behaviour. Some used short term strategies which were concerned with stopping the behaviour temporarily. Other teachers employed long term strategies in which building a positive relationship with the students was effective in stopping misbehaviour. However, other teachers did not stop here and worked hard to employ teaching strategies which were effective in motivating the students to learn. At the end of this dissertation, the results are critically discussed. The findings reveal that students will stop misbehaving if learning is presented as an interesting experience in which they are directly involved and their interests are recognised.