Beyond a psychology of student behaviour

Abstract

This article considers developments in conceptualising and responding to student disruption and disaffection. Commencing with the educational sociologist John Furlong’s attempt to fuse psychology and sociology to better understand disaffected students, this essay also engages with a recent attempt at transdisciplinary considerations of student disaffection. It is argued that the biopsychosocial model as advocated by Paul Cooper promises to extend the analysis of student disaffection and disruption. The biopsychosocial model as postulated by Cooper is weighted towards the biopsycho and is limited by scant consideration of the biopolitics of the increasing prevalence of behaviour disorders. Nikolas Rose’s examination of the development of medical knowledge is enlisted to suggest broader possibilities for transdisciplinary lines of inquiry. The transdisciplinarity of Cooper’s suggested model is important and points to the potential of the responses from across fields of knowledge to assist in building more nuanced understandings of social organisation and behaviour.

Keywords:

• inclusive education
• exclusion
• behaviourism
• special educational needs
• educational psychology