Teachers’ attitudes in classroom management as perceived by pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties

ABSTRACT

Studies have extensively presented a range of best practices for teachers to develop adequate classroom management skills. Yet, to date the connected attitudes that teachers would require to capably execute classroom management have received scarce attention in scientific literature. Accordingly, this article documents teachers’ classroom management attitudes (TCMA) from the perspective of pupils presenting with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Individual interviews were conducted with fourteen SEBD pupils attending secondary-school special education programmes. Using thematic analysis, emergent themes were then identified and categorised, resulting in seventeen teacher attitudes which then fell into four overarching dimensions: 1) Respect; 2) Authority; 3) Supportiveness; and 4) Differentiation. The connection between the teacher attitudes, as voiced by the pupils, and the pupils’ perception of their teachers’ classroom management skill and proficiency is described at length. In light of these findings, avenues for better classroom intervention outcomes and for further research have been proposed.

KEYWORDS:

• Students with social
• emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD)
• classroom management
• teacher attitudes
• student voice and participation
• schooling experiences

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the pupils who so generously offered their time and their views on their teachers’ classroom management proficiency. Their testimonials confirm that we have a lot to learn from student voice and student insights and that we should carry on listening!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The proportion of boys and girls within the sample is quite representative of the Quebec (Canada) population of pupils presenting with SEBD. The province counts 2 girls for every 10 boys attending full-time special education programmes (Ministère de l’Éducation, et de l’Enseignement supérieur [MEES] 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This research project received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships’ Doctoral Scholarships Program.