Ready, set, grow: The nature and power of teacher behaviour
Creators: name: Francisco, Suzanne
Publisher: name: CQUniversity
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 390307
subject: Teacher education and professional development of educators

description: 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 &amp; 
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.