69 72 73 75 76 76 78 79 80 82 85 87 89 92 94 95 97 99 102 103 104 107 109 111 112 114 116 119 122 131 135 137 139 140 140 141 EP 143 148 149 153 168 A: 168 B: 171 A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A
Chapter One: Introduction The aim of this research is to explore how parents and school staff use language to make sense of the behaviour of a Reception-aged child, which is understood to be ‘challenging’. More specifically, the aim is to analyse how language is used to construct the child and bring meaning to the child’s actions. I have adopted a largely reflective approach to the research, and feel that an awareness of how my interest within this area has developed is helpful at this stage. During my undergraduate studies in Sociology I was introduced to the thinking of Gramsci and Foucault. I became particularly fascinated in the use of language as a social tool, an interest that continued to grow as I began working in schools ten years ago. At this stage I felt that I became witness to the impact of discourse and hegemony upon children’s developing sense of self and felt that categories produced by society were often oppressive and disempowering. Within my work as a Teaching Assistant, often closely supporting children in primary schools who were categorised within the school system as ‘challenging’, I often felt frustrated by the development of negative reputations around a child (often shared and reinforced within staffroom conversation) and how such reputations appear to impact on both how children are treated and how the child feels about themselves and others. I have a particularly strong memory of a child who was understood as ‘challenging’ in Reception of the school I worked in and the language around him, even at such a young age, included descriptions of him being ‘just evil’. Later within my role of Lead of Social-Emotional Well-Being in a Primary school I attempted to work closely with both children and school
staff to develop a deeper level of understanding of children’s needs- particularly those children who adults around them had identified as ‘challenging’. Understanding how people make sense of children’s behaviour and the particular significance of language has become even more significant during my EP training as challenging narratives and encouraging the production of emancipatory discourses filters into every part of the EP role. I have developed an increasing interest in consultation and supervisory approaches as opportunities for challenging negative constructs and for supporting change. The language surrounding Reception aged children who are understood as displaying ‘challenging’ behaviours became a focus for this research. I believe that making sense of a child’s behaviour and the resulting actions and language used around the child at an early stage is imperative for the child’s developing sense of self and understanding of the social world. These early experiences in which the child begins their school-based educational journey are key for laying the foundations of their understanding of their place within the school system and, at a wider level, within society as a whole. The impact of language, which places constructed meaning on a child’s behaviour, and thus may influence the actions surrounding the child, may be particularly significant at such an early stage of childhood. Understanding how key adults around the child are beginning to make sense of behaviour and develop discourses to construct the child seems a particularly significant starting place for exploring the socially constructed complexities of ‘challenging’ behaviour in the Reception class.
handled to your satisfaction, you can contact the University’s ‘Registrar and Secretary’. Will my taking part in this project be kept confidential? All the information that I collect about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. You will not be able to be identified in any reports or publications, nor will the focus child. The recorded conversations that you will take part in prior to the joint discussion will not be shared with the other participants. The transcripts of these conversations will also not be published so they will remain a largely private experience. The audio recordings of your discussions made during this research will be used only for analysis. No other use will be made of them without your written permission, and no one outside the project will be allowed access to the original recordings. All records, both recorded and written, will be held and analysed by myself and will be appropriately destroyed when the research is completed. Only anonymised information will be shared with other professionals, unless I was to obtain information that the child is, or has been unsafe, and I believe that sharing this information would be necessary to ensure that the child is safe. What will happen to the results of the research? Once I have analysed the research data, I hope to visit the participants to feedback a summary of the research findings. This is likely to be in November 2015. The full findings of this research will be published in my Doctoral Thesis (DEdCPsy Educational and Child Psychology), copies of which will be available at the University Library and on the Theses website ‘WhiteRose Online’. Any information published or shared will remain anonymous and you will not be identifiable.