‘Silence does not sound the same for everyone’: student teachers’ narratives: Student Teachers’ Narratives Around Behavior Management in Scottish Schools

Discipline or behaviour management in schools is a common concern for beginning teachers and is frequently cited as a significant component in early career attrition (Goddard & Goddard, 2006; Hammerness, 2011; Hong, 2010). Moreover, the impact of perceived failure in relation to behavior in the classroom can substantially affect the self-efficacy of teachers particularly at the beginning of their careers (Hoy & Burke-Spero, 2005; Peters, 2009) and the wide variety of discipline approaches adopted within different schools can provide conflicting experiences and models. Consequently, exploring and understanding more fully how we can support student teachers in this area is important on a personal and professional level for the student teacher and teacher educators. Underpinning an urgency to consider this area, lies concern for the young people who may find themselves the focus of often punitive regimes (Bright, 2011; Reay, 2009). We know that certain pupils (Gillies, 2011; Gray, Miller, & Noakes, 1994; Reay & Wiliam, 1999) can be disproportionately affected by school discipline approaches particularly with regard to exclusion or expulsion from schools (Bright, 2011; Gillies, 2011; Osher, Bear, Sprague, & Doyle, 2010).
This paper then is concerned with the details of two individual case studies of student teachers during a 1-year Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program—a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE).1 The concern, here, was with exploring the ways in which the beliefs and values of student teachers might affect their engagement with different approaches to behavior and how they could be encouraged to reflect critically on the philosophies underpinning them. This critical engagement was supported through a new elective course that set out to encourage a bridging between theoretical and practical components of early professional development (EPD). Establishing a stronger link to the cognitive aspects of EPD while also helping student teachers to engage meaningfully and critically with the social and relational influences in schools, underpinned the elective course.