Who is informing who?

1
A mad policy party

• Who is informing who?

2
Policy evolution

• Education Dept. (1959) Discipline in the
  Secondary Schools and the Classroom.
• Reports Dettman(1972), Beazley (1983), Hyde
  Robson (1984), Louden(1985).
• Education Dept. (1988) Guidelines for School
  Discipline.
• Plan for Govt. School (1998-2000) Students at
  Educational Risk strategy Making the Difference.
• BMaD strategy.
• Behaviour Management in Schools policy (1998,
  2001, 2008) regulatory framework

3

• Behaviour Management Plans
• Uniform policy (2007) Good Standing, Code of
  Conduct.
• Managing Student Behaviour Director Generals
  Classroom First strategy.
• SIS
• Behaviour management units
• Attendance strategy August 2009-Better
  attendance brighter futures

4
Mutual obligation to improve school attendance in
Western Australian public schools
5
Case study

• The school has devised a Behaviour Management
  Plan to comply with procedures outlined in the
  Department of Education Act 1999, and BMIS policy
  of 2001 and the School Education Regulation of
  2000. (Behaviour Management Plan, Anchorage
  Senior High School, p. 4).
• It seeks to establish good behaviour patterns by
  outlining school and classroom rules within the
  general code of conduct (p. 4) and the school
  community has the responsibility to behave so as
  to uphold the reputation of the school (p. 5).

6
Contradictions

• Many policies have come about because of the
  ability and power of neoliberal and
  neoconservative groups who are quick to blame
  educators for unemployment, a supposed loss of
  traditional knowledge and values, and just about
  everything that was wrong with society (Apple
  Beane, 1999, p. xv).
• education policies are policies whose
  implementation can reasonably be expected to
  effect the promotion, in a morally acceptable
  manner, of worthwhile learning (Haynes, 2002, p.
  16)

7
A deficit-oriented model of policy

• Behaviour management, suspension and exclusion
  policies often exacerbate student disengagement
  and alienation (Smyth, 2005)
• Often the real bad things get ignored because
  they are too hard to deal with and the little
  things get picked up Daniel, Year 10.
•  Schools are not stand alone places but rather
  are constrained or enabled within policy
  discourses (Smyth Hattam et al., 2004, p. 195).
  

8

• Jem Mr M just glares and makes noises and then
  takes you outside, very close to your head, tells
  you what to say.
• Bro when he comes walking around, we pretend to
  be doing the right thing, then we throw things
  when he is on the other side of the room.
• Bec I have had heaps of behaviour cards, so
  its like I dont care any more. I try to be good
  but the teachers dont seem to care. It is so
  annoying. I try but they dont accept it.

9
Learning is relational

• Learning is a social process and having people
  around you who treat you with respect is crucial
  to student engagement and success (Smyth, 2000,
  p. 229).
•  Learning needs to be more about action rather
  than behaviour (Greene, 1982, p. 8).
• Daniel - Some teachers let you talk and listen to
  music yet we still do our work. We respect them
  by doing our work because they respect us.

10
Contradiction

• Jaz sometimes if you are one minute late, then
  the teacher kicks you out and we dont learn
  anything for the whole lesson.

11
Punitive not problem-solving

• Brad it is depressing. I remember when we were
  in primary school, we couldnt wait to come to
  high school, then when we did come here, it was
  like, no take me back, where the rules werent
  as harsh. We would want to be good kids. Here
  there are too many rules that are stupid and the
  teacher then tries to get you into trouble.

12

• Stevenson Ellsworth, (1993) explain that
•  
• High schools, as organizations responsible for
  the welfare of a large and diverse number of
  adolescents, are confronted with a difficult task
  in establishing and enforcing rules for orderly
  and acceptable behaviour. When these rules have
  the potential for exacerbating the problem, or
  creating additional problems for the student to
  which they are being applied, then the rules
  themselves, or their uniform and rigid
  application, need to be re-examined. (p. 266)
• Brad teachers scream, so you scream back
•  

13

• Ev if you make rules, they are going to get
  broken.
• Brad - A few teachers have been in the job too
  long and need a break. Like this one, I was
  wearing pants that had faded a lighter colour and
  he made me go and get a uniform pass.
• Jem same with jumpers, you are not even allowed
  to wear them. Like if they are the wrong colour
  and it is cold, you have to take it off. 
• Nik so there is no point like that uniform
  rule. Not eating in class, having to always ask
  to go to the toilet.

14

• Tara There is basically a rule for every
  little thinglike me and my friend Es, play
  basketball on the courts and if we are not in
  uniform we are not allowed to play. We wanted to
  train for the coming lightening carnival, as we
  are in the basketball team but she was wearing
  black shorts and not blue and the teacher said
  she could not go on. Then we explained about
  training for the carnival, but they said they did
  not care. So we do nothing, just walk around the
  school.
• Ev I could not go to the career expo because I
  was wearing navy blue shorts (school colour) with
  a logo on it.

15
Contradictions

• The Behaviour Management in Schools Policy (2001,
  p. 3) requires schools to develop a learning
  environment that is welcoming, supportive and
  safe.
• The Behaviour Standards and Wellbeing
  Directorate works to ensure that schools are
  safe, supportive and engaging environments for
  learning and teaching where the social and
  emotional wellbeing of all students and staff is
  nurtured and developed. 2006,
  http//bswb.det.wa.edu.au/bswb

16
Critical engagement

• a culture which is inclusive rather than
  exclusive, compassionate rather than punitive and
  democratic rather than autocratic (Smyth, 2000,
  p. 229)
• Freedom interrupts determinisms and orderly cause
  and effect sequences (Green, 1982, p. 8)
• Understand student lives and place this at centre
  of pedagogical efforts.
• A willingness to work with and building
  curriculum and learning around the experiences of
  students and the communities that they come from.
• A respect for background and difference, no
  matter how complex.
• Searching assets and strengths rather than
  deficits of students.
• Working to create and recreate a community and
  affirming student identity, incorporating student
  voice into policy plans.

17
Summary Fix or Resolve?

• Abstract accounts tend towards tidy generalities
  and often fail to capture the messy realities of
  influence, pressure, dogma, expediency, conflict,
  compromise, intransigence, resistance, error,
  opposition and pragmatism in the policy process.
  (Ball, 1990. p. 9)
• The more narrowly schools define their discipline
  problem, the more difficulty they will have in
  eliminating, or maintaining diminished levels of
  disruption. (Slee, 1992, p. 194).
• Where schools have sought to collaborate with the
  school community and enlist all players
  teachers, parents, students, school and regional
  administrators and their various representative
  organisations in the policy development
  process, there seems to be a greater sense of
  securing greater achievements.
• (Slee, 1992, p. 195).
• Those who produce education policy, the who of
  policy production, tend to be removed from
  contexts of practice (Gale Denscome 2003, p.
  51) yet if teachers are not able to join in
  leading such changes, the changes will not take
  place (Meier, cited in Smyth, 2006, p. 44).