Patty Towl - PhD Candidate
Thesis Title: ‘I am bad apparently,’ said Elephant; the efficacy of stand-down to manage challenging and recidivist behaviour at school
Email: towpa322@student.otago.ac.nz
In the last twenty years the number of students stood down (short term suspension) from school in New Zealand has increased sharply. This increase is in excess of any increase that could be explained through roll growth. Certain groups in New Zealand also e.g. low income, boys, and Maori and Pacifica students appear more at risk of stand-down than other students. New Zealand and overseas research, however, suggests that young people who are suspended from school are at risk of poor life outcomes. Why, then, do principals continue to stand students down in light of research that supports the view that the most useful thing schools can do for students is to keep them in school?
This qualitative research study investigates the use schools make of stand-down as a means to manage challenging and recidivist behaviour in school. Ten students from years 8-11 were interviewed together with a parent, a teacher, the senior teacher who managed the stand-down and the principal of the school that the student attended. Most of the students, parents and some teachers were interviewed a second time about six months later. Principals and senior teachers were asked why they stood students down and how they used stand-down to manage behaviour. Students, their parents and teachers were asked about the student at school, why the student was stood down and how being stood down affected the student’s membership of the school community.
Initial results reveal that a stand-down from school occurs as part of an environment of conflict at school that the student is trying to work through. Often the stand-down comes as a consequence of the student addressing problems at school in an inappropriate way. The research showed that for these students resolving the key issues that drove the student’s problems at school were essential if further stand-downs were to be avoided. It appears, too, that for this group of students the more stand-downs the student has the greater the distance created between the school and the student. The principals and senior teachers used stand-down both to inform the student’s family of the seriousness of the behaviour and to inform the school and community that they take a hard line on behaviour. Principals and senior teachers appear to regard resolution of the student’s misbehaviour as the responsibility of the home and that, where this resolution does not occur the home is regarded as being in deficit. This sets up an anomaly because, at least for these students, the problems they are trying to address at school are generated by the school environment. A few of the parents were able to set up authentic relationships with a member of the school staff though some parents found this impossible. These authentic relationships where school and home work together appeared important for those students who, after being stood down, managed to renegotiate their membership of the school community.
In formation uncovered by this research could be useful for schools. Firstly it could be helpful to investigate the whole school experience of the student at stand-down to see if any underlying issues, e.g. bullying contributed to the incident that resulted in stand-down. Secondly the first stand-down a student has at any school should be a time to ensure strategies are put in place to avoid further separation between the student, the family and the school. Finally where relationships have broken down or where parents are too shy to address issues with the school directly, the school could take the opportunity offered by the stand-down event to build authentic working relationship with the family designed to avoid further stand-downs from school.