Pupil Behaviour

DEFENDING TEACHERS, MEETING STUDENTS’ NEEDS.

Robin Pye (St.Helens NUT)

Poor Pupil Behaviour is a major issue facing teachers and students in schools.

It is the most common reason given by teachers leaving the profession. It is a major focus of media attention, government initiatives and ‘public debate’. Young people also complain that they struggle to learn as effectively as they could do if lessons are routinely disrupted by other pupils.

The issue presents trade unionists with particular challenges. Clearly the Union must be at the forefront of any attempts by teachers to protect and improve their conditions of work. Inappropriate behaviour is a major source of work-related stress and a clearly documented health and safety issue. It can trigger a collective response with school groups sending reps in to see Headteachers armed with threats of ‘refusal to teach’ action or no confidence votes.

But any trade union campaign must also consider and address the various factors which contribute to the problem, such as:

Inadequate resources

Large class sizes and a lack of support for pupils with special needs is a major factor. Most pupils transferred from mainstream classes to small groups in Pupil Referral Units or similar respond by improving their behaviour enormously. Many more young people could benefit from smaller teaching groups if resources were available. A successful resolution of a ‘refusal to teach’ action threat can be the pupil concerned accesses specialist support of this kind.

When collective action results in an increase in resources provided, trade unionists can rightly see this as an achievement. But with a fixed budget, gains for some can only be made at the expense of others. Therefore, campaigns for an increase in the budgets of nurture groups, support teachers, PRUs and special schools are the only way to make sure that all our pupils can benefit from our collective response. This campaign needs to be a higher priority for the Union.

Targets, Testing and Setting

The argument that pupils feel stigmatised as failures in a system that spends so much time evaluating them is easy enough for teachers to accept. Less easy, but undoubtedly true, is the argument that teachers under pressure to meet targets, pass that pressure onto pupils who in turn pass it back to teachers in a vicious circle.

One of the affects of targets is that it encourages setting and even streaming in schools. Most secondary teachers in Britain believe that setting by ability is essential to effective teaching. At the very least they believe that mixed ability classes mean more work for the teacher. This is, of course the case in the short term. However, if teachers had more time to prepare for their lessons and smaller classes to teach, mixed ability classes would be feasible and would bring the huge advantage that no child is left in a class where it is clear to everybody that there are no realistic aspirations for the pupils in that class to succeed.

Teaching approaches

As teachers, we all know that we can teach well and we can teach badly. Experienced and well-motivated teachers will tend to teach better. These teachers experience fewer problems with poor pupil behaviour. This is a fact routinely used by Heads who seek to blame teachers for difficulties.

Teachers, not unnaturally, expect their trade union representatives to dismiss these arguments out of hand and insist that the poor pupil behaviour is more than what they should be expected to cope with. We have to accept that good teaching does help. But the Union has to put the blame on a system where teachers have little chance to support each other or spread good practice.

When a teacher does have a fellow teacher in the classroom, it is usually a stressful experience related to performance management or worse. Teachers should have time to support and learn from each other without observations being made that could lead to a teacher being criticised.

Inappropriate curriculum

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Trade unionists will, inevitably, have to lead collective disputes around the behaviour of individual pupils or groups of pupils

hy should young people engage in lessons if they feel they aren’t learning anything which is relevant to their lives? The curriculum in our schools is overladen with assessment and leaves little room for teachers to relate learning to their pupils’ interests. We must continue to demand that teachers be given the freedom and time to develop more relevant schemes of work.

Coercive management of schools

Most of our schools are to a greater or lesser extent run along coercive lines with people in charge directing other people in what to do. The result is an environment where young people are told what to do, sometimes almost for the sake of it. For example, Britain is one of a very small number of European countries where school uniforms are common-place. Of course, this means enforcement of uniform regulations.

The Union should support a culture of mutual respect for one another and a respect for education. In my view, we need to raise the question of whether school uniforms and any other rules which are not directly tied into a culture of respect are necessary or even counter-productive.

Wider problems in capitalist society

Capitalism depends on a brutalisation of human beings. Its wars and famines have created conditions which have damaged generations mentally and emotionally. Capitalism seeks to belittle workers, break down any feelings of mutual support, and divides workers along ethnic lines and in any other ways it can devise. The numerous pressures that arise from poverty such as cramped housing, strained relationships and a poor diet restrict many children’s development from an early age. It is unavoidable that many will grow up alienated and ready to test the patience of even the most dedicated teacher.

Advanced capitalist societies can afford services designed to deal with the physical manifestations of these pressures. The criminal justice system, social workers and mental health services are all there to tidy up the mess. However, many of those services are facing cuts and privatisation.

Socialists have a vision of a different form of society which will unleash the talents of the working class and end alienation. In time, this will lead to a reduction in the number of alienated young people and children in our schools. However, while fighting for a better society, a trade union has to deal with the issues presented in the here and now.

A Programme for the Union

The Union must be ready with practical solutions to improve pupil behaviour, the working conditions of teachers and the learning environment for all pupils.

Trade unionists will, inevitably, have to lead collective disputes around the behaviour of individual pupils or groups of pupils. As we do this, it is vital that we also develop a programme of demands that can take the direction of the debate on poor pupil behaviour towards permanent solutions based on the kind of factors outlined above.