Understanding how schools, families and children work together to support the inclusion of children demonstrating challenging behaviour.

Abstract

This thesis explores how schools, families, and children who demonstrate challenging behaviour work together to support the inclusion of those children. It comprises three chapters: a systematic literature review (in the form of a critical interpretative synthesis, or CIS), a bridging document, and an empirical research. The findings of the CIS illustrate a range of practices where people work together in order to include children who demonstrate challenging behaviour. These can be seen to broadly fit within an eco-systemic approach, but with emphasis mostly resting at the level of the individual and their immediate environments in terms of the hoped-for changes. The findings suggest mixed success in terms of the effectiveness of these practices. Collaboration was identified as a key factor for success, as well as being able to capitalise on the skills, experience and knowledge bases of all those involved in collaborative practices. The bridging document aims to link the CIS to the empirical research. It discusses my theoretical underpinnings, methodological decisions, and ethical considerations. Gaps identified in the literature informed the design and focus of my empirical research, which aims to better understand the experiences of those individuals involved where a family and school staff have worked together to support a young person who demonstrates challenging behaviour. A case study design was used, within which the young person and a key member of staff from her school were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data. The young person’s experiences fell into three broad categories, relating to: her introspection, the process of having to move schools because of challenging behaviour, and how school staff work with pupils. The member of staff’s experiences fell into four broad categories, relating to: his view of his role, within-school processes and practices, local authority systems for managing placements for children who demonstrate challenging behaviour, and factors outside the school’s immediate control. Both participants reflected on the importance of the young person’s agency in the situation, but it was clear the young person had often felt she had little authentic input into decisions made about her school placements, which linked to uncomfortable feelings and uncertainty for her. Potential implications for the role of Educational Psychologists (EPs) in supporting practices of working together to support the inclusion of children demonstrating challenging behaviour are discussed.