Creating moments of democracy through video interaction guidance : a participatory exploration of perceived challenging behaviour

Abstract

This research aims to explore how Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) might be used to develop a democratic approach towards working with children with perceived challenging behaviour, their parents, and educational professionals from their schools. Ten papers describing interventions for perceived challenging behaviour in primary school children which seek to involve parents are systematically reviewed. The majority of studies show that interventions for behaviour that involved parents brought about a reduction in perceived problem behaviour as defined in the studies. The study with the strongest evidence involved parents significantly in the intervention, however there is a complete absence of child voice in the systematic review literature. The issue of how a more democratic and participatory approach towards addressing challenging behaviour might be developed is considered. The concept of ‘democracy’ is problematized and eventually defined as the process of creating a space for discussion in which all voices are equally important and in which those participating show respect for each other’s views. A participatory approach is used, and the Video Interaction Guidance process is carried out with two sets of participants, each of which includes a child, parent and educational professional. Following the intervention, participants are interviewed about their experiences, and interviews are analysed using theory-driven thematic analysis. Thematically analysed data is considered alongside data from a research diary and films from the VIG process. There is evidence to suggest that VIG can be a useful approach when seeking to create a space for democratic discussion in educational contexts in situations where a child’s behaviour is perceived as challenging.