According to Doucette (2004) western societies in the past few decades have seen an increase in violence and anti-social behaviour in schools. This has many social consequences and in many European societies it is a cause of concern as it could lead children to social exclusion (Ruxton & Bennett, 2002; Micklewright, 2002). Oftentimes this issue appears to be at the forefront of national and European level policy intervention to reduce or contain its effects on society (Rubin, Rabinovich, Hallsworth & Nason, 2006). In Cyprus, in recent teacher union conferences (2008) pre-adolescences’ “non-conformist” behaviour in school has recently been described as a source of major concern by in service teachers. School administrators and parents alike time and again publicly express concern about this issue. The proposed paper will present the findings from a sociological investigation directly involving children with disruptive (or non-conformist) behaviour in Cypriot schools. In an attempt to investigate this issue a grant was secured from the European University, Cyprus in order to conduct a survey in Cypriot schools. The survey was followed by an ethnographic study focusing on 12 carefully selected pre-adolescence (10-13 year olds) whose behaviour in school included violating rules, aggressiveness, bullying, lack of respect for self and others, truancy, initiating frequent fights etc. The aim of the research project was two-fold: a) to identify factors that are related with pre-adolescence non-conformist and disruptive behaviour in Cypriot public schools b) to give voice to a group of often marginalised children and to try to understand the meanings that they give to their behaviours, their goals and their feelings in their engagement with school life in general. The proposed paper will look into groups that ran high risk of marginalization and social exclusion from educational processes that sustain existing social inequalities in the Cypriot educational and social context. Moreover, it follows a relatively recent trend in social research and constitutes a new way of conceptualizing children in research. Children are being seen as social actors, who act within but also upon the cultural and structural constraints that define their social position and, in doing so, influence the way they experience their childhood. In trying to accommodate research method techniques and the ethical principles that should guide them the paper engages in the on going debate on the issue (Cambell, 2008; Christensen, 2004; Christensen & Prout, 2002).

The method that was employed involved a combination of a survey and a qualitative investigation in a two-stage sequential mode. A survey was first conducted in order to identify factors that are associated with the development of social behaviours deemed as problematic in school. Nearly 450 questionnaires were administered to students (aged 10-13) attending to Cypriot public schools and their teachers. Information was collected about students’ academic achievement, social behaviour, school commitment and effort, indicators of social and cultural capital present in the home environment, a standardized scale measuring students' school commitment, students’ academic achievement, students' educational aspirations etc. The qualitative data that were collected included diaries, observation schedules and in-depth interviews with children, teachers and parents. Emphasis was given to the qualitative side of the project because it served best the purposes of exploring the ways with which social actors (pre-adolescences) interpreted social processes and their place within them.

Data analysis is currently ongoing but early indications from the survey point to the fact that the availability (or absence) of different forms of capital (real, social, psychological) to families within the particular social, economic, political and cultural context of contemporary Cyprus shape to a large extent pre-adolescence commitment or rejection of school. All these shape different ‘horizons of action’ (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997) for different students with implications on students’ educational experiences and final social outcomes (i.e. social exclusion). The in-depth investigation is still on-going but again early indications from preliminary analysis of qualitative data point to interesting stages that at risk children go through before developing “full scale” anti-social behaviour and rejection of school with negative consequences for themselves, their families, their classmates and their teachers. The findings are expected to contribute to an ongoing debate about good practices and introduction of relevant policy to tackle this issue effectively.