Session Information
05 SES 16 A, Symposium: Deviant Behaviour as an Interactive and Contextual Process
Symposium
Contribution
Deviant behavior, defined as behavior that is perceived as deviant from certain perceptions of how individual should behave in certain contexts, is among the greatest stressors for teachers in all countries (OECD 2020) and, if it occurs frequently, can lead to the development of a deviant career in students, eventually resulting in drop out and/or school expulsion (Caprara et al. 2006; Skiba et al. 2014).The symposium employs a comparative perspective on deviant behavior by bringing together work from Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany.
Despite the importance of the topic, there are some limitations and research priorities regarding its coverage in research: a) A large part of the research takes place on the conditions of deviant behavior on the student or teacher (classroom management) side, whereby the interactive and thus also interpretative part in the emergence and development of disruptive behavior has received little attention so far (Schuchart/Bühler-Niederberger 2022; Dodge/Pettit 2003). b) Structural and contextual characteristics such as sociocultural origin and school characteristics are rarely included. There is fairly limited research on reciprocal relationships of structural factors as well as mediating mechanisms between individual and structural levels (Hascher/Hadjar 2018; Payne/Welch 2010). c) Methodologically, it can be noted that cross-sectional studies have dominated the quantitative field so far, providing only limited insights when deviant behavior is understood as a dynamic process.
Presentations at the symposium will consider various forms of perceived deviant behavior, such as verbal or motor agitation/hyperactivity, aggression, passivity, or cheating, among others. The research gaps described will be addressed in which the presentations understand deviant behavior as behavior whose quality changes over time through interaction and interpretation of the indirectly and directly involved actors and is structured by characteristics of sociocultural background, school, and school system. The following main questions will therefore be addressed: How does deviant behavior develop among students in relation to interacting structural and contextual factors? What is the role of interpretation and interaction at the micro level in this process?
The three studies to be presented shed light on different aspects of these questions. Paper 1 investigates the development of deviant behavior in terms of an interactive interpretive process between teachers and students in several consecutive school lessons at the beginning of the first school year. Quantified observations of deviant behavior and teacher reactions are linked to qualitative teacher interviews on perceptions of their own and students’ behavior. The focus is on how teachers interpret comparable student behavior. Paper 2 examines students' subjective perspectives by focusing on school alienation as an interpretive framework that mirrors conditions and experiences within the school environment. In this argument, disruptive behavior in school is an expression of school alienation, a kind of functional action alternative being selected by alienated students. Structural equation modeling is used to examine how this relationship develops over several years in secondary school, and to what extent this process is structured by sociocultural background and school type. Paper 3 also focuses on the development of deviant behavior over a period of several years, here among 5-to 9-year-old students. The focus here is a comprehensive look at the ways in which different factors- child, family, school characteristics- interact to shape young people's behavior over time in the school and classroom context.
The symposium offers unique insights into the complex development of deviant behavior. With the individual and structural level as well as with the different methodological approaches, it addresses aspects that have so far received less attention in research. Thus, it opens up possibilities to better understand deviant behavior- and the contribution of students, teachers, and context- and to address it in an adequate way.
References
Caprara, G. V., Dodge, K. A., Pastorelli, C. & Zelli, A. (2006). The effects of marginal deviations on behavioral development. European Psychologist, 11 (2), 79. Dodge, K. A. & Pettit, G. S. (2003). A biopsychosocial model of the development of chronic conduct problems in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 39 (2), 349. OECD. (2020). TALIS 2018 results (Volume II): Teachers and school leaders as valued professionals, TALIS. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/19cf08df‐en. Hascher, T., & Hadjar, A. (2018). School alienation – Theoretical approaches and educational research. Educational Research, 60(2), 171–188. Payne, A. A. & Welch, K. (2010). Modeling the effects of racial threat on punitive and restorative school discipline practices. Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 48 (4), 1019–1062. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00211.x Skiba, R., Arredondo, M., & Williams, N. (2014). More than a metaphor: The contribution of exclusionary discipline to a school-to-prison pipeline. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 546–564. Schuchart, C. Bühler-Niederberger. D. (2022). Störungen als interaktive Ereignisse im Mehrebenenkontext. Journal für lehrerInnenbildung 22(4), 36-59. https://elibrary.utb.de/doi/abs/10.35468/jlb-04-2022-02
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