A mad policy party

1. A mad policy party Who is informing who?

2. Policy evolution • Education Dept. (1959) Discipline in the Secondary Schools and the Classroom. • Reports – Dettman(1972), Beazley (1983), Hyde & Robson (1984), Louden(1985). • Education Dept. (1988) Guidelines for School Discipline. • Plan for Govt. School (1998-2000) Students at Educational Risk strategy: Making the Difference. • BMaD strategy. • Behaviour Management in Schools policy (1998, 2001, 2008) [regulatory framework]

3. Behaviour Management Plans Uniform policy (2007)– Good Standing, Code of Conduct. Managing Student Behaviour –Director General’s Classroom First strategy. SIS Behaviour management units Attendance strategy [August 2009]-Better attendance: brighter futures

4. Mutual obligation to improve school attendance in Western Australian public schools

5. Case study • “The school has devised a Behaviour Management Plan to comply with procedures outlined in the Department of Education Act 1999, and BMIS policy of 2001 and the School Education Regulation of 2000.” (Behaviour Management Plan, Anchorage Senior High School, p. 4). • It seeks to establish good behaviour patterns by “outlining school and classroom rules within the general code of conduct” (p. 4) and the school community has the responsibility to “behave so as to uphold the reputation of the school” (p. 5).

6. Contradictions Many policies have come about because of the ability and power of neoliberal and neoconservative groups who are quick “to blame educators for unemployment, a supposed loss of traditional knowledge and values, and just about everything that was wrong with society” (Apple & Beane, 1999, p. xv). “education policies are policies whose implementation can reasonably be expected to effect the promotion, in a morally acceptable manner, of worthwhile learning” (Haynes, 2002, p. 16)`

7. A deficit-oriented model of policy • “Behaviour management, suspension and exclusion policies often exacerbate student disengagement and alienation” (Smyth, 2005) • “Often the real bad things get ignored because they are too hard to deal with and the little things get picked up” [Daniel, Year 10]. • Schools are not stand alone places “but rather are constrained or enabled within policy discourses (Smyth & Hattam et al., 2004, p. 195).

8. Jem – Mr M just glares and makes noises and then takes you outside, very close to your head, tells you what to say. • Bro – when he comes walking around, we pretend to be doing the right thing, then we throw things when he is on the other side of the room. • Bec – I have had heaps of behaviour cards, so it’s like I don’t care any more. I try to be good but the teachers don’t seem to care. It is so annoying. I try but they don’t accept it.

9. Learning is relational • “Learning is a social process and having people around you who treat you with respect is crucial to student engagement and success” (Smyth, 2000, p. 229). • “ Learning needs to be more about action rather than behaviour” (Greene, 1982, p. 8). • Daniel - Some teachers let you talk and listen to music yet we still do our work. We respect them by doing our work because they respect us.

10. Contradiction • Jaz – sometimes if you are one minute late, then the teacher kicks you out and we don’t learn anything for the whole lesson.

11. Punitive not problem-solving • Brad – it is depressing. I remember when we were in primary school, we couldn’t wait to come to high school, then when we did come here, it was like, ‘no take me back’, where the rules weren’t as harsh. We would want to be good kids. Here there are too many rules that are stupid and the teacher then tries to get you into trouble.

12. Stevenson & Ellsworth, (1993) explain that: • High schools, as organizations responsible for the welfare of a large and diverse number of adolescents, are confronted with a difficult task in establishing and enforcing rules for orderly and acceptable behaviour. When these rules have the potential for exacerbating the problem, or creating additional problems for the student to which they are being applied, then the rules themselves, or their uniform and rigid application, need to be re-examined. (p. 266) • Brad – teachers scream, so you scream back

13. Ev – if you make rules, they are going to get broken. • Brad - A few teachers have been in the job too long and need a break. Like this one, I was wearing pants that had faded a lighter colour and he made me go and get a uniform pass. • Jem – same with jumpers, you are not even allowed to wear them. Like if they are the wrong colour and it is cold, you have to take it off. • Nik – so there is no point – like that uniform rule. Not eating in class, having to always ask to go to the toilet.

14. Tara – There is basically a rule for every little thing…like me and my friend Es, play basketball on the courts and if we are not in uniform we are not allowed to play. We wanted to train for the coming lightening carnival, as we are in the basketball team but she was wearing black shorts and not blue and the teacher said she could not go on. Then we explained about training for the carnival, but they said they did not care. So we do nothing, just walk around the school. • Ev – I could not go to the career expo because I was wearing navy blue shorts (school colour) with a logo on it.

15. Contradictions • The Behaviour Management in Schools Policy (2001, p. 3) “requires schools to develop a learning environment that is welcoming, supportive and safe.” • “The Behaviour Standards and Wellbeing Directorate works to ensure that schools are safe, supportive and engaging environments for learning and teaching where the social and emotional wellbeing of all students and staff is nurtured and developed.” [2006, http://bswb.det.wa.edu.au/bswb]

16. Critical engagement “a culture which is inclusive rather than exclusive, compassionate rather than punitive and democratic rather than autocratic” (Smyth, 2000, p. 229) Freedom interrupts determinisms and orderly cause and effect sequences (Green, 1982, p. 8) Understand student lives and place this at centre of pedagogical efforts. A willingness to work with and building curriculum and learning around the experiences of students and the communities that they come from. A respect for background and difference, no matter how complex. Searching assets and strengths rather than deficits of students. Working to create and recreate a + community and affirming student identity, incorporating student voice into policy plans.

17. Summary – Fix or Resolve? Abstract accounts tend towards tidy generalities and often fail to capture the messy realities of influence, pressure, dogma, expediency, conflict, compromise, intransigence, resistance, error, opposition and pragmatism in the policy process. (Ball, 1990. p. 9) The more narrowly schools define their discipline problem, the more difficulty they will have in eliminating, or maintaining diminished levels of disruption. (Slee, 1992, p. 194). Where schools have sought to collaborate with the school community and enlist all players – teachers, parents, students, school and regional administrators and their various representative organisations – in the policy –development process, there seems to be a greater sense of securing greater achievements. (Slee, 1992, p. 195). Those who produce education policy, the who of policy production, tend to be removed from contexts of practice” (Gale & Denscome 2003, p. 51) yet if teachers are not able to join in leading such changes, the changes will not take place (Meier, cited in Smyth, 2006, p. 44).