Teacher Perspective on Inclusive Behaviours/Relationships

At the onset of the drama intervention Mike as their classroom teacher observed how exclusive the original groups were and his concern that this was happening in his classroom. He also recognised how essential it was for students to be able to work together in heterogeneous groups…

That for me is the main thing I noticed the most when the students were working in groups I noticed was the exclusion side of it that was really, really noticeable to me and the dynamics of that. I think that was partly because I was on the outside and just watching. That has affected how I have thought about things because I am going to challenge myself next term to do more activities that is more like when we do PREP next term . ………. I need to look at more activities to get them to mix in their groups. Because they are quite clique-y, I kinda knew that but I noticed it since seeing that with the drama. It has been the exclusion and the subtle exclusion of some kids that they have done that I have really been surprised by that (TI).

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Mike expressed concern at how the relationships were structured around belonging in groups and also how some students were clearly marginalised as a result of those groups. He said he was shocked at this and had resolved to work out ways to develop different group dynamics by trying out different activities in class. Again the opportunity to observe afforded him the chance to “see things” like antisocial behaviour that sometimes “ went under the radar” as being part of the class dynamic which continued to marginalise some students and that some of the “good” students appeared to collude in this.

I was surprised about that when you did the tally. I realised that I don’t see a lot of it. The thing that surprised me the most because I have basically a zero tolerance for swearing and as I said I don’t see it. I guess if I had asked kids about the swearing I don’t think I would have got as much (information) so by getting them to do it informally it was very good. I had to be reflective about that (TI).

He began to be aware of the hidden curriculum,( the dynamics that go underground )in a classroom after he saw the results of the survey.

Like I said we don’t get a lot in here but it tends to be under the radar. It is something I took for granted wasn’t happening but reading and seeing those numbers means that I need to make sure that the relationships between the kids is good to stop that sort of thing happening(TI).

Mike in his interview commented that the drama activities gave him an

opportunity to find out about his students and to think also about his relationships with his students.

Yes all those little energiser activities I have had some of the students for my second year and I have had Simone and I didn’t know about why her parents called her by that name. And those other connections with families it certainly made me think about my relationships with the students it was really, really good (TI).

Mike recognised the importance of his role in ensuring that he develop positive and inclusive relationships in his classroom. He acknowledged that he needed to go back and develop his pedagogy around inclusive and collaborative group work.

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Mike’s observation of Brian in class with the jigsaw puzzle (quoted earlier) identified students beginning to work in more accepting and inclusive ways.

4.4.2 Teacher Researcher Perspective on Inclusive Behaviours/Relationships

I thought as an experienced teacher I was aware of the group dynamics operating in a classroom, but I was still unprepared for the clear demarcation lines of who was in and who was out of the social groups operating in this classroom. The students appeared very entrenched in who was in what group and it appeared belonging predominantly was based around ethnicity and gender. Name calling appeared to be one way of keeping the groups exclusive and I noted after session 5 ( the Crow Boy drama) my surprise at the callous and unkind ways students teased others about their names. I was surprised at the level of and type of name calling that happened to students and how imaginative in their cruelty they could be.

I felt the same as Mike when I heard what students called each other, I thought I knew but it caused me to reflect on this activity has having real impact in describing the problem from a restorative perspective. How I could use this in all the classes as naming the problem? (TRRJ).

For both teachers there were elements of discursive practice happening in the classroom that they did not see. Throughout the drama I constantly challenged the class to change the dynamics of the group, giving criteria for mixing. For example each group to have a friendship pair and one other from another group. The

overall aim was to have groups that were mixed according to gender and ethnicity. By session four, following The Crow Boy drama I noted in my journal how

students were beginning to mix.

Some took a risk and worked well in groups with different people. Lance joined in the circle with Mathew and made some contributions to the programme for Chibi. Keegan working with a group.Different combinations (TRRJ).

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Group Composition Session one

Group Composition Session 7

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As evidence of the student’s group dynamics I documented the group composition at the start of the drama intervention and again after session seven. On both

occasions these were groupings that were spontaneously formed by the students not created by myself or the teacher.

The top box represents the group compositions at the start of the drama in session one and the one below what the groups compositions looked like by session seven. Immediately after session one I noted how exclusive the groups were and the clear exclusion of four students, who were not invited to join any group. Two of these students Gavin and Issac were from the sample group. The groups tended to be either all girls or boys and ethnicity tended to be a factor in the groupings. In my reflection following session seven I took notes of the group dynamics again. By session seven the groups had changed and there was a mixing of boys and girls, three groups out of five had girl boy mixes. The two groups that had only boys or girls had accepted someone else from another group. Brian had joined group one which was significant in that these were perceived as the capable students, Issac previously on the outside following session one, now was in a mixed group and stayed there for the entire session. Gavin was also working with a mixed group .Group 4 had accepted another girl into their circle and group 5 had two students who had previously been on the outside of the class groups at the start of the drama intervention. While group five had two members from the marginalised group they still managed to complete a freeze frame but decided not to share it.

Overall, 3/5 of the groups had boys and girls and all the groups had students from different ethnic backgrounds. As students began to know and form relationships outside of their usual group they began to include other students into their groups. In addition to noting the group compositions I transcribed the student discussions following session one and two and noticed two significant phenomena. Firstly by session two, more students had entered the discussion and secondly, they were speaking for longer.

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Gender Ethnicity Words Session 1 Words Session2

B E 9 38 B E 11 35 B E 11 31 B Brian E 9 54 B E 20 19 B E 13 23 G A 22 Absent B Sam A - 43 B Gavin E - 48 G Mandy M - 48 G M - 35 G E - 29 G E - 38 G E - 43

Table 2: Comparison of who spoke and for how long.

Following session one, 7 students commented, 6 boys and 1 girl, the boys were all of European descent and the girl was of Asian descent. Half the boys were from

the confident capable group and half were from the less confident group. The comments had a range of 8-22 words. After session two all the boys from session one commented as well as Gavin and Sam from the sample group. Five girls also recorded their reflections with a word range of 19-54 words. Brian made the most

significant increase in comment length from 9-54 words. No further data was collected in subsequent sessions but it would have been interesting to see if the number of students talking continued to rise or whether there would be a plateau effect? It would be interesting to see if there continued to be more students talking

or would there be a plateau effect? My very clear sense from having participated in the sessions is that all the children, including the shy ones were contributing more. Transcribing the recorded sessions I became aware of who was speaking

and who developed confidence to speak in the second session.14

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Data is limited to one session because after session two, Mike and I decided to stop the

recordings due to the time it took to go around the circle with the microphone because the students were tending to read from their writing rather than speak spontaneously.

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Students who spoke after session two Students who spoke after Session One

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