‘I think education is bulls**t’: Understanding the pathway to disaffection in school-excluded young people.

1. ‘I think education is bulls**t’: Understanding the pathway to disaffection in school-excluded young people. Fidelma Hanrahan and Robin Banerjee University of Sussex

2. Background • What does school disaffection look like? • Disruptive behaviour, emotional difficulties, and academic failure (DETR, 1999; Skinner, Kindermann, & Furrer, 2008). • Behavioural/emotional profile associated with disadvantaged backgrounds (Daniels et al., 2003; Jimerson, Egeland, Sroufe, & Carlson, 2000; Steer,2000) as well as non-optimal future trajectories (Coles et al., 2002; DFE, 2012; Henry, Knight, & Thornberry, 2012; SEU, 1999).

3. Theoretical frameworks • Recent theoretical work • Attempt to understand and explain link between environmental experiences and school engagement or disengagement. • Some plausible models such as the self-system model of motivational development (SSMMD; Connell & Wellborn, 2009; Skinner and colleagues, 2008; 2009).

4. Theoretical model of the development of disaffection • Self-discrepancy theory • (Higgins, 1987) Possible selves • (Markus & Nurius, 1986) • Self-determination theory (SDT) (Ryan & Deci, 2000) • Self • Behaviour and emotion • Social Environments • Motivation and cognitions • Achievement goal theory • (Dweck & Leggett, 1988) Attribution theory • (Weiner, 1985)

5. Support for an integrated model of school disaffection • Social Environments • Association between parental support of basic psychological needs and optimal outcomes • dropping out of school associated with perceptions of teachers and parents as less autonomy-supportive and perception of self as less autonomous and competent (Hardre& Reeve, 2003; Vallerand, Fortier, & Guay, 1997).

6. Motivation and cognitions • Link between achievement goals and attributions, and behavioural outcomes • ‘performance goal orientations’ – failure results in threat to self-esteem leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, and shame, leading to self-handicapping and disruptive behaviour (Ames, 1992; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Thompson, 2004).

7. Self • Link between multiple self-construalsand disaffection • school-excluded pupils generate more impossible future selves and have more negative perceptions of their futures compared to non school-excluded pupils(Mainwaring & Hallam, 2010).

8. Study I: Aim and research question • Aim: • Address the lack of qualitative research, underpinned by psychological frameworks, which examines the lived experiences of school excluded pupils. • Evaluate, and further develop, a model of disaffection • Do the experiences of school-excluded pupils fit with an understanding of the psychological processes of self-discrepancies and achievement goals as mediating the link between troubled social backgrounds and a problematic behavioural/ emotional profile?

9. Method • Participants • ten PRU and ex-PRU pupils (6 female, 4 male; aged 14-20 years; mixed ethnicity: 4 mixed race, 4 black, 1 white, 1 South-Asian) • six staff (2 female,4 male; 5 white, 1 black) • Semi-structured interviews • Questions • experiences at school and PRU • the experience of being excluded • relationships with teachers, peers and others • attitude to education • aspirations • self-concepts • Analysis • Transcripts analysed using theory driven thematic analysis

10. Key findings – Model of school disaffection • Self-construals • Social Environments • Orientation to school • Aspirations

11. Behavioural disengagement from school Disinterest Anti-social behaviour Resistance to authority Absence Distraction Helpless behaviours YP-1: […] I went to college to do A-Levels; I think I lasted about two weeks. […] I was just like, aw this is just like school, why bother, so I didn’t bother with it (Female, 20). • Orientation to school Negative emotions Anger Sadness Hopelessness Frustration Anxiety Embarrassment YP-6: When it’s really hard I don’t understand it and I get frustrated (Male, 16).

12. ‘Fixed’ mindset Intelligence as ‘fixed’ • Aspirations Extrinsic motivation Money as motivator Lack of intrinsic motivation and task enjoyment YP-1: I’m not as smart as you think, [...] there’s a certain limit there… that’s as smart as I can get (Female, 20). Performance goals Focused on outcomes of learning i.e. qualification for job YP-1: I’ve tried to go to college, [...] I don’t think it would’ve ever worked out… because there’s nothing that I’d say I’m so interested in that I’d go and study for years and stick to it […] it’d just piss me off, I wouldn’t be able to do that… if I’m going to do something now I’d want to know, well that’s going to get me a job right at the end of it (Female, 20). YP-6: I think [education] is bulls**t. [...] Int: And what keeps you doing it then? YP-6: The money really, till you get a job (Male,16).

13. YP-6: I see myself in the future as, like, not getting a job and stuff. Something really bad (Male, 16). Possible selves Lack of ideal self Unrealistic ideal self or ideal self and no realistic strategies Feared self as expected self YP-4: I thought [getting sent to the PRU] meant that I didn’t… I wasn’t going to get nothing, go nowhere in life[...] I wasn’t going to be able to achieve anything [...] that’s what I thought anyway (Female, 17). YP-3: I’ve always got a brick wall around me. [...] you’ll never see me … you’ll never see the true – who I really am, who I always want to be but don’t feel that I’m able to (Female, 16). Inauthentic/’False’ self Detached self-reliant self Conflict between wanting to be perceived as ‘nice’ and wishing to be feared Self as Failure Lack of believed in ‘hoped-for’ self • Self-construals

14. School Environments Failure to understand circumstances and experiences of young people Controlling responses YP-4: [The school staff] didn’t care. [...] They knew that the school was bad; they knew that the people there was bad, so they just didn’t really care [...] (Female, 14). YP-3: [Pupils who have been excluded] probably don’t even care that they’ve been kicked out of school. They’re more worried about what’s going on at home (Female, 16). Chronic instability at home and community disadvantage Lack of positive parenting No positive, realistic role models Norm of disadvantage and anti-social behaviour in community Parental expectations lacking or unachievable • Social Environments Peer Pressure To be perceived as ‘bad’ Pursue needs through anti-social behaviour and relationships with deviant peers

15. School Environments Failure to understand circumstances and experiences of young people Controlling responses Chronic instability at home and community disadvantage Lack of positive parenting No positive, realistic role models Norm of disadvantage and anti-social behaviour in community Parental expectations lacking or unachievable YP-3: I mean I was involved with a gang when I was like 13 [...] I was just running around with like people, just doing bad things but… y’know, you don’t have to be in a gang to, beat someone up or, y’know, rob someone. […] Had problems at home [...] it’s a way of dealing with things really, a coping mechanism (Female, 16). • Social Environments Peer Pressure To be perceived as ‘bad’ Pursue needs through anti-social behaviour and relationships with deviant peers

16. Positive responses to the PRU environment Supportive school environment Focus on building relationships between staff and pupils Teachers’ understanding of pupils’ experiences outside of school environment Realistic goals set Recognition of achievements Staff belief in pupils’ competence and positive futures Positive choices Realistic positive hoped-for self Sense of autonomy in making positive choices • Room for hope YP-4: I felt people [in the PRU] listened to you more [...] obviously they’re more understanding because they know people that’s coming there is got… problems, or troubles [...] so… if something was wrong they’ll try and find out or they’ll tell you to calm down or they’ll make you go and speak to someone and… stuff like that. So it was really really good (Female, 17).

17. Conclusion and questions for future research • Initial attempt looking at possible mediators of the link between social background and behavioural and emotional outcomes supports an integrated model of disaffection. • Future research • Systematically investigate the links between these different psychological processes • How do they interact? Are links reciprocal?

18. Study II: Aim and research question • Survey study aim: • Quantitative investigation of links between psychological processes in model • Address the lack of research into engagement/disengagement with school-excluded pupils. • Research question • What does the pathway between the psychological processes implicated in the development of disaffection look like? • How do the these processes interact? Are links reciprocal?

19. Method • Participants • 102 PRU pupils (62 male, 33 female, 7 unknown), years 7 – 11 • Age range 11 – 17 years (M = 14.97, SD = 1.37) • Ethnicity: 74% White, 10% Black, 5% mixed, 11% other/unknown

20. Scales Global self worth scale Harter (1988) The Perception of False Self Scale (Weir & Jose, 2010) • Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ) (Williams & Deci, 1996) • Self • Social vignettes • Life event scale Ystgaard (1997); Swearingen and Cohen (1985); Attar, Guerra, & Tolan, (1994) • Behaviour and emotion • Social Environments • Perception of • Parents Scale (POPS) (Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991) • Motivation and cognitions Aspiration Index (AI) (Grouzet, Kasser, et al., 2005); Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS) (Midgely et al., 2000) Sydney Attribution Scale (SAS) (Marsh, 1984)

21. Preliminary findings Global self worth scale .52*** The Perception of False Self Scale -.35** • POPS * = p < .05; ** = p < .01; *** = p < .001

22. Preliminary findings • POPS .30** -.28* .26* PALS (Mastery) -.27* AI intrinsic AI extrinsic * = p < .05; ** = p < .01; *** = p < .001

23. Preliminary findings • Angry -.30** -.32** • Neg better • POPS • Social vignettes -.23* • Neg liked -.24* • Neg respect • Neg solve prob -.31** * = p < .05; ** = p < .01; *** = p < .001

24. Tentative conclusions and unanswered questions • Some early support for the qualitative study and theoretical model of school disaffection more generally • Pathway analysis • How do they interact? Are links reciprocal?

25. With thanks to: Robin Banerjee