Becoming a Problem: How and Why Children Acquire a Reputation as ‘Naughty’ in the Earliest Years at School

1. Becoming a Problem: How and Why Children Acquire a Reputation as ‘Naughty’ in the Earliest Years at School Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Prof Maggie MacLure, Dr Liz Jones, Dr Rachel Holmes & Dr Christina MacRae

2. The Aims of the Project • To document and critically examine the emergence of problem behaviour amongst children in the Foundation Stage of school • To enhance understandings of the processes by which children begin to develop an identity and ‘career’ as a problem in school • To inform public and policy debate about behaviour and discipline in the early years • To contribute to the development of theory in the field of classroom interaction and pupil identity

3. The four schools • A ‘faith’ school • An inner city school where over 30 home languages are spoken • A school in a ‘leafy’ suburb • A school in a relatively poor economic area with a population of mainly white English heritage pupils

4. Negotiating Access • Respect for persons • Permission • Confidentiality • Consent • Negotiation of data

5. Theoretical framework • Qualitative study that draws on ethnography • Discourse based approach informed by poststructuralist theory • Analytical framework also draws on conversational analysis

6. Research questions • What makes it difficult for some children to be, and to be recognised as, ‘good students’? • How does behaviour become an ‘issue’? • How is consensus over appropriate/inappropriate behaviour established and maintained? • At what point do teachers and other children start to associate particular children with behaviour problems? • How far are children able, with adult support, to reflect on their own behaviour and contribute to productive changes in their own behaviour? • How does an act come to be interpreted by the teacher, and recognised by children, as an instance of inappropriate behaviour • Can behaviour flashpoints be predicted, contained or avoided?

7. Methods • Participant observation with an ethnographic orientation • Videos • Participant and non-participant observations (notes) • Unstructured interviews with practitioners and children

8. The fieldwork • Phase 1 (Sept 06-Aug 07) • Observations over a whole school year • One day a week spent in each of the classrooms • Meeting with the participating teachers so as to examine some of the preliminary findings

9. The fieldwork • Phase 2: follow-up phase • Tracking the children as they move into their new class • Do ‘ bad reputations’ travel?

10. Analysis of the data • Identifying themes • Developing theories • Using existing literature to substantiate and extend ideas