Permanently excluded and perceived as challenging: a narrative inquiry into a parent’s perception of their child

Walsh, Janet 2017. Permanently excluded and perceived as challenging: a narrative inquiry into a parent’s perception of their child. DEdPsy Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Children and young people with challenging behaviour who are permanently excluded from school include a disproportionate percentage of children and young people from particular groups including boys and those with special educational needs (Atkinson, 2011). Using a single case study design, a narrative inquiry was conducted into how a parent perceives their child. During a voice recorded interview with the researcher the parent told the biographical story of their permanently excluded son who showed challenging behaviour but also had special educational needs. The parent’s narrative was organised by the parent using a framework which facilitated a story of three hours in length. Following transcription, the Research Text was analysed using the poetic structural approach of Gee (1991), involving analysis at five levels. In some respects, the parent’s narrative echoed the findings of some other research (Atkinson, 2011, 2012) as the parent made reference to her son being sent home from school, receiving fixed term exclusion, being placed on a part-time timetable, and eventually receiving a permanent exclusion from school and being sent to a Pupil Referral Unit to continue his education. In other respects the parent’s narrative provided a unique understanding of her journey, experiences and emotions during the events that happened to her son. The emotional impact on the parent of her son’s permanent exclusion from school and her use of the term ‘we’ to describe events that would usually be regarded as having happened to her son are new insights to the field offered by this research. There are implications for national policy in England regarding informal ‘sending home’, and implications for schools regarding earlier involvement of educational psychologists for children showing behaviour that schools find challenging. The extent to which the parent felt that her parenting was open to criticism due to her son displaying challenging behaviour, her need to defend her parenting, and the shift from collaborative work with school to being critical of school, are all aspects of the analysed narrative which have implications for educational psychologists. Finally, insight from Narrative Therapy is consistent with some currently implemented approaches and offers opportunities for early intervention with parents and teachers of children with challenging behaviour at school.

Item Type:	Thesis (DEdPsy)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Behaviour; Biographical narrative; Challenging behaviour; Exclusion; Parent-school relationship; Narrative; Narrative analysis; Narrative inquiry; Parent; Parent perception; Poetic Structural Approach; School;
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 April 2017
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2021 10:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/99698

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