‘They think that swearing is okay’: first lessons in behaviour management

Abstract

Despite a considerable body of literature devoted to the ‘behaviour management’ of pupils, there is little that actually considers the experience of beginning teachers in learning to cope with that behaviour. Here we consider the experience of student teachers and illustrate their attempts to form deeper understanding, connections between theory and practice and the contribution made by other teachers. It is argued that students at this first stage of classroom teaching experiences are, despite the inevitable anxieties in their new encounters, starting to make deeper sense of them than can be provided by tips on discipline. There is a need for caution against over‐emphasis of behaviour management as misleading, premature categorisation that could inhibit new teachers' capacity to build the relationships with pupils on which good teaching depends.