This study took place in an alternative provision academy for 40 primary
school children in the north of England. All the children attending the centre had
either been permanently excluded or were at serious risk of permanent exclusion
from their mainstream primary schools due to their challenging behaviour. Many of
the children had been observed to cease this challenging behaviour quickly on entry
to the centre. The aim of this study was to develop the researcher’s understanding of
the underlying mechanisms affecting this cessation of challenging behaviour and
charts the change in both the researcher’s developing understanding and his
practice.
A three-cycle, first-person action research model was used in combination
with critical realism, and a hermeneutic approach was taken to consider the place of
the researcher as the professional at the heart of the process. In following this novel
methodological approach, the aim of this study was also to offer an explicit example
of applied critical realism being used in an educational setting.
The study was instrumental in developing practice within the centre through a
set of emerging social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) principles which also
provided the basis for the training of student teachers and professionals from other
settings. As the study moved through repeating cycles, the researcher proposed an
emerging model which applied the theory of social domains to a centre for excluded
primary school children. The study supports the view that a child’s challenging
behaviour may be seen as the outcome of a failing environment rather than because
of a flaw in the child. It concludes by suggesting that political and educational leaders
raise questions about the enabling and constraining effects that their wider policies
have on the ability of schools to meet the needs of children with social, emotional
and mental health (SEMH) needs
