Classroom-Based Power Exchanges That Disrupt Teaching and Learning Spaces to What Extent Could Middle Eastern High School Students Manage Their Challenging Behaviors

Abstract Concerned with disruptions to teaching and learning spaces in a Middle Eastern high school; researchers questioned the extent to which students could negotiate power-laden, dialogical patterns of engagements with teachers for the purpose of managing their disruptive behaviors. From 700 plus students, researchers gained approval to interview 7, grade twelve male students, median age of 17, over the space of 10 weekly, 1-hour focus groups’ discussions specific to meanings they assigned to their disruptive, classroom-based behaviors. 1 male student, from the group of 7, also participated in 10 weekly, 1-hour case study interviews specific to the sense he made of his disruptive behavior. In accordance with the school’s disciplinary protocols, the group of students were referred to the school’s wellbeing center for assessment and intervention. After recording and transcribing data from individual and group interviews, a thematic analysis highlighted emergent themes related to different versions of the groups’ defensive, power-laden, dialogical, and behavioral patterns. A discursive analysis highlighted repeated dialogical trends that could inform psychological, counseling, and behavioral practices specific to disruptions to teaching and learning spaces as a measurable shift in students’ communicative and behavior patterns during classroom-based engagements is evident.