Teachers’ attitudes in classroom management as perceived by pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties

ABSTRACT Studies have extensively presented a range of best practices for teachers to develop adequate classroom management skills. Yet, to date the connected attitudes that teachers would require to capably execute classroom management have received scarce attention in scientific literature. Accordingly, this article documents teachers’ classroom management attitudes (TCMA) from the perspective of pupils presenting with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Individual interviews were conducted with fourteen SEBD pupils attending secondary-school special education programmes. Using thematic analysis, emergent themes were then identified and categorised, resulting in seventeen teacher attitudes which then fell into four overarching dimensions: 1) Respect; 2) Authority; 3) Supportiveness; and 4) Differentiation. The connection between the teacher attitudes, as voiced by the pupils, and the pupils’ perception of their teachers’ classroom management skill and proficiency is described at length. In light of these findings, avenues for better classroom intervention outcomes and for further research have been proposed.