This study emerged from a state initiative to improve teaching and lift school outcomes in Melbourne, Australia. At the invitation of participating schools, the data presented here were produced for follow-up sessions in a professional development program using the 'Developmental Management Approach'. Fieldnotes of teacher talk intended to give…

Over the last two decades, moves toward "inclusion" have prompted change in the formation of education policies, schooling structures and pedagogical practice. Yet, exclusion through the categorisation and segregation of students with diverse abilities has grown, particularly for students with challenging behaviour. This paper considers…

Chronic victimisation in adolescence is a traumatic experience with potential negative long-term health consequences. Given that victimisation has been shown to increase over the transition from primary to secondary school, longitudinal data from 1810 students transitioning from primary to secondary school were used to identify victimisation…

It is generally accepted that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) results from a dysfunction of the central nervous system, which has led to a commonly held belief that environmental factors play little role in the behavioural problems of children identified as having ADHD. Therefore, the two studies reported in this article…

In this paper we show that poor student performance in a rural school is influenced by the classifications used for student learning and behaviour. We propose that the institution's organisation is conveyed via a classification schema that permeates and informs judgments about student progress and holds sway over teacher cognition. Category…

Examines the way in which integration or mainstreaming policies in Australia have been subverted by labeling disruptive young people as defective and by deploying the practices and culture of disability as a means of imposing social control on such students. Suggestions are given for reframing the issue of school failure as interactional rather…