EDUC 4213 - ASSIGNMENT 2 – JOHN CASE STUDY

Introduction
Schools and classrooms are full of diverse children with varying cultures, abilities, needs and challenges. It is the role
of the educator to set up an environment in which this diverse array of children feels supported, safe and can succeed
not only academically, but emotionally and developmentally. Each child will enter the classroom carrying a ‘virtual
backpack’ holding a myriad of things that impact their time at school. John is a year five Indigenous student who carries
many challenges in his virtual backpack. John’s school and educators have dedicated time to implementing strategies
supporting him, however moving into the new school year a fresh approach will be needed. This case study will employ
the ‘Cycle of Professional Learning’ (Moon 2001) to recognise, make sense and meaning and work to transform. There
are many factors that contribute to children’s development, however for each child some may be more prevalent than
others. John appears to be functioning at an expected level for his age in regard to gender differences and does not
display significant risk factors for shyness or loneliness. The case study also expresses that John does have strength in
his resilience and while it is evident that his self-esteem is often low, it appears that this is likely due to his struggles
socially and with attachments rather than an indicator of more serious mental health issues. For these reasons, this
case study will focus on four major challenges John faces. Firstly, John has significant struggles with positive and secure
attachments, which can have a big impact on his emotional development as well as his ability to form positive
relationships with his peers. John’s attachments to parents and friendships with peers have put him at a disadvantage
with his development of social skills and competence which further limits him. Additionally, John often displays
aggressive behaviour and has been known to bully other children as well as also being bullied himself. These challenges
have put him at a disadvantage in the classroom and strategies need to be put in place to minimise this.

Attachment
Attachment refers to a deep, significant bond formed towards a person, place or thing that endures throughout a
person’s lifespan. Attachment behaviours can be activated from a range of situations including distressing
environmental situations such as separation or internal states such as physical or emotional distress. Therefore, the
purpose of attachment is to provide emotional security and protect in these times of distress (Dwyer 2005).
Attachments change throughout childhood and into adulthood and can be categorised differently. Secure attachments
occur when the attachment figure is available and dependable and promote self-awareness, tolerance and
modulation, as well as fostering self-regulation (Allen et al. 2005). On the insecure side, attachments have been
labelled as dismissing and preoccupied, where dismissing attachment is associated with avoiding of closeness and the
function of attachment being missing, creating an active avoidance of comforting. Contrastingly, preoccupied
attachment occurs when there is an expectation that the relationship will consistently fail to provide distress
regulation, leading to excessive dependency as well as fear of rejection or abandonment (Allen et al. 2005).
Attachment can also look different depending on cultural background, a factor that may come into play for John. It is
well known that Indigenous peoples often place a much higher value on sense of belonging and spiritual
connectedness with the community and land (Soo See Yeo 2003). In Indigenous cultures, many believe any person
living away from the community and land may be endangered by spiritual forces, causing great distress (Soo See Yeo
2003). This may be something that poses a particular challenge for John, as not only does he not live within an
Indigenous community, he has experienced frequent changes in location and carers, even being separated from his
mother for a time due to family services. John’s attachment with his mother, Carol is clearly insecure, likely due to the
great number of changes he’s experienced regarding her dependability. John has become very controlling of his
mother, dictating when and where she can go out as well as committing acts of violence against her, this perhaps
comes from a fear of again being abandoned, suggesting a preoccupied attachment. John also has attachments with
other family members such as his father, older brother and his grandmother. John’s attachment relationship with his
father is likely also insecure as his father lives far away and therefore John has limited contact with him. Similarly,
John’s nana plays an important role in his life however he does not often get to see her, causing more insecurity. The
one potentially secure attachment relationship John does have is with his older brother, who he spends an increasing
amount of time with and reportedly ‘looks out’ for John. This relationship may be secure, however not necessarily
positive for John as he often engages in ‘gang-like’ behaviour. Allen et al (2003) expresses that there is no greater need
for secure attachments than with people whose attachment relationships have been traumatic. The need for secure,
positive attachments is clear in John’s behaviour as he is often displaying behavioural issues such as running away and
violence or abuse.
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Continuing the year in the classroom, John’s teacher needs to place significant focus on building a positive relationship
with John, potentially becoming an attachment figure themselves. This would require the teacher to consistently be
available for John and following up on promises to provide a sense of dependability. Furthermore, while there has
been a previous focus on building the relationship between the school and John’s mother, this will need to continue
with the new teacher. Setting up regular times where Carol can be included in the learning environment, working with
both the teacher and John may facilitate a more positive relationship between the two. In regard to John’s father and
grandmother, regular contact could still be set up using phone calls or video chats. Dwyer (2005) explains that through
middle and late childhood, communication with attachment figures can be sufficient over physical proximity so this
form of contact could work to foster the relationship and build accessibility. Ultimately, John’s attachment
relationships are having a major impact on his time at school and with a teacher focus on building their own
relationship with John as well as facilitating positive relationships with John’s existing attachment figures, these
behaviours may reduce and work to leave John feeling more adjusted and secure at home and school.

Friendships: Acceptance and Rejection

Another aspect of John’s life that is challenging for him is his friendships and experience with rejection. Friendships
are a mutual liking and bonding between two or more people and serve the purpose of fulfillment for both parties.
Friendships vary in nature and cannot be easily compared or labelled as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as the value is dependent on
the level of fulfillment. Children are all different and some children may be fulfilled from just a few close friendships,
whereas others prefer a larger group (Erwin 1998). In regard to friendships, children often fall into different categories
such as popular, controversial, neglected, average and rejected. Each category displays with differing characteristics
and are impacted differently by their friendships. At school, John falls under the rejected category and displays often
with aggressive and antisocial behaviours. John’s principal reports frequent anti-social behaviour such as being
disruptive, aggressive and unpredictable. This has led to many of John’s peers being frightened of him and thus
avoiding contact with him. Rejection from peers can have a significant impact on a child’s social and emotional
development and has been linked to early school withdrawal, early delinquency and issues with self-esteem (Bagwell
et al. 1998). Children who are rejected by their peers are also more likely to present with aggressive behaviour, so in
John’s case it has become a cycle of aggression and rejection. In the past, John has already been reported to have
frequent ‘take-homes’ from school, making it important to put strategies in place to end this before it escalates.

John plays with a range of boys at break times, however tends to get into trouble in this group and would not call these
boys his friends. The one ‘friend’ that John does have is with Dean, whom he often controls and bullies into friendship.
Considering friendships should be reciprocal and fulfilling for both parties, it could be argued that this relationship
with Dean is not a true friendship as it appears that neither of the children are being fulfilled. To assist in building this
friendship in a way that will be fulfilling for both boys, perhaps some work on what it takes to be a friend is necessary.
John responds well when working independently with an adult so perhaps some of the one-on-one time could be
dedicated to investigating friendships and their purpose. This may also assist John in analysing the fulfillment he gains
from his friendship with his older brother and his peers, as it would appear that the peer group may be promoting
anti-social behaviour.

Children select their friendships based on many things and are established when they ‘feel right’. This means that anti-
social children are more likely to choose other anti-social children to form friendships with, creating a ‘dyadic antisocial
trait’ (Hartup 1996). John’s most important and accepted peer group with his adolescent brother also presents anti-
social behaviour and operate in a ‘gang-like’ culture, taking part in activities like graffiti and underage drinking. If John
continues with this group as his most important peer group, there is risk that his behaviour may escalate over time
and result in more serious anti-social behaviour such as criminal activity, which is already known to be common in
rejected children (Bagwell et al. 1998). To combat this, John’s teacher should be encouraging John to form more pro-
social friendships with his own peers. This will likely be difficult due to John’s aggression and his peer’s fear of him,
however by working with John one-on-one to investigate what positive friendships look like, this behaviour may lessen.
John enjoys playing games and engaging in activities, so perhaps the inclusion of games John likes in the classroom
can facilitate him finding similarities between himself and his peers. Educators cannot force children to become
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friends, in setting John up with more appropriate social skills and gradually giving him opportunity to practice these,
John’s teacher can work to facilitate more pro-social friendships.

Social Skills and Competence

Social skills and social competence impact children greatly when it comes to their adjustment both in and outside of
school. All children are different and will have different temperaments that impact them depending on their
environment. The social development of children is often dependent on the ‘goodness of fit’ of their temperament to
their environment, where compatibility promotes healthy development and mismatch can compromise social
development (Sanson 2004). ‘Goodness of fit’ to environment will be important for John’s new teacher to consider as
it would appear that previously the classroom context has not been a good fit for him. However, moving into a
classroom with a teacher experienced in Aboriginal education and educational disadvantage should be advantageous
for John as teacher education in Indigenous education is vital in alleviating stresses of Indigenous students (Price 2012).
Brim and Mannion (2012) also discuss the importance of educators being equipped to build relationships with the
wider community as a means of closing the gap between educational disadvantage. In John’s case this would be his
mother, Carol who the school has already been building a relationship with as this would boost John’s attachment
relationships as well as his social competence.

Temperament can also impact the development of internalised and externalised behaviour problems such as anxiety
and low self-esteem stemming from low sociability and aggression and violence stemming from negative emotionality
(Sanson 2004). It is evident that John is beginning to display characteristics of both IBP’s and EBP’s as he often displays
signs of low self-esteem, a sign of IBP’s and is frequently aggressive and violent, a sign of EBP’s. John also grew up in a
culture of ‘getting people’ and controlling others’ actions, meaning he has developed these habits as a means of
socialisation from an early age. Research shows that positive friendships can be used as means of promoting pro-social
behaviour and social skills. Glick and Rose (2011) investigates the way high-quality friendships impact emotionally
engaged strategies for socialisation, finding that children with positive friendships performed better. Therefore, using
the strategies for forming positive friendships could also support John in building his social competence.

While John does struggle in many aspects of social competence, he does have some strengths. Empathy is seen as an
important social skill and building empathy can work to promote pro-social behaviours and minimise instances of
aggression and anti-social behaviour (Schonert-Reichl 2012). John does not display empathy often in his own
classroom, however is reported to have a warm and caring side when working with younger children. Building on this
side of John’s personality could further develop his empathy which could hopefully be transferred into his own
classroom with his own peers. Peer tutoring can be incredibly beneficial for children, both emotionally and
academically. Firstly, it assists children in gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and their knowledge as well
as encouraging children to take responsibility for learning (Yousey 2005). This sense of responsibility may encourage
John to reconsider and minimise his anti-social behaviours. To build this, John may begin by working with younger
children, who he is already more empathetic to and teach them skills or games he enjoys. This could then be developed
further and transitioned into his own classroom, promoting empathy towards his peers and encouraging pro-social
behaviour.

Aggression: Bullies, Victims and Bystanders

Aggression in schools comes in many different forms and can range from physical aggression such as violence to verbal
aggression including teasing and shunning. It is not only the victims of aggression and bullying that are at risk due to
this behaviour, but the perpetrator also (Pellegrini 2000). Bullies are often exposed to aggression through families or
other influences and grow to think that the behaviour is an acceptable means to achieve a goal. Research also suggests
that bullies often come from families who use aggression when managing behaviour at home and are often engaged
in conflict (Pellegrini 2000). This is likely a factor in John’s aggressive and bullying behaviours, as he has grown in an
environment in which he is often exposed to domestic violence and has begun to commit acts of violence against his
family members also. While it may seem that there is little the school can do in regard to John’s home life, continuing
to build a positive relationship with the mother and encouraging her to display positive behaviours will assist John in
doing the same. In the case of victims, there are two categories to differentiate: passive and aggressive. Passive victims
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are often unpopular and withdrawn and do not often engage in aggressive behaviours, whereas aggressive victims
commonly utilise aggression in a reactive way when in altercations with bullies (Pellegrini 2000). John definitely
presents as an aggressive victim, as it is evident from observations that he is often picked on and taunted by his peers,
prompting him to react aggressively. Therefore, John falls into the bully-victim category, arguably one of the most at-
risk groups. These children are both bullies and victims in different situations and are easily provoked and often display
with low pro-social skills, both of which are displayed in John’s behaviour. In working to alleviate the occurrences of
bullying and victimisation, it will be most important for John’s teacher to create a classroom climate in which pro-
social behaviour is the norm and bullying is not accepted. This can be done through a variety of techniques, including
an explicit focus as well as indirect approaches.

Bullying is also different and in many cases more prevalent for Indigenous children. This often stems from a lack of
understanding of culture, with up to fourteen percent of primary aged Indigenous students experiencing some form
of racial-centred bullying at school (Biddle & Priest 2008). It is unclear how much of the bullying John experiences does
present with a racial element, however it will still be important for John’s teacher to be aware of this. Teacher’s
responses to bullying and disputes can have a large impact on the perception of Indigenous children and can
potentially lessen stereotyping and bullying (Coffin 2010). Furthermore, including Indigenous perspectives into the
classroom curriculum is another strategy teachers can use to promote acceptance and understanding, as well as giving
Indigenous student opportunity to display their strengths (Shipp 2013). This may also assist John in building self-
esteem and allowing him to work with his strengths as it is noticed that John engages in more pro-social behaviour
when his self-esteem is boosted. Ultimately, John’s teacher and all educators need to be creating an environment that
promotes acceptance and understanding and encourages pro-social behaviour as the norm, thus minimising instances
of anti-social and aggressive behaviour.

Conclusion
The overarching theme throughout this case study highlights the importance of building a positive and pro-social
classroom climate. Building a classroom that promotes this begins on the very first day of the school year, where
routines and systems are established that will determine the tone for the rest of the year (Evans 2010). While there
will inevitably be students who rebel against even the most perfectly set up systems, it is the way in which the teacher
responds that impacts the outcome. It is counterproductive for teachers to focus entirely on children’s external
behaviours without taking into account the context (Evans 2010). All students come to school with a ‘virtual backpack’
and the teacher’s role is to unpack and understand this when working with each student. This is the most important
thing for John’s teacher to remember, as in looking at simply the behaviour without unpacking the context, the true
challenges John faces will be overlooked.

Furthermore, building a classroom that gives the students responsibility for their own learning and development can
work to promotes student-led routines and behaviours can work to give children choice and responsibility. For
example, allowing the students to be involved in deciding on the guidelines that set the expectations for the classroom
could prompt them to reflect on what they need from the class environment to succeed and thus analyse their
behaviours and how they assist in creating this environment (Evans 2010). This is supported by research in choice in
the classroom, expressing that when children are offered choice and responsibility, they are more likely to be engaged
and interested in their learning (Patall, Cooper & Wynn 2010).

Finally, teachers can employ strategies that create a classroom that is accepting and makes children feel safe and
valued. Strategies as simple as regular check-in’s can work to make children feel valued, as well as speaking to them
more deeply about the why behind the activities they are engaging in gives children a context for their learning and
deeper understanding of how it impacts their development (Parks 2017). Ultimately, creating an environment in which
all children are heard and valued will work to promote pro-social behaviour by building a classroom community that
is based on support and understanding and assist in alleviating the challenges in the virtual backpacks of not only
children like John, but all children in the classroom.

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