Navigating Student Behaviors: Exclusion, Inclusion & Restorative Approaches

Abstract

Course name Instructor’s name Assignment due date Exclusion, Inclusion and Restorative Responses to Student Behaviors Summary of the Analytic Framework Cycle of Exclusion The cycle of exclusion occurs when some children with potential display behaviors that make it harder for them to succeed in classroom activities. Students at risk of exclusion are likely to come from broken homes, immigrant families, low-income communities, and other alienated groups. The behaviors of children with such behavioral difficulties make it hard and sometimes impossible for teachers to intervene and help them realize their potential. Exclusion increases the risk of children failing in class, facing suspensions, and displaying behavior that exposes them to expulsion or dropping out of school early in education (Razer & Friedman, 2017). Excluded educators face challenges supporting their students achieve full potential in the classroom and are often blamed for failure. They face conflicts with their peers and school administrators that increase the difficulty of providing the learning resources students need. The cycle of exclusion leads to students displaying negative behavior in the classroom and teachers who are unable to provide the support learners need. Two Frames of Exclusion Framing exclusion facilitates the understanding of how the problem affects students, educators, administrators, and schools differently. In the helplessness frame, educators feel powerless and lack the capacity to offer the support their students need. They wonder how the behavior of a student affects the class and claim that they lack the resource support to develop any meaningful solutions (Razer & Friedman, 2017). Teachers are likely to abandon their students and seek to deal with the difficulties and anxiety of coping with challenges in the classrooms. The view the problem affecting their students as against their expectations of a classroom and feel frustrated for not being able to offer any support. Teachers in the false identity framing view their school or want it to be the same as other schools. Their approach to dealing with excluded students is to use the same methods, resources, and goals for all learners with the hope that they will receive the recognition other educators get for their school’s performance (Razer & Friedman, 2017). In such an exclusion, there is a constant conflict between what the teachers see as their school and what they think it should become. Staff and administrators in such institutions emphasize on punishment as the resolve for students displaying undesirable behavior without considering underlying factors. They discuss and implement the same strategies that have failed in the past without considering alternatives or individual approaches. Building Restorative Relationships Building restorative relationships is the strategy that educators and schools use to counter the effects of social exclusion on education. The staff and learning administrators are not responsible for causing factors such as poverty, family problems, and discrimination that contributes to the exclusion cycle. However, they can decide to support students who present difficulties associated with exclusion despite the challenges they face accomplishing this task. Building restorative relationships involves working with students facing difficulties to help them achieve their potential (Razer & Friedman, 2017). While the educators do most of the work, they work alongside the students willing to change their behavior and focus their energy on positive goals. Two Concepts of the Caretaking Role The two concepts of the caretaking role of educators are “containing mind” and “holding” that show how the relationship between a mother and an infant is similar to that of a patient and a therapist. In the “containing” role, the mother acts as a container that holds the terrifying mental experiences of a child and transforms them before transfer back to the infant. This is the same role that a therapist plays when listening to a patient express their fears or emotions they are unable to handle at the moment. The circumstances in the communities, homes, and experiences of excluded students lead to thoughts and experiences that present hardships while in the school environment (Razer & Friedman, 2017). The containing concept demonstrates that teachers play the role of assisting the students cope with the mental experiences that affect their learning outcomes. The holding concept describes how the mother provides a safe environment when holding an infant and protects its thoughts. Consequently, the mother provides the holding environment that gives the infant the ability to cope with the challenges of the beginning of life (Razer & Friedman, 2017). The relationship between a patient and a therapist acts the same way by providing a good environment to facilitate the awareness of self. Similarly, the school should be a safe place for children with difficult mental experiences that disrupt the learning process. Achieving the restoration of relationships require teachers to make the environment safe enough for students to express themselves and deal with mental difficulties. Four Skills of Building Restorative Relationships Non-abandonment is an important skill required to restore relationships among students who have experienced exclusion. They associate authority figures such as their parents, government agencies, and societal intuitions with pushing them away as a result of their history with exclusion (Razer & Friedman, 2017). Teachers building a restorative relationship should make efforts to avoid abandoning their students when...