An Enquiry Into Children With Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Two Schools in the Southwest of England

This study is concerned with investigating the problem of difficult behaviour in schools. The study investigated what constitutes "disruptive" behaviour and explored teachers' perceptions in two schools, a mainstream and a special, in the Southwest of England. The research used semi‐structured interviews which were carried out in the two settings and analysis of the data revealed that emotional and behavioural difficulties are still perceived as something that the individual has and, moreover, the interviewees put too much a heavy emphasis on the socio‐economic background of the children. The recommendations provided at the end of this paper, are made on the grounds that schools can do a lot to improve their practice and that all students benefit from circumstances conducive to supporting pupils with disruptive behaviour.