Encouraging the Discouraged: Students’ Views for Elementary Classrooms

Abstract

Introduction:  Every teacher is faced with students whose troubled behavior challenges their sense of pedagogical responsibility. But what would the nature of that pedagogical responsibility be under such conditions, and how could one research this question in a way that retained the living voice of the child? This paper reports on a project that attempts to address those questions. In the context of a video production project we sought to engage students with a history of behavioral difficulties in sharing their views about how elementary school teachers can transform modes of discouragement into modes of encouragement.