[Award ref. RES-062-23-0105]

The research was formulated in the context of the Labour Government’s early childhood reforms (eg Every Child Matters, HM Govt, 2004). Early childhood had been identified as a critical period for children’s futures – a site where early signs of social exclusion and disaffection might be tackled. At the same time, anxiety about deteriorating behaviour was also in evidence (DfES, 2005). Yet as we noted in the proposal, behaviour is an enduring issue that has prompted a wide array of interventions and approaches- behavioural, cognitive, psychotherapeutic and socio-cultural. Many of these interventions have focused on individual children, attempting to help them to act more appropriately in school, or to compensate for presumed effects of developmenta l ‘delay’, disposition, or home background. Our research, by contrast, proposed to focus on problematic behaviour as it emerged within, and was shaped by, the culture of the classroom. We started from the premise that securing a successful reputation as a ‘good ’ pupil, or acquiring a negative one as a ‘problem’, is never the sole responsibility of the individual child. Children must not only act appropriately but must be recognised as having done so. They must secure reconnaissance (Bourdieu, 1991). Reputation is therefore a public matter: a child becomes a problem in the eyes of others (teachers, school staff, classmates and other parents). The theoretical framework was informed by discourse analysis and poststructuralist theor