A qualitative study of urban early career teachers’ attributions for disruptive behavior

Early career teachers (ECTs) in urban schools face distinct challenges including a high prevalence of disruptive student behavior. Understanding teacher attributions for disruptive behavior, which shape teacher behavior, affect, and expectancy toward students, may allow school psychologists to act as more effective consultants to build teacher skills and increase teacher effectiveness. The purpose of the current study was to explore in depth ECTs’ (N = 15) causal attributions for disruptive behavior using extant data from a grant funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. The most commonly described attribution categories for disruptive behavior in the previous literature are student, self, family, and school-related. The current study sought to understand how the four attribution categories were conceptualized, and the prevalence of each across the sample of ECTs. Qualitative analyses suggest that the attribution categories were defined as follows: (1) Student-related: Interpersonal and self-regulatory skills at different developmental stages, and student apathy; (2) Self-related: Preparedness and ability to engage students, and classroom rules and routines; (3) Family-related: Limited involvement and behavioral support; and (4) School-related: Inconsistent development, implementation, and support of school-wide rules and consequences, behavior of school staff, school conditions, and teacher authority. All of the four attribution categories were identified as typical within the current sample, which meant that each was endorsed by 8 – 14 ECTs (N= 15). The discussion considers the concordance of the current study with previous literature, future research directions, and implications for the practice of school psychology.Psy.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Ava Lorenz