”You simply must own your classroom” : A study on teachers’ leadership and strategies in the meeting with disturbing pupils

The title, “You simply must own your classroom”, is taken from a quote from one of my informants. After review of earlier research on how teachers handle their leadership in the meeting with disturbing pupils and which strategies they use to solve problems in the classroom, interesting questions developed. What experiences do teachers have of disturbing situations in the classroom? Which strategies do they use to solve the problems? What kind of support do the teachers consider necessary in teaching? Are there any differences in teachers’ experiences and strategies between the two selected schools? The study is supported by earlier research that deals with pupils’ and teachers’ perspective and strategies in different classroom cultures in terms of norm-breaking behaviour of pupils. The study is also supported by three different theoretical perspectives such as power structure, social order/disorder and support strategies. I conducted the study through interviews with sex teachers who work in the same municipality but in two separate schools. All teachers work in Secondary School. The study is meant to be deepening in order to gain a broader understanding of which strategies teachers use to solve problems. In my study I came to the conclusion that all teachers are most disturbed by the pupils who speak straight out and discard comments that do not even affect the substance, pupils who talk too much, do not listen and throw erasers at each other. Furthermore, I have concluded that all teachers in this study place great emphasis on social communication and individual conversation with the pupil to solve a problem. To solve the problem, the teacher should possess certain communication skills. The results have shown that all six teachers create a relationship with their pupils to counter the social disorder in the classroom. Furthermore, I concluded that teachers want to solve problems on their own, but that sometimes “extreme cases” require special support from parents, the counselor and principal at the school. Finally I concluded that the teachers call for training in leading science and conflict management, since it is missing in their teacher education