Relation between students' involvement and teacher management strategies in French 'difficult' classrooms

International audienceBackground: Since 2010, French secondary schools with a high proportion of studentsin academic difficulty benefit from a compensatory education policy called ‘E´ colesColle`ges et Lyce´es pour l’Ambition, l’Innovation et la Re´ussite’ (E´ CLAIR). Thesestudents tend to behave poorly and frequently disengage from learning tasks, and thusone of the greatest challenges for teachers is to keep them focused and active. The‘academic learning time in physical education’ is very low, about 14.4%.Purpose: This case study investigates the relations between the students’ motor andsocial involvement and the class management strategies of four experienced physicaleducation (PE) teachers in a difficult educational context.Participants and Setting: This case study focuses on four secondary school classes withthe same characteristics: all are part of theE´ CLAIR program, are taught by experiencedPE teacher, with hardly manageable underachieving students in drop-out situations (16in total, between 12 and 16 years old), and offer four units of gymnastics (for a total of26 lessons). The classes were organized as group activities, with instruction sheets, withan educational project based on the students’ sense of autonomy and responsibility.Research Design: This research was conducted following a situated approach from thecognitive anthropology framework of ‘course of action’.Data collection: Extrinsic classroom data were collected by observing the students’ andteacher’s activities within the classroom and using audiovisual recordings. Intrinsic datawere collected during self-confrontation interviews held after the lessons.Data Analysis: The data were processed in three stages: (a) the structure of students’ andteachers’ behaviors; (b) the dynamic of students’ and teachers’ experience, and (c) theclassroom management strategies related to student misbehavior.Findings: The findings reveal that in spite of permanent classroom agitation, workinginvolvement predominated with only short periods of student disengagement.Compromises organize the relation between students’ involvement and teachermanagement strategies. There is a compromise between work and play time for thestudents – they mainly remained involved in their work, and were appropriatelyinvolved in their task both physically and socially. Then, there is a compromise ofacceptance for the teachers, as they use specific management strategies based oncontrolled short drop-outs as a source of student involvement in work.Conclusions: These findings raise the question of how PE teachers working under thecompensatory policy can best manage student misbehavior. The teacher’s acceptance,compromises within the classroom, zone of acceptable responses, and articulation ofinstruction activity with misbehavior management, are as many factors improvingteachers’ professionalization