ABCs unravelled: The time and timing in calls for behavioural change

Abstract

District School Boards across the Global North (which includes my own school board in Toronto, Canada) implement behaviour management policies that remain situated within discourses and practices of developmental and behavioural psychology. The ABC chart (Antecedent, Behaviour and Consequence) is one key aspect of these behaviour management policies as it aims to document the timing, frequency, intensity and duration of behaviour characterized as problematic or troublesome. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the ABC chart utilized by classroom teachers across K-12 school settings in order to document behaviour. Understood as a socio-cultural artifact and phenomenon of current neoliberal schooling practices, I seek to investigate the role of ABC charts in sustaining practices of conditional inclusion/exclusion for children and youth labeled as ‘problems.’ Using an interpretive methodology situated within critical disability studies and anti-colonial theories and practices, this paper will engage in the application of concepts such as being “out of sync” ( Knight, 2019 : p. 74) and “misfitting” ( Garland-Thomson, 2011 : p. 592) as they intersect with concepts such as “the ability line” ( Broderick and Leonardo, 2016 : p. 66). A key aim of this paper is to question the taken for granted assumptions regarding conceptions of linear time, developmental progress and, achieving the performance of normative behaviour. In examining the implicit power imbalances in practices of documenting behaviour, this paper also invites educators to engage in a critical dialogue in order to facilitate a transformation into more interdependent and socially just teaching and learning practices.