Introduction: Why It Is Important to Answer Back

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the book and outlines its purposes. Firstly, it examines why there is a problem with the dominant views on student behaviour in schools. Secondly, it argues that the prevailing views of student behaviour in schools are about law and order to ensure safety, but that they ignore the complexity of behaviour, and the rights of individual students. These prevailing views are influencing policy and practice. To help understand the dominant thinking about behaviour in schools and to explore some ethical alternatives, this chapter describes the Australian policy context by outlining the background for the book. It then provides brief descriptions of each chapter and how they suggest new ways to ‘answer back’ to calls for more authoritarian responses to student behaviour within our schools.