Supporting Reputation and Behavior Change at School Through Exploring and Retelling Preferred Identity Stories

Abstract

In my work as a school counselor in New Zealand high schools, I have met with young people whose unacceptable actions have them at risk of suspension or exclusion from school. At such times I find it helpful to understand young peoples’ actions (unacceptable and otherwise) as an expression of who they think they are—their identity stories—shaped by local and wider ideas about how young people “ought to act round here.” I also find it helpful to view young peoples’ actions (unacceptable or otherwise) as on behalf of their hopes or intentions. These understandings have me exploring with young people their ideas about how things “ought to be” and what their actions might say about what is important to them. While still leaving room to attend to any harm done, these sorts of explorations produce re-descriptions of young people shaped by what they care about, rather than what they have done wrong. And when young people are identified by others and identify themselves within descriptions of what they care about, I find their subsequent actions often become more agreeable to the school communities of which they are a part. As stated above, my work as a school counselor often takes place against a background of threatened suspension or exclusion from school. It is important to note that the use of suspension and exclusion from school has reduced markedly in New Zealand in recent years. New Zealand Ministry of Education statistics (Corrigan, 2012) show that between the years 2000 and 2012 suspension of all students dropped from 7.8 to 4.7 per thousand, and those of Māori students from 19 to 10.5 per thousand. At the same time, exclusions from school dropped from 2.7 to 1.8