Behaviour problems in a classroom increase the stress levels for both the

2.2
 
 Issues, importance of teacher student relationships and its effect on 
behavior 
Writers including Borman and Gamoran, and MacFarlane, indicate that even 
though home life in general does pay a major role in how the students learns and 
behaves, it is possible that, with knowledge and through close association with 
the family, teachers can gain an understanding of why the student may behave in 
the way that they do so be in a better position to help the student improve that 
behavior.
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In conclusion, the teacher participants expressed that they believe that 
home life has a huge influence on the students learning and behavior. They cited 
unstable home environments, lack of sleep and sometimes food (no breakfast) as 
the main reasons for classroom misdemeanors. Interestingly most of the teachers 
indicated that they accept the responsibility for ensuring that learning takes place 
in the classroom regardless of home influences. 93 School support for managing 
challenging behavior All the eight teacher participants described management of 
challenging behavior’s as an on-going concern in their classrooms and throughout 
the school. They all recognized that the support from the management team in the 
school and from other teachers in the school was of great importance in the 
process of behavior management of challenging behavior’s. Both the participating 
schools have a behavior management plan that reflects the need to treat each 
incident separately and to allow for the diversity and cultural values of the 
students. This does not mean however that the consequences are inequitable. Both 
32
MacFarlane. The hikairo rationale: Teaching students with emotional and behavioural difficulties: A bicultural 
approach. - Waikato Journal of Education, 2003, pp 153-168. 

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27 
the schools have a senior management leader who is responsible for the pastoral 
care of the students and is the person who ensures that equitable procedures are 
followed for all interventions regarding misbehavior. Both the schools that I 
carried out the interviews in have a lot of commonalities in the execution and 
implementation of their behavior management plan.
For example in both the schools- they resort (the school) to “stand down” 
procedures which are at the discretion of the principal when all other means are 
exhausted. Stand downs are usually applied only in cases of extreme behavior’s 
such as intentionally hurting other students, swearing at adults and continual non-
compliance of reasonable expectations. Stand downs are issued as a reminder to 
the offending student, their parents and other students and teachers that these 
behavior’s are unacceptable and if such behavior’s are allowed to continue they 
will affect the physical and emotional safety of every person within the school. 
The teacher participant responses to managing behavior have raised two distinct 
concerns. The participants spoke of consequences for the behavior and of the need 
to ensure that positive relationships are kept at the forefront of all interventions.