An exploration of secondary school teachers’ views of attachment, trauma, challenging behaviour and inclusion.

This document contains three parts: a review of the literature relating to the subject area; an empirical review; and a reflective account. Firstly, the literature review examines a selection of the literature relating to the concepts: ‘attachment’, ‘trauma’, ‘challenging behaviour’, and how they relate to inclusion within school settings. Secondly, the empirical review comprises a qualitative study carried out with a sample of 15 teachers from 2 mainstream secondary schools in an English Local Authority (LA). The study employed the use of online focus groups and a written task to explore teachers’ conceptualisations of attachment, trauma, challenging behaviour, and whether those conceptualisations related to holding inclusive beliefs. Finally, the reflective chapter provides a reflexive account of the research process as a whole and includes: a discussion of the initial ideas and beginning stages of the research questions and research design; consideration of ethical issues; reflections about how the research study has contributed to personal knowledge and practice; and a discussion about how the research study can contribute to wider educational psychology practice and the literature base.