The notion of compliance is of interest in this research because it refers to pro-social behaviours that can be observed (or in this study, acknowledged to be practiced by the students) and suggest there exists motivation to perform the appropriate behaviours (display compliance). Under Elliott and Gresham‘s (1987, p.66) definition of social validity, significant others, for example, teachers‘, judgements of social skills provides the important criteria, or motivation, for social function. Therefore the desire by students to comply with teacher instruction could suggest that they care about the relationship that they have with the teacher. Ryan and Patrick (2001) report that ‗students‘ perceptions of teacher support, and the teacher as promoting interaction and mutual respect were related to positive changes in their motivation and engagement‘ (p. 437). Work by Eccles et al. (1993) contributes to the literature about the effect of classroom and school characteristics on motivation, especially the importance of positive teacher–student relationships for positive student motivation. These authors also suggest that students who are given opportunities to participate in school and classroom decision making have greater motivation.
Fredricks et al. (2004) define school engagement as being multifaceted and having three domains of behavioural engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement. Fredricks et al.‘s (2004) definition of emotional engagement is of particular interest in the investigation of student compliance with teacher instruction because it suggests ‗choice‘ on the part of the students:
Emotional engagement encompasses positive and negative reactions to teachers, classmates, academics and school and is presumed to create ties to an institution and influence willingness to do the work. (p. 60)
For the students involved in this study, there appears to be a correlation between their behavioural engagement (i.e. doing the work and following the rules) and their emotional
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engagement with their teacher. There was a general consensus by the young people interviewed in this study that they behaved for the teachers that they liked as demonstrated by the following excerpt:
Interviewer: Are you better behaved for teachers that you like? Male 1: Yes
Male 2: Yes. (WH11)
Female 1: Yeah we are. (WH8) Male 1: Yeah.
Male 2: Yeah. (WH9)
In this research, students‘ self-assessment of behavioural engagement was connected to their emotional engagement with teachers by asking the young people questions about the characteristics of those teachers for whom they behaved. As Fredricks et al. (2004) report, teacher support has been shown to influence all domains of school engagement: the behavioural, emotional and cognitive. Ryan and Patrick (2001) found that young
adolescents‘ motivation and engagement was related to the classroom social environment:
Perceiving their teacher as supportive was especially important for students‘ confidence relating to the teacher, self-regulated learning, and disruptive behaviour. When students moved into a middle school classroom with a teacher they perceived as supportive, their efficacy for communicating and getting along with their teacher increased and they engaged in more self- regulated learning. Furthermore, when students believed that their teacher tried to understand them and was available to help, they engaged in less off-task and disruptive behaviour in the classroom. (p. 454)
In this study, the students interviewed indicated that they want to interact with teachers, and have described the ‗best teachers‘ as those who ‗understand kids and listen to their opinions‘. Further, a ‗good teacher‘ has a sense of humour, takes an interest in their students, initiates conversations and tries to make the work fun. The following comments demonstrate student perceptions of teacher pedagogy and its relationship to student compliance:
Interviewer: Think about the teachers that you do like, what is it about them that you like?
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Interviewer: Are you better behaved with teachers that you like?
Female 2: Mmm, because they respect you and you respect them. (HC10) Interviewer: Are you better behaved with teachers that you like?
Female 1: Yes.
Interviewer: Does that take an effort? Female 1: No.
Interviewer: How do you know to be better behaved for the teachers you like? Female 1: First, I need to get to know them. Sometimes, when I see them, I think I don’t like this one. They’re going to be mean. I know it. With Mr W I knew and he is.
Interviewer: Now that’s interesting because my next question is how long do you think it takes to get to know a teacher? ... Do you reckon you know straight away? Female 1: Some teachers—like Mr R, I didn’t like him at first. But then, when I got to know him and he started teaching me advanced maths, then I kind of liked him, because I like being more challenged. I don’t like the easy stuff because I won’t concentrate on it because I think it’s pointless. He gave me some advanced stuff and …
Interviewer: You, like, changed your opinion when he seemed to cater for your interests and your—what you’re good at?
Female 1: Yeah. (HC12)
These comments demonstrate that compliance as a social skill is fostered in an
environment in which engagement is promoted. Conversely, negative student feelings may be barriers to pro-social behaviours such as compliance. Bernard et al. (2007) report that ‗teacher actions are important contributors to student social and emotional wellbeing‘ (p. 7). Elliot and Gresham‘s (1987) view of self-control social-skills deficits and self- control social-performance deficits suggests that emotional arousal prevents the
performance of socially appropriate behaviours. Stress, anxiety and fear are emotions that can cause difficulties in social-skills performance. In a review of school-based prevention