Research Essay As schools become increasingly culturally and socially diverse institutions that are reflective of the wider

global community, teachers are obliged to develop responsive behaviour management practices which value and respect the cultural identity of students. However, behaviour management is a culturally embedded practice, with acceptable student behaviour culturally pre-determined by the dominant ideological discourse in which teachers orient themselves within their practice (Englehart, 2012; Kaya et al, 2010; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke & Curran, 2004). It is also a deeply personal and emotional issue, with management of student behaviour embedded within assumptions, values and past experiences of teachers (Englehart, 2012). Therefore, it can be assumed that this often results in cultural conflicts and miscommunications between students and teachers due to clashes in cultural differences, particularly when teachers lack diverse cultural experiences (van Tartwijk, den Brok, Veldman & Wubbels, 2009; Weinstein et al, 2004). This point is further emphasised by the authors own experience as a pre-service teacher during a teaching placement in a predominantly Islamic East-African-populated school, where the majority of students were from families with refugee and migrant backgrounds. As the author comes from a mixed-race Islamic migrant heritage as well as a previous teaching placement with a similar socio-cultural demographic the potential cultural conflicts were less pronounced. However, the author acknowledges that this cannot be applied to all settings with similar circumstances, as cultural variability is subject to change and adaptation. It is important to be mindful, however, that discussion of traits and characteristics of cultural groups in relation to challenging student behaviour may do more harm than good by inadvertently creating stereotypes and lowering teacher expectations of certain students because of ethnicity, race or religion (Cazden, as cited in Weinstein et al, 2004; van Tartwijk et al, 2009). However, as other literature on culturally responsive behaviour management argues, pre-service teachers must be explicitly instructed to develop an awareness of students socio-cultural backgrounds and the communities in which they live, enabling teachers to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the diverse aspects of classrooms (van Tartwijk et al, 2009). Despite differences in opinion into culturally responsive behaviour

management, it becomes apparent that teachers tend to experience greater stress and challenges when faced with an increased diversity of student behaviour, abilities and cultural backgrounds (Giallo & Little, 2003).