Teachers’ understandings of shyness: Psychosocial differentiation for student inclusion

Abstract

Shyness is not a recognised special educational need, yet studies reveal that shy children underperform academically and present psychosocial vulnerabilities. We present a Norwegian study of elementary school teachers who have experience in working with shy children. Framed by a cultural–historical understanding that concepts are tools employed by teachers as they work on problems of practice, the study examined (i) how shyness is a concept allowing teachers to interpret behaviours of children and (ii) why they employ the concept and what demands were being addressed. Data were gathered through post‐observation stimulated recall interviews with 8 teachers and three focus group sessions with 11 teachers. Seeing shyness as a tool for identifying the demands made by children regarded as shy, revealed sets of child behaviours which required two distinct forms of differentiation: (i) augmenting cognitive support with psychosocial feedback to help the child overcome the behaviours impeding their engagement as active learners and (ii) making extra efforts when eliciting children's understandings in order to give formative feedback and support progress through pedagogic sequences. By identifying the behaviours underpinning broad descriptions of shyness, such as anxiety, the analyses show that teachers employ shyness as an overarching concept which reveals psychosocial demands that may not be entirely addressed by the repertoires of responses available to them.

Leading for School Inclusion and Prevention? How School Leadership Teams Support Shy Students and Their Teachers

“…However, there is little research into the systems needed to achieve and maintain Tier 2 supports (Newcomer et al, 2013), as well as a clear lack of written procedures for these interventions (Debnam et al, 2012). Considering our intention to address how school systems both promote inclusive environments for shy students and prevent possible negative consequences of escalating in a longer-term perspective, this is important background information, as shy students might require more intensive efforts (Mjelve et al, 2019;Nyborg et al, 2020) than those provided within Tier 1.…”

“…Our premise is that, while school leadership teams aim to create school-wide systems for promoting inclusion and prevention, it is class teachers who adapt pedagogies to include shy children (Mjelve et al, 2019), and are crucial in identifying the need for Tier 2 interventions. They therefore need the necessary professional discretion for such decisions.…”

“…Although there is no agreed definition of shyness as a potential behavioral and emotional problem (Lund, 2016), it is commonly defined by psychologists as "wariness in the face of social novelty and/ or self-conscious behavior in situations of perceived social evaluation" (Coplan & Rubin, 2010, p. 9). The behaviors displayed can be quiet, withdrawn, anxious and inhibited (Mjelve et al, 2019). Although these behaviors are not necessarily problematic in themselves, Nilsen (2018) found that teachers experienced withdrawn and shy children to be struggling both socially and academically, an argument substantiated in international research (Hughes & Coplan, 2010;Hymel et al, 1990).…”

“…Shyness is not categorized as a special educational need, demanding interventions from school psychology services. Yet, for some students it can inhibit learning and require tailored responses from schools (Mjelve et al, 2019;Nyborg et al, 2020). In the study reported here we draw on cultural-historical framings of motivated actions and use of conceptual, human and material tools (Engeström, 2007;Hedegaard, 2012) when examining the resources school leadership teams in three Norwegian elementary schools employed to facilitate teachers' work with students perceived as shy (henceforth referred to as "shy students").…”

“…School leadership teams are important providers of support for teachers working with vulnerable children (Prather-Jones, 2011), as well as key to creating supporting school conditions for teachers and students (Leithwood et al, 2019). Recent Scandinavian research into classroom practices has indicated that teachers have specifically tailored strategies to support shy students within classroom settings, and during break (Mjelve et al, 2019;Nyborg et al, 2020). However, the broader school conditions from school leadership teams' perspectives for the kinds of responsive teaching advocated by these studies have yet to be understood.…”