Disruptive behavior is a major concern for most educational systems. Schools often respond to disruptive students with exclusionary and punitive approaches that have limited effect or value. Moreover, recent neoliberal trends with increased focus on student learning outcome change the attitudes towards disruptive student behavior and also narrow down and homogenize the range of what is considered as "acceptable student behavior". In this article we discuss the interrelationship between an outcome-based, neoliberal school approach and notions of disruptive behavior. We claim that the outcome-based and neoliberal approach to education basically promotes an un-educational way of thinking about education that also has a huge influence on perceptions of and tolerance towards all kinds of disruptions in schoolswhether they come from students, parents, teachers or researchers.
The paper aims to discuss how school psychology broadly is influenced by neoliberalism. Neoliberalism has attracted great attention among sociologists and economist, but less so among psychologists. This is a paradox since the psychological reach of neoliberalism is massive. The paper analyzes how new (neoliberal) school reforms place new professional demands on schools and therefore also new kinds of professional demands on school psychologists. Among other things, it is discussed whether the notion of resilience can act as a future guiding principle for school psychologists. The paper concludes with three suggestions as to how school psychologists can cope with some of the challenges imposed by neoliberalism. I suggest that school psychologists; 1) have to start asking educational questions to educational matters, 2) that they have to be aware of the political aspects of school psychology and 3) that they start acting against the corrosion of professional identity.
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