Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Figure 7.4.2 Is there enough respect in schools for young people The responses from
CVC students
Before music therapy
After music therapy
11%
11%
Yes
Some
17%
16%
Yes
Some
78%
Don't know 67%
Don't know
It is possible that after music therapy students have a more solid sense of self and are
therefore able to consider this question in greater depth. This would explain the
decrease in their positive response. However, The Centre School students who
generally have much greater complex emotional needs will not have reached this
depth of understanding because they are only just becoming aware of their own
emotions and unlikely to be as emotionally literate.
For many mainstream students, their understanding of respect was based on their
experience of strict school rules and teachers’ insistence on following them through,
which could explain the difference between their answers and those from The Centre
School.
This indication that the majority of students from both schools felt respected and
therefore valued should therefore, according to Cooper (1993), mean that they have
the maximum chance at school of being motivated and encouraged to learn. This brief
assessment of the school setting (and also the setting for therapy) was important to
the study because the link between respect and student motivation can be key to a
student’s chances and healthy emotional well-being at school.
One student reflected on respect among his peers and felt that teachers did not
understand young people “as much as we understand each other” (Guy, appendix
7.1.5, p.224). Another felt that adults usually knew more and should therefore be
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