Process of change at junior high school viewed by school supporter: The change of truancy and school violence by collaboration of school and the police

Abstract

The Saitama Prefectural Police has dispatched police staff as “school supporters” to junior high schools experiencing ongoing problem behavior, including truancy and school violence, in order to carry out patrols, advice teachers, and instruct and engage with students. This study aims to identify processes of change that had occurred “within relationships among school supporters, teachers, and students,” “within teachers’ instruction systems,” and “with regards to problematic behavior.” To do so, semi-structured interviews were carried out with a total of 14 school supporters with primary reference to the nature of their activities. Participants’ responses were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach (M−GTA). The four processes of change identified from the results may be summarized as “distinctiveness observed when school supporters were introduced,” “resistance to the school supporters and the continuity of problematic behavior,” “the establishment of collaboration with school supporters and empowerment of instruction systems,” and “schools where problematic behavior has been mitigated.”