Abstract
Children who demonstrate social withdrawal in childhood (including shyness and unsociability) may experience increased difficulties at school and may be at risk of developing later psychological problems. Given that teachers play an important role in the social development of school-aged children, they are uniquely positioned to minimize or prevent potentially negative outcomes for socially withdrawn children. Understanding how teachers perceive social withdrawal in children can help us determine how teachers can attend to these children within the social context of the classroom. The main research question of the current study was: How do elementary school teachers experience and perceive social withdrawal in children? Further questions explored were a) What attitudes do elementary school teachers have towards social withdrawal in children? b) Do they consider social withdrawal as problematic for the child? and c) What strategies do they utilize when interacting with these children in the classroom? The current study was an independent research project conducted by the author of this thesis. Seven (6 female, 1 male) Norwegian elementary school teachers were selected through convenience and snowball sampling. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were administered. Results from a thematic analysis provided two main themes: 1) Social perception: How the teachers’ perceived the children, and 2) Emotional climate: How they interacted with the children in the classroom. Teachers reported the importance of creating a safe classroom environment where they get to know the children to create secure teacher-child relationships, and to apply suitable strategies to attend to these children’s needs. Teachers described the need to prevent socially withdrawn children from going unnoticed in the classroom. Additionally, teachers perceived socially withdrawn children to achieve academic success except when learning in a social interaction. Further, teachers expected these children to have few, but close friends, and to assume social roles in the classroom context. In general, shyness was considered more problematic for the child than unsociability. The findings of the current study may be beneficial for developing strategies and interventions for socially withdrawn children in the classroom context.