Disrupting to Driving: exploring upper primary teachers’ perspectives on student engagement

While student engagement has been the subject of increasing attention in the field of education, attempts to translate research findings into practice have been hindered by a lack of clarity and consensus around the concept. It is generally agreed that teachers have an important role to play in promoting the engagement of students in classroom learning, however, little is know about how teachers think about student engagement or their experiences of engaging students in the classroom. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 upper-primary teachers to explore their perspectives on student engagement in learning. The data showed teachers described six qualitatively different forms of engagement and disengagement that vary in terms of the perceived degree of active involvement of the student. Teachers described three forms of engagement: Participating, Investing and Driving. They also described three forms of disengagement: Withdrawing, Avoiding and Disrupting. The proposed continuum offers some clarity about the range of meanings that teachers may have when using the broad terms ‘engagement’ and ‘disengagement’, and offers an alternative perspective on the concept of student engagement that might aid in future efforts to connect research with practice.