Putting AAS into Practice

This chapter considers three key elements of attachment awareness in practice. It examines the ‘Leadership Paradox’, whereby successful approaches need to be supported by managers on a ‘top-down’ model but also internalised and developed by practitioners for themselves. It considers where that support may come, in particular from ‘intermediate bodies’ such as the local authority and the multi-academy trust. Secondly, the chapter considers the extent to which attachment aware approaches are adopted—as suggested in some of the literature—merely to limit the behaviour of specific identified groups, or as a universal approach to benefit the whole-school community, including staff and parents. The former approach may be seen as stigmatising or attempting to ‘normalise’ disadvantaged children and families—blaming their behaviour on individual pathology—whereas the latter may be seen as transformative on a number of levels. In particular, it compares these approaches with the work of Scales et al. (Effects of developmental relationships with teachers on middle-school students’ motivation and performance Psychology in the Schools, 57(4), 646–677, 2020), who draw a distinction between schools which are merely caring—which can be effectively normative—and those which actually use relationships to empower and challenge their students. Thirdly, the chapter considers who benefits from, and is empowered by, AAS approaches at a number of levels: teachers, students, families and their wider communities