ABSTRACT
Bruner (1996) notes, from a socio-cultural view of the human mind, that the meaning of any proposition is relative to the frame of reference in which it is conceptualised. Each culture has its own ways of constructing reality. The degree to which understanding a concept in any specific way is right or wrong has to be judged against its own frame of reference. Psychological interpretations of behaviour have profound effects on conceptualisations of the behavioural interventions in common use in schools, and need to be seen as cultural constructs (Bruner, 1996) and not as universal givens. It is easy for psychological constructs of a dominant cultural group to be understood as normal and universal. This is a very important issue in schools because different psychological approaches are underpinned by different ways of understanding human learning and behaviour and legitimise different ways of engaging with students and attempting to change their behaviour. The psychological discourses of educators reveal the theoretical constructs by which they position themselves, and from which they operate. However, these constructs and operations can lead to deficit theorising and positioning others as problematic. One crucial component of deficit theorising and positioning others as problematic within psychological discourses is the lack of attention to culture. Neglect of the importance of cultural values, practices and preferences as both antecedents (setting events) as well as providing specific consequences for behaviour in classrooms and schools severely limits the power of psychology to contribute to the improvement of learning and behaviour in minority student education.
