How Teachers Use Power in the Classroom to Avoid or Support Exclusionary School Discipline Practices

Abstract

This study explored the relation between classroom interactions and exclusionary school discipline practices within and across four classrooms in a disciplinary alternative school. Critical social practice theory and critical microethnographic methodology supported the examination, interpretation, and analysis of interactive power to illuminate ways of transforming exclusionary school discipline practices. Data showed that exclusionary school discipline practices are mediated through power relations with insights into and implications for transforming exclusionary school discipline practices found in teachers' discipline goals, ideology, and views of culture.

Black Girls and School Discipline: The Complexities of Being Overrepresented and Understudied

“…Social relationships are always undergirded by invisible ideologies about the least powerful (Fairclough, 1989; van Dijk, 1993). If teachers and school personnel are unaware of the historical and contemporaneous ways racism manifests in the lives of their Black female students, will they be able to perceive behaviors as positive traits or will they mistake these behaviors for threats and non-compliance (Pane, Rocco, Miller, & Salmon, 2014; Wun, 2014)? As Hall and Smith (2012) note, “regrettably, the ‘inherited’ attributes of Black girls are often interpreted (against the framework of conventional femininity) as obstinate, aggressive, and disobedient behaviors” (p. 225).…”

Understanding Disciplinary Disproportionality: Stereotypes Shape Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs About Black Boys’ Behavior

“…. teachers’ heightened concern with disruptive behavior often takes precedence over learning” (Pane, Rocco, Miller, & Salmon, 2014, p. 298).…”

A systematic literature review of the ‘managed move’ process as an alternative to exclusion in UK schools

“…Evidence-based interventions targeting anger management or restorative justice (Morrison, 2006) can also be used. Teachers, teaching assistants or learning mentors may be offered training and support on behaviour management techniques for the classroom (Hayes et al, 2011;Pane et al, 2014). Lastly, programmes such as multi-systemic therapy can be offered as comprehensive prevention strategies offered at a systemic level to support the school and family (Fox and Ashmore, 2014) but targeted inventions like this are costly and difficult to access.…”