Navigating Tensions in School Discipline: Examining School Leaders, Teachers, and the Conversion of Referrals into Suspensions

Welsh, Richard O.

doi:10.1086/723064

Cited by 15 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…School leaders also identified Black students who were labeled as persistent “troublemakers” as an explanation for racial inequity in school discipline– the belief being that overall disparities are the result of one or two Black students who are repeatedly suspended, shifting responsibility away from the system or school itself and onto students who exhibit behaviors that disrupt the learning environment. This is congruent with recent findings about school leaders’ notions about student misbehavior in schools concentrated on a few repeat offenders (EAB, 2019; Welsh, 2022b; Welsh, 2023). For instance, a survey of district administrators, school administrators, teachers, and support specialists highligthed that “district and school administrators tend to believe the issue is confined to a small percentage of students who have significant behavioral issues and are repeat offenders” whereas “teachers, on the other hand, estimate that nearly one-quarter of their students exhibit disruptive behavior” (p.5; EAB, 2019).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Moving from pathology to politicized care: Examining Black school leaders' perspectives on school discipline

Welsh,

Sobti

2023

Journal of School Leadership

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School discipline is a significant educational policy and equity issue in K-12 education in the United States due to well-documented racial inequality in students’ disciplinary outcomes and the deleterious effects of exclusionary discipline on academic and adult outcomes. The roles and approaches of school leaders in the production of racial inequality in exclusionary discipline warrant further inquiry. In this qualitative case study, we apply the theoretical lenses of politicized caring and internalized racism to 12 semi-structured interviews with Black principals and assistant principals in an urban emergent district in Southeastern U.S. to examine how Black school leaders make sense of and address racial disparities in school discipline. The findings illustrate that Black school leaders’ disciplinary perspectives and practices are complex with four major themes emerging: (a) deficit thinking and pathologization, (b) internalized racism, (c) politicized care as a disciplinary ideology and (d) politicized care in disciplinary practice. Uplifting the voices of Black school leaders reveals the pervasive nature of racism and the complex ways in which Black educators attempt to dismantle inequitable patterns. The findings highlight the need to create unique support for Black school leaders to enhance their disciplinary practices through mentorship, coaching and professional development.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Moving from pathology to politicized care: Examining Black school leaders' perspectives on school discipline

Welsh,

Sobti

2023

Journal of School Leadership

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“…Studies find that educators often use colorblind, neoliberal logic to explain racial disparities in school discipline, believing Black students’ character, ability, or inherent deficiencies are the root cause of inequity—reinforcing the idea that Black students are not mistreated but deserving of harsher treatment (Gregory & Mosely, 2004; Sondel et al, 2019; Tefera et al, 2022; Welsh, 2023a). This shift in blame may result in policies and practices that locate the crisis of educational inequities within Black students and families themselves, evading responsibility for deep structural changes and instead developing solutions that wrongfully attempt to force assimilation and adaptation among Black students through punishment and exclusion.…”

Section: Antiblackness In School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, the Antiblackness in School Discipline framework compels researchers to shift the gaze from students to adults in schools in understanding school discipline. Much of the attention/emphasis placed on contributors to racial inequality in school discipline and the focus/target of school discipline reforms has been student-focused (Cruz et al, 2021; Welsh, 2023a; Welsh & Little, 2018a). The framework underlines the importance of approaching research inquiries in school discipline from an asset-based perspective (Castillo & Gillborn, 2022; Welsh et al, 2023).…”

Section: Antiblackness In School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Adding Color to My Tears: Toward a Theoretical Framework for Antiblackness in School Discipline

Sobti,

Welsh

2023

Educational Researcher

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Persistent racial disparities in students’ disciplinary outcomes have been one of the most concerning educational policy and equity topics for decades. Despite the hypervisibility of Black students in school discipline conversations, research and practice evade a focus on anti-Black racism. In this essay, we draw from Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) to present a theoretical framework that researchers and educational stakeholders can use to specify, study, and understand antiblackness in school discipline. We outline and discuss six interrelated theoretical constructs of the Antiblackness in School Discipline framework: (a) “Trading Away the Black,” (b) “Whites as Propertied,” (c) Intersecting Blackness, (d) Racial Neoliberalism, (e) La Petite Misère, and (f) Internalized Racism. Examples of studies providing empirical support for these theoretical tenets are also discussed, and suggestions for utilizing this framework in scholarship, policy, and practice are also offered.

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“…Discipline protocols are enacted inconsistently within and between schools (Griffith & Tyner, 2019). Variability in school leaders’ philosophies around school discipline and their relationships with teachers in addressing discipline incidents influence the severity of their responses (Sorensen et al, 2022; Welsh, 2023). Administrators’ biases contribute to their adherence to specific response guidelines and are associated with racial disparities in the severity of the consequences students receive, even for the same behaviors (Jarvis & Okonofua, 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Troublemakers? The Role of Frequent Teacher Referrers in Expanding Racial Disciplinary Disproportionalities

Liu

Penner

Gao

2023

Educational Researcher

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Teachers’ sensemaking of student behavior determines whether students get in trouble and are formally disciplined. Status categories, such as race, can influence perceptions of student culpability, but the degree to which teachers’ initial identification of student misbehavior exacerbates racial disproportionality in discipline receipt is unknown. This study provides the first systematic documentation of teachers’ use of office discipline referrals (ODRs) in a large, diverse urban school district in California that specifies the identity of both the referred and referring individuals in all ODRs. We identify teachers exhibiting extensive referring behavior, or the top 5% referrers, based on the number of ODRs they make in a given year and evaluate their contributions to disciplinary disparities. We find that “top referrers” effectively double the racial gaps in ODRs for both Black-White and Hispanic-White comparisons. These gaps are mainly driven by higher numbers of ODRs issued for Black and Hispanic students due to interpersonal offences and defiance and also partially convert to racial gaps in suspensions. Both the level and racial compositions of the school sites where top referrers serve and their personal traits seem to explain some of their frequent referring behavior. Targeting supports and interventions to top referrers might afford an important opportunity to reduce racial disciplinary gaps.

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Navigating Tensions in School Discipline: Examining School Leaders, Teachers, and the Conversion of Referrals into Suspensions

Cited by 15 publications

References 46 publications

Moving from pathology to politicized care: Examining Black school leaders' perspectives on school discipline

Moving from pathology to politicized care: Examining Black school leaders' perspectives on school discipline

Adding Color to My Tears: Toward a Theoretical Framework for Antiblackness in School Discipline

Troublemakers? The Role of Frequent Teacher Referrers in Expanding Racial Disciplinary Disproportionalities

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