25.032 - Rethinking Discipline and Incarceration: Examining Systemic and Pragmatic Issues That Limit and Promote Positive School and Community Climates

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

American youth, especially African Americans, are prone to exclusionary discipline, suspensions, and expulsions. Schooling too often mirrors societal realities of overrepresentations in the penal system. The Department of Education used the slogan “Rethink Discipline” in an effort to provide resources for professionals to transform schooling environments into safe and supportive environments, conducive to teaching and learning. This invited session extends this work featuring a panel of scholars who interrogate disciplinary and exclusionary practices from several perspectives to include: legal considerations, representation, the role of literacy and mass incarceration, and understanding implicit bias and cultural challenges within the schooling context. Participants will be provided with in-depth and nuanced of discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education

Chairs

• Jim L. Hollar, Edgewood College

• Kristine Pytash, Kent State University

Papers

• School-to-Prison Pipeline: Framing Considerations - Kenneth James Fasching-Varner, Louisiana State University; Karen Bennett-Haron, Las Vegas Justice Court; Lori Latrice Martin, Louisiana State University

• Special Education and Discipline (Over)Representation, Gifted (Under)Representation for Students of Color - Donna Y. Ford, Vanderbilt University

• Reexamining Literacy and Its Relationship to Mass Incarceration - David E. Kirkland, New York University

• Implicit Bias and Cultural Challenges Within the Schooling Context: Lessons for Teachers, Teacher Education, and School Personnel - Kenneth Alonzo Anderson, Howard University

• Demanding the Impossible: School and Family Considerations of the School-to-Prison Pipeline - William C. Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago; Crystal T. Laura, Chicago State University

Discussant

• Christine Clark, University of Nevada - Las Vegas