Structure and Disorder: How Race and School Context Influence Teacher Perceptions

• In Event: Research on School Discipline Policy: Exploring Bias, Race, and Local Context

Abstract

Teacher perceived disorder may contribute to a negative feedback loop whereby perceptions of disorder drive teacher actions which drive student behaviors which, in turn, affect teacher perceptions of disorder negatively. School disorder has deleterious effects for both students and teachers in the forms of turnover, exclusionary discipline, burnout, etc., which makes understanding the factors which affect teacher perceptions of disorder of paramount importance to educational researchers and practitioners. A persuasive amount of research indicates that contextual school variables (e.g. racial/ethnic composition, socioeconomic status) are predictive of perceptions of school disorder. Moreover, school discipline research indicates that teacher race feeds into the perpetuation of achievement and disciplinary gaps in schools. This study uses a nationally representative survey of teachers in public high schools to determine whether and how much contextual school variables influence perceptions of school disorder differently for Black, White and Hispanic teachers. School fixed effect analysis indicates that there exist baseline differences in perceptions of disorder between categorical groups of teachers. Moreover, we find that school contextual variables moderate this relationship to varying degrees. Implications and directions for future practice and research are discussed.

Authors

• Jacob Kepins, University of California - Irvine

• Miles Davison, University of California - Irvine