The Ideological Roots of School Discipline Reforms and Implications for Practice

• In Event: Systems of Control: School Discipline Policies, Incarceration, and Peer Influences

Abstract

In recent years, schools have experimented with alternatives to punitive school discipline. These efforts have been spurred by policy changes and significant federal and philanthropic funding. This comparative qualitative case study of California’s Central Valley school districts found that administrators often adopt a variety of reforms in response to policy pressures and funding opportunities without an explicit understanding of the diverse ideological roots of these reforms. These reforms then challenge, or fail to challenge, existing school cultures, leading to the co-existence of punitive and non-punitive school discipline practices. We argue that attending to the values and assumptions of competing reforms, educators can better select a reform that encourages and institutionalizes the kinds of school discipline culture they hope for.

Authors

• Danfeng Soto-Vigil Koon, University of San Francisco

• Daniel Perlstein, University of California - Berkeley

• Laura Pulido, University of California - Berkeley

• Mary Louise Frampton, University of California - Davis