Balancing Control and Care in Urban School Discipline

• In Event: Examining School Discipline Practices and Their Impacts on Students and Families

Abstract

Research on school discipline has rightly focused on its impact on students and schools. However, to understand why harsh disciplinary policies are adopted, why they persist, and how they can be changed, we need to shift our attention to how school leaders, especially principals, form and implement such policies. This study seeks to answer the following questions: How do principals understand the goals of school discipline? How do they balance their different goals? Drawing from 18 semi-structured interviews with principals in one mid-sized urban school district undergoing disciplinary reform, we found that principals shared two main goals for school discipline: maintaining control to achieve academic goals and demonstrating care for students’ developmental and socioemotional needs.

Authors

• Ashley Jones, Vanderbilt University

• Joanne Golann, Vanderbilt University