Teachers' Justifications in Student Tracking Decision Making

• In Event: Innovative Teaching Practices

Abstract

The study presented in this paper examines teachers' sorting practices in two Israeli secondary schools to understand how teachers justify their sorting decisions. By combining quantitative and micro-ethnographic discourse analysis, the study contributes a new understanding of tracking's multiple social and organizational functions: providing students' needs, efficiently using school resources, rewarding and punishing students, and satisfying teachers' emotional needs. For the study, 281 teacher discussions were audio-recorded during 12 student placement meetings. The article highlights teachers' emotions as a critical factor in their sorting practices and their social effects and the tension between formal sorting requirements and teachers' actual practices. The article calls for a refinement of current justice theory divisions to adapt it to empirical findings in the field.

Authors

• Avner michael Cohen-Zamir, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Adam Lefstein, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Yariv Feniger, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev