Caring in the Context of Discipline Reform: A Critical Feminist Framework for Researchers and Policy Makers

• In Event: Toward a Critical Restorative Justice Praxis

Abstract

Concern about harsh and inequitable discipline over the past two decades has galvanized a host of discipline reforms. These reforms have gained renewed attention in recent months as the COVID-19 pandemic and mass uprisings against anti-Black violence have both bolstered calls to re-imagine schools as caring spaces. This moment raises urgent questions about how researchers and policymakers should understand care in practice. In this presentation, I draw together recent research on discipline reform, as well as critical feminist theory and critical policy analysis, to develop a conceptual framework for centering “care” in the current reform context and for understanding its daily practice. Using this framework, I highlight the relations, experiences, systems, and ideologies that shape care in practice. I conclude with implications for researchers and policymakers.

Author

• Abigail J Beneke, University of Wisconsin - Madison