Looking for Trouble: How Teachers' Disciplinary Styles Perpetuate Racism in Early Childhood

• In Event: Racialized and Gendered Constructions of Ability and Behavior

Abstract

Scholars contribute racial disparities in school discipline to teacher bias and differential treatment of behaviors (Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010; Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002). Due to their disproportionate representation, black boys have been a primary focus of this research. The adultification of black males, beginning around age 10, plays an important role in producing racial disproportionality (Dumas and Nelson 2016; Ferguson 2001; Goff et al. 2014; Ladson‐Billings 2011; Noguera 2009). Yet there are few studies of black boys’ school disciplinary experiences prior to age 10. I investigate and compare how first grade teachers interact with black boys and white boys who deviate from teacher expectations and school rules.

Theoretical Framework
Sociologists of race and racism argue that racist ideologies shape social institutions and interactions (Bonilla-Silva, 2015; Golash-Boza, 2016; Lewis & Diamond, 2015a). Historically black males have been depicted as deviant and criminally-inclined (Collins, 2005; Ferber, 2007; Smiley & Fakunle, 2016). Educators’ perceptions and actions are shaped by these depictions. Racist ideologies produce and justify the disparities we see in school discipline and criminal justice, for example. These disparities in outcomes come to be seen as the natural result of black male culture and behavior, and thus reinforce these same racist ideologies. As society sees and treats them as problems, black boys may learn to view themselves as deficient rather than as smart and gifted.

Data and Methods
Data from this study come from a two-year ethnography in a racially integrated elementary school in a large Northeastern urban city. I observed a group of black and white boys, and their teachers, from the beginning of kindergarten through the end of first grade. Participant observations yielded over 100 hours of data. The goal was to explore potential racial patterns in teacher-student disciplinary interactions.

Findings
Teachers exhibited racialized disciplinary styles with black boys and white boys. Teachers displayed an authoritarian style with black boys and a permissive style with white boys. Teachers’ interactions with black boys were characterized by constant surveillance, harsh responses to behavior, and fewer chances to avoid punishment. In contrast, teachers’ interactions with white boys were characterized by little surveillance, patience and leniency, and thus more chances to avoid punishment. The data suggest that teachers’ racialized approaches to discipline are informal but important mechanisms that produce school discipline disparities between black and white boys in early childhood.

Significance
Beyond the broad terms of bias and discrimination, we know very little about the everyday mechanisms that produce racial disparities in school discipline, particularly in early childhood. The “everyday discrimination” (Lewis, Diamond, & Forman, 2015a) of teachers plays a key role in producing disparities in school disciplinary experiences between black and white boys. Beyond identifying these mechanisms in action, I also consider the social consequences of racialized school discipline for black boys. Having more authoritarian disciplinary experiences in the early years may lead black boys to feel alienated from academics, teachers, peers, and even themselves. Thus, rather than a site of learning and development, schools often become a site of racial suffering for black boys.

Author

• Calvin Rashaud Zimmermann, University of Notre Dame