A Gap in Policy Coverage? A National Examination of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management in School Discipline Policies

• In Event: Culturally Responsive, Culturally Relevant, Well-Being, Disruptions in Classrooms

Abstract

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management (CRCM) has existed for nearly two decades, yet teachers, novice and veteran alike, continuously to struggle with managing classrooms with racially, culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse student population. Serious efforts to eliminate school discipline disparities require that evidence-based frameworks such as CRCM be etched into the legal framework of states. Thus, the purpose of this study is to review states’ policies on school discipline/student conduct to determine if CRCM is being employed, and how it is being utilized (prevention or intervention) within the disciplinary options. Implications derived from this inquiry align the greater push for researchers and practitioners to accept educational responsibility for elevating CRCM from an equity-based framework into a national, and state-wide policy.

Authors

• John Andrew Williams, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Cheryl Mallant, Montgomery ISD

• Megan Svajda-Hardy, Texas A&M University - College Station