“We Did Too Much Caring”: Framing the Problem of School Discipline During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Responding to Crises: Education in the Wake of COVID-19

Abstract

Upon the return to in-person schooling following the COVID-19 lockdown, teachers called attention to students they saw as suffering socially and emotionally, and whose behavior they viewed as markedly different than students in prior years (NEA, 2020). Drawing on a comparative case study of two elementary and one middle school in one Wisconsin school district and using theoretical tools from racial capitalism and care theory, this paper demonstrates how teachers made sense of the “problem” of school discipline before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown. I detail prominent framings and conclude with implications for more caring, just schools.

Author

• Abigail J. Beneke, University of Wisconsin - Madison