Lewis pointed out that racialized discipline patterns result from unspoken culture clashes. She highlighted the tendency for African American boys to be disciplined more often in schools as an example. Boys generally are more active than girls and in the African American community boys are encourage to put on personal displays, often function in groups, and verbalize concerns. In the classroom, these may be misinterpreted as disruption or cheating. In my classroom, I plan to take two actions that can help stem racialized discipline: using students' ways of being in their learning and clearly revealing the norms under which my class operates from the start.
First, I want to structure the class such that it harnesses the 'ways of being' of different groups as positives, rather than stigmatizing them as problems. This will include use of engaging strategies and curriculum, structured planning of class activities that doesn't allow for boredom (when behavior tends to be an issue), and offering options for ways of existing in the classroom (Stand if need to, sit, sketch while listening, music in background while working, etc.). Hopefully thorough planning and structuring of this sort will eliminate the need for much discipline. Delpit summarized four important aspects of teachers who represented true 'authority' in the eyes of their Black students: 1- interpersonal relationships that garner respect 2- belief that all students can learn 3- pushes all students to achieve a high standard 4- holds attention through use of Black communication patterns. Two and three were covered in the entry about the teacher-student relationship. Numbers one and four would come as a teacher learns the Funds of Knowledge in the community s/he works in, as outlined in the planning entry.
When discipline does occur, however, it should be based on clearly established norms and explained to all students at the beginning of the term. Students who don't know they are breaking a rule become the most frustrated with teachers' discipline problems. The process of creating norms for the classroom will be a cooperative process at the start of the year with the students. Hopefully, a few norms will suffice, such as: respect for teacher and other students, arrive on time and ready to learn/teach, and communicate issues right away so they can be resolved. These will obviously be flushed out with examples: raising hands as way to respect during discussion, talking during instruction as a non-example of readiness to learn/respect. This cooperative creation of group norms is practice for what Dewey called the more expansive view of 'democracy'.
Osborne outlined key principles of culturally relevant management and discipline that parallel those outlined above:
- Explain cultural assumptions on which the class and school operates
- Use non-competitive and meaningful group work (Students want to interact)
- Avoid direct/overt management, talk to individuals privately
- Avoid spotlighting excessively (for students who are uncomfortable with it)
- Focus on Quality over Quantity of learning - students want to take time to really understand
- Use the participation and language patterns of the communities in which you teach
In the end, management and discipline again come down to one's view of the goal of students being in the classroom. If I am trying to sort out the 'good' from the 'bad', with concern only for those students who fit my conception of 'good', then I will use punishment and rigid discipline based on assumed (non-verbalized) mainstream norms. If my goal is student growth and learning, then I will do what it takes to engage the most students possible in learning in the classroom. When I have to discipline a behavior, it will be based on a norm clearly known by the entire group and will have the goal of change, problem-solving, and return to the learning community, not punishment and separation from the learning community.
Sources:
Delpit, Other People's Children
Dewey, Democracy and Education
Lewis, Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities
Osborne, Practice into Theory into Practice: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Students We Have Marginalized and Normalized
My self-assessment Rubric: Purpose and Outcomes of my Management and Discipline
Problematic
- Rules are unspoken and assumed by the teacher
- Discipline used as tool to sort and separate
- Racialized patterns of discipline are evident
Working on it
- Teacher creates and explains rules clearly to all students
- Discipline intended as restorative
Transformative
- Norms cooperatively created by teacher and students
- Discipline results in restoration to community of learning and personal growth
- Teacher looks for and works to change racialized patterns of discipline
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