Online Urban Education Journal

Order in Schools: Perspectives on Discipline and Control
Volume 5, Issue 2

In a recent Supreme Court case, Morse v. Fredrick (2007), the court argued over whether a students’ first amendment rights were violated when he was suspended for displaying a sign reading “Bong hits 4 Jesus” across the street from his school during the Winter Olympics torch relay. The majority court declared that the suspension of the student was warranted because his promotion of the use of drugs near school property was an act of peer pressure, endangering the atmosphere of safety at the school.  The dissenters argued that the student had a right to free speech, and that his actions were not harmful enough to call for the repeal of these rights.  The issues of discipline, student voice, justice, and rules of law bound in the case are threaded through the articles in this issue of the Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, themed “Order in the Schools: Perspectives on Discipline and Control.” The issue also includes special additions from the theme of the previous issue, “Teaching for Social Justice.” 

The feature articles in this issue take a close look at the ways in which current American policies on school violence and discipline are framed.  In School safety under NCLB’s Unsafe School Choice Option, Billie Gastic and Jo Gasiewski look for common themes among states’ definitions of “school safety” under the Unsafe School Choice Option regulation.  Deborah Tempkin also takes a close look at state policies regarding school safety, and analyzes the ways in which states define school violence in Addressing social aggression in state anti-bullying policies. She argues that the notion of bullying, or, social aggression, is largely left out.  Finally, Verna Cole, Bernice Henry, Douglas Tyson, Ray Fitzgerald, & Regina Hopkins collaborate in describing two school anti-violence program models, and how, when combined, these models could help schools foster a climate of safety as well as effectively respond to violence in, In the face of danger:Comprehensive emergency preparedness and response for schools.

The Commentary articles challenge readers to consider the implicit messages entwined in schools’ structures and responses to student behavior, and how these messages and actions shape students’ environment, self image, and social justice.  In Unrelenting expectations:  A more nuanced understanding of the broken windows theory of cultural management in urban education, Craig Livermore compares the “Zero Tolerance” policies that have become increasingly popular in schools and the legal system with an outwardly similar, yet philosophically different, view on discipline and order, the “Broken Windows” theory.  Erica Meiners and Karen Reyes take a broader view at the ways in which the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is related to the American public school system in Re-making the incarceration-nation: Naming the participation of schools in our prison industrial complex.  In a special addition crossover from the previous Social Justice-themed issue, Pedro Portes’ article addresses both of these themes in his article, A cultural approach to establishing equity and closing the achievement gap.  Portes challenges some of the notions of cultural management raised in Livermore’s article, and connects some of the themes of racial injustice raised in Meiners and Reyes’ to a discussion about the academic achievement gap.

In our Notes from the Field section, teachers and teacher educators describe their efforts to learn how to invite student voice, while also tangling with issues of justice, power, and authority. Two of the articles in this section are, like the Portes piece, special additions, crossing over from the Social Justice theme.  In Show me what you know: Pre-service city teachers and social justice in action, Kristien Marquez-Zenkov, Diane Corrigan, Christina Brockett, Sarah Lehrian argue that the notion of teacher quality must also include teachers’ ability to understand and foster social justice in their classrooms. They provide an example how the Master of Urban Secondary Teaching (MUST) program framed teaching from a social justice perspective, and the ways in which it reshaped teachers’ perspectives of their students and pedagogy.  Kirsten Hill chronicles the work of one teacher who exemplifies this model of teaching for social justice, incorporating student voice and perspective in the classroom, in Providing access to standard and non-standard writing conventions: How a teacher encouraged his students’ use of a literate identity. Hill provides specific examples of several lessons and a list of resources for teachers in the article.  Heather Hickman’s article, Structure, power, and discourse: An analysis of discipline in an urban high school, ties together many of the themes across this issue.  She tells her own story of trying to address and understand homophobic slurs in school, and school responses to these incidents.  Her article speaks to the matters raised in Cole et al’s article (2008, this issue) concerning how to create a responsive, socially just climate in schools, and in Tempkin’s article (2008, this issue) which raises questions about how to define and address social aggression.

Our Book Reviews were written by members of a new Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education Writers Circle sponsored by the Journal.  Jackie Flicker and Katie McGinn reviewed Venkatesh & Kassimir’s (2007) book, Youth, globalization, and the law. This book offers a global view of the changes in law and disciplinary policy, and how it has affected young people.  Vivan Lim and Tanya Maloney reviewed Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics:  Toward a Pedagogy for Social Justice (Gutstein, 2007).  Lim and Maloney describe how Gutstein bridges work by Freire and Macedo to the Mathematics education.

The crossover between the theme of the previous issue, “Teaching for Social Justice,” and this issue “Order in Schools,” highlights the complex relationship between student voice and social justice, law and freedom, and rules and rights.  In a time when we focus predominately on the punitive ways of responding to violence or “unruly” school behavior, this articles help to remind us to dig deeper into our ideas about discipline and order, and remember that they are closely wound with social justice and human rights.

References

Cole, V., Henry, B. Tyson, D., Fitzgerald, R., & Hopkins, R. (2008) In the face of danger: Comprehensive Emergency Preparedness and Response for Schools. Penn GSE Perpectives on Urban Education, 5(2) www.urbanedjournal.org/

Morse v. Frederick, 127 S. Ct. 2618 (U.S. 2007)

Tempkin, D. (2008) Addressing Social Aggression in State Anti-bullying Policies. Penn GSE Perpectives on Urban Education, 5(2). www.urbanedjournal.org/