Snapshot: A teacher in a charter school must decide how to respond when she witnesses a colleague harshly reprimanding a student in class; while her colleague’s behavior isn’t out of line with the school’s strict discipline code, she herself relies more on building relationships than issuing demerits. How should she proceed when her own views about discipline clash with the school’s policies and practices?
Case Description: When her colleague is late to his class after finding out from administration that he must administer a math assessment that day, a teacher finds herself in a tough situation when her colleague berates a student in front of the whole class. After consoling the student, who reports that this treatment occurs regularly, the teacher struggles to approach her colleague about his classroom management. She knows that her own practice, which focuses more on relationships with students, is out of line with her colleagues’ and the rest of the charter school’s emphasis on structure and accountability. But she also feels strongly about prioritizing the emotional well-being of her students.
This fictional case raises questions familiar to any teacher who has felt disconnected from school culture. When and how should a teacher speak up when they witness practices they find objectionable? How should teachers balance their relationships and commitments to their students with those to their colleagues? How should a teacher orient their own views of discipline with those of the school they work for? Furthermore, what are the goals of discipline policies in schools overall? What values inform these goals and what happens when they conflict?
Additional Resources:
- The Brookings Institution conducted a survey examining how U.S. public schools approach school discipline, with a particular focus on zero-tolerance policies.
- Some so-called “no excuses” charter schools, known for their strict discipline policies, have recently begun to rethink their approach to discipline. In this audio documentary, former teacher DJ Cashmere interviews his own former students on their experiences at a “no excuses” charter and documents the school’s attempts to reinvent itself as an antiracist institution and the challenges that ensued.
