Defiance, insubordination, and disrespect (together, “DID”) are the most common disciplinary infractions in U.S. secondary schools (Gregory & Weinstein, 2008). Consequences for these infractions -- challenges to the power and authority of the teacher – are disproportionately borne by students of color, males, and students from low-income families (Jordan & Anil, 2009). Yet little is known about:
1. Whether demographic differences between teacher and student lead to more DID referrals, and
2. Whether differences in teachers’ understanding of defiance and power are related to different numbers of DID referrals.
To explore these questions, I conducted a mixed methods study at the “Gold Star” Middle School (GSMS), a large, urban middle school in the northeast U.S. I analyzed DID referral forms (n=922) for school year 2013-14 and semi-structured interviews with teachers (n=51).
I found that the number of annual DID referrals issued per teacher at GSMS is higher when teacher and student differ by race (49.8 times more than for same-race teacher/student dyads) and by gender (29.8 times more than same-gender dyads), but lower (0.38 times less) when these dyads have different experiences with poverty. However, these effects are not additive: when teacher and student differ by race and gender, a teacher issues fewer (0.96 times less) annual DID referrals than when teacher and student differ only by gender.
I also found significant differences between teachers with the highest and the lowest number of annual DID referrals. High-DID teachers rarely invoke their responsibilities for student academic or behavioral outcomes, ascribe student defiance primarily to ineffective school policies, and generally view power as hierarchical in nature. Low-DID teachers, however, describe specific responsibilities to care for their students and provide them with an effective learning environment. They ascribe student defiance primarily to teacher/student relationship issues and generally view power as relational in nature.
Results from this study underscore the complex role played by demographic differences between teacher and student in the disciplinary encounter, and point to the promise of exploring differences in teachers’ views of their relationships with students, defiance, and power as a means of better understanding the origins of the discipline gap. / Culture, Communities, and Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:harvard.edu/oai:dash.harvard.edu:1/16461057 |
| Date | 18 June 2015 |
| Creators | Liiv, Karin E. |
| Contributors | Gehlbach, Hunter |
| Publisher | Harvard University |
| Source Sets | Harvard University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | open |
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