Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Background/Context

This article describes a series of events that brought matters of discipline to the forefront for all concerned at Loyola Middle School, a Catholic Jesuit middle school for disadvantaged Latino boys located in a midwestern city. A narrative of these events will be followed by a brief literature review that illustrates the preponderance of research conducted with a discipline-oriented approach to classroom activity.

Research Design

This qualitative case study was based on a yearlong ethnographic study and a content analysis of discussions that occurred during weekly faculty meetings.

Purpose

It will be argued that discipline may not actually deserve the importance it has received. Furthermore, it will be argued that the attention that has thus far focused on discipline has missed essential features of discipline's operation. Highlighting hidden processes of deliberate change involving discipline, the analysis focuses on a secondary tale that begins with actions of teachers that make student behavior horribly visible and then completely invisible.

Conclusions

The article concludes by linking this analysis to Cremin's definition of education as deliberate efforts to change one's consociates. Extending Garfinkel's classic description of degradation ceremonies, this analysis points out the danger that all participants share in such activities. When degradation ceremonies of individual students become potentially too dangerous for the survival of the school's reputation, it will be shown that deliberate efforts of “succeeding schools” can include “regrading” students.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Apple

M. W.

(1982). Education and power. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Bartlett

(2007). Human capital or human connections? The multiple meanings of education. Teachers College Record, 109, 1613—1636.

Bryk

, Lee

, and Holland

(1993). Catholic schools and the common good. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Collège de la Sainte Famille. (1994). Revue du Collège de la Sainte Famille [College of the Holy Family Review]. Collège de la Sainte Famille, 85, 2.

Cremin

(1976). Public Education. New York: Basic Books.

Fenzel

L. M.

, and Monteith

R. H.

(2005, April). Successful middle schools for urban minority children: A national study of nativity schools. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.

Foley

D. E.

(1990). Learning in a capitalist culture: Deep in the heart of Tejas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Foucault

(1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.

Garfinkel

(1956). Conditions of successful degradation ceremonies. American Journal of Sociology, 61, 420—424.

10.

Giroux

(1983). Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis. Harvard Education Review, 53, 257—293.

11.

Gubrium

J. F.

, and Holstein

J.A.

(1990). What is family? Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

12.

Gumperz

(1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

13.

Heath

S. B.

(1990). The children of Trackton's children: Spoken and written language in social change. In Sigler

J.W.

, Shweder

R.A.

, and Herdt

(Eds.), Cultural psychology: Essays on comparative human development (pp. 496—519). New York: Cambridge University Press.

14.

Henry

(1955). Docility or giving the teacher what she wants. Journal of Social Issues, 11(2), 33—41.

15.

Jackson

(1990). Life in classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press. (Original work published 1968).

16.

Lacey

(1970). Hightown grammar. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.

17.

Labov

(1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

18.

Lanehart

(2001). African American Vernacular English. In Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity (pp. 211—225). New York: Oxford University Press.

19.

Levinson

B. A.

(1998). Discipline seen from below: Student rationales for non-compliance in secondary schools in the United States of America. Prospects, 28, 601—615.

20.

MacLeod

(1995). Ain't no makin’ it: Leveled aspirations in a low-income neighborhood. Bolder, CO: Westview Press.

21.

Malmkjaer

(Ed.). (1990). Linguistics encyclopedia. New York: Routledge.

22.

McDermott

, and Gospodinoff

(1979). Social contexts for ethnic borders and school failure. In and and Wolfgang

(Ed.), Nonverbal behavior: Applications and cultural implications (pp. 175—195). New York: Academic Press.

23.

Mehan

(1979). Learning lessons. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

24.

Mehan

(1992). Understanding inequality in schools: The contribution of interpretive studies. Sociology of Education, 65, 1—20.

25.

Mullooly

(1997, April). Middle school in the South Bronx: The making of successful aspirations. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society, Milwaukee, WI.

26.

Mullooly

(2003). Work, play and consequences: What counts in a successful middle school Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, New York.

27.

Mullooly

, and Varenne

(2006). Playing with pedagogic authority. In Pace

J.M.

, and Hemmings

(Eds.), Classroom authority: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 63—86). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

28.

Philips

(1983). The invisible culture: Communication in classroom and community on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. New York: Longman. (Original work published 1974).

29.

Podsiadlo

(1994). Nativity schools. S.J. Education, 2, 2—4.

30.

Schneider

D. M.

(1984). A critique of the study of kinship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

31.

Smitherman

(1994). Black talk: Words and phrases from the Hood to Amen Corner. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

32.

Varenne

(2007). Difficult collective deliberations: Anthropological notes toward a theory of education. Teachers College Record, 109, 1559—1588.

33.

Varenne

, and McDermott

(1998). Successful failure: The school America builds. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

34.

Wieder

D. L.

(1974). Language and social reality: The case of telling the convict code. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton.

35.

Willis

(1977). Learning to labor. New York: Columbia Teachers College Press.

Regrading the Eighth Grade: Disciplining those who Discipline in a Jesuit Middle School

Abstract

Background/Context

Research Design

Purpose

Conclusions

Get full access to this article

References