Although teaching is one of the most common occupations, experienced by nearly all individuals and enacted by millions of professionals, its power to reproduce or disrupt oppression is often underestimated. Situated within broader social, political, and historical contexts, teaching reflects and is shaped by enduring patterns that marginalize groups of people, forms of knowledge, and ways of knowing. Yet this is not only a macro-level phenomenon; through everyday micro-interactions, teaching can nurture students’ flourishing or constrain their learning and identities. Building on scholarship on discretion in professional practice and policy implementation, I argue that teaching’s potency derives in significant part from the discretionary spaces inherent in its enactment. These spaces of interpretation, choice, and action are both ubiquitous and structured by broader systems of oppression. By conceptualizing discretion as both a risk and a resource, this analysis advances theoretical understandings of teaching and underscores the ethical, political, and educational stakes of teachers’ work, pointing to an expanded role for professional education.
AhnJ. (2025). The purloined education [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
2.
BakerE. L.BartonP. E.Darling-HammondL.HaertelE.LaddH. F.LinnR. L.RavitchD.RothsteinR.ShavelsonR. J.ShepardL. A. (2010). Problems with the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/
3.
Baker-BellA. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. Routledge.
4.
BallD. L. (2000). Working on the inside: Using one’s own practice as a site for studying mathematics teaching and learning. In KellyA.LeshR. (Eds.), Handbook of research design in mathematics and science education (pp. 365–402). Routledge.
5.
BallD. L. (2020, July). “Get up stand up”: Fighting systemic injustice through teaching. Keynote address at the TeachingWorks Virtual Summer Institute.
BastedoM. N.BowmanN. A. (2017). Improving admission of low-SES students at selective colleges: Results from an experimental simulation. Educational Researcher, 46(2), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17699373
8.
BockR. D.WolfeR. (1996). Audit and review of the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS): Final report. Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury.
9.
BrousseauG. (1970). Processus de mathématisation [The process of mathematization]. In La mathématique à l’école élémentaire [Elementary school mathematics] (pp. 428–457). Association de Professeurs des Mathématiques de l’Enseignement Public.
ChettyR.FriedmanJ. N.RockoffJ. E. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633–2679. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.9.2633
12.
CohenD. K.PeurachD. J.GlazerJ. L.GatesK.GoldinS. E. (2013). Improvement by design: The promise of better schools. University of Chicago Press.
13.
CohenD. K.RaudenbushS. W.BallD. L. (2003). Resources, instruction, and research. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25(2), 119–142. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737025002119
DunleavyT. K. (2018). High school algebra students busting the myth about mathematical smartness: Counterstories to the dominant narrative “get it quick and get it right.”Education Sciences, 8(2), Article 58. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci8020058
16.
DymondA. (2019). Towards a socio-technical understanding of discretion: A case study of Taser and police use of force. Policing and Society, 30(9), 998–1012. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2019.1660338
EwingE. (2018). Ghosts in the schoolyard: Racism and school closings on Chicago’s south side. University of Chicago Press.
20.
Feiman-NemserS. (2001). From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013–1055. https://doi.org/10.1111/0161-4681.00141
GageN. L. (Ed.). (1963). Handbook of research on teaching. Rand McNally.
23.
GarcesL. M.CogburnC. D. (2015). Beyond declines in student body diversity: How campus-level administrators understand a prohibition on race-conscious postsecondary admissions policies. American Educational Research Journal, 52(5), 828–860. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831215594878
24.
GershensonS.HartC. M. D.HymanJ.LindsayC. A.PapageorgeN. W. (2022). The long-run impacts of same-race teachers. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 14(4), 300–342. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20190573
25.
GholsonM.MartinD. B. (2019). Blackgirl face: Racialized and gendered performativity in mathematics contexts. ZDM Mathematics Education, 51(3), 391–404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-019-01051-x
26.
GholsonM.WilkesC. (2017). (Mis)Taken identities: Reclaiming identities of the “collective Black” in mathematics education research through an exercise in Black specificity. Review of Research in Education, 41, 228–252. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16686950
GoldhaberD. (2016). In schools, teacher quality matters most: Today’s research reinforces Coleman’s findings. Education Next, 16(2), 56–62.
29.
GonzálezN.MollL. C.AmantiC. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Routledge.
30.
GoodchildS.SriramanB. (2012). Revisiting the didactic triangle: From the particular to the general. ZDM Mathematics Education, 44, 581–585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-012-0449-3
31.
GreeneM. (1982). Public education and the public space. Educational Researcher, 11(6), 4–9.
32.
GresalfiM.MartinT.HandV.GreenoJ. (2009). Constructing competence: An analysis of student participation in the activity systems of mathematics classrooms. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 70(1), 49–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-008-9141-5
33.
GrissomJ. A.ReddingC. (2016). Discretion and disproportionality: Explaining the underrepresentation of high-achieving students of color in gifted programs. AERA Open, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858415622175
34.
GutiérrezK. D.OrellanaM. F. (2006). At last: The “problem” of English learners: Constructing genres of difference. Research in the Teaching of English, 40(4), 502–507. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40171712
35.
HaddixM. M. (2017). Diversifying teaching and teacher education: Beyond rhetoric and toward real change. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(1), 141–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X16683422
HanushekE. A.RaymondM. E. (2004). The effect of school accountability systems on the level and distribution of student achievement. Journal of the European Economic Association, 2(2–3), 406–415. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40004914
38.
HanushekE. A.RivkinS. G. (2006). Teacher quality. In HanushekE. A.WelchF. (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of education (Vol.2, pp. 1051–1078). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0692(06)02018-6
39.
HanushekE. A.RivkinS. G. (2010). Generalizations about using value-added measures of teacher quality. American Economic Review, 100(2), 267–271. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.2.267
HawkinsD. (1974). The informed vision and other essays. Agathon Press.
42.
HerbstP.ChazanD. (2012). On the instructional triangle and sources of justification for actions in mathematics teaching. ZDM Mathematics Education, 44, 601–612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-012-0438-6
43.
hooksb. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
44.
HornI. S. (2008). Turnaround students in high school mathematics: Constructing identities of competence through mathematical worlds. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 10(3), 201–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986060802216177
45.
HowardT. C. (2013). How does it feel to be a problem? Black male students, schools, and learning in enhancing the knowledge base to disrupt deficit frameworks. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 54–86. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X12462985
46.
HoyleL. (2014). “I mean, obviously you’re using your discretion”: Nurses use of discretion in policy implementation. Social Policy and Society, 13(2), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746413000316
47.
IngersollR. M. (2006). Who controls teachers’ work. Harvard University Press.
48.
IrvineJ. J. (2003). Educating teachers for diversity: Seeing with a cultural eye. Teachers College Press.
49.
JacksonP. W. (1990). Life in classrooms. Teachers College Press. (Original work published 1968)
50.
JaworskiB. (1994). Investigating mathematics teaching: A constructivist enquiry. Falmer.
51.
JaworskiB.PotariD. (2009). Bridging the macro- and micro-divide: Using an activity theory model to capture sociocultural complexity in mathematics teaching and its development. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 72, 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-009-9190-4
52.
KaneT. J.KerrK. A.PiantaR. C. (Eds.). (2014). Designing teacher evaluation systems: New guidance from the Measures of Effective Teaching project. Jossey-Bass. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119210856
KozolJ. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools. Crown Publishers.
55.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1992). Reading between the lines and beyond the pages: A culturally relevant approach to literacy teaching. Theory Intro Practice, 31, 312–320. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1476313
56.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. Schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X035007003
57.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2021). I’m here for the hard re-set: Post pandemic pedagogy to preserve our culture. Equity & Excellence in Education, 54(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2020.1863883
58.
LampertM. (2001). Teaching problems and problems of teaching. Yale University Press.
59.
LeeC. D. (2007). Culture, literacy, and learning: Taking bloom in the midst of the whirlwind. Teachers College Press.
60.
LensmireT. J. (1993). Following the child, socioanalysis, and threats to community: Teacher response to children’s texts. Curriculum Inquiry, 23(3), 265–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1993.11076126
61.
LensmireT. J. (1994). When children write: Critical re-visions of the writing workshop. Teachers College Press.
LipskyM. (2010). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service. Russell Sage Foundation. (Original work published 1980)
64.
LomawaimaK. T.McCartyT. L. (2002). When tribal sovereignty challenges democracy: American Indian education and the democratic ideal. American Educational Research Journal, 39(2), 279–305. https://doi.org/10.3102/000283120390022
65.
LortieD. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press.
MartinD. B. (2011). Proofs and refutations: The making of Black children in mathematics education. Lecture presented at the 2011 Benjamin Banneker Association Conference, Atlanta, GA.
69.
MartinD. B. (2012). Learning mathematics while Black. Educational Foundations, 26(1–2), 47–66.
Maynard-MoodyS.MushenoM. (2000). State agent or citizen agent: Two narratives of discretion. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10(2), 329–358. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024272
72.
Maynard-MoodyS.MushenoM. (2003). Cops, teachers, counselors: Stories from the front lines of public service. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11924
73.
McDonaldJ. (1992). Teaching: Making sense of an uncertain craft. Teachers College Press.
MendroR. L. (1998). Student achievement and school and teacher accountability. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 12, 257–267. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008019311427
76.
MilnerH. (2013). Why are students of color (still) punished more severely and frequently than White students?Urban Education, 48(4), 483–489. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085913493040
77.
MollL. C.AmantiC.NeffD.GonzalezN. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534
78.
MorrisM. W. (2016). Pushout: The criminalization of Black girls in schools. The New Press.
79.
NunesJ.LottaG. (2019). Discretion, power and the reproduction of inequality in health policy implementation: Practices, discursive styles and classifications of Brazil’s community health workers. Social Science & Medicine, 242, Article 112551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112551
80.
OakesJ. (1985). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality. Yale University Press.
ParisD. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X12441244
83.
ParisD.AlimH. S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.
84.
RansomK. (2020). There are children here: Examining Black childhood in Rosenwald Schools of Pickens County, Alabama (1940–1969) [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
RistR. (2000). Student social class and teacher expectations: The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 70(3), 257–302. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.40.3.h0m026p670k618q3 (Original work published 1970)
87.
RobinsonD.BallD. (in preparation). The power of discretionary spaces in teaching: Connections between systemic injustice and everyday practice.
88.
RothsteinR. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright Publishing.
89.
RowanB.CohenD. K.BallD. L. (2004). The Study of Instructional Improvement: Overview of the study with lessons learned and new directions. Consortium for Policy Research in Education.
90.
RowanB.RaudenbushS. (2016). Teacher evaluation in American schools. In GitomerD. H.BellC. A. (Eds.), Handbook on research on teaching (5th ed., pp. 1159–1216). American Educational Research Association. https://doi.org/10.3102/978-0-935302-48-6_19
91.
RoweM. (2012). Going back to the street: Revisiting Lipsky’sStreet-Level Bureaucracy. Teaching Public Administration, 30(1), 10–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0144739411435439
92.
SandersW. L.RiversJ. C. (1996). Cumulative and residual effects of teachers on future student academic achievement. University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center.
ShawG. C. (2013). H. L. A. Hart’s lost essay: Discretion and the legal process school. Harvard Law Review, 127, 666–728.
95.
Siddle WalkerV. (1996) Their highest potential: An African American school community in the segregated south. University of North Carolina Press.
96.
SteinbringH. (2011). Changed views on mathematical knowledge in the course of didactical theory development: Independent corpus of scientific knowledge or result of social constructions? In RowlandT.RuthvenK. (Eds.), Mathematical knowledge in teaching (pp. 43–64). Springer.
97.
StovallD. (2016). Schools suck, but they’re supposed to: Schooling, incarceration and the future of education. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 13(1), 20–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2016.1138252
98.
TraversR. M. W. (Ed.). (1973). Second handbook of research on teaching. Rand McNally.
99.
TuckE.YangK. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1–40.
WilkesC. (2022). Ordinary brilliance: Understanding Black children’s conceptions of smartness and how teachers communicate smartness through their practice [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
104.
WillisA. T. (2020). Confronting and changing racialized patterns of not-seeing Black children: Narrowing the gap between observation and the work of teaching mathematics in the context of practice based professional development [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
105.
YossoT. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006
