Disciplining Difference(s): Reproducing Inequalities through Disciplinary Interactions in Preschool

Abstract

This article offers an expansive conceptualization and examination of young children’s experiences of school discipline inequalities, which includes the variety of behavior management approaches (i.e., punitive discipline and positive discipline) that preschool teachers differentially use in response to students’ behavior (e.g., noncompliance). I draw on data from ethnographic observations in three preschools (nine classrooms total) with different racial and socioeconomic classroom compositions. I find that teachers’ varying approaches to behavior management for students from particular racial, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds (i.e., low-SES girls and middle-class black boys) contributes to children’s hierarchical identity groups within preschool classrooms: “good kids” vs. “troublemaking kids.” Specifically, the messages children at Imagination Center received from teachers’ differential disciplinary responses to low-SES girls’ behaviors, and the messages children at Kids Company received from teachers’ differential disciplinary responses to middle-class black boys’ behaviors, shaped their understandings of whom they should or should not associate with. The findings reveal how school-level disciplinary practices/cultures (e.g., positive discipline rather than punitive discipline) can help to alleviate disciplinary inequalities apparent in some preschool classrooms. Additionally, these data illuminate how preschool teachers’ differential approaches to behavior management affect some marginalized students’ experiences of discipline inequalities as early as preschool.

Racial Awareness and Bias Begin Early: Developmental Entry Points, Challenges, and a Call to Action

“…More startling are the racial disparities. Black preschoolers' rate of expulsion exceeds that of White children by a factor of three; Latino preschoolers' rate of expulsion is more than double that of White children; Native American children, too, are overrepresented in preschool suspensions and expulsions; expulsion rates among Asian American preschoolers is comparable with, if not lower than, that for White preschool students (Giordano et al, 2021 Racial disparities in preschool suspensions and expulsions, adjudicated primarily on the basis of classroom behavior (Gansen, 2020), have damaging downstream effects. They perpetuate a pernicious problem: that not all children are afforded an equal opportunity to benefit from early learning environments.…”

“…Parents, educators, and service providers would also benefit from evidence-based recommendations about how to talk about race with children. In particular, they would benefit from understanding the advantages of adopting a "color-conscious" approach and leaving behind a color-blind approach that leaves children especially vulnerable to the negative stereotypes they witness (Pahlke, 2012, 2020Plaut et al, 2018;Scott et al, 2020aScott et al, , 2020bVittrup & Holden, 2011;Wang et al, 2020;Waxman et al, 2017). By arming parents, educators, service providers, and policymakers with scientifically grounded evidence about how bias develops, we support their positions as agents of change.…”

“…Racial disparities in preschool suspensions and expulsions, adjudicated primarily on the basis of classroom behavior (Gansen, 2020), have damaging downstream effects. They perpetuate a pernicious problem: that not all children are afforded an equal opportunity to benefit from early learning environments.…”

Improving Preschool Accountability Systems: Bringing Individual Children’s Experiences Back to Child Policy

“…Thus, even in the same classroom, children may have different experiences with racial discrimination. Biases and discrimination in both overt and more subtle practices in the classroom have negative effects on children's development over the long term (Gansen, 2020;Sabol et al, 2021). Bringing greater attention to disparities in children's experiences in the classroom would foster the ability of the ECE field to identify pathways to promote greater equity and more positive developmental outcomes for children growing up from diverse backgrounds (Roberts et al, 2020;Rogers, 2019).…”

The effects of teacher–child racial congruence, child race, and emotion situation knowledge on teacher–child relationships and school readiness

“…All children should have the opportunity to learn in classrooms that are shepherded by teachers who are warm, responsive, and capable of developing relationships with them that are positive, respectful, and fair (Crouch et al, 2014; Drewery, 2016; Gouveia‐Pereira et al, 2003). Sadly, children from racial minority groups have a higher likelihood of being negatively perceived by teachers and tend to experience harsher treatment from them than their White counterparts (Gansen, 2020; Martinez, 2020; Petras et al, 2011; Rasheed et al, 2020; Yates & Marcelo, 2014). Additionally, teachers perceive themselves as having closer relationships with White students than with African American children (Kesner, 2000).…”