The Discipline Gatekeeper: Assistant Principals’ Experiences With Managing School Discipline in Urban Middle Schools

Abstract

School discipline disparities for African American students in urban schools continue to be a topic of contention. While research has rightfully called into question the practices and preparation of teachers and principals, the role that assistant principals serve as disciplinary gatekeepers has gone relatively unnoticed in the literature. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of five assistant principals at two urban middle schools to ascertain how they addressed issues of race amid applying school discipline interventions for African American students. The findings are analyzed and discussed through a critical race theoretical framework.

Can Assistant Principals’ Years of Experience Make a Difference in School Suspensions? A State-wide Analysis of North Carolina Assistant Principals

“…Additionally, the lack of experience by assistant principals, as viewed through an HCT perspective represents a critical issue as it relates to school discipline. Administering school discipline for an assistant principal is different than enforcing school discipline as a teacher (Williams et al, 2020; Kennedy et al, 2017). The failure to grasp this difference can translate to the inconsistent enforcement of school discipline policies and practices toward students of color by novice assistant principals (Richardson, 2009).…”

“…In essence, the potential for assistant principals to carry out implicit biases when making school discipline-related decisions can occur extensively throughout the day. A large portion of their responsibilities pertaining to managing school discipline revolve around making quick, limited-informed, subjective judgments based on teachers’ ODRs or students’ counternarratives (Williams et al, 2020), during mentally or physically fatigued times where their cognitive resources are limited (i.e., handling multiple ODRs through the day and/or multiple disciplinary incidents within one class period, Glanz, 1994). Literature that addresses root causes of school discipline disparities iterates the fact that implicit biases, specifically racialized biases, do not subside over time naturally, and that these biases can negate conscious (explicit) efforts to promote equity with how school discipline decisions are carried out (McIntosh et al, 2014).…”

“…For some assistant principals who serve in urban, rural, or underresourced schools, it is possible to spend over 50% of the day handling discipline related incidents among students and teachers, and between students (Barnett et al, 2012; Glanz, 1994). Additionally, researchers have found that what makes disciplinary responsibilities challenging for assistant principals is the lack of experience implementing culturally responsive classroom management practices as a teacher, limited training on developing effective interpersonal relationships with teachers and students, ignorance regarding implicit biases toward students of color, and limited strategic conversations on how to reduce office referrals and classroom disruptions (Barnett et al, 2012; Fenning & Jenkins, 2018; Keesor, 2005; Lewis, 2019; Williams et al, 2020).…”

La Segregación Invisible: Prácticas Punitivas y de Ordenamiento Académico en Escuelas Chilenas

“…En las últimas décadas, uno de los desafíos de la política de inclusión escolar ha sido promover acciones y estrategias que desarrollen una gestión transformativa y democrática de los ambientes escolares, en lugar de una gestión punitiva de control comportamental. Lo que en Chile ha resultado contradictorio y ambivalente (Magendzo et al, 2012;Morales, López, Ascorra y Carrasco, 2019), al coexistir estrategias políticas y legislaciones que por un lado, favorecen una aproximación formativa y preventiva en la gestión de conflictos mediante resoluciones pacífica, democrática y participativa; y por otro, una lógica punitiva que establece el control y el castigo como mecanismo para resolver los problemas convivenciales, y que tiene sus bases en las políticas de "Tolerancia Cero" implementadas en Estados Unidos hace más de dos décadas (Calvin, Gurel y Barber, 2017), y que hoy preocupan a la realidad latinoamericana (Lehmann et al, 2020; Morales y López, 2019) Esta segunda lógica supone un creciente uso de prácticas punitivas, definidas como sanciones contra los estudiantes que explícitamente conllevan retirarlos de la sala de clases por un tiempo significativo y que no necesariamente implican diálogo y reparación frente a los problemas escolares (Weaver y Swank, 2020), sino, más bien la exclusión del comportamiento disruptivo mediante la sanción (Campoy, 2019;Marcucci, 2019;Sugai et al, 2000), y en base a una diferenciación arbitraria de los agentes escolares sobre los estudiantes y sus condiciones de ingreso al espacio escolar (Lehmann et al, 2020;Marcucci y Elmesky, 2020;Williams et al, 2020). En Estados Unidos, se ha evidenciado que el nivel de ocurrencia o uso de este tipo de prácticas es más frecuente y está sobrerrepresentado en estudiantes de origen afroamericano (Bell, 2020;Camacho y Krezmien, 2019).…”

“…Distintas investigaciones han mostrado la ineficacia del uso de prácticas punitivas disciplinarias para prevenir la violencia (Skiba y Knesting, 2001; Skiba y Rausch, 2013; Weaver y Swank, 2020) impactando negativamente en las relaciones entre profesores y estudiantes y en la percepción de los estudiantes de la justicia educativa (APA, 2008;Peguero y Bracy, 2014;Augustine et al, 2018). Asimismo, tendrían implicancias en la segregación y exclusión social de las minorías (APA, 2008; Calvin, Gurel y Barber, 2017; Camacho y Krezmien, 2019; Luhmann et al, 2020; Marcucci y Elmesky, 2020; Peguero y Bracy, 2014; Skiba et al, 2014;Williams, et al, 2020), y en el fenómeno de la deserción escolar (Augustine et al, 2018;Peguero y Bracy, 2014;Skiba y Rausch, 2013).…”