The relationship between classroom interactions and exclusionary discipline as a social practice: A critical microethnograhy

Exclusionary school discipline results in students being removed from classrooms as a consequence of their disruptive behavior and may lead to subsequent suspension and/or expulsion. Literature documents that nondominant students, particularly Black males, are disproportionately impacted by exclusionary discipline, to the point that researchers from a variety of critical perspectives consider exclusionary school discipline an oppressive educational practice and condition. Little or no research examines specific teacher-student social interactions within classrooms that influence teachers’ decisions to use or not use exclusionary discipline. Therefore, this study set forth the central research question: In relation to classroom interactions in alternative education settings, what accounts for teachers’ use or non-use of exclusionary discipline with students? A critical social practice theory of learning served as the framework for exploring this question, and a critical microethnographic methodology informed the data collection and analysis. ^ Criterion sampling was used to select four classrooms in the same alternative education school with two teachers who frequently and two who rarely used exclusionary discipline. Nine stages of data collection and reconstructive data analysis were conducted. Data collection involved video recorded classroom observations, digitally recorded interviews of teachers and students discussing selected video segments, and individual teacher interviews. Reconstructive data analysis procedures involved hermeneutic inferencing of possible underlying meanings, critical discourse analysis, interactive power analysis and role analysis, thematic analysis of the interactions in each classroom, and a final comparative analysis of the four classrooms. ^ Four predominant themes of social interaction (resistance, conformism, accommodation, and negotiation) emerged with terminology adapted from Giroux’s (2001) theory of resistance in education and Third Space theory (Gutiérrez, 2008). Four types of power (normative, coercive, interactively established contracts, and charm), based on Carspecken’s (1996) typology, were found in the interactions between teacher and students in varying degrees for different purposes. ^ This research contributes to the knowledge base on teacher-student classroom interactions, specifically in relation to exclusionary discipline. Understanding how the themes and varying power relations influence their decisions and actions may enable teachers to reduce use of exclusionary discipline and remain focused on positive teacher-student academic interactions. ^

The Relationship between Classroom Interactions and Exclusionary Discipline as a Social Practice: A Critical Microethnography

Exclusionary school discipline results in students being removed from classrooms as a consequence of their disruptive behavior and may lead to subsequent suspension and/or expulsion. Literature documents that nondominant students, particularly Black males, are disproportionately impacted by exclusionary discipline, to the point that researchers from a variety of critical perspectives consider exclusionary school discipline an oppressive educational practice and condition. Little or no research examines specific teacher-student social interactions within classrooms that influence teachers’ decisions to use or not use exclusionary discipline. Therefore, this study set forth the central research question: In relation to classroom interactions in alternative education settings, what accounts for teachers’ use or non-use of exclusionary discipline with students? A critical social practice theory of learning served as the framework for exploring this question, and a critical microethnographic methodology informed the data collection and analysis. Criterion sampling was used to select four classrooms in the same alternative education school with two teachers who frequently and two who rarely used exclusionary discipline. Nine stages of data collection and reconstructive data analysis were conducted. Data collection involved video recorded classroom observations, digitally recorded interviews of teachers and students discussing selected video segments, and individual teacher interviews. Reconstructive data analysis procedures involved hermeneutic inferencing of possible underlying meanings, critical discourse analysis, interactive power analysis and role analysis, thematic analysis of the interactions in each classroom, and a final comparative analysis of the four classrooms. Four predominant themes of social interaction (resistance, conformism, accommodation, and negotiation) emerged with terminology adapted from Giroux’s (2001) theory of resistance in education and Third Space theory (Gutiérrez, 2008). Four types of power (normative, coercive, interactively established contracts, and charm), based on Carspecken’s (1996) typology, were found in the interactions between teacher and students in varying degrees for different purposes. This research contributes to the knowledge base on teacher-student classroom interactions, specifically in relation to exclusionary discipline. Understanding how the themes and varying power relations influence their decisions and actions may enable teachers to reduce use of exclusionary discipline and remain focused on positive teacher-student academic interactions.

Teaching internet inquiry in the early years: a microcase of teaching practice with iPads

This paper focuses on teaching practices intended to support primary school students’ internet inquiries and the development of requisite knowledge and skills. The paper builds on growing knowledge about multimodal pedagogy (e.g., Walsh, 2011) and how such pedagogies not only bring with them intrinsic benefits for student engagement and learning, but also offer opportunities to reinforce and refine traditional print literacies (e.g., McKee and Heydon, 2015). A microethnographic approach is taken, involving a close examination of short classroom episodes. The data include classroom video footage and teacher interviews concerning one lesson where students aged six, seven and eight undertook research using iPads. Within the lesson, the iPads were treated as a suite of resources, tools and channels to be put into operation in the service of student inquiries, where informational texts could be found on the internet and then used as sources for new knowledge and material for the students’ multimedia artefacts. Print literacy skills were similarly treated as resources to be drawn upon in the service of inquiry work. The data is assembled to provide a window into the complexities of teaching in this context, with a particular focus on how new and traditional literacy practices are interwoven. The analysis shows how digital and ‘non-digital’ resources, modes and channels are strategically assembled by the teacher and her students through the practice of fit-for-purpose inquiry, reading and composition strategies. An explicit discourse of purpose is put to work in this classroom to make sense of materials, resources and curricula within a context of contradictory policy discourses. Thus an approach to curriculum and pedagogy is illustrated that lays the foundations for crucial contemporary information literacies, serving our increasingly everyday need to make strategic use of digital and online tools to navigate the internet and shape it for our own purposes. The interdependence of traditional and new literacies in such contexts reveals the nonsense of dominant discourses found in the media that emphasise the importance of one mode or one method, as well as divisive public politics that seeks to perpetuate understandings of traditional and new literacies as dichotomous domains that compete for airtime in classrooms, resulting in teachers’ neglect of literacy ‘basics’. In contrast to popular fears, in this classroom, both digital and traditional literacy skills and knowledge were developed, employed and reinforced as part of the students’ digital work.