“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.” Haim G. Ginott

Why We See the Way We SeeCritical Race Theory

• Goal: To reflect on disciplinary interactions• Objectives:– Critical Race Theory– Data on Student Discipline– Impact on Classroom Management– Engage in conversation

Critical Race Theory(CRT)

• Explain continuing inequality based on property rights versus civil rights

• Race as Property rights– Give value– Define

• Racism endemic and deeply ingrained– legally– Culturally– Psychologically– historically

Racism (CRT)

• Culturally sanctioned• Regardless of intentionality• Defend White advantage• Subordinated minority

Race• Importance of Race– Determines economic prospects– Mediates every aspect of lives– Legal presumptions– Evidentiary burdens

• Performative – People and qualities of people can quickly change

• Biological• Ethnicity Theory• Colonist/Nationalist TheoryIan Haney-Lopez

Performative

• Changes physically (Hudgins v. Wright)• Changes politically (e.g., Native Americans,

Mexican, Chicano, African American))• Changes economically (e.g., Chinese, Mexican,

African American)

• Ian Haney Lopez

Biological Race Theory

• No unique attributable genetic characteristic• No marked frequencies – particular group• Physical differences matter of separation• Ozawa v United States Supreme Court “skin

color test to determine race is impractical.”

• Ian Haney Lopez

Ethnicity Theory

• Importance of ethnicity formed culture and descent.

• Racial minority group experience seen as equal

• African, Asian, Northern European Immigration experiences

• False expectancy of acceptance, acculturation, acceptance, and incorporation

• Ian Haney Lopez

Colonist/Nationalist Theory

• Act on racism• Based on physical differences• Defining oppressed/conquered inferior• American society:– Cultural– Political– Economic

• Ian Haney Lopez

Race• Social construction based on human

interaction and not human difference– Racial meanings– Racial categorization

• Humans produce races• Integral part of whole society– Class– Gender

• Constructed to compete • Ian Haney Lopez

Mexican Paradigm•Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo–Americans–Mexicano–Indians

•Need to identify (racialization) (Social Construction)–Dominant ideology (White Superiority)–Economic interests–Psychological necessity•Superiority Yankee ingenuity •Inferiority of natives pastoral life•Justification of expropriation of lands–Psychological justificationIan Haney-Lopez

• Ian Haney Lopez

Mexican Paradigm

• Invaders– Indolent mixed race of California incapable of

governing– Mulato with a constitution less robust than that of

either of the races– Imbecile, pusillanimous…unfit to control the

destiney of their land

Mexican Paradigm

• Land Owners (Capitalist)– Cheap labor, efficient and permanent– Lower class of Mexicans/Opata and Yaquis…docile

faithful, good servants, capable of strong attachments when firmly and kindly treated

• Performative nature of racism

School Discipline

• Identified and enforced• Racial prejudice– Racial stigmatization– Stereotyping– Implicit bias

• Acceptable behavior defined by singular group– Without regard to experience of any other group

• David Simson

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• Achievement gap• Special education• Dropout/graduation rates• GATE programs• School Discipline

• David Simson

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• African Americans (1975 )– 2 and 3 times more likely– Elementary, middle, and high school – Office disciplinary referrals– Suspensions– School arrests– Corporal punishment– Out of school expulsion rate has increased 30 years– Receive fewer mild disciplinary actions– Skiba

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• Associated Risk Factors– School bond

• Lack of quality engaged time• Lack of student achievement• School alienation/bonding subsequent delinquency

– Efficacy• Individual student behavior• School learning climate

– Further risks• Poor academic performance• Dropout• Juvenile justice system

Skiba

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• Causes/Contributing Factors– Race as contributor to SES/predictor likelihood

suspension• Parents in home• Siblings• Home resources

– Poverty predictor of rate of suspension but not disproportionality

Skiba

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• Sociodemographic variables unable to account overrepresentation students of color– Socioeconomic status– Family structure and parental education– Poverty

Skiba

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• Disruptions– Disproportionate punishment appropriate to disproportionate misbehavior?– White students referred for more serious violation– Students of color receive harsher measures– African American, Latino, and Native American– More likely to be referred for subjective behaviors

(i.e., disrespect, excessive noise, threat, loitering, defiance)

Skiba

Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality School Suspension/Expulsion

• Failed to support perception that African American/students of color are suspended or expelled at higher rates due to higher rates of disruptive or safety-threatening behavior

• Behavioral infractions may be more subjective• Race and ethnicity robust predictor of school

punishment.

Skiba

Disciplinary Moment Interaction–Teacher/student –Race •Phenotype• ancestry• dress• culture•accent •religion

–Racial category• White/Black•Superior/Inferior

Simson

Disciplinary Moment Interaction

–Racial assignment•Dress•Accent•Language•General demeanor•Associational properties•assimilation

–Social assignment•Value to race•White as superior•Others inferior

Simson

Disciplinary Moment Interaction

–Racial experience • Suspended• Not suspended

–Confirmation of social experience• Superior society’s leadership• Inferior does not belong

• Simson

Impact on Classroom Management• Disciplinary moment “sociocultural factors that influence a

teacher’s decision to remove a student from the classroom”

• Disciplinary moments vary by sociocultural context of particular classroom

• White privilege paradigms support ethnocentric views intelligence, behavior, and learning

• Depend on system constraints and fear of losing control

Pane & Rocco

Impact on Classroom Management

• Schema – particular ways of thinking about acting, communicating and presenting oneself.

• Teachers attitudes/beliefs about their own and students’ races impact instruction and achievement.

• Teachers see intent in students’ behaviors that students do not intend.

Pane & Rocco

Impact on Discipline• Disciplinary moment viewed– Innumerable and mostly invisible filters

• Implicit bias• Stereotypes• Stigmas

• Ambiguous behavior– Likely to be judged aggressive or violent– More likely to be judged personal characteristic versus

situational

Simson

Impact on Discipline

• Inferior mental capacity• Inability societal leadership• Physical/sexual threat• Racial integrity• Political/social dominion

Classroom Management

• Positive classroom climate• Effective teaching and learning• Students primarily responsible behavior• Students can control behavior• Definitions /expectations of behavior culturally

influenced• Misread behaviors or communication patterns• Interpret behaviors through singular cultural lens

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management

• Pedagogy for all students in culturally responsive way

• Students backgrounds• Social backgrounds• Prior knowledge• Learning styles• Goal is to provide students equitable

opportunities for learning.

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Elements

• Recognition of one’s own cultural lens and biases• Knowledge of students’ cultural backgrounds• Awareness of the broader, social, economic, and

political context• Ability and willingness to use culturally

appropriate management stragtegies• Commitment to building caring classroom

communities

References• Ian F. Haney-Lopez, Social Construction of Race: Some

Observations on Illusion, Fabrication and Choice, The, 29 Harv C.R.-C.L. Rev 1 (1994)

• Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Strategies, New York University, Oct 2008

• Pane, D. M., & Rocco T.S. (2012). Teaching disruptive students: An indictment of colorblind teaching education programs. In M.S. Plakhotnik, S.M. Nielsen, & D.M. Pane (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th Annual college of Education & GSN Research Conference (pp. 105-113). Miami: Florida International University. Retrieved from http://education.fiu.edu/research_conference

References• David Simson, Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and Our Schools: A

Critical Race Theory Perspective on School Discipline, 61 UCLA L. Rev. 506 (2014)