Teachers’ views of the discipline gap: A qualitative study

The term “discipline gap” refers to data illustrating that, compared to students of other races, Black students are more likely to be referred, suspended, or expelled from school (Gregory & Mosely, 2004; Skiba et al., 2002). Increased discipline is associated with a variety of short and long-term negative outcomes for Black children (Fabelo et al., 2011). According to the “differential selection” explanation, Teachers’ subconscious racism and colorblindness cause them to over-select Black students for punishment, contributing to the discipline gap (Carter et al., 2017; Deckman, 2017; Gregory & Roberts, 2017; Okonofua et al., 2016). Therefore, the purpose of this research was to engage teachers in conversations about the discipline gap in order to understand and critically examine their views about it. Seven Miami Dade County Schools teachers were individually interviewed, and reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to analyze the findings. Results indicate that participants were uninformed about the discipline gap, thought the discipline gap was important, believed they can improve students’ behavior without referral, and blamed the discipline gap on parental neglect and/or Black culture. While participants were able to discuss the negative impacts of racism, they also expressed a variety of colorblind and racist attitudes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Alasmi, Nada

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hood, Denice
• Pak, Yoon
• Kang, Hyun-Sook
• Hale, Jon

• Discipline gap
• teachers' views of the discipline gap
• expulsion
• Black students

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Nada Alasmi

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115355

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115355