The (In)Visibility of Race in School Discipline Across Urban, Suburban, and Exurban Contexts

• Published in: Teachers College record (1970) 2022-04, Vol.124 (4), p.151-179
• Main Authors: Tefera, Adai A., Siegel-Hawley, Genevieve, Sjogren, Ashlee L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African American Students; Beliefs; Black students; Classroom Observation Techniques; Discipline; Disproportionate Representation; Fairness; Focus groups; High Schools; Hispanic American Students; Homogeneity; Imprisonment; Interviews; Language Usage; Marginality; Methods Research; Middle Schools; Minority Group Students; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Peers; Poverty; Punishment; Race; Racial Composition; Racial differences; Racial discrimination; Racial inequality; Racism; Research design; Responses; Rural Schools; Rural Urban Differences; School discipline; School districts; School Policy; Schools; Social Bias; Socioeconomic status; Student Attitudes; Student Diversity; Students; Suburban areas; Suburban Schools; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Influence; Teachers; Teaching Methods; Urban areas; Urban Schools; White Students
• ISSN: 0161-4681; 1467-9620
• DOI: 10.1177/01614681221093282

Background/Context: Racial disparities in school discipline represent a long-standing injustice in U.S. schools. Students of color, particularly Black students, are systematically subjected to harsher school disciplinary actions compared with their peers. A growing body of evidence demonstrates the severity of the problem and the negative consequences of harsh punishment, particularly given that students who are disciplined are more likely to be forced into the complex nexus of education and incarceration. Focus of Study: In this study, we aimed to understand how different racial contexts in urban, suburban, and exurban schools shaped responses to and understandings about racial disparities in school discipline. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that centers the visibility and invisibility of race (Artiles, 2019) throughout the disciplinary cycle, this study was guided by two research questions: (1) What are the similarities and differences in educators’ and students’ understandings of racial contexts and racial disparities in school discipline across urban, suburban, and exurban school districts? (2) How do urban, suburban, and exurban school districts’ racial contexts shape educators’ responses to racial disparities in discipline? Research Design: This research was part of a larger mixed-methods research–practice partnership that aimed to understand racial disparities in school discipline and how to address them across varying school contexts in Central Virginia. The qualitative portion of the study included individual and focus group interviews and classroom observations. The findings reported in this article focus specifically on 50 individual and focus group interviews with teachers, leaders, staff, and students. Findings: Our findings demonstrate the ways race was made visible and invisible in responses to and understandings about racial disparities in discipline. This was evident in the ways deficit perspectives were racialized and how race-evasive perspectives and ideologies dominated educators’ responses to the problem. We found these responses were mediated by the racial contexts of each school. For instance, we learned that educators at the urban middle school with a majority of Black and Latinx students were the most willing to discuss the role of race and racism in shaping racial disparities in discipline compared with educators at the suburban and exurban schools. Educators at the racially diverse suburban high school focused on socio