Rules of Disorder: A Comparative Study of Student Discipline Eleni Natsiopoulou Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Eleni Natsiopoulou All rights reserved ABSTRACT Rules of Disorder: A Comparative Study of Student Discipline Eleni Natsiopoulou This dissertation is a comparative study of school discipline in the United States and in Greece. It examines the effect that schools, particularly their organizational form and rules, have upon the behavior of students and how this behavior is understood and categorized. The empirical findings show that, despite facing an elaborate system of rules, punishments, and staff dedicated to discipline, students at a New York school were three times more likely to be unruly compared with students in a similar school in Athens, where only teaching staff managed behavior, and formal rules and regulations governing student conduct were virtually non-existent. Drawing upon the theoretical insights of Emile Durkheim, Mary Douglas, Tom Popkewitz, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and neo-institutionalist scholars, this study proposes explanations for this surprising pattern. I argue that increased structural-functional differentiation within schools and heavy-handed sets of rules and punishments for students erode the moral authority of the teacher and create spaces outside the classroom where students can develop and employ identities and cultural hierarchies that lead to more frequent and extreme forms of unruliness. I also argue that the regulation of student discipline is part of the broader system of state regulation and control. In societies where govermentality is a dominant theme, school discipline becomes preoccupied with questions of measurement, care, and efficiency. What is needed, I suggest, is a return to democracy. Table of contents 1. INTRODUCTION: SPECIALIZATION AND EFFECTIVENESS IN STUDENT DISCIPLINE 13 Framing and Purpose of the Study 15 Research Questions 17 Rational for the Study 18 Student Discipline 19 Administration of Student Discipline 22 Why Comparison? Why with Greece? Main Considerations 25 Significance of the Study 27 Organization of the Study 28 Conclusion 29 2. EDUCATION AND CONTROL FOR ALL 30 Literature Review 32 The Actor: The Student and his Environment 33 Behaviorism’s (Mis)appropriation 36 Do Institutions Matter? 38 One Step Further: The Institutions as Actors 41 Conceptual Framework 44 On the Causes of Indiscipline: The Capitalist School and the Culture of Reproduction 44 On the Principals of Good Discipline: The Unforeseen Effects of Individualism 50 i Towards an Understanding of School Discipline 57 The normal and the pathological 57 Learners or undisciplined? 58 Undisciplined, sick, or developmentally challenging? 59 It is what the rules say: Institutions in action 61 Administration, bureaucracy, and differentiation 66 Institutions’ legitimacy: Neo-institutional remarks on “best practices” 69 Governmentality: Statistics and the common good 72 A Synthesis 76 Conclusion 78 3. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY 80 Research Design and Instruments 80 Research Questions 80 Comparative Method 81 The Selection of Cases 83 Research Instruments 86 Interviews 89 Document analysis 90 Observations 91 Sites and Sample Selection Process 92 Site selection 93 Interviews 94 ii Documents 94 Observations 95 Analysis of Data 98 Limitations of Research 101 Internal Validity 101 External Validity 105 Data Collection Logistics and Evaluation 105 Conclusion 106 4. FINDINGS IN NEW YORK CITY 108 The New York City School System 108 Administration of New York City Schools 109 Administration of Discipline 110 The Rules of Discipline 111 The School Setting 115 The School Building 115 Organization of the Students’ Program 116 The Students’ School Day 117 Research Findings 118 Anatomy of the Disciplinary Occurrences 119 Registered disciplinary encounters 119 Place of disciplinary encounters 120 Pattern of transgressions inside the classrooms 122 Pattern of transgressions outside the classroom 123 iii Seriousness of transgressions 125 The Interviewees’ and the observer’s gaze on indiscipline 126 Patterns of transgressions inside the classrooms (according to teachers and Deans) 127 Patterns of transgressions outside the classroom (according to observations) 128 Punishment and additional responses and supports 134 Most distinct colors in the picture of discipline 137 Personnel Perceptions and Beliefs Regarding Student Discipline 139 Defining undisciplined behavior 139 (Dis)agreement with classifications enforced by the school 141 Impressions about magnitude and seriousness of student transgressions 142 The disciplinary rules 143 The system of punishment 144 Division of responsibility for student discipline 148 Main points regarding teachers’ and deans’ beliefs and perceptions 141 Administration of Student Discipline 157 Legal mandates and provisions 158 School policy 164 Main points on the legal framework 166 Policy enforcement 166 Knowledge of rules by school personnel 167 Persistence in enforcing the rules 167 iv Following official policies 168 Formality of procedures in disciplining the students 170 Conditions under which teachers refer students to deans 170 Disciplinary procedures 172 Criteria for punishment 174 Discrepancies between policy, procedures, and practices 176 Administration of punishment 177 Differentiation 179 Accountability 181 Consistency 182 Administration of students discipline in a snapshot 182 Conclusion 183 5. FINDINGS IN GREECE 186 The Greek School System 186 Administration of the Greek Schools 186 Administration of Discipline 190 The Rules of Discipline 191 The School Setting 193 The School Building 194 The Students’ Program 195 The Students’ School Day 196 Research Findings 197 Anatomy of the Disciplinary Occurrences 197 v Registered disciplinary encounters 197 Place of disciplinary encounters 198 Pattern of transgressions inside the classrooms 199 Pattern of transgressions outside the classroom 201 Seriousness of all registered transgressions 202 The interviewees’ and the observer’s gaze on indiscipline 202 Patterns of transgressions inside the classrooms (according to teachers ) 203 Patterns of transgressions outside the classroom (according to observations) 204 Punishment and additional supports 210 Most distinct colors in the picture of discipline 212 Personnel Perceptions and Beliefs Regarding Student Discipline 214 Defining the undisciplined behavior 214 (Dis)agreement with classifications enforced by the school 216 Impressions about magnitude and seriousness of student transgressions 220 The disciplinary rules 220 The System of Punishment 206 Division of responsibility for student discipline 223 Main points regarding teachers’ beliefs and perceptions 228 Administration of Student Discipline 230 Legal mandates and provisions 231 School policy 236 Teacher Assembly dynamics 237 vi Main points on the legal framework 241 Policy enforcement 242 Knowledge of rules by school personnel 242 Persistence in enforcing the rules 242 Following official policies 245 Formality of procedures in disciplining the students 245 Conditions under which teachers send students to the principle, or criteria for punishment 246 Disciplinary procedures 248 Discrepancies between policy, procedures, and practices 250 Administration of punishment 251 Differentiation 252 Accountability 253 Consistency 253 Administration of students discipline in a snapshot 255 Conclusion 256 6. NEW YORK AND GREECE IN COMPARISON 259 Anatomies in Contrast 259 Initial Impression 259 The Disciplinary Facts 260 Teacher Perceptions 265 Similarities 265 Areas of difference 266 The Legal Framework and the Rules 269 vii Institutional Reality 270 Principals’ Philosophies 272 Conclusion 273 7. DISCUSSION 274 Main Findings 274 Main Discussion Points 275 Institutional Cultural Reproduction 276 Behaviors as Cultural Institutions and Rules as Categories of Thought 277 Schooling in the Modern Neo-Liberal States 278 Analytical Discussion 278 At First Glance 278 The Workings of Reproduction 279 Differentiation and the Creation of the ‘New Men’ 281 In or out of the classroom? An institutional choice 281 The specialists: Is it better to care less? 286 Policing or guarding? 288 The constitution of the teacher 289 The Teacher as professional 289 The Teacher as disciplinarian 291 Instrumentalism’s hegemony: Suspensions and reproduction 291 The erosion of teacher authority 297 Perceptions as an effect of position 298 The Rules: We Tell you to Think Accordingly 298 viii Any infraction is just a point where institutions meet 300 Infractions are the point when institutions act 305 A “Thoughts’ Controlling” Organization 305 Bureaucracy and Modernity 308 Rules of punishment 309 Implementation of policies: We may not get caught 310 Accountability and consistency: Two different systems with the same face 312 Structural-functional differentiation 312 On the Principles of Good Governance: Know Your Population 313 Contributions of the Study 316 Implications for Future Research and Practice 319 REFERENCE LIST 321 APPENDIX 333 ix List of Charts, Graphs, and Illustrations Illustration – The Disciplinary Situation 23 Table 3.1 – School Selection Criteria 86 Table 3.2 – Research Design Overview 88 Table 3.3 – Document Analysis 91 Table 3.4 – Sampling 96 Table 3.5 – Variables, Areas of Focus, and Indicators 99 Table 4.1 – Classification of Infractions According to the Discipline Code 112 Table