Philosophy Of Classroom Dicipline

Philosophy of Classroom Discipline

"Power is exercised only over free subjects, and only insofar as they are free. By this we mean individual or collective subjects who are faced with a field of possibilities in which several ways of behaving, several reactions and diverse compartments may be realized." (Foucault)

Foucault and Heidegger, modern philosophers, both describe power in these terms, as the facility to manipulate an object without force. Understanding this point of view is important, not only for state institutions who attempt to exert power over citizens and deviants, but also for teachers as they try to use disciplinary power to control the events in their classroom. Unfortunately, the majority of status quo disciplinary systems are entrenched in the mindset that power can be exerted over individuals through the use of coercive punishments and threats, actions which usually have the complete opposite result, less control over the students. A system that more closely mirrors Thomas Gordon's view of discipline as self-control would be a far superior disciplinary model because it recognizes the true nature of power.

Thomas Gordon's disciplinary model specifically critiques the use of coercion and intimidation to exert power and control over students. Coercion to Gordon only reinforces a notion that violence is an acceptable form of control. Additionally, coerced and intimidated students will often retaliate against authority figures who attempt to exert coercive power. This sometimes can only escalate an incident or situation that a teacher was hoping to douse with the use of power. The truth is that students are the only ones who can make the decision to behave well or conform to teacher expectations. Recognizing this leads one to note that instead of forcing a student to behave well, a teacher needs to influence a student in a positive way.

The question is what does a teacher do to positively influence students without exerting coercive control? Gordon points out that the best way to resolve and prevent situations of misbehavior and deviance in the classroom is to first recognize who owns the problem. In a situation where students are disrupting the class, for example, a teacher should be sure to use messages to indicate that the problem is affecting the teacher in a negative way, forcing the students to decide if they want to continue their disruptive activity instead of immediately going on the defensive against what they may think is an over controlling warden. Additionally, using the no-lose method of conflict resolution allows students to have a positive way out of a bad situation, instead of a forced punishment with no control over the situation.