This analysis explores a literacy teacher's changing perspective about teaching in a prestigious high school after learning about ahimsa, or holistic nonviolence. Drawing from theories of transformational learning and critical pedagogy in addition to understandings of ahimsa, this article presents some of the participant's new perceptions about…

The public debate over discipline policy remains depressingly polarized and simplistic. Advocates of reform argue that suspensions and other forms of exclusionary discipline are associated with negative outcomes, including higher rates of criminal justice involvement--and that they are implemented unfairly. In contrast, skeptics argue that we must…

This study investigates the nexus between teacher exposure to student aggression, their level of emotional exhaustion, and the role of belongingness and perceived school safety as mediators. Random-Intercept Cross-Lag Panel Models were conducted among a sample of 2,072 secondary teachers (57.14% female) from grades 7 to 11 in 77 schools. Chronic…

Despite a nationwide trend to increase security measures in schools, their effectiveness in reducing or preventing student misbehavior remains largely unexamined. In addition, there is concern that increased security may have unintended negative side effects and is applied inequitably across students of disparate racial/ethnic backgrounds. The…

Violent writing is a real, yet rarely understood phenomenon in the secondary and post-secondary classroom. The 2007 Virginia Tech shooting tragedy sensationalized violent writing as a marker of disturbed and violent persons. However, violent writing comes in multiple forms and is composed for multiple reasons. As secondary schools wrestle with…

School bullying is a worldwide worrisome phenomenon that occurs within a broad context in which pupils and teachers can either reinforce or undermine violent behavior through interaction. Based on a nationally representative sample of students in Israel, this study examined patterns in student perceptions of student and teacher responses to school…

Studies of when youth classify academic achievement in racial terms have focused on the racial classification of behaviors and individuals. However, institutions--including schools--may also be racially classified. Drawing on a comparative interview study, we examine the school contexts that prompt urban black students to classify schools in…

Using a national data set, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), we examined three dimensions of 10th-grade school climate--unfairness, hostility, and victimization--as predictors of teacher-perceived student engagement and achievement in reading and mathematics in the same year. The dimensions of school climate that predicted…