What Does Discipline Mean in Secondary Schools Now?

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the political focus on disciplinary exclusion and the accompanying ‘league tables’ using exclusion as an indicator of performance, have led to an impoverished understanding of what discipline means in secondary schools today. I suggest that ever-increasing legislation, guidance documents and policy guidelines within a context of an overall tightening of control and surveillance in educational settings cannot bring about the ‘workpeace’ (MacBeath, 1999: 24) which both staff and pupils seek. I explore the data from a small-scale, qualitative study which gathered the views of secondary-age pupils with a range of experiences and understandings of school discipline systems. The findings from this study are used to interrogate current understandings of discipline processes in general and the national Guidance on Exclusion (C8/03), in particular. I argue that the findings from this study outline a series of challenges to such policies but also offer grounds for hope.