As we discussed recently, teachers in schools do not posses power. rather
they exercise a power that arises as a result of their position in a complex
network of mutually-reinforcing power relationships.
So far, most of our discussion of zero-tolerance in schools has focused on
the students who are expelled. How are they being governed or disciplined?
What institution takes over control after they are released from the
school's domination? But could it be, rather, that zero-tolerance functions
primarily as a way to reinforce the network of power relations within the
school. According to this view, it is neither the controllers or the
controlled, but rather the ONLOOKERS (parents, other students, the community
in general) who provide the motivating dynamic for the punitive response.
Forget the petty calculations of the social controllers. Instead, the
common expression of community outrage at the violation of the "sacred"
classroom has a spontaneously functional effect: a reaffirmation of respect
for those power relations that keep the school running. The kids who are
expelled? They're just scapegoats, sacrifices to the gods of the
educational machine. They will be re-absorbed by the next apparatus or
remain safely at the margin.
Coleman
they exercise a power that arises as a result of their position in a complex
network of mutually-reinforcing power relationships.
So far, most of our discussion of zero-tolerance in schools has focused on
the students who are expelled. How are they being governed or disciplined?
What institution takes over control after they are released from the
school's domination? But could it be, rather, that zero-tolerance functions
primarily as a way to reinforce the network of power relations within the
school. According to this view, it is neither the controllers or the
controlled, but rather the ONLOOKERS (parents, other students, the community
in general) who provide the motivating dynamic for the punitive response.
Forget the petty calculations of the social controllers. Instead, the
common expression of community outrage at the violation of the "sacred"
classroom has a spontaneously functional effect: a reaffirmation of respect
for those power relations that keep the school running. The kids who are
expelled? They're just scapegoats, sacrifices to the gods of the
educational machine. They will be re-absorbed by the next apparatus or
remain safely at the margin.
Coleman