School attendance and completion are significant indicators of health and positive psychosocial development in children and adolescents. School attendance and completion rates remain particularly stifled, however, for students of color, students in poverty, and students with disabilities, among other vulnerable groups. Researchers and educational…

This article focuses on the link between social norms and behavioral development as presented in research on norms regarding bullying and aggression. The aim is to present a conceptual framework for how classroom norms may explain children's decisions to defend others or refrain from defending. Norms emerge from group consensus about what is…

This essay discusses my personal experience with sexual harassment perpetrated by a student. Also, discussed are the professional and personal consequences attached to sexual harassment experiences where the victim has more formal power than the abuser.

This article explores the conception of authority relations in the classroom that are implicit in some examples of related policy documentation in Scotland and England. We argue that the importance of the constitutive role of the micro-dynamics of face-to-face interaction in classroom settings is neglected in documentation of this type. We explore…

Pivoting around two sit-ins at the University of Georgia, this article examines student activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the US South. The first sit-in, at the conclusion of the spring 1968 March for Coed Equality, was part of the effort to overcome parietal rules that significantly restricted women's rights but left men relatively…

Classroom management is commonly understood as the structures and procedures that establish and reinforce a productive learning environment. However, traditional conceptualizations of classroom management are rife with culturally embedded norms, assumptions, power structures, and other roadblocks to a healthy classroom environment for all…

Disparate adult responses to student behavior, combined with increases in mental health issues and student trauma, compound the equity gap of racially minoritized students. Research suggests a correlation between social emotional learning (SEL) and student success (Gregory & Fergus, 2017). Providing a two-prong approach that includes (a) SEL…

In many primary school classrooms, there exists a casual tyranny of control and separation that distorts the bodied humanity of schoolchildren. The intent of this article is to make more visible and so, more actionable, the school structures that devalue and oppress the spirited needs and desires of schoolchildren. This article is directed toward…

In recent years a host of scholars have considered the contributions of various critical and post-structural perspectives to the study of college student development. This body of work has drawn on critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, among others, to advance more power-conscious approaches to student development. Critical…

While a robust body of research has documented the intricate relationship between our nation's education and penal systems, the weight of this work has focused on primary and secondary schools, absolving colleges and universities of their role in the carceral state. In this essay, we describe some of the ways in which higher education institutions…

For many emotionally troubled students, adults in their lives have acted like the mountain trolls featured in the Harry Potter books: scary, unpredictable creatures who can't listen and who respond to conflicts with the club of punishment. Although emotionally fragile students often "act out" or withdraw in ways that create problems, and…

This article respectfully challenges the metaphor of "open doors as resistance" by reconceptualizing power in the English classroom. It also offers an alternative metaphor -- open doors as acts of love and possibility -- through different theoretical and practical underpinnings. When we, according to the authors, conceive of teaching…

Against the menacing shadow of neoliberalism, which promotes individualism and competition, the author illustrates in this paper the need for group teaching. Group teaching as a method of instruction and learning fosters community bonds, solidarity, and is more effective teaching. Group teaching is a democratic tool necessary for society to…

Bullying is not simply the same act of misbehavior taking place electronically. While the two phenomena share common characteristics (use of power, harmful intent), distinct and important differences exist. The first is the concept of power. Power in cyberspace is not measured by physical size or family income. Instead, power lies in the anonymity…

Bullying has come to be recognized as a pervasive problem in schools today. Frequently bullying is not immediately recognized or viewed by classroom teachers as problematic behavior. As more students experience bullying, questions arise as to how well teachers understand the bullying dynamic and are aware of strategies for intervening when those…