This essay demonstrates how Deleuze and Guattari's notion of 'microfascism' is of crucial importance to understanding the complexities of contemporary pedagogical efforts to combat populism, right-wing extremism, and fascism. The author discusses how 'affect' and 'biopower' are entangled in everyday processes of discipline and control, and argues…

It's a challenge for schools in every country: How to provide the right kind of discipline and create a climate that nurtures learning. This challenge may look different in different countries. A school's disciplinary climate not only is the product of educators' beliefs and actions, students' beliefs and actions, and the interaction of these, but…

The emergence of postmodern ideas in the educational literature has complicated the field?s understandings of oppression and resistance. While important, this postmodern influence has been problematic in its tendency to stress the relatively nurturing forms of "pastoral" control generally experienced by the privileged. Such a focus can direct…

In his "Rethinking Domination and Resistance: Challenging Postmodernism" ("Educational Researcher," January-February, 2004), Aaron Schutz questioned what he saw as postmodernism's fascination with the workings of pastoral modes of control, a preoccupation that prevents postmodernists from locating and opposing the disciplinary controls experienced…

This paper considers the discursive production of violence in the context of educational markets. Drawing on a larger study of sexually violent incidents that occurred in an elite private boys' school in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, the paper examines disciplinary traditions and communicative practices surrounding these events. Insights from Michel…

One challenge for composition instructors is to determine exactly, or even approximately, what objects and rituals must be observed for students' words to fall with the "true." Another is to successfully communicate these objects and rituals to their students through the various techniques of discipline. The arbitrary nature of…

Uses Michel Foucault's concepts of disciplinary technology and panopticism to explain educational inequalities. Describes the Panopticon (an architectural prototype for prisons) as a form of disciplinary technology. Considers schools as technologies of power and discipline, with their conformity to this model contributing to today's social…

Teachers' attempts to establish and maintain authority in their classrooms give rise to one of the essential tensions of teaching: reconciling caring and controlling. This paper examines sociopolitical questions about the nature of classroom authority and the uses of power to understand this tension. The first part presents an overview of the…

Calls for greater accountability in higher education have prompted responses from most faculty and administrators that self-regulation is the answer. This paper takes a quantitative approach to examining how administrative behavior is regulated, applying a social control perspective to the issues of sanctioning, detecting, and deterring deviance.…

Michel Foucault's work, it is suggested, has much to offer education. A general introduction to his work is presented, and his account of power/knowledge is outlined. How this power/knowledge is exercised in what Foucault calls 'the disciplines' is discussed and implications for schools are outlined. (Author/MLW)

Discusses the dynamic nature of the struggle between desire and discipline in an elementary school setting. Emphasizes that these competing forces and the ensuing struggle profoundly affect a child's secondary socialization. Findings reveal that even very young children acquiesce to and resist authority in many ways, learning complicated lessons…