tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/school-rules-17883/articlesschool rules – The Conversation2024-02-27T12:30:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232502024-02-27T12:30:48Z2024-02-27T12:30:48ZA Texas court ruling on a Black student wearing hair in long locs reflects history of racism in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577713/original/file-20240224-24-mne9vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C49%2C8118%2C5383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">America's schools don't always welcome cultural expression. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/barber-cutting-young-boys-hair-in-barbershop-royalty-free-image/1717468327?phrase=black+boy+dread+locs&adppopup=true">MoMo Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A Texas judge ruled on Feb. 22, 2024, that the Barbers Hill School District <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/22/texas-crown-act-judge-barbers-hill">didn’t violate the law</a> when it punished Darryl George, a Black student, for wearing his hair in long locs. The Texas law in question – the CROWN Act – prohibits discrimination against hairstyles in schools and workplaces. The school district argued – and Judge Chap B. Cain III agreed – that the law doesn’t mention anything about hair length. In the following Q&A, <a href="https://american.academia.edu/KenjusWatson">Kenjus Watson</a>, an education professor at American University who studies the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED619047">psychological and social effects of racism</a>, discusses how the decision upholds a long-standing legacy of cultural assimilation .</em></p>
<h2>What message has the court just sent?</h2>
<p>I’d argue it’s a harsh reminder that the natural appearance, cultural expressions and freedom of Black children are <a href="https://doi.org/10.47106/4rwj.11.02181931">incompatible with the objectives and ideals</a> of <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/the-white-architects-of-black-education-9780807740422">the school system in the U.S</a>. Those objectives and ideals were created to establish social order, enforce conformity, demand cultural assimilation and <a href="http://www.blackfeministpedagogies.com/uploads/2/5/5/9/25595205/a_third_uni.pdf">suppress marginalized groups</a>. </p>
<p>The court decision in Texas – and the no-long-hair policy in the Barbers Hill Independent School District – might seem outdated, misinformed or at odds with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00540-3">best practices for culturally responsive education</a>. But as I and other researchers <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36891083/">have found</a>, strict monitoring and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918754328">anti-Black practices</a> – such as those regarding Black children’s hair, bodies, language, clothing and even their presence – <a href="https://culanth.org/fieldsights/schools-prisons-and-blackness-in-america-a-conversation-with-damien-sojoyner">are widespread in America’s schools</a>. </p>
<h2>What options do Black students have?</h2>
<p>Since education is compulsory for minors, the only options for Black families are to find schools that attempt to <a href="https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1484">prioritize their overall well-being</a> by being supportive of their children’s hairstyle and other cultural values, or to educate their children at home, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/struggling-with-racial-biases-black-families-homeschool-kids-38694">many Black families do now</a>.</p>
<p>Finding a culturally supportive school can be a challenge. Despite efforts from Black families, educators, leaders and allies to create more inclusive environments in schools, anti-Black racism is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2013.850412">pervasive in educational settings</a> – from pre-K through higher education.</p>
<p>Staying in a school system that is hostile to Black cultural expression can threaten children’s well-being. <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/racial-microaggressions-in-education-9780807764398">Extensive research</a> has found that <a href="https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/14/resources/9950">racial microaggressions</a> – <a href="https://issuu.com/almaiflores/docs/kw___lph_research_brief_final_versi">everyday acts of racism</a> – can adversely affect the mental and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-racial-battle-fatigue-a-school-psychologist-explains-192493">physical</a> health of Black people. </p>
<p>My own research has found that it can affect the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36891083/">biological health of Black young people</a>. The hormones the body releases under stressful racial events can damage the <a href="https://vimeo.com/469867415">DNA of Black students</a>. Over time, this can contribute to higher rates of disease and overall <a href="https://theconversation.com/study-racism-shortens-lives-and-hurts-health-of-blacks-by-promoting-genes-that-lead-to-inflammation-and-illness-122027">shorter life expectancy</a> among Black people in the U.S. Finding a supportive school can be an even more urgent matter of life and death. Researchers have found that enduring everyday racism in school is also a key factor behind <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-kids-and-suicide-why-are-rates-so-high-and-so-ignored-127066">rising suicide rates</a> for Black youth.</p>
<h2>What should school leaders consider?</h2>
<p>If educational leaders want to see Black students flourish, I believe they should dismantle racist policies that require order, conformity and assimilation. They should replace these with schoolwide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2021.100880">microaffirmative</a> practices that validate Black student cultural expressions, identities, resilience and brilliance. They can also prioritize mental and emotional health and wellness.</p>
<p>To move toward a new educational system that truly serves all students, I argue that it is crucial to listen to Black families and students in the development of school policies, curriculum and instruction. Doing so can help place Black families’ current experiences within the broader context of the ongoing struggle against <a href="https://theconversation.com/critical-race-theory-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt-162752">discrimination and unjust legal decisions</a>, such as the one against Darryl George.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenjus T. Watson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar on racism weighs in on a recent court decision that upheld a school’s decision to punish a Black male student for wearing his hair in long locs.Kenjus T. Watson, Assistant Professor of Urban Education, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2157772023-11-03T12:44:21Z2023-11-03T12:44:21ZWe analyzed over 3.5 million written teacher comments about students and found racial bias<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556334/original/file-20231027-17-v7vc7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C51%2C8595%2C5704&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers had more negative comments about Black boys than they did about other groups.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/boy-sitting-in-class-and-trying-to-read-board-royalty-free-image/1413457551?phrase=students+in+trouble+black&adppopup=true">aldomurillo/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<p>Written teacher comments about students can show implicit racial or ethnic and gender biases in school discipline, according to our recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231189444">study</a>. </p>
<p>To identify these biases, we analyzed more than 3.5 million teacher comments about students from thousands of schools in the U.S. These comments were written in student office discipline referrals. Teacher comments were gathered from a web application used by schools to provide information such as when and where student discipline referrals occurred. When purchasing the application, schools can provide permission for their de-identified data to be used for research purposes.</p>
<p>Our study showed that teachers wrote more when describing behavior incidents of Black students compared with white students. They also used more negative emotions, words like “anger,” “hurt” and “disrespectful,” and used more verbs, such as “scraped,” “hit” and “spanked.” We found the opposite was true for Asian and Hispanic students compared with white students.</p>
<p>Further, we found that teachers used more words, negative emotions, verbs and impersonal pronouns when describing incidents for boys compared with girls.</p>
<p>Our research shows that written teacher comments about students vary by the students’ demographic backgrounds. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20902816">Research</a> shows that certain types of words provide insights into what people are thinking, feeling and experiencing psychologically. For example, the use of impersonal pronouns, such as “it” and “this,” are terms related to depersonalization and can reflect greater psychological distance from one group to another.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://ocrdata.ed.gov/resources/downloaddatafile">Office for Civil Rights</a>, Black students account for nearly 15% of total public student enrollment but 30% of students suspended in school and 38% of those suspended out of school in the U.S.</p>
<p>Boys also receive substantially more <a href="https://doi.org/10.17988/bedi-41-04-178-195.1">office discipline referrals</a> than girls, and Black girls are more likely to receive office discipline referrals than white girls.</p>
<p>These inequities in student discipline have both short-term and long-term negative consequences, such as poor student-teacher relationships and lower academic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.12.001">achievement</a>. And these inequities are not <a href="https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/special-education/disabling-inequity-the-urgent-need-for-race-conscious-resource-remedies">narrowing</a>.</p>
<p>Strategies for identifying and addressing teacher biases have remained elusive. One reason is that some biases are harder to identify than others. Explicit biases are more overt and can include a teacher making offensive comments based on the race, gender or disability status of their students.</p>
<p>Implicit biases, on the other hand, are more subtle. Implicit biases are more likely to affect decisions when teachers feel the need to act quickly, such as sending students to the office, without considering the consequences of their decisions. For example, implicit bias could explain why students of color receive more office discipline referrals than white students for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000178">subjectively defined behaviors</a>, such as defiance, as opposed to stealing or property damage.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Many schools are being more proactive about <a href="https://exceptionalchildren.org/webinar/equity-focused-pbis-approach-increasing-racial-equity-school-discipline">reducing disparities</a> in discipline that removes students from school.</p>
<p>These equity-focused approaches include strategies for teaching educators how to analyze their discipline data for patterns. The strategies also show educators how to better take student culture into account and to stop implicit biases before they occur.</p>
<p>For example, teachers could use activities such as a classroom teaching matrix – or chart – to help students and themselves see the similarities and differences between expectations at school versus at home. Such activities can help educators adapt their classroom expectations to make it easier for students to navigate varying classroom expectations for their behavior.</p>
<p>Research is ongoing to evaluate the effects of these equity-focused approaches on school and student outcomes. Ultimately, we hope these approaches will prevent disproportionate disciplinary practices from occurring and place the focus on designing effective, safe and supportive school environments for all students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kent McIntosh receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education, including grant #R305A230399 from the Institute of Education Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angus Kittelman, David Markowitz, and Maria Reina Santiago-Rosario do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teachers use tougher language when describing the misbehavior of Black children, new research shows.Angus Kittelman, Assistant Professor of Special Education, University of Missouri-ColumbiaDavid Markowitz, Associate Professor of Communication, Michigan State UniversityKent McIntosh, Knight Chair of Special Education, University of OregonMaria Reina Santiago-Rosario, Research Associate, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2012392023-03-27T12:46:20Z2023-03-27T12:46:20ZPupils protest over toilet rules: why school responses should consider children’s rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516949/original/file-20230322-1165-1ps5j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C807%2C6871%2C3963&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/protest-203254915">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people across the UK have been protesting in 2023. Teachers on strike over <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64718792">pay and working conditions</a> marched through London with placards and listened to speeches on March 15. Protests against the government’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/18/protests-against-migration-bill-held-in-london-glasgow-and-cardiff">illegal migration bill</a> took place in Glasgow, London and Cardiff.</p>
<p>Young people have also been protesting at a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-toilet-riots-2023-cornwall-b2289449.html">number of schools</a>. One issue has been <a href="https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/almost-50-parkside-community-school-8223468">school rules</a> that they claim stops them from <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-64786140">going to the toilets during lessons</a>. </p>
<p>Ben Riggott, headteacher at Parkside Community School, where one protest took place, <a href="https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/almost-50-parkside-community-school-8223468">said</a>: “We understand the students were protesting about arrangements for access to toilets while in lessons. Our policy for some time has been that during lesson times students should not leave to use the toilet, unless they have a medical need to use the toilet more often or in an emergency situation.” </p>
<p>Sir John Townsley, chief executive of The GORSE Academies Trust, which runs Farnley Academy in Leeds where a protest took place, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-64786140">said</a>: “Though we do, when necessary, allow children to use toilets during lesson times we strongly encourage our pupils to use the toilets before and after school and during break times.”</p>
<p>Students at a Merseyside school protested against the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64743377">measurement of girls’ skirts by teachers</a>. “The implementation of the uniform policy was carried about by staff, both male and female,” the school headteacher said. </p>
<p>There are legal <a href="https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/advice_information/pcsc-policing-act-protest-rights/">limits on the right to protest</a> – and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/12/what-is-the-law-on-the-right-to-protest-in-the-uk">right to protest</a> is limited by disruption, damage and damage to property. There have been reports that some actions taken by school students did not meet these requirements. This includes reports of students <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools-toilet-protest-riot-uk-b2288977.html#comments-area">flipping desks</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/05/heads-uk-parents-pupil-protests-tiktok-stampedes-teachers-social-media">throwing urine</a>, and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-toilet-riots-2023-cornwall-b2289449.html">letting off fire extinguishers</a>.</p>
<p>But it seems that, for some schoolchildren, taking part in any type of protest may risk punishment, even if peaceful and not disruptive. A headteacher at a Northampton school told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/05/heads-uk-parents-pupil-protests-tiktok-stampedes-teachers-social-media">the Observer</a> that he had informed students that taking part in a protest would lead to suspension or potential permanent exclusion, and that he thought parents’ reference to human rights regarding toilet closures “ludicrous”. </p>
<p>Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, has <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/tiktok-videos-school-protests-abusive-teachers">said</a>: “Students should raise any concerns they may have through normal and established channels such as student representative bodies or talking to their class teacher. They should not participate in protests and they need to be aware that doing so is very likely to result in disciplinary action.”</p>
<h2>Human rights and education</h2>
<p><a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2FGC%2F2001%2F1&Lang=en">The United Nations committee</a> that monitors children’s rights reminds us that children do not lose their human rights when they walk through the school gates, and should learn their rights from behaviour modelled by the adults teaching them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Pupils in uniform in computer lab" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516977/original/file-20230322-28-ipk2ph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When at school, children have rights beyond their right to education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pupils-computer-class-teacher-480125899">SpeedKingz/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> can provide useful insight into children’s right to peaceful protest. It recognises children as having legal entitlements, and not solely as being in need of discipline or protection.</p>
<p>There are five rights in the convention on the rights of the child that are particularly relevant. These are the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child">right to non-discrimination</a> (article 2), children’s right to be consulted on matters that affect them (article 12), the right to peaceful assembly (article 15), the right to safety (article 19) and the right to school discipline that is administered in a manner consistent with children’s human dignity (article 28(2)). </p>
<h2>Keeping rights in mind</h2>
<p>Students have the right to be consulted about decisions on matters that affect them under article 12. If students are asked for their views, a space for nuanced discussion about problems with school policies can be created. It could include consideration of how the outcomes might affect disabled, female or other marginalised students differently. </p>
<p>There are no easy answers, however. Children have the right to peaceful assembly under article 15, but they also have a right to safety under article 19, and schools have an obligation to provide a safe environment for students. Any behaviour by other children that puts this right to safety at risk must, of course, be dealt with appropriately – so long as approaches to doing so are consistent with a child’s dignity. </p>
<p>At one school, for instance, staff met with student representatives to discuss how the toilet policy <a href="https://www.theoldhamtimes.co.uk/news/23368756.oldham-school-tiktok-inspired-open-toilets-protest/">might be adapted</a>. </p>
<p>These school protests raise questions about how we treat children as part of our society. We can listen to what children say about their experiences. Children’s protests are a form of expression, and all children have a right to have their views heard. </p>
<p>We should consider if how we treat children is likely to cause them embarrassment or discomfort. What’s more, children are expected to learn from adult behaviour. As a society, if we teach children that their rights can be withdrawn or ignored, this may affect how they report abuse or defend the rights of others.</p>
<p>If we wish education to prepare children for responsible life in society, then affording them the human rights of dignity, respect and equality are a good beginning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Hanna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines children’s right to peaceful assembly.Amy Hanna, Lecturer, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831632022-06-21T13:46:50Z2022-06-21T13:46:50ZFor schools, accepting student mobile phone use may be a better approach than banning them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469834/original/file-20220620-13761-txubdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C7%2C4947%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-african-student-wearing-green-bagpack-1233990439">Rido/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most children in the UK <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/234609/childrens-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2022.pdf">own their own phone by the age of 11</a>. In China children get their first phone at an even younger age, with 88% of first to third-grade pupils (aged six to nine) <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/13/WS6074ec6ea31024ad0bab50c1.html">reported</a> to have their own smartphone.</p>
<p>If children have their own phone, they may well take it to school with them – perhaps encouraged to do so by their parents for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2008.00166.x">safety reasons</a>. For schools, though, mobile phones can be seen as a source of distraction. In <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2019/08/30/the-mobile-phone-ban-in-french-schools-one-year-on-would-it-work-elsewhere/">France</a>, mobile phone use is banned during school hours. However, research with teachers in China <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.011">has found that</a> banning phones at school is difficult to enforce.</p>
<p>Another approach could be the adoption of school policies – rules or guidelines – that accept the inevitability of phones in schools. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12583">Our recent research</a> suggests that pupils, even in primary schools, may have the maturity to contribute to the development of appropriate policies. </p>
<p>Some research <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AEA-05-2021-0112/full/html">has found</a> that banning mobile phone use can enhance students’ academic performance, especially for pupils from <a href="https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1350.pdf?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Education%20-%204%20February%202022&utm_term=Education">disadvantaged backgrounds</a>. But this has not been consistently found in other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102009">research studies</a>. </p>
<p>One reason for the inconsistency in research findings is that studies have focused on different age groups and little consideration has been given to children’s maturity and academic motivation. This is important, as older children might be able to use their phones more appropriately. </p>
<p>For example, 18-year olds have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00313831.2020.173913">been observed</a> to only use their phones during the “in-between” spaces in the classroom, such as at the beginning and end of a class or when waiting for instruction. Furthermore, this phone use tended to be a solitary activity and therefore did not distract from learning. But it seems unlikely that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10438599.2018.1559786?journalCode=gein20">younger teenagers or children</a> would behave in the same way.</p>
<h2>Benefits of mobile devices</h2>
<p>On the other hand, rather than considering mobile phones <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hbe2.229">a distraction</a>, they could be used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2019.1702426">increase pupils’ engagement</a> in learning. A <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1099110.pdf">Bring your Own Device initiative</a> trialled in New Zealand secondary schools, in which pupils were encouraged to bring their smartphones and tablets to use in class, found that their digital skills were improved and that there were increased opportunities for collaboration between pupils and between pupils and teachers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Group of teens in uniform looking at phones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mobile phones can contribute to learning at school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-students-sitting-stairs-using-digital-654900571">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead of banning phones outright, schools could consider introducing mobile phone use policies which develop children’s <a href="https://www.childnet.com/resources/digital-resilience/">digital skills and resilience</a> by teaching them about the benefits as well as the risks of mobile phone use. In addition to reducing possible distractions to learning, these polices could be used to encourage appropriate mobile phone use. This might be particularly important for younger children who may be less able to regulate their use of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2018.1559786">phones appropriately</a>.</p>
<h2>Consulting with children</h2>
<p>Taking the views of those most directly involved with the policy – teachers, pupils and parents – into consideration <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131516302305">is important</a>. Teachers must enforce the policy, children are the intended beneficiaries of the policy and the views of parents are likely to influence their child’s compliance with the policy.</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12583">In our research</a> at Staffordshire University we carried out paired interviews with parents and their ten or 11 year-old children. First, they were asked for their views on the benefits and risks of mobile phone use at school. Secondly, a range of different school mobile phone polices were shared with them and they gave their views on these. </p>
<p>The findings suggest the children and their parents shared the view that phones were important for keeping in contact. They were also aware of the downsides of having phones at school, including bullying and risks of being able to access the internet. Neither parents nor children were supportive of policies involving total bans. </p>
<p>We found that the children contributed to the discussions in a very mature way, sometimes surprising their parents in how aware of the risks they were. Furthermore, in collaboration with their parents, they were able to come up with ideas for ideal policies and solutions to help enforce them. They demonstrated good awareness of appropriate and inappropriate use of mobile phones at school. One parent-child pair suggested a role of “telephone prefect” who would have a class mobile phone that children and parents could use to contact each other during the school day when necessary. </p>
<p>Involving children and parents in policy development has the potential to increase the effectiveness and enforceability of policies – and may even reduce children’s problematic phone use <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15213269.2018.1433544">more broadly</a>. Consulting with parents and pupils when developing school mobile phone policies is already recommended in <a href="https://www.webwise.ie/teachers/considerations-for-smartphone-use-in-schools/">Ireland</a>.</p>
<p>School policies that ban mobile phones in schools may be missing an opportunity to involve children and educate them about responsible mobile phone use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Rose is affiliated with Staffordshire University and a member of the British Psychological Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Taylor is affiliated with Staffordshire University and is a member of the British Psychological Society. </span></em></p>One option is for schools to develop mobile phone policies together with children and parents.Sarah Rose, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Child Development, Staffordshire UniversityJennifer Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Qualitative Psychological Research Methods, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753202022-01-26T19:06:54Z2022-01-26T19:06:54ZOnce a form of ‘social camouflage’, school uniforms have become impractical and unfair. Why it’s time for a makeover<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442383/original/file-20220124-19-wn67w2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C17%2C5982%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the start of a new school year looms, school uniforms are being dusted off or new ones bought. At the same time, age-old debates about the pros and cons of school uniforms are being dusted off, too. </p>
<p>But questions about practicality, cost or conformity tend to overshadow the bigger underlying issue of how uniforms – and rules about wearing them – actually affect educational outcomes. </p>
<p>In other words, does wearing (or not wearing) a uniform contribute to students being mentally well, physically comfortable, healthy and active – and therefore better equipped to learn?</p>
<p>After all, academic learning is a key reason children go to school in the first place. Given the heated arguments and the insistence on particular types of garments being worn, we might expect uniforms to directly enhance academic performance. </p>
<p>They don’t. There is no persuasive evidence that school uniforms are among the factors that <a href="https://visible-learning.org/2009/02/visible-learning-meta-study/">directly improve learning</a>. However, there is evidence uniforms might indirectly support <a href="https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/school-discipline-school-uniforms-and-academic-performance">classroom management</a> – for example, by helping remove distractions so students settle more quickly to their tasks. </p>
<p>Instead of arguing about whether uniforms are good or bad, then, let’s refocus our energy on making better garment designs and fairer school uniform rules, with an eye to supporting educational outcomes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442395/original/file-20220124-26263-1ue67r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uniforms as a form of class disguise: an illustration of students in a classroom from The Illustrated London News in 1891.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From equality to equity</h2>
<p>Since there’s no direct link between uniforms and academic achievement, why insist on dressing students the same? History provides some of the answer. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, when school uniforms became common alongside compulsory education, a kind of equality was achieved by treating all students the same. Uniforms provided “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16823206.2012.692211">social camouflage</a>” by removing outward signs of class differences. </p>
<p>One enduring benefit of school uniforms is that they reduce “competitive dressing” by students – the social pressure to wear certain clothes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-wearing-a-school-uniform-improve-student-behavior-51553">Does wearing a school uniform improve student behavior?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Nowadays, however, the debate about uniforms sidesteps the issue of how treating students the same is not necessarily the same as treating them fairly. In fact, the research highlights a need for equity: to achieve more equal outcomes can require treating students differently.</p>
<p>Logically, if equality and sameness were directly correlated, school uniforms and school uniform policies should have a neutral or positive impact on all students. But this <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34692181/">isn’t the case</a>. </p>
<p>Garment design or policies about which garments can be worn when and by whom disadvantage poorer students, girls, religious minorities and gender-diverse students. Together, these student groups make up over half the school population. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442396/original/file-20220124-27-1rlsj5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Studies have shown girls are more active when wearing a sports uniform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Students are not uniform</h2>
<p>We know uniforms are less expensive than non-uniform alternatives over a student’s total school career. But the high upfront cost of uniforms can be a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40841-016-0046-z">significant burden</a> for students from low-income families. </p>
<p>Some students even attend on alternate days because they <a href="https://www.schoolnews.co.nz/2020/02/four-siblings-sharing-one-uniform-new-survey-shines-light/">share a uniform with a sibling</a>, or skip school until they can buy a missing uniform item. It’s a sad irony that the very tool meant to encourage equal access to education has become a barrier for some even before they walk through the school gates.</p>
<p>But beyond the cost, uniform design and policy can directly affect girls’ ability to participate in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18377122.2012.666198">physical activity</a> or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21940211/">lunchtime play</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-schools-want-all-students-to-look-the-same-75611">Why do schools want all students to look the same?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At a basic level, boys simply don’t risk flashing their underwear if they bike to school in regulation uniform. By contrast, girls’ uniforms often restrict a full range of movement and inhibit playtime sports or the ability to enjoy the jungle gym. </p>
<p>Studies have shown girls are more active when wearing a sports uniform (over and above timetabled sport) than on ordinary uniform days, and are more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15568318.2016.1253803?journalCode=ujst20">willing to bike</a> or <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326191558_Transport_behaviours_among_older_teenagers_from_semi-rural_New_Zealand">choose active transport</a> if they have a sports-style uniform.</p>
<p>For older girls, feeling comfortable and not exposed is a key factor in participating in sports or games at break times. Yet some schools still offer no alternative choice to a skirt. For overweight children, unflattering clothing can create a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0017896919846182">disincentive</a> to participating in physical activity. </p>
<p>Religious minority groups, despite being members of the school community, are often not accommodated by school uniform design and policy. And inflexible school uniform policies routinely ignore the needs of transgender students. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/4-reasons-schools-should-let-students-wear-sports-uniforms-every-day-161653">4 reasons schools should let students wear sports uniforms every day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Better uniforms for better learning</h2>
<p>Clearly, <em>same</em> treatment no longer means <em>fair</em> treatment. We should rethink our approach to equity and allow for flexibility to achieve similar outcomes.</p>
<p>Indeed, all students could benefit from a general rethink, from ensuring uniform garments are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29199473/">sun-safe</a> to allowing students to dress for the weather conditions. There’s no need to freeze during an unseasonable cold snap in November simply because it’s school policy that summer uniforms must be worn in summer months. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we should get beyond binary debates about whether school uniforms are good or bad, and focus on improving uniform garments and policies with equity, well-being and fairness in mind.</p>
<p>This means designing uniforms that are comfortable to wear, allow free movement, permit physical activity and encourage active transport choices to and from school. </p>
<p>Above all, uniform wearing should support mental and physical comfort and, most importantly, learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johanna Reidy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Debating whether school uniforms are good or bad sidesteps a bigger issue: students – especially girls – need better designed garments that support their learning and well-being.Johanna Reidy, Lecturer, Department of Public Health, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932792018-04-04T20:01:23Z2018-04-04T20:01:23ZWhy suspending or expelling students often does more harm than good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211092/original/file-20180320-31596-11q1soh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suspension refers to when a student is sent home from school waiting for a decision about how to respond to a serious incident.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of students being suspended or expelled from Australian schools is “skyrocketing”, according to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/nsw-primary-school-suspensions-skyrocket-20180215-p4z0ee.html">news reports</a>. These note a 10% increase in suspensions over two years at NSW primary schools and that students in south-western Sydney are being suspended more than four times as often as students in other parts of the city.</p>
<p>Suspension and expulsion is widely used in Australia, the UK and the US to respond to problematic behaviour. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740913003782">evidence</a> shows these tactics aren’t effective in changing a student’s conduct, and carry major long-term risks for their welfare. Students most affected tend to be those with higher and more complex needs, such as those with disabilities and mental health issues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212874/original/file-20180403-189795-4rr04h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Students most affected tend to be those with higher and more complex needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="http://search.ror.unisa.edu.au/record/UNISA_ALMA51108717340001831/">Instead of punishing</a> young people, parents should be encouraged to work with schools to improve their child’s behaviour, and governments should install programs to tackle teacher stress. In the case of some schools, this might mean honestly tackling the quality of teaching and leadership, as well as teacher attitudes to students with disabilities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/report-sparks-concern-about-how-schools-support-students-with-disabilities-78753">Report sparks concern about how schools support students with disabilities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Not the best strategy</h2>
<p>Suspension refers to when a student is sent home from school after a serious incident (such as physical assault on a teacher) while a decision is being made about how to respond. Exclusion (also called expulsion in <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/associated-documents/suspol_07.pdf">NSW</a> and <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/participation/Pages/expulsions.aspx">Victoria</a>) is either for a set period or permanently. It can mean a decision has been taken by the principal or school leadership that the student cannot attend the school as a result of their behaviour. </p>
<p>Providing education for children is the legal responsibility of state governments. A decision to exclude a student means the child either attends an alternative education provider or is home-schooled, depending on family circumstances and judgements of the professionals (typically the principal or senior staff team) involved.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212873/original/file-20180403-189816-1jn0pyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A decision to exclude a student means the child either attends an alternative education provider or is home-schooled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A 2017 <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/57d918ec-fee0-48e0-a55e-87d0262d3c27//publications/parliamentary-reports/investigation-into-vic-gov-school-expulsions.aspx">Victorian Ombudsman report</a> noted school expulsion was an escalating educational issue. It concluded many schools were not equipped with the resources, expertise and assistance to provide support to children with higher needs. </p>
<p><a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/3/e1000">Research</a> shows students who are expelled have a higher future risk of engaging in criminal and anti-social behaviour, or consuming drugs. Excluded young people also have lower odds of a stable, happy and productive adult life.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-expelling-too-many-children-from-australian-schools-65162">Are we expelling too many children from Australian schools?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Suspensions and exclusions also raise serious ethical questions about how our school system accommodates disadvantaged students. Vulnerable (“at risk”) students, such as those with disabilities or mental health difficulties, are <a href="https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/57d918ec-fee0-48e0-a55e-87d0262d3c27//publications/parliamentary-reports/investigation-into-vic-gov-school-expulsions.aspx">disproportionately represented</a> in school exclusions and school suspensions.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://a4.org.au/sites/default/files/Report%20of%20the%20Select%20Committee%20on%20Access%20to%20the%20South%20Australian%20Education%20System%20for%20Students%20with%20a%20Disability.pdf">recent SA report</a>, for example, explicitly recommended schools avoid using exclusion or suspension as a default behaviour management strategy for students with disabilities and challenging behaviours. </p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>Many evidence-based strategies are available to help improve student (and teacher) behaviours in schools. These can be highly effective if teachers know how to use them and have the confidence to do so. Children with higher behavioural needs may need to receive more intensive, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13632750600833791">specialist intervention, focused</a> on developing appropriate communication, social skills and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13632752.2015.1120051">emotional regulation</a>.</p>
<p>Teachers can also be helped to gather and record data about when and where problem behaviours occur. This can then be used to gauge what may be <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/education/education-history-theory/understanding-child-and-adolescent-behaviour-classroom-research-and-practice-teachers?format=PB&isbn=9781107439726#7ibdrDJQXC6jhWba.97">driving the behaviour</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212872/original/file-20180403-189830-16gmrq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teaching is widely regarded as an incredibly stressful field.</span>
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<p>For example, George wants attention because the academic work set by the teacher is too difficult for him and his disruptive behaviour is a call for help. Annoying the teacher, and being excluded from class, allows a demotivated Carli to escape from the tedium of worksheets. Andy is irritable and prone to aggressive behaviour on Monday morning because he stays at his dad’s on a Sunday night, which unsettles him emotionally and constantly reminds him of his parents’ separation. </p>
<p>Insights from this structured process of data gathering can then enable <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13632752.2011.569394">teachers to help</a> the student learn to modify their behaviour. This includes teaching appropriate behaviours to replace negative ones. </p>
<p>In some cases, teachers and schools, as well as students, need to change their attitudes. Several Australian studies have indicated that unhelpful attitudes by teachers, by parents and school leaders toward <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/10-children-education/children-risk-education-system">“at risk” students</a> (students with disabilities, poor mental health or from disadvantaged backgrounds) can spur behaviours that lead to exclusion or self-exclusion. </p>
<p>My own <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603116.2013.823245">research</a> shows reducing educational exclusions is an opportunity for changing attitudes toward disability and mental health in schools. Changes in teacher attitudes towards at-risk children are fundamental for positive change in behaviours by teachers and in favour of inclusion. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212875/original/file-20180403-189798-3ykcut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A burnout cascade often refers to when an unwell and poorly coping teacher resorts to punitive and ineffective punishment responses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Teaching is widely regarded as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220670903383069">extremely stressful</a>.
While the reasons for this are complex, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0741932508327466">several studies</a> suggest <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-017-9391-0">poor classroom behaviour</a> is an important risk factor. </p>
<p>Emerging knowledge about the relationships <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616302052">between teacher stress and student behaviour</a> suggests it goes two ways. It’s known as a “burnout cascade”, where unwell and poorly coping teachers resort to punitive and ineffective responses. These rapidly escalate incidents and trigger further feelings of inadequacy in a teacher. </p>
<p>Other <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%252Fs10648-013-9244-0.pdf">research</a> suggests stressed teachers are more disconnected from their students. They often fail to notice their needs, which can trigger poor student behaviours. And many schools, and their teachers, just don’t have the skills or knowledge necessary to meet the unique learning and behavioural needs of students with disabilities.</p>
<p>So, future national initiatives designed to reduce teacher occupational stress are likely to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603116.2017.1413732">reduce unnecessary suspensions</a> and exclusions. The flow on benefits of such initiatives for vulnerable students and for our hard-working teachers could be enormous.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Armstrong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows punishments like suspension and expulsion further disadvantage already vulnerable students and could result in long term criminal and anti-social behaviour.David Armstrong, Senior Lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/649002016-09-06T20:49:21Z2016-09-06T20:49:21ZHow schools use language as a way to exclude children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136697/original/image-20160906-6101-1m501c5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One South African school issues 'demerits' if their pupils speak anything but English.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Ritchie/Cape Argus </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o <a href="https://archive.org/stream/DecolonisingTheMind/Decolonising_the_Mind#page/n0/mode/2up">once described</a> language as “the most important vehicle through which that [colonial] power fascinated and held the soul prisoner”. </p>
<p>He illustrated this with a disturbing account of receiving corporal punishment, being fined and wearing a “plate around the neck with inscriptions such as I AM STUPID or I AM A DONKEY”. His “crime”? Speaking Gikuyu at his English medium school. </p>
<p>Today, decisions about which language resources should count in schooling – as the language of instruction, a subject, or a legitimate language for learning – continue to be informed by the relationships between language and power. Schools and universities in post-colonial contexts still operate within the logic of coloniality.</p>
<p>These realities have been thrown into sharp relief by revelations that some South African schools <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/malaika-eyoh-pretoria-girls-racism-schools-undervalue-blackness-focus-containing-us-nourishing-us/">discipline their pupils</a> for speaking any language but English (or Afrikaans) while on school grounds. At Cape Town’s Sans Souci High School for Girls, pupils obtain “losses” (or demerits) for a range of “offences” – like being caught speaking isiXhosa. For many of Sans Souci’s pupils, this is their home language. </p>
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<p>Sadly this problem isn’t unique to South Africa. It’s been seen in other post-colonial contexts like Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie has <a href="http://www.iun.edu/%7Eminaua/interviews/interview_chimamanda_ngozi_adichie.pdf">spoken</a> about not having the opportunity to learn Igbo proficiently at school. This, she says, left her with no option but to write exclusively in English. </p>
<p>These girls’ stories have foregrounded the crucial issue of language in processes of assimilation and exclusion. Over the past ten years there has been a major shift in our understandings of language, bilingualism and bilingual education which show the <a href="https://theconversation.com/multilingualism-boosts-learning-and-can-create-new-science-knowledge-too-46292">learning advantages</a> of using <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137385758">more than one language</a> in the classroom for learning.</p>
<h2>A cycle of blame and bad faith</h2>
<p>African children – whose home languages are by and large not English – are generally not recognised for the experiences, knowledge and linguistic resources they bring. They’re expected to adapt to pre-existing school cultures. </p>
<p>African children in ex-Model C schools are expected to feel grateful at being given the “opportunity” of a quality education in a state school system that performs very poorly.</p>
<p>The apartheid government designated all “white” state schools Model C in 1992. This semi-privatised them. Research conducted in such schools since the 1990s has consistently pointed out these schools’ overwhelmingly <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13613321003726876">assimilationist ethos</a>.</p>
<p>Many previously white primary and secondary suburban schools offer only English and Afrikaans as “home language” and “first additional language” subjects. This continues apartheid’s ideology of bilingualism. Where an African language is offered, it is given marginal status as “second additional language”. African languages get little space on the timetable and few resources.</p>
<p>Primary school principals have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01434632.2014.908889?journalCode=rmmm20">defended</a> the fact that they offer only English and Afrikaans by saying their pupils continue on to high schools that only offer these languages. High school principals, in turn, reported that they had to offer English and Afrikaans because their feeder primary schools were not offering African languages. </p>
<p>This is a convenient cycle of blame which signals bad faith. If school leaders and parents were committed to embracing African languages and the spirit of the multilingual South African language in education policy, surely they would consult each other and design collaborative language policies? </p>
<p>But society’s collective beliefs about whose languages “matter” and should be privileged scupper any meaningful collaboration.</p>
<h2>Language ideologies</h2>
<p>The concept of language ideologies – people’s beliefs about what language is, as well as what particular uses of language point to or index – are central in shaping whose language resources count in formal schooling. </p>
<p>South African schools’ language policies proceed from an ideology of “language as a problem” rather than “language as a resource”. As is the case in other post-colonial societies, this sets linguistic diversity up as a barrier to rather than an advantage for learning. </p>
<p>The language ideology and practices that exclusively valorise English can be viewed as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Language-and-Power-in-Post-Colonial-Schooling-Ideologies-in-Practice/McKinney/p/book/9781138844070">Anglonormativity</a>: the expectation that people will and should be proficient in English, and are deficient (even deviant) if they are not.</p>
<p>In ex-Model C schools it’s not just English but a particular variety of standard South African English which aligns with whiteness that is privileged. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281896926_What_counts_as_language_in_South_African_schooling_Monoglossic_ideologies_and_children's_participation">Research has revealed</a> how early-grade primary school teachers buy into the myth that there’s one single correct pronunciation for English. They deviate from maths and literacy lessons to teach children to produce pronunciations and vowel sounds that align with white South African Englishes. This practice ignores the content or substance of children’s answers.</p>
<p>It is also Anglonormativity that renders the typical South African child entering schooling as linguistically deficient. </p>
<p>A typical learner in an ordinary South African school will have learned in their home language until the end of Grade 3. They’re then expected to switch to exclusively English instruction in all of their subjects from the beginning of Grade 4. This Anglonormativity is clearly a gross abuse of the child’s right to quality education. </p>
<p>All textbook materials, notes and assessments are given in a language that the child has been learning as a subject for a few hours per week in the first three years of schooling. </p>
<p>The child is expected to learn and be assessed exclusively in English to the final year of school and beyond. White middle-class English and Afrikaans speaking learners aren’t expected to make this sudden transition from learning in their home language. </p>
<h2>A long shadow of colonial racism</h2>
<p>This is not an argument for mother tongue education instead of English medium education. It’s an argument for bi- or multilingual education. </p>
<p>Parents and children should not be forced to choose either English or an African language. Instead, children must be equipped with the ability to learn through and develop all their language resources throughout their schooling. </p>
<p>The continuing denigration of African languages and exclusive valuing of English is evidence of apartheid’s long shadow. It also points to the <a href="https://monoskop.org/images/a/a5/Fanon_Frantz_Black_Skin_White_Masks_1986.pdf">internalisation of colonial racism</a> and the continuing power of whiteness. It’s time to realise that access to English will not be achieved through English-only instruction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn McKinney receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Xolisa Guzula does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Schools and universities in post-colonial contexts still operate within the logic of coloniality. This is starkly illustrated by their language policies.Carolyn McKinney, Associate Professor in Language Education, University of Cape TownXolisa Guzula, PhD Candidate in Language and Literacy, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646152016-09-01T17:09:12Z2016-09-01T17:09:12ZPupils deserve applause for demanding a just school system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135921/original/image-20160830-26282-y5465z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Black hair" has sparked a new racism row at a top South African school.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yves Herman/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>One of South Africa’s top public schools, <a href="http://www.phsg.org.za/">Pretoria Girls High</a> is making headlines after it <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-29-pretoria-girls-high-school-pupil-i-was-instructed-to-fix-myself-as-if-i-was-broken">emerged</a> that black pupils were being ordered to chemically straighten their hair. They also allege that they’re accused of <a href="http://citizen.co.za/1267564/uproar-as-pretoria-girls-black-pupils-in-untidy-hair-protest/">“conspiring”</a> when they gather in groups. Professor Yusuf Sayed unpacks the issue of discrimination at schools and how social cohesion can be improved in these spaces.</em></p>
<p><strong>Some people have responded to this controversy by suggesting that pupils must abide by the school rules which call for neatly kept hair. Do they have a point?</strong></p>
<p>It’s obvious and understandable that when rules and codes of conduct are consensually developed, democratically agreed and just, they should be upheld. In this instance, however, a middle-class normativity has in effect – and perhaps by intent – sought to exclude and marginalise the “other”. </p>
<p>Justifiable difference must be supported and encouraged – not delegitimated as occurred in this instance. Difference that is substantive, continually subjected to engagement and reflection, and that is contextually located and applied is the foundation of durable and just inclusion.</p>
<p>So it’s perfectly understandable that students have asserted their voices to be heard and challenged a “rule” that effectively de-legitimates their being. They should be applauded. The kind of critical thinking displayed by these young persons is what should be cherished and nurtured in education. Schools, like all spheres, must be democratic and inclusive in both intent and practice. </p>
<p>Education needs to adapt and evolve in changing circumstances and conditions as their students’ demographic composition shifts. Invoking tradition is puerile (indeed anti-educational) when tradition causes pain and hurt rather than understanding, tolerance and acceptance. If schools are to foster the democratic ethos post-apartheid South Africa hopes to nurture, they must be places where rules are subject to question and changed as may be required. </p>
<p><strong>How much of a problem would you say racism and other forms of discrimination are at South Africa’s schools today?</strong></p>
<p>Forms of discrimination in education aren’t new. They reflect the unfortunate continuation of a legacy of racial and social exclusion rooted in the apartheid era. </p>
<p>But attention hasn’t been paid to it partly because racism and discrimination is not just overt but also covert. Covert discrimination is particularly insidious and inscribed in schools’ everyday practices. These then become normalised. </p>
<p>This doesn’t mean discrimination is not endemic, structural and inscribed in institutional cultures and practices. For example, the <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-02-17-homosexuality-in-south-african-schools-still-largely-a-silent-taboo/">bullying and discrimination</a> that LGBTIQ learners experience is often not recognised or spoken about. The alienation from teaching and learning of children from poor backgrounds in wealthy schools and in schools generally is no less a problem. </p>
<p>Forms of discrimination in schools also cut across rich and poor quintile schools, fee and non-fee paying schools, and rural and urban located schools. Most of South Africa’s learners are in racially homogenous, poorly resourced and under performing schools. This is a problem of structural forms of inequity and discrimination. </p>
<p>In this, school governing bodies should be key spaces for democratic participation. But the danger in South Africa is that some of these bodies are often captured to serve wealthy, narrow, self-interested groups of parents. Their frame of reference is exclusive rather than inclusive and they often act with impunity. Inequality of class is a problem as much as overt forms of racism.</p>
<p>Given that the problem doesn’t only affect one segment of schooling in South Africa, any responses should be systemic – not just episodic. It will take more than formal policies and pieces of legislation, though these are important. There also needs to be an <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-have-a-crucial-role-to-play-in-building-social-cohesion-60823">ongoing process of support</a> and education for school leaders, teachers and learners.</p>
<p><strong>Whose responsibility is it to make schools more welcoming and genuinely diverse?</strong></p>
<p>Creating social cohesion is everyone’s responsibility. It requires political will, a shared consensus and participation in processes that may be distinctly uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Political will is demonstrated through leadership that prioritises achieving social cohesion which changes unequal, system wide relationships of power and is focused on improving education quality. Such leadership also needs to work across government and in provincial and national education departments. This will allow for the development of proactive educational strategies that favour the marginalised.</p>
<p>But none of this will work without a shared consensus and participation. Every stakeholder across the education system and beyond must be committed to social cohesion. Forums for dialogue and consultative round tables are vital to create a robust policy framework that includes a detailed, adequately funded implementation plan. </p>
<p>Mutual trust underpins this whole process. Without it, no policies or action plans will matter. Individuals and groups need to trust each other and hold each other to account for agreed actions. This is a pre-condition for realising a transformative social justice agenda. </p>
<p><strong>What does a genuinely socially cohesive school environment look like?</strong></p>
<p>It’s one in which social cohesion is evidenced in the curriculum, the classroom and in governance structures.</p>
<p>When it comes to teaching and learning, a socially cohesive approach will recognise difference but not to the extent that such difference itself becomes a source of division and differentiation between social groups. It will also encompass teaching approaches that enable students to confront their histories, backgrounds and pasts. It should simultaneously give them hope for the future.</p>
<p>In socially cohesive schools, teachers listen to learners and place them at the centre. They seek consciously to support all learners irrespective of their social backgrounds.</p>
<p>On the governance side, a socially cohesive school will promote democratic participation and engagement across the board. This involves the members of the school, other schools and the local community.</p>
<p>Such schools develop active strategies to provide contact as starting points for breaking down racial and other barriers. </p>
<p>These schools actively affirm and enact rights, including those enshrined in <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf">the country’s constitution</a>. More fundamentally, it’s about realising rights through daily practices and the ways that teachers behave and teach. Learners are given the space to relate to each other. Schools must affirm the rights of refugees and migrants who are often silent, and silenced, in discourses about social cohesion.</p>
<p>All of this work must be founded on the guiding principles of a social justice agenda. This seeks to actively redress an unequal past whilst laying the markers for a future which is equitable, tolerant and mindful of difference.</p>
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<p><strong>Your <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-have-a-crucial-role-to-play-in-building-social-cohesion-60823">research</a> suggests that teachers can be real change-makers. What can individual teachers do if school rules don’t shift?</strong></p>
<p>Teachers work and teach within institutions and structures which can both <a href="http://learningforpeace.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/South-Africa-Country-Report-Summary-Apr16.pdf">enable and hinder</a> their ability to act in realising a progressive agenda of social change. </p>
<p>But teachers do have agency. They are neither victims nor perpetrators. They are not simply the solution or only the problem. So they have a responsibility as professionals to ensure that they challenge and don’t comply with rules which humiliate and demean learners, and which impact adversely on learning. </p>
<p>Individual teachers can do a great deal. They can challenge these rules through school governing bodies which include teacher representatives or through their representative associations and organisations like unions. To do all of this, as we’ve argued, they need policy direction, support and training. </p>
<p>It will take a far more radical conception of social cohesion to help a country like South Africa realise social justice. </p>
<p>Such an approach should recognise how violence and conflict is mediated through widely different contexts, which themselves reflect broader societal norms and values, and complex histories of violence within which teachers are located. It’s crucial to animate and invigorate a social justice, social cohesion transformation agenda for education.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: I am grateful to my colleagues Azeem Badroodien, Yunus Omar and Zahraa McDonald for their contribution to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64615/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The ‘Engaging teachers in peacebuilding in postconflict contexts: evaluating education interventions in Rwanda and South Africa’ research project is led by Professor Yusuf Sayed and funded through ESRC-DFID Pathway to Poverty Alleviation Programme. This research investigates the role of teachers in peacebuilding in the post-conflict contexts of Rwanda and South Africa. I gratefully acknowledge the support of our funder, research partners and our institutions. The views expressed in this article are the author's, and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of funders or their partners.</span></em></p>Schools need to adapt and evolve in changing circumstances and conditions as their students’ demographic composition shifts.Yusuf Sayed, South African Research Chair in Teacher Education; Director of Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE) & Professor of International Education and Development Policy (University of Sussex, UK), Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646762016-08-31T14:55:02Z2016-08-31T14:55:02ZFrom slavery to colonialism and school rules: a history of myths about black hair<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136125/original/image-20160831-30801-5on66k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the first dilemmas that black people face is whether to let strangers touch their hair -- and under what circumstances.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Mukoya/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Your hair feels like pubic hair.” That was one of the first insults that someone hurled at my hair. She was a junior at my school. She would touch my hair and repeat this sentence to all present. I had to threaten her with violence to get her to stop touching my hair and comparing it to her pubes.</p>
<p>This is one of the first dilemmas that black people face: do I let people touch my hair and under what circumstances? The question, “can I touch it?” becomes one of the most awkward social moments and can break relationships before they even start. </p>
<p>This fascination with the texture of black hair (please don’t call it “ethnic”), is not new. In slave societies, white women would often <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=Q-DsCwAAQBAJ&pg=PP39&lpg=PP39&dq=white+women+cut+off+black+slave+women%27s+hair&source=bl&ots=FB_O8BE7Nv&sig=fERX3HeZuyZXIKGvvaKc5pP0yaw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwvfuRievOAhVJGsAKHaWWB0wQ6AEIMDAE#v=onepage&q=white%20women%20cut%20off%20black%20slave%20women's%20hair&f=false">hack off</a> the hair of their enslaved female servants because it supposedly <a href="http://blackgirllonghair.com/2014/07/shocking-history-why-women-of-color-in-the-1800s-were-banned-from-wearing-their-hair-in-public/">“confused white men”</a> .</p>
<p>Today, black women with nappy hair – that is, natural and chemical-free – are desirable despite the popular discourse to the contrary. Think for example of how <a href="http://www.vogue.com/13336021/lupita-nyongo-october-2015-cover/">Lupita Nyong’o</a> has become a household name even though she is nappy and has dark skin. </p>
<p>It’s not just fashion or trends: throughout history, black women’s hair has fascinated artists and photographers and has been closely linked to radical political movements such as the <a href="http://allblackmedia.com/what-happened-to-the-natural-hair-movement-of-the-60s-and-70s/">Black Panthers</a> and South Africa’s own <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/defining-black-consciousness">Black Consciousness Movement</a>. It then seems like a paradox for the young women at South Africa’s Pretoria Girls High School to be told that they should “discipline” their hair by <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2016/08/29/Pretoria-High-School-for-Girls-faces-fury-after-black-pupils-told-to-%E2%80%98straighten-hair%E2%80%99">relaxing it</a>. </p>
<h2>Desire and fear</h2>
<p>But it’s actually not a contradiction, since desire and fear often feed on each other. In the <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/1623473/chris-rocks-daughter-inspired-new-documentary-good-hair/">documentary</a> produced and narrated by Chris Rock called “Good Hair”, the comedian Paul Mooney states it plainly: “If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed. If your hair is nappy, they are not happy.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1m-4qxz08So?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for comedian Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not just clever rhyming. Mooney is pointing to the fact that nappy hair is inevitably associated with something that is out of reach for “white people” – happiness. When you sport your natural hair, you are free; your hair is wild; you have a new “hairstyle” everyday; you are radiant; you are regal. These are out of reach for most people and it makes them unhappy. </p>
<p>It is also about conformity. By choosing not to tease and tame your hair, you are also choosing to let your hair express its personality rather than look like everyone else’s hair. That’s why it makes people unhappy. </p>
<p>Notice that I have generalised the issue to people in general rather than writing about white people, because misconceptions about what black hair is are also propagated by black people. In fact, I would argue that most white people don’t know anything about black hair, and get most of their misconceptions about what it is from black people. </p>
<h2>A history of black hair myths</h2>
<p>There are two main misconceptions that are urgent for understanding what the governing body and headmistress of Pretoria Girls High may have been thinking – or not thinking.</p>
<p>The first misconception is that natural hair is “dirty”. The second is that natural hair does/doesn’t grow (hence the obsession with hair length, hair extensions and dreadlocks).</p>
<p>Many black women and men who wear weaves and relax their hair will explain their choice by either saying that their natural hair is “unmanageable” or that natural hair is “dirty”. This is one of the most enduring stereotypes about black hair. People will even cite the “anecdotal” evidence that Bob Marley’s dreads had 47 different types of lice when he died. These are urban legends of the worst kind because they perpetuate the stereotype that only black hair attracts lice, and other vermin, which is simply <a href="https://youtu.be/dN5DXQMxWCY">scientifically untrue</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob Marley’s hair was the subject of several myths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historically, the myth comes from images of the pejoratively named “fuzzy-wuzzy” that British soldiers who were fighting Sudanese insurgents in the <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/mahdist-revolution-1881-1898">Mahdist War</a> sent home. This war, from 1881-1899, popularised the image of the wild Afros that people now imagine when they think of black hair. </p>
<p>These images are misleading for the simple reason that they suggest these Sudanese soldiers did not “dress” their hair or wash it, since in the images it often looks unkempt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Across the African continent, techniques for dressing hair were as varied as the hairstyles that they produced. </p>
<p>The “Afro” therefore is not some kind of standard African hairstyle. It is just one of several hundred ways of growing and maintaining curly hair. So, when a black person decides to “dread” or lock their hair, they neither need nor keep “dirt” in it to make it lock. Our hair (as does all hair) locks naturally when it is left uncombed or unbrushed.</p>
<p>The association of locks with dirt partly comes from the Caribbean where <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/">Rastafarianism</a> emerged as a subculture. However, even in this instance, the misconception is that dreadlocks equal Rastafarianism. The Rastas got their locks from Africa. To be exact, matted African hair was transported to the Caribbean by images of Ethiopian soldiers who were fighting the <a href="https://global.britannica.com/event/Italo-Ethiopian-War-1935-1936">Italian invasion</a> which began in 1935. They vowed – using the example of Samson in the bible – that they would not cut their hair until their country and emperor Ras Tafari Makonnnen (also called Haile Selassie) were liberated and the emperor returned from exile. </p>
<p>Before the war the Ethiopian elite sported very neat Afros. The only conclusion we can reach is that it is only under conditions of war and colonialism that black people present their hair as “unkept”. When at peace, the hairdressers and barbers did their jobs and kept black hair looking fabulous.</p>
<h2>Policing black hair</h2>
<p>The myths about how long black hair can or should be are as legion as the myths that natural hair is “dirty”. The misconception partly comes out of the concept of measurement. Natural African hair is curly and so to measure it, one would have to stretch out the coils. This is why limiting the growth of the hair by the width of cornrows or length of strands doesn’t make sense at all. </p>
<p>How would you know – without uncoiling it – how long a black person’s hair is? One black person’s coiffure will look very short because of “shrinkage” and another black person’s locks will look very long because of a loose coil. </p>
<p>The notion that long black hair is or should be cut or trimmed to an “acceptable” length is just ignorance masquerading as “neatness”. No two black people’s hair “grows out” the same. </p>
<p>Pretoria Girls High is not the first institution to try and police black people’s hair. In an article titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/opinion/when-black-hair-is-against-the-rules.html?_r=0">“When Black Hair Is Against the Rules”</a>, the New York Times responded to hair regulations that had been published by the US Army on March 31 2014. These prohibited twists, “matted” hair and multiple braids – all of which were read as references to natural African hair and hairstyles. </p>
<h2>Whose “common sense”?</h2>
<p>Conservative institutions – schools, militaries, corporations and so on – have the right to prescribe a dress code. However, these should not be based on partial knowledge where these institutions simply don’t do any research into what some of their prohibitions actually mean and instead rely on “common sense”. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, when it comes to black hair, “common sense” is the least reliable tool for decision-making, since even black people are constantly changing their minds about what they want to do with their hair. As an expression of our culture, black hair is as malleable and plastic as our ideas about it. </p>
<p>To attempt to fix such expressions in rules and regulations is to deny black people what the Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop <a href="http://www.centerformaat.com/files/African_Origin_of_Civilization_Complete.pdf">called</a> our “Promethean consciousness”. As black people, our hair is an expression of the infinite possibilities that emanate from this creative and daring consciousness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hlonipha Mokoena does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it comes to black hair, “common sense” is the least reliable tool for decision making since even black people are constantly changing their minds about what they want to do with their hair.Hlonipha Mokoena, Associate Professor at the Wits Institute for Social & Economic Research, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/430992015-06-16T10:08:09Z2015-06-16T10:08:09ZWhen researchers ask for data on penalization of black kids, schools resist, cover up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85085/original/image-20150615-5846-1oj1oza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students of color are more likely to be suspended.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unirodlibrary/8726689218/in/photolist-ei9yEW-ei3Q8D-ei3P7x-ei9ypW-ei9yvu-fVx6Ld-aUkPAz-i6Ukv8-9DDm9K-aUkPZr-aUkQYP-ei9zwW-ei9zaU-ei9zj3-ei9xMQ-ei3QmD-ei3QdP-ei9ywY-ei3NSP-ei3NMV-ei3R6c-ei9zJA-ei3QBH-ei9yim-ei3QFM-ei3Qop-ei9xXf-ei3R1n-ei3QsH-ei9zWh-ei9ziQ-ei3Pc8-ei9yLy-ei3PXv-ei9zpE-ei3PCk-ei9y69-ei9ypj-ei9yzY-ei9y1u-ei3NVR-ei3Qjz-ei3QvM-ei3QPV-ei3PWK-ei9yB5-ei3P2D-ei3Qzr-ei9z7y-ei3Q9v">Rod Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>That students of color bear the <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">brunt</a> of the zero tolerance discipline policies in schools has been <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf">well-established</a>. What is not so well known is that some school administrations are actually <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17975">complicit</a> in this act of racial disciplining.</p>
<p>Nationally, students of color are <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf">more likely</a> to be suspended than white students. On average, black boys are <a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-School-Discipline-Snapshot.pdf">suspended</a> four times more than white boys. Latino students are also <a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-School-Discipline-Snapshot.pdf">suspended</a> more frequently than white students, and female students of color are also disciplined more frequently than white female students. </p>
<h2>The policy ‘problem’</h2>
<p>But this is not all. A recent <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17975">study</a> that we conducted over a period of two years in Texas found that schools were in fact negligent when it came to addressing such practices of disciplining. The study covered four school districts in Texas with a population of nearly 200,000 students.</p>
<p>As researchers, we have been studying this issue since 2010. But what prompted this study was the suspension of one of the researcher’s sons from school. The child was given a US$500 court citation. And when we showed up for our court appointment, we saw that all the children were either black or brown. Did it mean that white children never fought in school?</p>
<p>We knew this was part of what is now known as the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline">school-to-prison pipeline</a> for children of color. It led us to take on a scholar-activist role. </p>
<p>Most schools and districts claim to be following <a href="http://uex.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/03/05/0042085913475635.abstract">“race-neutral” discipline policies</a>. School officials even point to their race-neutral suspension and expulsion policies to show how they are <a href="http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/39/1/68.short">“fair” with students</a> of all race and ethnic subgroups.</p>
<p>However, researchers have found that the problem lies in the application of these policies. </p>
<p>For example, black students are more likely to be suspended for breaking <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19083368">subjective school rules</a> such as a lack of respect for teachers than for objective ones, like having a weapon. Researchers point to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1021320817372#page-1">cultural stereotypes</a> and misunderstandings from a primarily white teaching force as the reasons for the “disciplining gaps.” </p>
<h2>Data on discipline</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17975">recent study</a> found that some schools are, in fact, negligent and even defensive when it comes to addressing the problem of school discipline practices and the discipline gap. </p>
<p>The kind of responses we got when we asked for school districts’ discipline data resembled a “corporate cover-up.” </p>
<p>Some school administrators resisted our attempts to provide information under the <a href="http://www.foia.gov/">Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)</a>, and some others released data that were not helpful. For example, in the discipline data submitted by a school district, we were not able to discern the race of the children who had been suspended or expelled from school. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some schools have been found to be negligent about school disciplining issues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=14343824922903054000&search_tracking_id=3QRhFZ-NxCkmZBsSnyJAuQ&searchterm=school%20children%20african%20american%20&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=147613502">Student image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is hard for us to imagine that schools are not keeping track of usable disciplinary data, considering that in recent years, widespread attention has focused on the disciplinary treatment of black boys and other students of color. President Obama has even initiated <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/my-brothers-keeper">My Brother’s Keeper</a>, a national program intended to help black and Latino boys succeed. </p>
<h2>Responses from schools</h2>
<p>Our biggest surprise was finding out that districts perceived our request for data as a threat. We found that school administrations became secretive, defensive and even more protective of the data. It seemed to us that districts were essentially complicit in the process of oppression of youth of color. </p>
<p>Even the districts that provided the data were very defensive when informed of the discipline gaps that occurred in their schools. For example, when presented with data in his district, one data administrator responded, “Well, other districts in Texas are higher than us” and “We are not far off from the state average.” </p>
<p>It was very troubling for us to see schools reacting in this way, especially when lives of youth were at risk. These responses were unacceptable and deflected the district’s responsibility. </p>
<p>In the end, only one school district, out of four, instituted a district-wide program for the principals of their schools to learn more about the racial discipline gaps. It was the only one to take steps on how to begin reducing and eliminating racial discipline gaps at both the school and at the district level. </p>
<p>As we conducted the study, we also realized that there is no national legislation that prompts schools to address disparities in education. While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and other national legislation have at least attempted to draw attention to <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/achieve/edpicks.jhtml">racial disparities</a> in achievement, no legislation exists that actually compels schools to address the problem.</p>
<p>This is unfortunate, given the close connection between the <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/39/1/59.short">academic achievement gap</a> and the discipline gap. </p>
<h2>What must be done?</h2>
<p>It is important that schools make policies and goals for racial and ethnic groups more explicit. For example, a goal for “75% proficiency for students in math” is not as impactful as “75% proficiency for each student subgroup based on their racial, gender or language-based identity.” The reason we say this is: what if the population of a school is 25% Latino and that happens to be the same population of nonproficient math students? </p>
<p>At the policy level, what is needed is intensive training on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/08/across-america-whites-are-biased-and-they-dont-even-know-it/">implicit racial bias</a> in most districts. In addition, school districts should be required to report overall suspension rates and discipline gaps within each of their schools. </p>
<p>Furthermore, state or federal policies must begin to regulate both the collection of discipline data and the rate of compliance of schools.</p>
<p>Parents too need to pay more attention. Parents of color and from other subgroups should begin to identify which schools are more likely to suspend students of color.</p>
<p>All this together can be a powerful impetus for districts and schools to attend to this problem. Otherwise, disciplining practices will continue to have devastating consequences for our kids.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Muhammad Khalifa works as a private consultant (schoolequityproject.com) and helps districts to close their achievement and discipline gaps, and to establish culturally responsive leadership. He is also a professor of educational administration for Michigan State University, and continuously trains school leaders to become culturally responsive leaders.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felecia Briscoe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students of color are subjected to harsher disciplinary measures. Are schools doing enough to check this practice?Muhammad Khalifa, Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, Michigan State UniversityFelecia Briscoe, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, The University of Texas at San AntonioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.