Re-Thinking School Discipline: Towards an Ethical Approach

Abstract

Authoritarian approaches to school discipline are driven by the belief that children need to be tightly controlled in order to create and maintain a calm environment where learning can successfully take place. However, when the authority of adults is absolute, as is the case with such discipline, children’s natural capacities to question and challenge, which are integral to their growth to moral maturity, are undermined. This thesis adopts a broadly philosophical approach to explore the key justifications for such rigid approaches to school discipline and argues that they are inconsistent with the shared values that schools in England are required to promote, and consequently are neither educational nor ethical.

Through analysis of the approaches to school discipline presented by two dominant and influential voices in this field in England, I identify the problems with practices that focus on adult authority at the expense of children’s freedom, and investigate the inadequacy of the underlying assumptions on which they are established. I argue, first, that strict disciplinary practices, complemented by character education, seek to control children and deny them the opportunity to learn to think for themselves. Second, that the result is an impoverished version of moral education whereby children are learning to prioritise the neo-liberal and economically advantageous value of self-interest. Third, that implicit within strict discipline is a lack of respect for children which hampers their developing moral autonomy.

Building on this critique, I establish an ethical basis for school discipline which is grounded in respect for children. I apply the principle of equal worth and argue that their essential humanity necessitates their being treated as equal to adults in terms of respect. Grounding approaches to discipline in respect for the child negates authoritarian practices and allows children to develop into autonomous, critically aware individuals. I conclude by demonstrating how a principle-based approach to discipline and school rules can help children develop an understanding of the law which highlights the importance of school rules being established on a firm foundation of modern liberal values.