Is it (still) useful to think about classroom discipline as control?: an examination of the 'problem of discipline'

The verb 'discipline' in classroom discipline approaches is understood predominantly in functionalist terms as a form of regulation or control to create and maintain order. Power associated with ideas of regulation and control in this context is thought about in structuralist terms, which is possessed and represents a powerful will over the powerless. In this chapter first I make a case that this way of thinking about discipline constructs a central problem that I term in this chapter the 'problem of discipline'. This problem is identified by all approaches of classroom discipline, and they all attempt to address and overcome this problem. The 'problem of discipline' revolves around the opposing ideas of students' freedom/ autonomy versus teachers' dominance/ control that constructs an axis between maximum freedom and maximum control according to the 'personal power' the teacher exerts and the 'personal power' the students have. In this way, laissez-faire approaches to discipline are located on the maximum freedom end, while autocratic approaches on the opposite end. Other approaches are also lined up on this axis according to the level of freedom they allow for students as well as the teacher control they carry