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Preventing and Producing Violence: A Critical Analysis of Responses to School Violence

NCJ Number
155808
Journal
Harvard Educational Review Volume: 65 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (Summer 1995) Pages: 189-212
Author(s)
P A Noguera
Date Published
1995
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Approaches to school disciplinary problems are explored.
Abstract
In this article, the author explores the idea that the strategies that schools adopt in response to disciplinary problems, including violence, actually may perpetuate violence. He traces the history of institutional disciplinary measures, showing that the underlying philosophical orientation toward social control exacts a heavy toll on students, teachers, and the entire school community by producing prison-like schools that remain unsafe. He maintains that a get-tough approach fails to create a safe environment because the use of coercive strategies interrupts learning and ultimately produces an environment of mistrust and resistance. He offers alternative strategies for humanizing school environments, encouraging a sense of community and collective responsibility. These strategies include, for example, improving the aesthetic character of schools by including art in the design of schools or by making space available within schools for students to create gardens or greenhouses, and encouraging adults who live within the community to volunteer or be paid to tutor, teach, mentor, coach, perform, or otherwise assist with a variety of school activities. Notes