<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Public schools deploy a range of processes and practices that help constitute the formation and legitimation of certain knowledges, relationships, skills, values and, ultimately, subjectivities. School discipline regimes are one of these practices. Exercising their power through pedagogical modes of address, these regimes are currently organizing relationships throughout school cultures that reflect the values and encourage role performances associated with neoliberal capitalism. This research paper describes and analyzes two widely used discipline regimes-zero tolerance/hyper-criminalization and positive behavior interventions and support (PBIS) -through Foucault’s theories of governmentality and biopolitics. These two regimes provide mirror images of the primary modes of punishing and disciplining under neoliberalism: criminalization and individualization. The paper will also explore how neoliberalism subjects schools to processes of enclosure, but also how schools themselves have become sites productive of neoliberal subjects through the content, values and interests embedded in the curricula of PBIS and criminalization which students must master.</p></abstract>

Public schools deploy a range of processes and practices that help constitute the formation and legitimation of certain knowledges, relationships, skills, values and, ultimately, subjectivities. School discipline regimes are one of these practices. Exercising their power through pedagogical modes of address, these regimes are currently organizing relationships throughout school cultures that reflect the values and encourage role performances associated with neoliberal capitalism. This research paper describes and analyzes two widely used discipline regimes-zero tolerance/hyper-criminalization and positive behavior interventions and support (PBIS) -through Foucault’s theories of governmentality and biopolitics. These two regimes provide mirror images of the primary modes of punishing and disciplining under neoliberalism: criminalization and individualization. The paper will also explore how neoliberalism subjects schools to processes of enclosure, but also how schools themselves have become sites productive of neoliberal subjects through the content, values and interests embedded in the curricula of PBIS and criminalization which students must master.

Dangerous disciplines: Understanding pedagogies of punishment in the neoliberal states of America

Eastern Michigan University Department of Teacher Education 313 Porter Building Ypsilanti MI 48197 USA

University of Toronto Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning 252 Bloor St West, Office 10-125 Toronto Ontario M5S 1V Canada

Journal of Pedagogy

Public schools deploy a range of processes and practices that help constitute the formation and legitimation of certain knowledges, relationships, skills,...

Dangerous disciplines: Understanding pedagogies of punishment in the neoliberal states of America

Published Online: Dec 28, 2012

Page range: 198 - 218

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10159-012-0010-z

This content is open access.