Exploring School Discipline Experiences: Perspectives of Disabled Adults

Background and Purpose: Despite federal legislation designed to protect equal access to public education and least restrictive learning environments, disabled youth face disparities regarding disciplinary practices. Schools are increasingly responding to student behavior using harsh and exclusionary practices that may include removal from classrooms, seclusion, expulsion, and placement in alternative schools. There is limited research that focuses on the voices of disabled youth who experience harsh discipline and are at increased risk for negative outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore past school discipline experiences among adults with disabilities. This study was rooted in the Peace and Power Conceptual Model (PPCM); this model assumes a dialectic struggle between Peace-Power actions reflecting critical emancipation versus Power-Over-Powers that involve oppression and the retention of power.

Methods: The design was qualitative description using naturalistic approaches to collect and analyze data. Qualitative description is relevant when information is required directly from those experiencing the phenomenon under investigation. Additionally, analysis and synthesis were rooted in the PPCM framework. Purposive and snowball sampling were employed during March 2021 – May 2022 to recruit adults (n = 9) over eighteen years self-identifying as disabled and receiving disability related services during primary/secondary school years. A semi structured interview guide was developed theoretically based on the PPCM and used to direct inquiry to provide data to research questions while allowing participants to fully describe past experiences.

Results: Eight common themes emerged regarding participants’ perspectives of past school discipline experiences after initial selective coding: humiliating, threatening, escaping, observing, avoiding, diverging, isolating, and failing. These initial themes were categorized into two primary PPCM categories highlighting the dialectic between the Power of Force (Power-over) defined by power over others and imposing penalties, and the Power of Diversity (Peace-power) defined by flexibility motivated by protection of the individual. This pair of PPCM powers helps frame experiences of participants as a contrast between unjust treatment (power-over) and treatment based in understanding (peace).

Conclusions and Implications: Participants’ recollection of their school experiences focused less on harsh, exclusionary disciplinary practices (i.e., restraints, suspension, or expulsion). Instead, findings showed a more nuanced depiction of how students were either marginalized or supported in classrooms that shaped their overall school experiences. They shared feelings of avoidance and escaping confrontations and interactions with teachers and others that felt marginalizing and overwhelming. Participants’ experiences either reflected rigidly imposed discipline strategies, or strategies promoting classroom inclusion with additional supports. Disabled students can experience oppressive power-over dynamics separating them from others because they are unable to meet rigid classroom expectations. Practice implications include the need to devote resources, including training and mentoring, in schools and classrooms where more heterogeneous groups of students are clustered. Within these environments there is more danger of students experiencing power-over dynamics in ways that separate them from others.