Discipline in the classroom: Communicative strategies for negotiating order

Abstract

Unrelenting routine problems, anxiety about discipline, and inability to respond to institutional demands are central communicative issues that many student teachers and first year teachers are concerned about as they begin their teaching careers. The purpose of this study was to extend the current understanding of one of these issues, discipline, by viewing it from the framework of Negotiated Order Theory. This case study examination reveals how and why discipline is negotiated by a first year teacher and his ninth grade students. Through the use of classroom observation and interviews with the teacher and his students, this study specifically explicates the communicative strategies used by the teacher and his students to negotiate classroom order. The results indicate that students' misbehavior often serves as a strategy for voicing dissatisfaction with the present classroom order. At the same time, the repeated discipline calls by the teacher reflect the teacher's and students' desire for changes in the classroom conditions. Future research needs to investigate the negotiation of order across a variety of classrooms and to consider different subject areas and grade levels.