ABSTRACT
Discussions of school discipline and disruptive student behaviour are commonly reduced to considerations of schools’ punitive and regulatory policies and procedures. This chapter distances itself from this form of behaviourism to argue that discipline is an educational goal. In this respect, school discipline is central to the project of personal and social development and invites educators to embark upon developing and providing what Tony Knight has called ‘an apprenticeship in democracy’. Such a reorientation of our thinking about discipline and student behaviour implies reform of curriculum, teaching methods and the organization of schools in order to increase student commitment and attachment to schooling. Current educational policy in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, undermines the promise of reform.
