ABSTRACT
Classroom management in urban classrooms concerns more than teachers’ abilities to get students to behave a certain way. It is about more than how teachers control their students and classes. When an observer walks down a hallway of a school and peeks into a classroom, the question should not be whether the students are orderly and silent in their seats, completing their worksheets, or listening to their teachers’ directives. On first glance, it may be tempting to see such classroom settings as productive and meaningful for students. To the contrary, we should instead wonder whether significant learning is taking place in that classroom, why or why not, and by what means.
