ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book aims to analyze recent changes to discipline policies in Australian government schools. It demonstrates the complexity of the problem of disruption in schools by drawing upon local and international research and literature as a backdrop to the evaluation of selected developments in Australian student behaviour management policies. By also considering the complicated, often capricious, practice of policy-making in education, the book aims to identify further problematics, reframe expository questions and posit recommendations for policy development conducive to ‘discipline’ as an educational discourse, not an ‘economy of power’. It provides a critical review and analysis of the development and implementation of discipline policies as reconfigurations of the regulatory enterprise of complex organizations. The book also aims to reconsider widely held explanations for disruptive student behaviour.
