ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the policies, processes, and practices contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. We address the racialized classroom interactions that are a key part of the pipeline, examining the pipeline’s roots through a phenomenological ecological lens that elucidates how institutionalized racism and privilege play out and are remade in the dynamic interactions and co-actions between and among adults and youth in classrooms, nested within schools and communities. We analyze research on the dynamics of the pipeline and how to best address it along with learning and well-being. We synthesize relevant empirical findings on school climate, conditions for learning, and classroom management, highlighting promising strategies and comprehensive and systemic multi-tiered approaches to prevention and promotion involving leadership and school-wide factors. Even as schools have increasingly attempted to eliminate discipline disparities, racial disparities persist. Addressing racial disparities requires equity-oriented conditions for learning and culturally affirming practices and relationships. The negative processes that create and fuel the pipeline can be eliminated but doing so requires transformative approaches that address impacts of institutionalized prejudice and privilege, thereby building and supporting the ability of teachers to attune to and support every student in their uniqueness and as members of groups.
