ABSTRACT
School discipline has frequently been overt and physically violent, with students most often the targets of teacher-administered punishment. But modern school discipline also encompasses conditions and practices that promote the self-regulation of adults and children, and the cultural repertoires or discourses within which we come to see ourselves as certain kinds of persons. Formal schools have demanded certain patterns of conduct by children, teachers, administrators, and parents. The concept of moral regulation provides a lens with which to view the complex social worlds of schools of the past and the present, and to ask questions about how subjectivities are formed within them. Feminist writers have attempted to address the “feminization” of school discipline and moral regulation by examining the historical construction of early “child-centered” and progressive pedagogy. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
