Chapter VII:
Communication Differences and Discipline Problems

Most educators would agree that schools have a responsibility to establish an educational environment that encourages positive learning experiences for all students. Many would also claim that schools should be expected to teach students the social behaviors which are considered acceptable by the society at large, as well as the sanctions which are likely to be applied when acceptable standards are violated. In light of these dual and sometimes conflicting imperatives, the disproportionate suspension and expulsion rates for minority students throughout the nation are cause for considerable concern. In 1979, for example, the National Advisory Committee on Black Higher Education and Black Universities and Colleges reported that while students from minority ethnic groups comprised approximately 25 percent of the nation's public school population, they comprised 40 percent of those suspended. A 1982 Fact Sheet on Institutional Racism revealed that while 16 percent of the nation's students were African American, they comprised 29 percent of all suspensions and 27 percent of all expulsions.

In a 1984 report by the Minority Relations Monitoring Committee of Montgomery County, Maryland, it was stated that:

. . .Nowhere is the school system more vulnerable to the charge of being "unfair" in dealing with its students than in the manner in which it manages student behavior . . . Clearly the difference in suspension rates of White and African American students in many of the senior high schools is so broad as to constitute a serious threat to the opportunity for an equal education.

Many reasons are given to explain the high rate of discipline problems among minority students, particularly African Americans. Some blame the institution; others blame the student or victim. (see Table VII)

Before drawing any conclusions relative to the cause of the high rate of discipline problems and suspension and expulsion rates for non white students, it would be useful to explore the major types of student behaviors that teachers report as being unacceptable. Mitchell (1983) reports that five of the nine most frequently reported behaviors involve cultural and communicative issues, e.g., verbal threats, classroom disruptions and disrespect.

You may recall that the claim was made that every human encounter·positive or negative·reflects cultural assumptions upon which communication rules are based. This claim leads us to advance two important hypotheses about cross cultural communication and school discipline problems:

Schools reflect culture, mainly the culture of the dominant society. Patton (1986) claims that schools are a microculture with a distinct system of preferred and required communicative behaviors. This culture, she asserts, is more congruent with some cultures than with others. Typically, it reflects the values and norms of the immediate community. Students with cultural and communicative norms which are incongruous with the schools" norms are more likely, she argues, to engage in unacceptable behavior.

Sources of Cultural and Communicative Incongruities Which Lead to Discipline Problems

Research suggests that several categories of communicative behavior are considered unacceptable in many, if not most, school environments. While some of these unacceptable behaviors do not result in sanctions, many do. Examples of behaviors which almost always are punished include:

Each of the behaviors listed above may be in conflict with communication rules for a given cultural group. The teacher's task is to determine through reading, discussion and observation which perceived behaviors could have a different cultural significance for the groups represented in the classroom.

What Do We Do About Cultural and Communicative Sources of Student Misbehavior?

While the majority of students, including those from minority groups, learn, accept and conform to the rules of schools, cultural differences may play an important role in apparent discipline problems in the school. These differences cannot account for all student misbehavior, yet many discipline problems may result from students' failure to know, accept or conform to school norms which are either divergent or incongruous with their own cultural or communicative norms.

School personnel should be open to examining the causes of perceived misbehavior in the classroom. In those cases where school or classroom norms are intolerant of cultural differences, revisions of school norms would seem to be most appropriate. Where school norms are generally congruent with norms across the cultural spectrum of the school community, the school has a responsibility to teach those norms to the student. One cannot expect that all students come to school with prior knowledge or acceptance of school norms.

In any case, schools, like all institutions, must establish reasonable rules of conduct, but these rules should be sensitive to the cultural assumptions, values and communication expectations of the total school community.

The following activities are useful in considering cross cultural communication issues for addressing school discipline problems:

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