Teachers' reasoning about school violence: The role of gender, location, and school setting.

Abstract

This study examined how male and female teachers reason about violence. More specifically, this inquiry used a Cognitive Developmental Domain (CDD) Theory framework to examine how teachers balanced different moral and non-moral components when reasoning about hypothetical school fights. The potential impact of teachers' attributions towards the gender of both the intervening teacher and the fighting students was examined. The location of the situation of violence was manipulated (within and around the school) to ascertain whether <italic>where</italic> violence occurred impacted a teacher's reasoning patterns. The school setting (elementary or middle school) was also manipulated to determine if teachers' reasoning about a fight varied when the setting was changed. These questions were examined by integrating research from teacher morality, environmental psychology, criminology, women's studies, architecture and urban planning, and school violence into a CDD theory framework. One hundred and seven teachers were interviewed for this study from 7 schools (2 middle schools and five elementary schools) in two urban communities in Southeast Michigan. Nonparametric statistical analyses were utilized to analyze teachers' judgments and justifications. An important feature or this sample (and analyses) was that male and female differences could be examined within the same setting (middle school) as well as differences between females across settings (elementary and middle school). The study found that there were differences in the ways male and female teachers reasoned about violence. Male middle school teachers expressed more conflict and concern when reasoning about whether the gender of the intervening teacher or the fighting student impacted a teacher's response. Female teachers reported significantly more school areas that they perceived to be unsafe or avoided than male teachers. This study also found that there were differences in the ways teachers reasoned across school settings. Female middle school teachers appeared to be more conflicted about intervening in a fight than female elementary school teachers, as evidenced by their higher likelihood to express multiple moral and social conventional concerns. When the location of violence was manipulated female middle school teachers were once again more conflicted than female elementary school teachers when intervening in different school locations. Limitations and implications for both future research and schools are discussed.