Educators’ Perspectives on School Disciplinary Policies as it Applies to Chicana/o Students

There is an extensive amount of research on students’ experiences with school disciplinary policies, however there is little to no research in regards to educators’ perspectives on the enforcement of school disciplinary policies. This study focuses on educators’ perspectives on school disciplinary policies as it is applied to Chicana/o youth. The sample size for this study was twelve educators from two different school sites from two different school districts. Six interviews were gathered from each location. This study relied on extended open-ended semi structured questions. The findings in this study suggest that school administrators and educators are enforcing school disciplinary policies that are ineffective, heavily targeting Chicana/o students and create conflicts between students and educators, as well as conflicts between educators and administrators. In addition, this study found that educators had difficulties discussing the topic of race in reference to who gets disciplined and how school disciplinary policies fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. I conclude that having an educators’ perspective of school disciplinary policies will enhance our understanding of the inequalities within the educational system that young Chicana/o students face daily.