Ordering within moral orders to manage classroom trouble

ABSTRACT

This paper demonstrates how classroom trouble warranting teacher intervention can stem from transgressions in different layers of the complex moral order regulating classroom interactions. The paper builds from Durkheim’s treatment of schooling as the institution responsible for the inculcation of a shared moral order, Bernstein’s distinction between the instructional and regulative discourses in any pedagogic setting and the concept of verticality in the instructional discourse to illuminate how curricular knowledge might apply across different contexts. This paper proposes a similar vertical dimension of moral gravity in the regulative discourse, such that some moral expectations apply across any context, while others are highly contextualized. This paper then applies this frame to data from classroom observations conducted in prevocational pathways for 16 years olds created under Australia’s “earning or learning till 17” policy. This paper describes the variety of moral premises teachers invoked in different teacher/class combinations, according to their level of moral gravity to display the dominant use of highly contextualized moral premises seeking institutional compliance, and minimal use of broader moral frames for these students on the brink of entry to the adult world.

KEYWORDS:

• Morality
• classroom trouble
• prevocational programmes
• regulative discourse
• moral gravity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE1210569).

Notes on contributors

Catherine Doherty

Catherine Doherty is a sociologist of education and applied linguist with research interests and publications around policy effects, classroom discourse, family mobility and global curricular politics.

Rowena McGregor

Rowena McGregor worked as Senior Research Assistant on this project. She has research interests in postgraduate pedagogy and library studies.

Paul Shield

Paul Shield is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, with expertise in quantitative and mixed methods research design. He has published research and reports on a wide variety of educational topics, including indigenous education, family mobility, early childhood education and curriculum markets.