School Discipline and Administrator Decision-Making: A Transnational Perspective

School Discipline and Administrator Decision-Making has been developed for leaders, practitioners, and researchers to explore the theory and practice of decision-making, with specific reference to school administrators and their response to school discipline. This work delves into the experiences of Canadian and Mauritian principals faced with tensions―sometimes racial―regarding discipline.

School leaders have the potential to make valuable changes within their schools as their influence touches on all aspects of the school building and culture. Yet, often discipline presents a challenge for school leaders as it requires a certain degree of discretion, especially when examining the issue of racial discipline disparity gaps in schools.

Exploring both a Western and non-Western context, the opening chapters highlight the rigidity of behavioural policies and the desire to break from such neoliberal practices despite fears of repercussion in Mauritius. This is followed by an exploration of the decision-making of principals in Ontario and Nova Scotia in a Canadian context. The chapters challenge neoliberal policies and guidelines by questioning current practices and proposing various leadership frameworks. By incorporating both a Canadian and Mauritian context, the authors highlight various strategies which can be used to rethink our current approaches to decision-making.

Stephanie Chitpin is an Educational Researcher and Full Professor of Leadership at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada.
David C. Young is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Education at St. Francis Xavier University as well as Director of the Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership.
Marvin Zuker was appointed a Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice in June 1978 and retired in December of 2016. Professor Zuker has taught education law at OISE/UT since 1982.