Book Review: Reimagining School Discipline for the 21st Century Student: Engaging Students, Practitioners, and Community Members

Although student discipline has become synonymous with the role of the principal or the assistant principal in most P–12 schools, student discipline or “rules, policies, and practices that exist in schools so school practitioners can manage student behavior to promote positive academic outcomes” lies in the practice of many, encompassing a wide range of education stakeholders including often ignored support staff that can collectively enact change to reduce and eliminate school discipline disparities (Williams & Lewis, 2022, p. xi). John A. Williams III and Chance W. Lewis’ edited book Reimagining School Discipline for the 21st Century Student: Engaging Students, Practitioners, and Community Members not only challenges educators to understand why students face discipline the way they do in the U.S. school system but does so through a timely, unique, and necessary lens, exploring the dynamics of how power and privilege shape identities and access in society to unpack the disparities in school discipline for historically marginalized students. Williams and Lewis (2022) bring to light the “positionality of certain students in P-12 schooling environments,” that, “place them in the direct cross-hairs of exclusionary and discriminatory school discipline practices and policies” (p. xi). Inequitable school discipline practices in the United States that historically and pervasively penalize students based on economic, racial, ethnic, cultural, sexual, gender, and national background identities and intersectionality are explored. The book is unique in that the chapters are written by scholars whose positionality aligns with the student group or affiliated topic they write about, providing more genuine, richer insights. In light of serious social and political issues confronting issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in education throughout the 21st century, John A. Williams III, Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education at Texas A&M University at College Station, and Chance W. Lewis, Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, provide an opportunity to view school disciplinary issues in the context of more authentic discourses and aim to support education practitioners to be “cognizant of their position within the school discipline paradigm” (Williams & Lewis, 2022, p. xv).