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Classroom Management Theory
Management within classrooms must ensure individuals’ freedom to educational
and social pursuits, but must restrict freedoms when they infringe on their fellow
classmates. The management of pluralist classrooms is limited, but exercised in ways that
sometimes constrain the students’ freedoms in order to protect the collective concerns. To
adopt a pluralistic model of classroom management, it is important to adhere to
traditional theories while transforming them to meet the individual needs of the students.
For example, three theories I admire discussed in the discourse of the past week consist
of love and logic, discipline with dignity, and Glasser’s reality therapy. Individually,
these three theories stand weakly on their own, but when united under a pluralist method
their effectiveness in managing a classroom increases.
As society progressed, it abandoned theories of natural communities to adapt to
the increase of structuralism. Educational classrooms today are embedded with the
conflict between authority and autonomy. Deferring to authority or management that
inflicts harm on an individual can cost one their autonomy. Thus, this deprives one of
their humanity and creates an environment unequal to their educational needs. Do not
misunderstand my reasoning; management ought to exist, but must friend the ideology of
pluralism if it is to succeed. Management and authority within education must reach a
consensus on a sufficient way to cope with diverse individuals.
Each of these individual models can tentatively add to the framing of pluralist
management theory. Essential to the pluralist management theory I am putting forth is the
notion that the classroom be structured with countervailing powers; this ensures one
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aspect does not become dominant over another. The love and logic theory provides an
example of two key aspects participating in a balancing act that fit well within the
spectrum of pluralism. One of the four principles of love and logic is to create an equal
balance of consequences and empathy within a management situation. From a pluralist
perspective, it provides two competing forces within a classroom. With love and logic, a
pluralist management style provides educators with a solution lacking extremism of one
force or leaning heavily on one management style. Love and logic illustrates how
management can be broadly dispersed within a pluralistic model.
Discipline with dignity theory provides potential pluralist educators with the
opportunity to practice management techniques that discipline individuals while
providing respect and empowerment. Showing individuals dignity in moments of
discipline highlights the leveling of power within the class. Students often view discipline
as an extension of a teacher’s ruling over the class and sometimes their punishments are
viewed as an embarrassing moment. My theory of pluralist management agrees that
power should be widely dispersed within and across the classroom. To clarify, teachers
are often viewed as the establishment of power and ruling force of a classroom, but the
pluralist theory strives to collapse this perception. The traditional view of a teacher paints
the picture of a classroom with an unequal distribution of power seen through the
teacher’s ability to discipline their students. Thus, the students are at the mercy of the
discipline with little dignity in the process because they are not exercising any power.
The discipline with dignity does not limit power to the teacher, but expands it to the
students by allowing them to enter a social contract. The existence of a social contract
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provides the students with power over their potential discipline creating a quasidemocratic environment.
Referring back to the start of the paper, classrooms are pitted in the conflict of
autonomy and authority. Reality therapy states that students need autonomy, which I find
critical to pluralism. While taking part in reality therapy, the students and teacher
participate in a model of democracy. This model provides both entities with freedom and
authority. Pluralists insist that no single conception of justice is universally valid,
similarly to how reality therapy stresses the individualization of managing individuals. In
reality therapy, teachers must know their students and individually judge the value of
their behavior. So, the pluralist classrooms involve appeals to management in myriad
forms. Reality therapy teaches four steps to handling behaviors, but the outcomes and
sequences of those steps are countless. In this sense, reality therapy could come the closet
to a current pluralist model. Embracing reality therapy grants teachers with a system of
individualized management alternatives.
In regards to question acceptance of cultural considerations, pluralist educators
will have to choose aspects of the theories they use that might be culturally insensitive
and disregard them. Culture can be a difficult issue for educators to handle because
individuals have multiple cultural affiliations and memberships. Pluralist teachers should
deny that communities should be homogeneous in terms of race, ethnicity, or religion.
The classroom culture must promote commitment to pluralism and respect for diversity
as the most basic management philosophy. In addition, overlapping consensus among
people holding diverse ideologies and moral ideas should also be accepted. For example,
above I stated in a pluralist classroom a teacher might use discipline with dignity, but
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what about the possibility of cultures viewing dignity differently? A western student
might assume respect directed individually, whereas a student from a collectivist
background might seek respect directed to a group. The pluralist management theory will
leave the decision to the teacher to determine which respectful approach to use.
Education finds itself in the middle of two choices—either backward to the
homogeneous approaches and non-pluralistic methods or forward to ever-greater
utilization of pluralism and diversity awareness. This formulation of pluralist
management theory does not mean to disprove or taint the progresses of previous
theories, nor do I wish to disregard them. It means the introduction of a new management
theory which can be put into practice and draw on the preceding theories within
education. Pluralist theory is an attempt to call attention to the larger and deeper issues of
education, not just in the issue of management theory, but to all issues of education.