Study school codes of conduct in two areas in Canada by Rebecca Raby

This article by Rebecca Raby examined school codes of conduct in two areas in Canada as well as the effects these codes have on shaping the types of students that emerge from these schools. Raby finds that the school system’s codes of conduct are designed towards creating a docile, productive citizenry while those who break the rules and fail to “self-govern” are subject to harsh penalties. Raby’s methodology is fairly straightforward. The paper examines school codes of conduct in the Niagara and Toronto school boards (Raby 74). The schools examined were all public, non-Catholic, secondary schools (Raby 74). Though the author notes that Catholic schools would have been interesting to examine they fell outside of the context of this paper as a result of their religious nature (Raby 74). Once the various schools’ codes of conduct were acquired the author examined each thoroughly. Key themes were identified as well as how the rules were justified and presented to students (Raby 75). Changes in rules since the passage of the Safe Schools Act and the relative rarity of some rules were also noted (Raby 75).
The paper next examines citizenship. The author finds that these districts espouse the goal of creating an active and responsible citizenry and claim to involve students in the construction of rules (Raby 76). However, 65% of schools directly link rights to responsibilities and a large minority of them suggest that rights are contingent upon certain responsibilitie…