Teachers' reasoning about school violence: The role of gender and location

This inquiry uses a Cognitive Developmental Domain theory framework to examine how male and female teachers balance different moral and non-moral components when reasoning about hypothetical school fights. The potential impact of teachers' attributions towards the gender of the intervening teacher and fighting students, and the location of the fight were examined. This investigation found that male middle school teachers expressed more conflict than female middle school teachers when reasoning about whether the gender of the intervening teacher or the fighting student impacted a teacher's response. When asked to reason about a hypothetical fight, female middle school teachers were more conflicted than female elementary school teachers, particularly when the location of the fight was manipulated. Theoretical implications are discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.