08. McFarland

An enduring concern of Robert Dreeben’s work is the conditions of classroom instruction (Dreeben [1968] 2002; Barr and Dreeben 1983; Dreeben and Barr 1988). Whether it is the conditions influencing classroom goodwill (Bidwell, Chapter 3, this volume) or the compositional effects on instructional methods, Dreeben repeatedly brings readers’ attention to how the social organization of schools relates to instruction and learning. In a similar spirit, this chapter analyzes the conditions of classroom instruction and learning but approaches the problem from a different angle. Rather than examining the conditions of equilibrium and efficiency, it examines the conditions of classroom conflict. Classroom conflicts are galvanizing events that unravel the classroom order. When students argue with their teacher, rebel from authority, or resist instruction, they challenge classroom goodwill and bring instruction to a halt (Bidwell 1965; Dreeben [1968] 2002). However, conflictsØor any breach for that matterØare also windows into the underlying assumptions and methods that actors use to create a sense of normalcy and order (Garfinkel 1967; Wieder 1974). Hence while the focus here is on commonly occurring states of disequilibrium and disorder, the spirit is much the same as Dreeben’s attempt to understand the social (dis)organization of schooling and how it relates to instruction. In order to understand the conditions of classroom conflict and disorder, I present a conceptualization of classroom settings that makes the multiplicity of classroom doings a starting point of exposition. Classrooms are regarded as crowded settings wherein multiple loci of interaction or situated streams of activity take place (Jackson 1968). Actors within classrooms can promote, participate in, and attend to these multiple ongoing streams of activity 8