Beyond Behavior Control: Context-Responsive Classroom Management Judgment in Teachers’ Accounts

Purpose: This study examined how in-service teachers in Türkiye understand classroom management in relation to professional experience, theoretical preparation, instruction, interpersonal authority, and contextual conditions.Design/Methodology: A qualitative interview design was used with 30 teachers (10 Turkish, 10 mathematics, and 10 English) selected through maximum variation purposive sampling. Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews lasting at least 40 minutes were analyzed inductively through an iterative thematic process incorporating within-case, cross-case, and negative-case comparisons.Findings: Four cross-cutting themes were identified: developing context-sensitive professional judgment; managing the classroom through instruction; balancing boundaries, relationships, and discretion; and contextual conditions shaping what teachers considered feasible. Experience was associated with reading students and adapting responses but did not form a uniform novice-to-expert trajectory. Engagement and instructional fit frequently functioned as preventive management, while relational care and authority coexisted.Originality/Value: The study integrates instructional, relational, regulatory, experiential, and contextual dimensions of classroom management and proposes context-responsive classroom management judgment as an interpretive synthesis of how teachers coordinate these considerations.Limitations: Findings are based on retrospective accounts from a purposive sample in Türkiye, and asymmetric subject-specific probing limits strong cross-subject comparisons.