By: Michael L. Marumo and Connie Zulu

Maintaining good learner discipline continues to be a battle in many schools amidst debates around the human rights of learners and the effectiveness of current systems of learner discipline. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of alternatives to corporal punishment in Mahikeng Township secondary schools of the North-West province in South Africa. A qualitative research design based on the social constructivist or interpretive paradigm was adopted in this study. Teachers who had been in the field before the official banning of corporal punishment were purposefully selected from four schools. Grade 11 and 12 learners were also purposefully sampled on the basis of their ‘maturity’ as senior learners who had been in the school long enough to experience the new, alternative disciplinary measures. Data were collected through focus group interviews, four with educators and four with learners, and thereafter subjected to qualitative data analysis procedures. The findings showed conflicting perceptions. Although some teachers and learners felt that alternative forms of discipline were effective to a certain extent, the general perception was one of scepticism. Both teachers and learners expressed the need for a return to corporal punishment in cases of serious misconduct. Some learners applauded the introduction of alternative forms of discipline only because this system replaced what was considered to be an abusive system of corporal punishment. Although teachers attributed their negative perceptions to a lack of adequate training in the implementation of alternative forms of discipline, continuous repetition by learners of the same offences for which they had been ‘positively’ disciplined resulted in learners’ negative perceptions. The main recommendation is that follow-up training and workshops on alternative forms of discipline should be regularly held for teachers to develop confidence in the use of these strategies and to improve perceptions.

A scholarly inquiry into disciplinary practices in educational institutions, January 2019