The role of management and leadership in addressing learner discipline : a case of three secondary schools in Pinetown Education District.
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Date
2015
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Abstract
The preponderance of articles, debates and academic discourses highlighting the increase in
frequency and severity of learner indiscipline in South African schools and internationally
has prompted the study. The international conventions on the child, insurgence of various
organisations on school discipline and violence, and National Education Ministers’ concerns
raised, is indicative of the seriousness of ‘school discipline’. Since school leaders are
responsible for all things ‘school’, the debates around the role school leaders play on learner
discipline is valid and relevant. There is a dearth of literature linking the role of school
leaders with learner discipline and this is my focus. This dictated my core research question
which was: What role does the school’s management team (SMT) and other educator leaders
play in learner discipline at schools in different contexts? The sub-questions centred on their
experiences, perceptions, understandings and manner in handling learner-related discipline
problems. Challenges of schools in the three contexts made the last sub-question.
The adoption of the interpretivist philosophical stand determined the qualitative research
design with its incumbent methods of research. This research involved a multiple case study
documenting discipline challenges in three South African school contexts namely a township,
sub-urban, and rural school. The case studies were purposively chosen from one town in
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, to closely typify the classifications above. The
participants focused on were the principals, deputies and HODs. To add validity and
trustworthiness, other stakeholders, teachers, RCL and other learners were also made relevant
participants. The literature review was guided by the two fold nature of the study that is,
school discipline and educational management and leadership and hence delved into these
fields. The study was based on the twofold theoretical frameworks of positive discipline and
whole school discipline on one hand and transformational and distributed leadership on the
other.
The postulation that school leaders are largely involved in the focus on academic challenges
and in the daily ‘nuts and bolts’ of the school day and that they fail to lead and manage
learner discipline was founded. Their difficulty to adjust to state changes in education with
the numerous academic path changes was founded. The changes post-1996 to leadership
bringing decentralised governance (SGB), management (SMT), collegiality in managing and
the democratisation of the discipline process did affect discipline at the schools – often to its
determent. The banning of corporal punishment and the adjustment to alternatives to corporal
punishment (ATCP) was a challenge to both teachers and the SMT.
While the leaders lead in different contexts their own visions, beliefs, psycho-socio makeup
and knowledge affected, to a large extent, their capacity to lead in a transformational stance.
While the school contexts brought its challenges the above factors affecting leaders play a
vital influence in the levels of successful outcome on discipline. The above also influences
the pulse of the school as it was found that principals were still the lead persons in all school
contexts. The professionalism of teachers influences greatly the level of classroom discipline.
The strategies, interventions, structures and tweaking of DoE discipline policy for better
discipline was largely the influence of the upper SMT led by the principal. The HODs fell
short in leading and developing strategies for better discipline. Teacher leadership was found
to be restricted due to either ‘closed distributed leadership’ or ‘subtle distributed leadership’.
The knowledge of discipline theories and model were lacking among teachers and SMT to
the determent of discipline. The serious offender left the SMT baffled resulting in the ‘chuck
them out syndrome’ with such learners being subversively removed from school so as not to
contaminate ‘my school’. The township and rural school SES context contributed to the
development of the ‘absentee parent syndrome’ where parents simply were lost to their
children’s schooling. It also exhibited deviance bordering on criminality with violence and
cannabis usage. The sub-urban school SMT had to manage a questioning middle-class parent
community. In sum, contexts affect discipline but the SMT and teacher knowledge and
professionalism, use of WSD (Whole School Discipline) and PDP (Positive Discipline
Practices) with transformational and distributed leadership and making functional the RCL is
vital for better school discipline. An astute adaption of DoE discipline policy by the SMT is
recommended with solid functional structures of discipline. This coupled with PDP and WSD
is recommended for boosting teacher morale and improving discipline.
The thesis in summary finds that the principals’ leadership of school discipline, influenced by
their vision, drives, psycho-socio make-up, histories and knowledge, is constantly in fluid
juxta-positioning and synergy-making with the parent community, bouncing in and out of
policy as the practicality of the situation arose.
Description
Doctor of Philosophy in Education Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood 2015.
Keywords
School discipline -- South Africa -- Pinetown., Educational leadership -- South Africa -- Pinetown., School management and organization -- South Africa -- Pinetown., Theses -- Education., Pinetown Education District.