The researcher aimed to investigate the laws and policies regulating the use of corporal punishment in Swaziland schools by benchmarking these against HRL, and to investigate the non-compliance of selected schools in the Hhohho and Manzini regions with these legal prescripts. This was done in the two participating schools in the study. The study employed the qualitative approach, using two cases to source the information from the participants. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the data from the participants. The principals and their deputies were interviewed, whilst the teachers and learners responded to questionnaires. The literature review revealed that the teachers tend not to adhere to the prescripts in respect of the abuse of corporal punishment. The literature review focusing on the Swaziland situation brought to light that the teachers go beyond the legal prescripts when administering corporal punishment. The results indicated that in Swaziland corporal punishment is legal while, according to the Human Rights Law, it is a crime. The study indicated that teachers do not adhere to the legal prescripts on corporal punishment. Of the ten requirements for corporal punishment, the teachers complied fully with only two. It was also found that the teachers were not conversant with the legal prescripts. Some of the requirements did not seem viable to them to comply with. The researcher recommended that the Swaziland Constitution be aligned with the Human Rights Law, and that principals monitor the abuse of corporal punishment. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

This research concerns disciplinary practices within a school system in Lesotho. The school that has been researched is a girl’s high school in Maseru (the capital of Lesotho). The school belongs to the Anglican Church. I (the researcher) am a Mosotho man and an English and Religious Studies teacher in this school. For a while I have been concerned about the way punishment happens in the school, often leaving girls feeling shamed and powerless in the face of authority. I have also noticed that these disciplinary practices are losing their effectiveness, in that girls are showing resistance to the system. In other words corporal punishment, which has been the traditional form of discipline, is proving ineffective in today’s world. The researcher also considers this form of discipline abusive of power. It is in the light of this that I worked within this system, both with pupils, as well as teachers, to explore alternative practices that might work with pupils, that are respectful of all parties concerned. The research is a participative action research, using collaborative narrative practices in working with both students and staff at the school. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

This research concerns disciplinary practices within a school system in Lesotho. The school that has been researched is a girl’s high school in Maseru (the capital of Lesotho). The school belongs to the Anglican Church. I (the researcher) am a Mosotho man and an English and Religious Studies teacher in this school. For a while I have been concerned about the way punishment happens in the school, often leaving girls feeling shamed and powerless in the face of authority. I have also noticed that these disciplinary practices are losing their effectiveness, in that girls are showing resistance to the system. In other words corporal punishment, which has been the traditional form of discipline, is proving ineffective in today’s world. The researcher also considers this form of discipline abusive of power. It is in the light of this that I worked within this system, both with pupils, as well as teachers, to explore alternative practices that might work with pupils, that are respectful of all parties concerned. The research is a participative action research, using collaborative narrative practices in working with both students and staff at the school. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

The problem of indiscipline in schools has attracted the growing attention of researchers in South Africa and the world at large. Learner indiscipline has been variously reflected in behaviours which range from serious ones such as drug abuse, assault, theft, rape and murder, to minor ones such as truancy; all of which negatively affect teaching and learning. While there is agreement on the need to address the problem, there is a great deal of contestation around what strategies and practices are appropriate to instil discipline in schools. Within this debate many countries, including South Africa, have decided to move away from punitive approaches such as corporal punishment and replace them with what is called Alternatives to Corporal Punishment (ATCP). The main aim of this study was to interrogate the consistency that prevails between disciplinary practices and principles of alternatives to corporal punishment and the implications of this for school leadership. A mixed method design was used. The study was conducted in two phases: the first was a survey during which trends in disciplinary practices were established; the second was a multiple case study where in-depth interviews were conducted in five primary schools across different contexts which included farm, suburban, township, rural and informal settlement locations. This study has seven main findings. First, it was found that primary schools in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality experienced minor offenses which clustered around levels 1 and 2 of the ATCP classification. Second, although statistically there was a weak negative correlation (r = - 0.11) between location and behaviour which is not significant (p >. 05) or (p = .46), qualitative evidence suggests a relationship between context and disciplinary offences. Third, principals’ roles in instilling discipline were focused mainly on reactive administrative and management functions rather than on giving leadership designed to inspire alternative ways of behaving. Fourth, principals’ and teachers’ belief in the use of alternatives to corporal punishment revealed ambivalence and lack of understanding. Fifth, measures to instil discipline, even though they were said to be based on alternatives to corporal punishment, placed heavy emphasis on inflicting pain and relied on extrinsic control. Sixth, two disciplinary measures designed to inflict pain were found to be weakly associated, but significantly (p < 0.05) with violent behaviour, lending credence to view that in using certain practices to instil discipline there are socialisation consequences. Finally, the use of some measures recommended by alternatives to corporal punishment yielded some unintended socialisation consequences. The study concludes that there was lack of consistency between disciplinary practices in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality primary schools and the principles of Alternatives to Corporal Punishment. The findings suggest that it is difficult to achieve the consistency without a school leadership which understands that the alternatives call for a paradigm shift in measures to instil discipline. For improving discipline in schools, it is recommended that school principals and stakeholders must focus on measures that are meant to cultivate a new school culture guided by values of self-discipline in order to minimise the need for extrinsic punitive control. For further research, a follow up study based on a probability sample, which should include secondary schools, could be undertaken in order that results can be generalised.