Published Article / Learner discipline is an important aspect of schooling. Historically, teachers applied a number of measures to maintain discipline, including corporal punishment. In 1996 the use of corporal punishment in South African schools was banned. However, some parents and teachers believed that the banning of corporal punishment was directly responsible for poor discipline among learners in the township schools. The purpose of this article was to investigate this perception, as well as to investigate what teachers were doing to address disciplinary problems among learners. A questionnaire was developed, and distributed among 20 teachers from primary schools in the Matjhabeng Municipality (16 teachers responded). The data collected was quantitatively analysed. It was found that although cases of learner mischief were still experienced in the primary schools, the level of discipline has not increased disproportionately after the banning of corporal punishment; the majority of learners behaved fairly well. However, some teachers were found to use harsh measures of disciplining learners, including corporal punishment. The involvement of parents in learner discipline was not preferred by many teachers. To help teachers to effectively handle discipline, the Ministry of Education has to find ways of training teachers in democracy, stress management and conflict management.

Thesis (M.Ed.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves 134-137.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-215).

The aim of this study is to create an increased intercultural understanding by studying how the Gambian teachers interpret and handle situations that from a Swedish perspective could be called bullying. A qualitative method have been used were the materials have been gathered through unstructed observations and interviewes with teachers in the Gambia as well as formalized conversations with other school staff. The data has been collected in different schools in the Gambia during the winter of 2013. Four different theories are used to analyse the result. These are the sociocultural perspective, cultural framework, the postcolonial perspective and the frame factor theory. The result shows that the Gambian teachers have a hard time to describe and define the term bullying. They interpret the concept bullying as corporal punishment and that it is a question about abusive behaviour from an adult towards a child. There is also one teacher that speaks about bullying as something that can occur between pupils as well, but this is a rare opinion. It is obvious that the overloaded classrooms are a big obstacle for the Gambian teachers when it comes to create a positive learning experience were the pupils show mutal respect for each other. There is a risk that teachers are missing a lot of things that are going on behind their backs. There are no written documents on how to work with or prevent bullying. There is one document about corporal punishment and it does only exist in governmental schools.

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Sociology

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia Southern University, 2007. / "A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts." Under the direction of Chris L. Gibson. ETD. Electronic version approved: May 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-103) and appendices.

This study aims to identify the perceptions that teachers have regarding the nonimplementation of the Alternatives to Corporal Punishment Policy (ATCP). Using a qualitative research approach, data was collected from teachers in a high school in Mdantsane that is still using corporal punishment. The main tools of data collection used were semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The findings from this study revealed a range of factors that influence teachers not to implement the alternatives to corporal punishment policy. These include: culture, religion, lack of parental involvement, violence in schools and lack of capacitation in teachers on the policy. Moreover the findings of this study revealed that if new policies are imposed on implementers there is bound to be resistance. This study therefore recommends that new policies need to be discussed and agreed upon by both the policy makers and policy implementers. The study also recommends that teachers need capacity building workshops so that they understand the need and the benefits of implementing the ATCP.

Corporal punishment continues to be a controversial topic. Many people who experienced spanking as children feel that they were not harmed by the corporal punishment and go on to believe that using corporal punishment on their children will not harm them, especially if it is administered calmly. This study looked at the attitudes of 203 parents in the context of religion using Holden's "Attitudes Toward Spanking a Child" questionnaire. The results of this study showed that parents that said religion guided their parenting were more likely to view corporal punishment positively and were more likely to believe that corporal punishment is not harmful to their children. The results also showed that calm spanking creates a positive view of corporal punishment, thus leading to a greater likelihood of denying that spanking is harmful to children.

Corporal punishment is a controversial form of discipline. To inform the debate on corporal punishment, one of the objectives of the current dissertation was to characterize parental use of this disciplinary strategy and to examine its long-term developmental outcomes. The dissertation drew on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) to understand potential social change in corporal punishment and to characterize parents who continue to use this strategy. Over a 14-year period (1994-1995 to 2008-2009), results revealed a significant decrease in the use of corporal punishment and other negative strategies (e.g., psychological aggression), as well as a significant increase in the use of positive strategies (e.g., reward/praise and explain/teach). Nevertheless, approximately 25% of Canadian parents still use corporal punishment with children aged 2–11 years; therefore, it remains an issue that merits continued attention. While several socio-demographic factors significantly distinguished parents who use corporal punishment, other more dynamic variables may be important to consider, such as parental stress and their attitudes toward corporal punishment. For the outcomes associated with corporal punishment, NLSCY data revealed that experiences of corporal punishment at 2-3 years are associated with increased externalizing behaviours at 8-9 years. Results also indicated that, within a certain disciplinary context (more hostile and punitive parenting), early corporal punishment is associated with increased externalizing behaviours at 14-15 years, increased internalizing behaviours at 8-9 and 14-15 years, and reduced prosocial behaviours at 8-9 and 14-15 years. Overall, results confirmed that corporal punishment represents a small but non-trivial risk factor for child development. The second objective of the current dissertation was to address one of the central limitations of the existing literature on corporal punishment by clarifying what parents self-label as corporal punishment. Using a sample of 338 Canadian caregivers, the study assessed the relation between responses to a general question on corporal punishment and responses to questions on specific physical disciplinary strategies. Predictors (e.g., cultural norms, attitudes toward and childhood experiences of corporal punishment) of this relation were then investigated. Results suggested that questions such as the one used in the NLSCY may reflect parental use of milder forms of corporal punishment. Results also revealed that some caregivers remain undetected by general questions on corporal punishment. Factors such as attitudes toward corporal punishment can help identify those caregivers who use physically punitive strategies but who do not endorse corporal punishment. Results from the current dissertation offers support for the anti-corporal punishment perspective and calls for the de-legitimatization of this disciplinary strategy across society.