<p>South Africa has undergone major transformation after the election of the first democratic government in 1994. The acceptance of a humane constitution as well as equal rights for all its citizens necessitated the banning of corporal punishment in all schools under the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. Accordingly, this change in the education policy as well as a change in society regarding equal rights for all citizens required teachers to adjust and improve their practices related to classroom management and discipline. The abolition of corporal punishment in 1996 (South African Schools Act 84 of 1996) can thus be regarded as such a changed aspect which required teachers to find alternative ways of keeping discipline in schools. It is expected from teachers to manage learning in classrooms, while at the same time practise and promote a critical, committed and ethical attitude towards the development of a sense of respect and responsibility amongst learners. It is with this in mind that one should remember that classroom locations and environments are complex as well as dynamic. Learners can now use their rights in a court of law while at the same time become more unruly, disruptive and at times even violent. Teachers on the other hand are left with limited alternative procedures or guidelines to manage unruly learners. As such, teachers now rely on their own informal learning in order to deal with such learners since alternatives to manage ill-disciplined learners are not included in formative teacher training courses. This study therefore concerns itself with the way teachers acquire classroom management skills in the absence of corporal punishment and learn how to deal with behavioural problems in order to carry on with day-to-day classroom activities. This is essentially viewed as informal learning. Because of the absence of much-needed training and support from educational authorities, teachers adjust and improve their practice, relying on hands-on experience in classrooms since they only incidentally receive opportunities to engage in ongoing formal professional development. This study explores the nature and content of informal/incidental as well as nonformal (courses not leading to formal accreditation) teachers&rsquo / learning related to managing classroom discipline in the absence of corporal punishment and investigates how skills, to manage classroom discipline, impact on the learning and teaching enterprise. A qualitative approach within the interpretive paradigm was followed throughout this study. Unstructured interviews were used to gather data which resulted in the gaining of rich detailed descriptions of participants&rsquo / responses to acquiring classroom management skills. This qualitative investigation included a literature review that explored and analysed different perspectives on the learning process. This study confirms that teachers acquire classroom management and discipline skills through workplace learning, initiated by themselves as well as collaboratively through interaction with colleagues and learners. Learning within the workplace was possible due to the opportunities they were afforded within the working context they found themselves in.</p>

The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of power experienced by teachers with multiple stakeholders namely the learners, parents, the school management team and the Department of Education in the management of learner discipline. The study also investigated teachers’ knowledge of legislation and policy regarding discipline and the perceptions of their authority and power in relationship to learner discipline. The study on teachers’ experience and perceptions of learner (in)discipline was conducted in an hitherto overlooked setting, namely the primary school. Media reports and international surveys on discipline, violence and school safety pinpoint the need for further research on this burning issue that is affecting our society. In this study, all ten senior primary teachers participated. A qualitative approach was used. Data was collected through classroom observation, interviews, written accounts and document analysis. The participants were chosen by purposive sampling. The collection, presentation and analysis of data were guided by the research questions, and by the following concepts: French and Raven’s five bases of power (legitimate, coercive, expert, reward and referent), structural power and the concepts of power over, power with, power to and power from within, all through the lens of education for social justice. The process of social justice requires an outlook of power with rather than power over. Power with is a jointly developed power, that is, the power we achieve by working cooperatively with all concerned. The findings indicate that teachers’ knowledge of legislation on discipline covers the banning of corporal punishment but is vague and divided about the corrective measures and the alternatives to corporal punishment. Teachers’ perceptions of their power to control misbehaviour is one of powerlessness. This is caused by, among other factors, the demands of macro structural forces and external factors beyond their control. Teachers resort to negotiation and bargaining with learners to engage them in learning. In this struggle to manage indiscipline, teachers stand alone deprived of support from parents, school administration and the Department of Education. Hence the dynamics of power experienced by teachers with other stakeholders in the management of discipline is not a transformational form of power or a social justice version of power with. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2012.

This study undertakes to explore challenges that rural primary schools face in the implementation of the alternatives to corporal punishment. This qualitative study gathered data through the case study approach for the following key research questions: 1. How do rural primary schools implement alternatives to corporal punishment policy? 2. What are the new experiences of principals, teachers and parents after the introduction of alternatives to old corporal punishment policy? 3. How do rural primary schools manage the implementation of the alternatives to corporal punishment policy? Interviews were conducted with educators and parents in order to collect data from three schools in the KwaNgcolosi and eMolweni areas. The qualitative approach helped the researcher to make meaning from data by seeing the bigger picture and converting the raw empirical information into what is known in qualitative research as a “thick description”. The researcher used a qualitative approach to gain a deeper and better understanding of the challenges facing rural primary schools in the implementation of alternatives to corporal punishment policy. In order to get a full picture of the challenges in schools under study the researcher obtained data through semi-structured interviews. Most educators and parents felt that misconduct was worse without corporal punishment in schools. They said that learners did not take alternatives to corporal punishment seriously, and made fun of these disciplinary measures. It was also indicated that there were dangerous conditions [such as walking alone for long distances] when detention was vi used in rural areas. There was a call to reinstate corporal punishment by most educators and parents in schools under study. In responding to the challenges in the implementation of alternatives to corporal punishment policy, educators in rural schools should be provided with guidance and training by the Department of Education on how to implement the alternative measures. Guidance educators and counsellors need to be appointed to support educators in schools. Caregivers should be allocated by the government to learners who are living alone and learners who are under the care of grandparents that are old and illiterate. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Every educational institution depends on people behaving in acceptable ways for its success. Bad behaviour not only hinders and disrupts the educational process but also poses a fundamental threat to the culture and identity of the institution and to those who behave well. This aspect emerged in the report by the Task Team on Education Management Development, initiated by the National Minister of Education in February 1996 entitled Changing Management to Manage Change in Education. In its characterisation of the educational legacy of apartheid, the report highlighted concerns with the breakdown of the culture of teaching and learning in certain schools and acknowledged that poor discipline impacts on the disintegration of learning environments. It further emphasised that good school discipline is an important feature of any effective school. In addition, the importance of sound discipline in the running of effective schools has been acknowledged as one of the recommendations of the South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996, which stipulates that the governing body of each school formulates a Code of Conduct, the purpose of which is to create a well-organised school so that effective learning and teaching take place; to promote self discipline; to encourage good behaviour and to regulate conduct. There is general agreement that while the process of drawing up the requisite Code of Conduct is an important element in the management of discipline, it is no more than a first step. What is required in each school is the establishment of a strategic management plan, extracted from the school's vision of a safe and secure environment for all. Drawing from this vision the emerging development plan, for the management of discipline, will incorporate strategies from a range of players whose roles inter-relate in the maintenance of discipline: e.g. learners, educators, parents, the governing body, the Department of Education, the community and other partners external to the school. This research project proposes a possible strategy for managers of education which focuses on the potentiality that good discipline has for the enhancement of learning environments. / Thesis (M.Ed) - University of Natal, 2000.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Admin.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1992.

This research has a primary focus on the middle school setting and how schools, students, and art educators might benefit from an interdisciplinary art curriculum. In this thesis I outline how cross-curricular inclusions in art lessons have the potential to be a fantastic advocacy tool for fine arts departments. I also investigate the differences between interdisciplinary inclusions in the visual art classroom and arts integrated school models as well as the beneficial relationship that can exist between these two pedagogical approaches. Additionally, I examine through literary review and curriculum development, some of the positive and negative influence in academic subject areas and more importantly art disciplines. My final and primary aim in examining various methods of cross-curricular inclusion is to shed light upon the immense potential for student development via dynamic interdisciplinary art curriculum.

In the Nineties year in the German Studies’ area appears a new reflection around the theatrical chorus thank to the activity of theatrical personalities as Heiner Müller, Einar Schleef, Elfriede Jelinek or Christoph Marthaler. So Hans Thies Lehmann, in his compendium about the Postdramatic Theater (Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatisches Theater, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt am Main 1999) advances the new category of the Chortheater (Chor Theatre) to explain e new form of drama and performative event; again in 1999 appear the important essay of Detlev Baur (Detlev Baur, Der Chor im Theater des 20. Jahrhunderts. Typologie des theatralen Mittels Chor, Niemeyer, Tübingen 1999), that gives an important device about this instrument but without giving the reasons of the its modifications in such different historical times. Then in 2004, Erika Fischer-Lichte, (Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual. Exploring Forms of Political Theatre, Routledge, London-New York 2005), reflects about the connection between ritual and theatre in the 20th Century. Thank to this studies the search aim was to give a new story of the chorus as theatrical and performative tool, in his liminal essence in creating immersive or alienating theatrical relation with the audience and to give specific features to distinguish it from general categories such as choral theatre o ensemble theatre.

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.

La crisi del “teatro come servizio pubblico” degli Stabili, Piccolo Teatro in testa, si manifesta allo stadio di insoddisfazione interna già alla fine degli anni Cinquanta. Se dal punto di vista della pratica scenica, la prima faglia di rottura è pressoché unanimemente ricondotta alla comparsa delle primissime messe in scena –discusse, irritanti e provocatorie- di Carmelo Bene e Quartucci (1959-60) più difficile è individuare il corrispettivo di un critico-intellettuale apportatore di una altrettanto deflagrante rottura. I nomi di Arbasino e di Flaiano sono, in questo caso, i primi che vengono alla mente, ma, seppure portatori di una critica sensibile al “teatro ufficiale”, così come viene ribattezzato dopo il Convegno di Ivrea (1967) il modello attuato dagli Stabili, essi non possono, a ben vedere, essere considerati i veri promotori di una modalità differente di fare critica che, a partire da quel Convegno, si accompagnerà stabilmente alla ricerca scenica del Nuovo Teatro. Ma in cosa consiste, allora, questa nuova “operatività” critica? Si tratta principalmente di una modalità capace di operare alle soglie della scrittura, abbracciando una progressiva, ma costante fuoriuscita dalla redazione di cronache teatrali, per ripensare radicalmente la propria attività in nuovi spazi operativi quali le riviste e l’editoria di settore, un rapporto sempre più stretto con i mass-media quali radio e televisione e la pratica organizzativa di momenti spettacolari e teorici al contempo -festival, convegni, rassegne e premi- per una forma di partecipazione poi identificata come “sporcarsi le mani”. La seconda parte della tesi è una raccolta documentaria sull’oggi. A partire dal Manifesto dei Critici Impuri redatto nel 2003 a Prato da un gruppo di critici dell'ultima generazione, la tesi utilizza quella dichiarazione come punto di partenza per creare un piccolo archivio sull’oggi raccogliendo le elaborazioni di alcune delle esperienze più significative di questi dieci anni. Ricca appendice di materiali. / The crisis of "theater as a public service" exemplified on the Piccolo Teatro experience, shows its internal dissatisfaction at the end of the fifties. The firsts who fights against this cultural politic was the artists, Carmelo Bene it's one of the first with his early and provocative performances. By critical side, otherwise, is more difficult to identify some critics or intellectuals bearing of a similar explosive rupture. We can recall Arbasino and Flaiano but, in this case, also if their sensitive criticism against "Theatre Established" were very important, they can not be regarded as promoters of that different way of criticism outgoing from Ivrea Conference (1967) and that accompanied New Theatre from the Sixties to Eighty . But definitively what's this new "operation" criticism? Primarily this criticism is focused on a new operative manner that located itself at the threshold of writing practices. It's a criticism embracing a gradual, but steady removal from the theatrical chronicles, a radically rethink about the critical function so it finds very interesting to create new operational areas on magazines and focused publishing, on mass-media like radio and television and as organization of festivals, conferences, exhibitions and awards - both performative both theoretical- who are identified as "the criticism that dirting its hands". The second part of the thesis is a documentary collection on today. From Manifesto del Critico Impuro written in 2003 in Prato by a group of critics of the last generation, the thesis uses that Statement as a starting point for creating a small record based on some elaboration by someone among the most significant critical experiences of these last ten years. Interesting Appendix based on rare materials.

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