Typescript, etc. / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

Full Thesis / The purpose of this research is to assess the management of discipline by educators in selected secondary schools. There are three major objectives in this study. Firstly, the study sought to examine the major causes of lack of discipline in secondary schools. Secondly, the study sought to determine the extent to which educators are affected by lack of discipline in the classrooms. Thirdly, possible strategies and alternatives to be used by educators were investigated. Data was collected from educators in different schools situated in the Lejweleputswa district of the Free State province. The study employed both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches to gain primary data and a literature review for secondary data. Mostly qualitative data was supplemented by quantitative data and a literature review. The results have revealed that many educators struggle to manage discipline in secondary schools. Part of the problem is the lack of alternative disciplinary measures to corporal punishment as a discipline tool. Educators aim to put measures in place to manage discipline, without resorting to punitive measures (such as corporal punishment). There is a need to implement developmental workshops at schools to assist educators in managing discipline. It is therefore recommended by this study that educators should not only be introduced to alternative measures of keeping discipline, but a continuous mentoring and support programme to assist educators with these alternatives should be implemented at schools.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the theories that classroom interactions are organized and shaped by the subtle intersecting and overlapping phenomena of race, culture, and gender, and that teachers and their inner-city middle-grade African American male students may make sense, i.e., interpret meaning, very differently in routine, day-to-day classroom interactions. The investigation was informed by Frederick Erickson's (1986) claim that the risk of school failure for students of color may be increased by incongruities between mainstream classroom interaction patterns and the predominant patterns/ways of interacting in the students' home culture. The study was conducted in three fourth-grade classrooms in inner-city schools. Data collected from classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were used to develop sensitizing and definitive typologies, construct individual teacher profiles, and categorize transcribed "talk" into primary and connective themes. Predominant characteristics of teacher-Black male student verbal interactions were identified inductively and presented as assertions (Erickson, 1986) in the findings. Based on the content, structure, and function of each, the selected interactions were characterized as completed continuous, discontinuous, or diminutive. As posited theoretically, the findings revealed differential participation, i.e., interaction peculiarities, specific to many verbal exchanges between each teacher and her/his African American male students. Discontinuities emerged from the different ways language was used by teachers and students. Negative vectors produced in sustained discontinuous interactions resulted in maladaptive meanings for both the teacher and the African American students. A second purpose of the study was to develop a staff development component specifically designed to address teacher-student classroom interactions from cultural perspective and to engender reflective critical inquiry by teachers into their own classroom practices (theories-in-use) and pedagogical principles (espoused theories) as they relate to interactions with their African American male students. Selected segments of analyzed interaction events were used to construct authentic teaching cases which contained embedded dimensions of the theoretical issues examined and the empirical assertions derived from the research. The cases were used as the major instructional tool in the professional development model. This study points toward the need for teachers to be aware of the relationships between language-use, culture, and gender, and the importance of understanding how these factors may play a role in facilitating or constraining equitable educational opportunities for some academically marginalized student groups, particularly pre-adolescent inner-city African American male children.

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"It has often been stated by many writers from their own personal observations, but without experimental evidence, that if pupils and teachers work in harmony with a mutual feeling of understanding and cooperation, a friendly atmosphere will result which is conducive to effective learning. On the other hand, teachers who are aloof and unfriendly and who irritate and antagonize their pupils destroy interests and incentives for learning, and promote, instead, resentment, unwholesome attitudes, and personality disorders. It is the purpose of this paper to support or refute such statements"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "May, 1945." / "Submitted to the Graduate Committee of the Florida State College for Women in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Christine B. Scarborough, Instructor in Psychology. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-33).

The present study is an examination of a classroom-based intervention with five critical components of (a) defining and teaching desired behavior with cultural consideration, (b) increasing acknowledgement for African American students, (c) responding to unwanted behavior using an instructional approach, (d) using disaggregated data by race to guide intervention implementation, and (e) providing coaching to enhance intervention implementation. The study is a concurrent multiple-baseline single-case design across four general education teachers ranging from kindergarten to seventh grade. Results from the study indicate a functional relation between intervention implementation and increased rates of praise and decreased rates of reprimands for African American students. In addition, data show equitable increases in praise across both racial groups and decreases in reprimand disparities between racial groups during intervention. Teachers implementing the intervention found it to be acceptable, effective, and a good fit within their school and classroom contexts. The findings from this study suggest this intervention may help to close the discipline gap between African American students and their peers.

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acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Megan C. Saybe