International Journal of Education and Pedagogy (IJEAP) eISSN: 2682-8464 | Vol. 4 No. 4 [December 2022]
Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijeap
CHALLENGES FACED BY SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM IN MANAGING DISRUPTIVE
BEHAVIOUR IN THE CLASSROOM
Fathimath Muna1*, Jainatul Halida Jaidin2 and Roslinawati Mohd Roslan3
1 2 3 Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education (SHBIE) Universiti Brunei Darussalam, BRUNEI
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Article Information:
Article history:
Received date : 12 December 2022 Revised date : 26 December 2022 Accepted date : 28 December 2022 Published date : 29 December 2022
To cite this document:
Muna, F., Jaidin, J. H., & Mohd Roslan, R. (2022).CHALLENGES FACED BY SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS OF BRUNEI DARUSSALAM IN MANAGING DISRUPTIVE
BEHAVIOUR IN THE CLASSROOM.
International Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 4(4), 122-134.
Abstract: Disruptive behaviour among young adolescents is more prevalent in secondary classrooms compared to primary classrooms. Teachers spend a substantial amount of their instructional time to manage this phenomenon. This study aims to explore the challenges faced by secondary school teachers of Brunei Darussalam in managing disruptive behaviour. A qualitative approach was applied in this study. By utilizing purposeful sampling method, a total of six teachers teaching Year 8 and Year 9 of three different public secondary schools were selected. A semi-structured interview was conducted for individual teachers to elicit information on the challenges in dealing with this phenomenon. The data was analysed using thematic analysis approach. The findings revealed that this particular group of teachers found home environment, lack of parental involvement, lack of time to manage disruptive behaviour and lack of cooperation from students as challenges that hinders the process of managing this phenomenon. The study showed that collaboration and cooperation of parents is crucial in minimising the behaviour issues in classroom. The implications of these findings for teachers, researchers and further research are discussed.
Keywords: disruptive behaviour, challenges, secondary school, teachers, young adolescents.
1. Introduction
Teachers face daily challenges in managing the young adolescents’ behaviour that exist in contemporary classrooms despite the efforts to create a conducive learning environment for all. The existence of disruptive behaviour (DB) from this group disrupts the core business of school which is teaching and learning. Nash and Schlösser (2015) argue that whether if it is low-level disruption (small, frequent hassles) or violent abusive level, all levels of disruption can be challenging for both teachers and class peers and may result in high levels of stress and tension for all concerned. They articulated the disruption “like ripples in a pond, the systemic impact of even one challenging student can affect the learning potential of the whole class” (p. 145). Although, teachers utilised varied strategies in class to manage this phenomenon, these do not seem to be working effectively.
Thus, considering the seriousness of these behaviors, teachers spend disproportionately more time on behavior problems that take away from instructions, compromising learning for both the student with behaviour difficulties and the rest of the class (Muna, 2019). Hence, it is crucial to investigate the issues teachers face in managing DB in classroom so that effective strategies could be utilised to address the issue. The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges faced by teachers in managing disruptive behaviour in classroom.
2. Literature Review
Education is seen as an important area of application within positive psychology. Inherent in positive education is the idea that good character, positive behaviours at school and academic achievement are not only aims of education, but also closely intertwined (Wagner & Ruch, 2015). The importance of good character in education has recently been emphasized both in scientific and popular literature (Wagner & Ruch, 2015). On the other hand, the elevated classroom disruptive behaviour in contemporary classrooms have gained much attention of researchers in recent years.
On average, nearly one in three teachers report losing ‘quite a lot of time’ because of behavioural problems in school (OECD, 2014). Literature shows challenging or disturbing student behaviour is among the greatest challenges currently faced by schools (Brunila & Siivonen, 2016; Närhi et al.
2015; Shaughnessy 2012; Sullivan et al. 2014). Taking a psychological point of view on students behaviour, Nasha, Schlösserb and Scarra (2016) contend that some of the most troubled pupils find it exceptionally hard to adjust their behaviour, due to difficulties experienced in their home environment. Disruptive behaviour in young adolescent can be a direct consequence of not feeling safe in adult–child relationships, due to neglect, inconsistent caring or experiences of abuse. Nasha et al. (2016) argue that at school, the learned pattern of behaviour would be regarded as maladaptive and warranting disciplinary procedures. Results from other studies have found parent and child driven effects in the relation between children’s disruptive behaviours and aspects of family environment;
parent-child conflict and parental negativity (Jaffee et al., 2012).
Although children’s social environment including the daily interactions has been researched for decades on children’s development, research has begun focussing on to study children’s physical environment. For instance, Evans (2006) study has shown that children raised in chaotic homes;
characterised by noise, overcrowding and, and a lack of order tend to score lower on tests of cognitive ability and self-regulatory capabilities, have poor language abilities and score higher on measures of
problem behaviours and learned helplessness than do children raised in less chaotic environments.
Additonally, chaotic home lives are correlated with behavior problems in children. In the study by Jaffee et al. (2012) it was revealed that there was a phenotypic cross-lagged relation between children’s experiences of household chaos and their disruptive behaviour. In their genetically informative models, they found that the effect of household chaos on subsequent disruptive behaviour was environmentally mediated. Thus, these findings indicate that children’s home environment need to be safer and in order so that well-disciplined children could be raised.
School is a privileged context where specific behaviour problems are prevented, and good behaviour is nurtured. As changes in society have created new challenges, the schools work in a very different world to that of decades ago. Yet, there are strategies and practices that if applied consistently, will do much to raise standards of behaviour. As such, Steer (2005) in his report identified 10 aspects of practice that create the right conditions for good behaviour to be learnt in the contemporary classrooms which can be adopted by all schools. In this regard, one of the crucial aspects of this report is liaison with parents and other agencies. The report states that schools need the support of parents and carers to manage pupil’s behaviour. Where parents and carers do not cooperate with the school, improvement is minimal. It highlights that schools should ensure that reception and other support staff and teachers are trained, so that they are welcoming, and have the skills to deal with difficult parental conversations; ensure staff receive external professional training, from local authorities or other agencies, in managing and dealing with people's anger; ensure parents and carers hear from the school when their children are doing well so that the first contact is positive. The report further contends that there is a greater willingness to work with the school when the parent or carer believes the school has the pupil's best interest at heart. Therefore, schools need to convey the message to parents by means of different methods that every effort is being done in the school is for the development of the students.
Parental involvement in school activities is crucial to promote social functioning. Studies have been conducted on parental involvement in schools in relation to students’ behaviour. The study by Caridade et al. (2021) revealed that school personnel’s participants rated parental involvement as low and nearly one in five professionals rated student’s general behavior as bad. A significant association between parental involvement and the perception of students’ general behaviour was found in this study. 80% of the professionals rating student’s general behaviour as bad also rating parental involvement as poor. Similarly, Badri et al. (2014) study tested the effect of the parental involvement dimension on three behaviour constructs: hyperactivity, internalizing and externalizing behaviours.
The results of structural equation modelling demonstrated that that parental involvement significantly contributed to a decrease of the undesired aspects related to externalizing, internalizing and hyperactivity behaviours. It was found that the most significant driver of parental involvement is parents speaking with teachers on a regular basis. Thus, both studies highlighted that effective communication between the teachers and parents is crucial in reducing disruptive behaviour among students.
2.1 Problem Statement
In trying to understand the challenges faced by teachers in managing DB among young adolescents in Brunei, there are a few studies that have been conducted. According to Yoong (2001, the research data in the area of secondary school students related to DB in Brunei Darussalam is rather limited. It could be because not much substantive research has been carried out in the Brunei context. However, Yoong (2001) asserts that informal feedback from school discipline masters, class teachers, school principals and headmasters, and even the students themselves, indicate that there is an increasing concern over the incidence of undesirable student behaviours, especially in secondary schools. Yoong (2001) argued the fact that 20% of teachers perceived the undesirable behaviour among secondary school students to be serious and sufficient enough to raise concern among educators.
All of these studies are quantitative in nature and the data was collected using survey questionnaires.
Additionally, quantitative surveys do not provide in-depth insights into the teachers’ challenges in managing the students’ DB in the classroom. These studies recommend studying the phenomenon utilising a qualitative approach as it deserves a more in-depth investigation. Suppiah and Lourdasmy (1998) contend that there is a need for a more systematically collected information on this phenomenon in the whole system. For this purpose, “systematic research is needed” (p.33). Despite these studies being undertaken in Brunei and upon taking these factors into consideration, it is, therefore, of utmost importance to carry out a qualitative investigation of the phenomenon to better understand the issue which may become a greater concern given the small population of the nation.
As such, the current study takes a qualitative approach in order to consider the teacher’s challenges in managing DB in secondary schools. The result of this study could offer new insights into the issues surrounding this phenomenon which, in turn, could lead to the reorientation of policies and programs at the macro and micro level to cater to the young adolescent’s needs. Furthermore, most of the existing research on DB in secondary schools is from within Western and European societies, such as Scotland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America (see for example, Martino et al., 2016). Although these research findings could be used as a guide to further understand many aspects of student DB, the crucial missing element is relevance to a particular context and time. The extent and nature of student DB may be contrastingly different in these countries compared with Brunei Darussalam as the Western norms, beliefs and the socio- cultural contexts are different. As such, the Bruneian teachers’ challenges are critical to contextualising the phenomenon of DB among young adolescents in secondary schools. The current study focuses on a small Southeast Asian Muslim nation where the core value lies in the religion, Islam. Hence the study would add value to the body of existing knowledge by revealing an in-depth understanding, rich information, and any meanings attached to this phenomenon by a particular group of people that reside in a small Muslim nation which is very distinct from Western nations and among the Asian countries as well.
3. Method
A qualitative approach was used to explore the challenges faced by the teachers in managing DB in their classrooms. A qualitative approach was employed in this study because the objective of this study was to explore challenges experienced by teachers to manage the DB in their classrooms through their daily interactions with the students. Qualitative methodology is a means for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem (Creswell, 2014).
3.1 Materials
A semi-structured interview guide (self-constructed) was used for each participant. In the interview guide as well as during the interview, further questions, prompts, and probes were done to explore the challenges faced by participants in dealing with classroom disruptive behaviour. The interviews were conducted individually for each of the six teachers. The interview time ranged between 30 to 45 minutes. The interview was conducted in English which is the second language for the participants.
The interviews were audio-taped with participant’s prior consent.
3.1.1 Selection of Cases
Purposeful sampling method was utilized to select teachers. Teachers were identified from three public secondary schools. In each school, two teachers (local Bruneians) who had experiences of teaching and presently teaching to Year 8 and Year 9 were selected as participants of the study.
Merriam (1998a) asserts that to begin purposive sampling, “the researcher first determines what selection criteria are essential in choosing the people or sites to be studied” (p. 61) so then rich information can be obtained.
The participants for the study were selected based on a set criterion. The criteria were established to identify the most information-rich cases who can contribute to the study. The details of the criteria have been described below.
The researcher established the selection criteria to choose the participants of the study. The participants should:
• Currently teach to Years 8, 9 and 10 in a government secondary school
• Be a full-time teacher
• Be a trained teacher having at minimum a diploma or higher
• Have a minimum five years of teaching experience or more
• Teach students who display disruptive behaviour
A total of six teachers, 4 females and 2 males, were selected for the study The average of the participant’s teaching experience was 11.83 years (range = 5 – 18 years). All the teachers taught Years 8 and 9. Five teachers were teaching science and maths and one English teacher was among the participants of the study. This could be because these are the major subjects taught in English and due to the researcher’s emphasis on the selection of teachers who have a good grasp of the English
language. The researcher gave importance to the language so then the teachers can express their experiences. This, in return, may give the researcher rich information on the phenomenon.
3.1.2 Site
The sites for this study were selected based on anecdotal accounts of DB that were found to be prevalent in the secondary schools. Based on the anecdotal accounts from secondary school teachers and school leaders, three government secondary schools from Muara District were identified. It is important to note that this district has the highest number of schools. The high student population adds to the complexity of the school. The study focused on students between the age of 13-16 years old respectively. This age range was selected because it is the early age noted of the students’
adolescent development and exhibiting DB in the classrooms.
3.2 Data Collection
The source of the data collection was the interviews with the teachers. The most common form of interview is a person-to-person encounter where one person elicits information from another. The main purpose of the interview was “to obtain a special kind of information” (Merriam, 1998b, p. 71).
The special kind of information that this study needed was the challenges faced by teachers in managing DB.
A list of predetermined interview questions was drawn up and pilot tested. The interview questions were developed to gain an understanding of the teacher’s challenges to manage DB students.
Additionally, the interview questions were designed to lead the researcher to deeply understanding the way that teachers think, feel, and respond to the students’ behaviour. Rubin and Rubin (2012) state that the core forms of in-depth interviews are structured and semi-structured interviews. Semi- structured interviews were conducted with the teachers through the most common form, which is person-to-person (Merriam, 1998). The interviews were conducted on separate occasions for each teacher which lasted for 45 – 60 minutes. The participants were well briefed on their participation as voluntary and written consent from the teachers were obtained prior to data collection process.
Confidentiality and anonymity issues in using the data were also very clearly explicated at the beginning of each interview with the participants. All interviews were carried out at a convenient time for the teachers in their respective schools
3.3 Data Analysis
There was a total of 6 interviews conducted. All the interviews were carried out in English. The interviews were transcribed verbatim. Grammatical mistakes were retained to maintain their originality. However, it was corrected when used in the report. The analytical framework used in this study was the six-step qualitative data analysis framework by Creswell (2014). Hence, all 6 transcriptions were analysed using the six-step data analysis framework by Creswell (2014).
Qualitative analysis software, ATLAS.ti, (version 7) was used to code the transcriptions. Each transcription was uploaded as a Hermeneutic Unit or primary document to ATLAS. ti. The transcripts were read to get a general sense of the information to reflect on the overall meaning (Creswell, 2014).
Data was analysed using qualitative analysis techniques as a step-by-step process (Braun & Clarke,
2006). The interview transcripts were read many times to get the whole idea of what it conveys. After reading, the six transcripts were compared to identify the similar words and phrases that formed meaningful text segments. These segments were assigned with many codes at the first level of coding the transcripts. At the second level, these codes were reduced by grouping the similar ones. This was followed by categorizing data into similar themes for discussion and interpretations. Descriptive and thematic analysis strategies were integrated in discussing and interpreting findings in this study.
4.1 Home Environment
It is considered ‘home’ as the safe and secure place for a child or as the first school of a child.
Home environment has been identified by teachers as a challenge in managing the disruptive behaviour. Hence, Sharma who identified swearing as a serious disruptive behaviour explains her challenge in dealing with the swearing of her students in the narrative below.
Disruptive behaviour like swearing is something that is very hard for me to tackle because at home it is normal for them to swear… but it is very hard for them to take away because it is normal for them to say outside school. I’m conveying right now, to my students if you have the urge to swear, I said pick a fruit and swear the fruit out. Like strawberry instead all the swear words (Sharma, School A).
The narrative of Sharma discloses the challenge that she faces in order to decrease the disruptive behaviour, is the student’s home. Further she elaborates that the students home environment challenges to correct their behaviour because the students are so used to ‘swearing’ at home. It is nearly or it’s almost impossible, according to her, to tell them it’s not right. However, Sharma gives alternatives to students to stop from swearing like pick a fruit and swear the fruit out to their friends.
This means that although swearing is from home, she is trying to help out the students to minimise this behaviour by suggesting other options. Furthermore, the narrative also highlights how difficult it is for the students even to stay away from swearing. This means that what students practise at home whether good or bad, they will do it outside home as well since it has become habitual for them. This is a challenge that is out of teachers’ control. However, teachers and school should work to minimise this issue. Teachers and school administrators should conduct awareness sessions for not only the disruptive students’ parents but all the parents. By providing them with knowledge and showing them facts of why and how home becomes a contributor and challenge for school as well as teachers to combat the disruptive behavioural issues. Through this, parents would become more aware of their important role in students good nurturing. Furthermore, the school and teachers could meet individual parents to establish rapport and good communication regarding the behavioural issues. As a result, a good relationship with understanding and mutual respect is built between the school and parents to work together and foster good behaviour ethics in schools.
4.2 Lack of Parental Involvement
Parents of the students are one of the people concerned regarding disruptive behaviour. This is why their involvement is vital in managing or decreasing disruptive behaviour in classrooms. In spite of this reason, teachers in this study reported that they lack involvement from parents in managing behavioural issues. Nadiya highlighted the lack of involvement from her parents in the narrative below.
No involvement. Only few as if one (hits on the table with hand) out of (hits on the table with hand) ten (hits on the table with hand) ratio. where are their parents? We cannot do this if the parents don’t do anything. We cannot, parents must involve. But here the parents they don’t care. (Nadiya, School A).
According to Nadiya, she does not receive any involvement from her parents in behaviour related issues of the students. Her narrative reveals that disruptive behaviour is not something that the teacher alone can handle. Hence, she is in dire need of parent’s support of helping her manage the behaviour issues of her students. Nadiya explains further that even during the parent teacher meetings, the parents will just ask if their child is going to be promoted or not. This shows that the parents are more worried about getting promoted to the next grade than their child’s behaviour. Moreover, Nadiya highlighted that even though their kids fail they don’t care about the failed subjects; the red marks they don’t care, ‘they just want their kids to promote that’s it’. This is a worrying issue. Nevertheless, the teachers and school should make aware of the student’s behaviour issues and try to bring parents on board so that cooperation and involvement is received from parents. On the contrary, Mariyam from School B is worried about the parent’s involvement in disruptive behaviour issues of the students. She remarks.
Yes, the challenge is the parent’s involvement... have to be concerned…parents’ involvement.
(giggles) that’s another problem (Mariyam, School B).
Mariyam explained further that because some parents don’t understand why the teacher is doing that, meaning the strategy or the punishment on disruptively behaved students. Additionally, some parents might be having the negative opinion of the punishment or reprimand according to Mariyam.
However, these negative views of parents could be minimised by having talks about the student’s behaviour and talking in a manner to convince the parents that it is for the benefit of their child, for their future. Thus, a good communication link has to be established between teachers and parents as well as with school. Equally, daily communication with the parents is important. Therefore, teachers need to communicate effectively with parents so that the social phenomenon of disruptive behaviour could be minimised in the classrooms with a collective effort.
4.3 Lack of Time to Manage DB
Teachers’ having a high workload is one of the core challenges that teachers face in the profession.
As a result, teachers do not have time for other teaching and student related work. Teachers in the current study reported time as a challenge in managing disruptive behaviours. Mariyam from School B ignores the disruptive behaviour in order to cover the syllabus. She describes in the following excerpt.
…the syllabus, I have to finish the syllabus and how to face them? (disruptively behaved students), so which one do I have to handle? I have to finish the syllabus because that’s what have been requested and it will be seen by the marks. At least we try to, I mean rather than to fulfil this disruptive behaviour I have to finish my syllabus…now I mean the ignorant power is that I have to use. I have to finish my syllabus (Mariyam, School B).
Similarly, Hassan from school C expresses not having time to handle behavioural issues due to his workload as seen in the narrative below.
The students that I cannot handle I send them to HEP. I don’t have the time. Actually, it’s not really my job to do it. My job is really just to teach students and focus on that. But we are also required to do other jobs like character building and stuff but when they give too much work to focus on academic, I just don’t have all the time or the energy to distribute all of that. To maintain all that. So, I have to take out some time an effort from other areas and focus it back into this area. I do what matters to them most unfortunately, I’m being honest here (Hassan, School C).
Both Hassan and Mariyam’s narratives highlight the same issue, workload, where Mariyam struggles to cover the syllabus by ignoring disruptive behaviours and Hassan is over loaded with academic leaving no time to deal with behaviour issues. Another similarity is that both teachers are trying to fulfil the priority of their superiors as Mariyam mentions ‘that’s what have been requested’ and Hassan ‘I do what matters to them’. Hence, both teachers could be referring to Ministry of Education.
Moreover, Hassan mentioned that Ministry of Education is obsessed with academic results so his narrative as well as Mariyam’s implies that it is what Ministry of Education is expecting them to do.
More evidently, Hassan believes that handling students behaviour issues is not his job. His excerpt reveals that he doesn’t have the time and energy to deal with disruptive behaviours after carrying out duties of his academic load. It could be that there is a section established to handle behaviour issues, the HEP and it is perceived as they are the people who has to handle these problems. Hence, as teachers, they should try to handle the behaviours and try to minimise by learning the underlying reasons as they are the closest to the students. Nadiya from School A also find time as a challenge to handle disruptive behaviour, however, in a different way than Hassan and Mariyam. Nadiya explains below.
We observe the student first and we look for what is the triggering thing that makes him misbehave. We learn that in our course, but I don’t have time for that (Nadiya, School A).
The excerpt of Nadiya shows how the process of analysing a disruptive behaviour need to be carried out in order to find the reason for it and to manage effectively. It reveals that she has the knowledge in carrying out the procedure, however, because of insufficient time she is unable to follow the procedure. It could be that the tedious work involved in the method takes time or she doesn’t have the time like Hassan and Mariyam due to her teaching responsibilities. Thus, as a teacher it is hard to find time for tasks other than teaching and learning, yet should try to find time to tackle student behaviour issues in classrooms.
4.4 Lack of Cooperation from Students
In an effort to correct any issue, the cooperation from all concerned is essential to resolve that issue.
The teachers in this study state that they do not get cooperation from students to manage disruptive behaviours. Lack of cooperation from students has been reported as a challenge by Mohamed and Mariyam from School C. Both teachers describe this challenge in the accounts below.
It’s really hard I mean…I have experienced when I talk with the child and some of them didn’t respond anything. They just keep quiet. I think if the child does not respond to you when you talk to them, then you’ll be having a difficult time (Mohamed, School B).
Likewise, Mariyam expresses the challenge being faced from her students as well.
Some students when they really don’t want it, don’t wanna do anything, I can’t really force them. They know that I can’t really force them so that’s the difficult thing (Mariyam, School B).
According to both Mohamed’s and Mariyam’s narrative, lack of cooperation from students is viewed from two angles. Mohamed looks at the challenge in a more considerate way from the students’ side as students are not responding to him when he tries to explore the issue from the students. Conversely, Mariyam views the challenge as the students purposely not wanting to cooperate and do anything regarding their behaviour. Additionally, the narrative shows that the students are aware that she cannot force them to do so. However, there may be other reasons for students not sharing or responding to the teachers. It could be sensitive issues regarding the family or the students themselves.
It also may be due to the culture of Brunei as the researcher has heard from the locals that the students are not that expressive or open. Yet, teachers should find ways to get students share their issues and if teachers cannot do it, could ask help from the counsellor as well. This way, the teachers could identify the cause for the disruptive behaviours and attend to the correct issue to reduce such occurrences in classrooms.
The analysis confirms several challenges faced by the six teachers in trying to manage DB in the classroom. Sharma from school A highlighted that the biggest challenge for her was dealing with the students swearing in her classroom. It was hard for her to convince the students as well as hard for the students to stay away from swearing because they find it hard to adjust their behaviour due to difficulties experienced in their home environment (Nash et al., 2016). This finding complements Evans (2006) study which showed that children raised in chaotic homes exhibit problem behaviours compared to children from less chaotic environments. Similarly, this study supports Jaffee et al.
(2012) findings in which the effect of household chaos on DB was found to be environmentally mediated. The DB due to home environmental challenge was tackled by Sharma using strategies like picking a fruit what students like and swearing the fruit out to their friends. This indicates the effort put by Sharma to manage the behaviour, as she believes that this particular behaviour should not exist in the classroom. Although this challenge cannot be eradicated from the classroom, teachers should try to minimize such behaviours through means of co-curricular or extra-curricular activities, so that respect for their fellow students should be given and that good manners are taught via such activities.
Additionally, the parents are the core people to be attended to in order to deal this challenge.
Therefore, school administrators and teachers should work together with parents to establish a dialogue with mutual respect.
The teachers in this study, Nadiya reported that she does not receive any involvement from her parents in behaviour related issues of the students, whereas they were more concerned with the child getting promoted to the next grade if they passed or not. Literature shows that lack of parental involvement, regardless of the type of issue whether academic or discipline (Badri et al., 2014; Caridade et al., 2021), had been found as a challenge. Hence, these findings demonstrate that to minimise the DB in classroom, a good communication mechanism needs to be established in the school so that the decisions taken with regard to DB are transparent and communicated, keeping the parents well informed. In addition, a day-today communication with parents needs to be practised as literature reveals that the most significant driver of parental involvement was parents conversing with teachers daily (Badri et al., 2014; Caridade et al., 2021).
Unlike Nadhiya, Mariyam from school C stated that parental involvement in the students’ behaviour issues was a challenge due to the parents’ reaction to the decisions taken on the student by not knowing the reason for that decision. Thus, liaising with parents is essential to minimize DB in schools. Steer’s (2005) report recommends that reception and other support staff and teachers are to be trained, so that they are welcoming, and have the skills to deal with difficult parental conversations.
The report further states there is a greater willingness to work with the school when the parent or carer believes the school has the pupil’s best interests at heart. Additionally, schools can conduct parent awareness programmes on the importance of their involvement and cooperation on decreasing this phenomenon in classrooms.
Another two challenges that the teachers identified were a lack of cooperation from students.
Mohamed and Mariyam from School C voiced that lack of cooperation from students makes it difficult in addressing DB issues. The students do not talk about the issues they are having, according to Mohamed and Mariyam who stated that the students were deliberately not cooperating knowing that teachers cannot force them to share the issues. Another challenge identified by the teachers of this study was a lack of time. Mariyam, Hassan and Nadiya reported that they do not have time to deal with DB issues. The three teachers have varied reasons. Mariyam stated that she ignores the behaviour to complete her syllabus because that is what she has been asked to do and if not, it will be seen from the students’ marks. Hassan was overloaded with academic work and he doesn’t have the time and energy to deal with DB after carrying out duties of his academic load. Similarly, Nadiya had the knowledge on how to deal with the behaviour issues but she also had no time for DB. Thus, the data suggests that these teachers may be viewing that education is only to develop their knowledge
academic and discipline are intertwined (Wagner & Ruch, 2015). Such that ‘thauleem’ and
‘tharubiyya’ cannot be separated, it should go together so that a holistic child is developed.
5. Conclusion
The study highlights the need to establish proper communication channels in the school to keep parents well versed with DB issues. Additionally, creating awareness among parents on the importance of parental involvement and the need for a collaborative effort to create a conducive classroom environment is crucial for all. The teachers require some basic counselling skills to make students share their problems so that the teachers can deal with the students by themselves initially and if not, the cases could be referred to the counsellor. Schools need to prioritise, practice and communicate that student discipline and academic are of equal importance and allow teachers sufficient time for both to be carried out effectively. Thus, the study contributes to an understanding of the complexity that teachers face in an attempt to manage this phenomenon in classrooms from a small Muslim nation. This could help the novice and experienced teachers in being more proactive to mitigate classroom disruptive behaviour. Further research could shed light on the challenges by the management of the school in dealing with behaviour issues, namely; prinicpals, administrators and counsellors so that a comprehensive picture of this phenomenon could be captured from school as a whole.
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