DEDICATION
6.6 CONCLUSION
7.1.7 Teachers, on the question on ill-discipline
Kadesh: I think that lack of support from parents, the school environment where I am working in, you have kids that would just speak to you anyhow and if you try to discipline them they would tell you that 'I speak to my mum and father like this' and then I would tell them "I'm not your mum and I'm not your father, I'm not related to you. When you are here, you will respect {emphasis} me." That's what I would tell the child who then will inform his/her parents. The next day the parent would be at school and say 'who the hell are you to speak to my child like that?'...so the lack of support from parents leads to the ill-discipline in schools (KT 49).
Noah: In the same vein, we got parents who are not concerned about their children's schooling, who don't even know what grade their children are in...and if you ask 'who is the class teacher?' They don't know…They don't instil discipline in their children. They don't care...so now it becomes our job of teaching these learners manners, how to behave and how to conduct themselves in order to be acceptable members of society (NT 34).
Kadesh: Also the issue of drugs and alcohol leads to ill-discipline in school. Because learners who use drugs and who consume alcohol their behaviour is different in class, they are going to be rebellious, they are going to challenge you and make your life miserable. So those things cause a lot of ill-discipline, so if we can get rid of those things, our schools would not be dysfunctional (KT 50).
Mercy: Yeah, and the society that they grow in is so violent. You find that it is easy for the child to carry a gun to school or a knife. They use their socks to stash the knives or they even use the scissors to stab one another...Violence is so prevalent in schools. And in my school, ill- discipline is so bad (emphasis), because you may find that one child
stabs another and you send them to the principal's office and the principal would just say 'hey my son, don’t do that again'. As a teacher, you would have sent that child for disciplining but the culprit would come back to class laughing saying 'hey, meneer understands us'... (MT 43).
Kadesh: You see; the principal is being unprofessional because that learner should have been suspended. You give a warning letter to the child and you attach that letter to his file. If there is persistent behaviour, you compile all the paperwork so that it will be easy for expulsion to take place (KT 50).
Noah: The DoE says that as a principal if you expel a learner, it's your responsibility to look for another school for that child (NT 35).
Noah: “If you say you want a child to be removed from the school, find him/her an alternative school - we have seen all the reports that you have compiled but find another school for the child.” That is what the department says say (NT 36).
Kadesh: If there is an ill-disciplined child in the classroom, it will disrupt the teaching and learning and you will pay more attention to that child than the other kids in the classroom, which is not fair to the other learners because you would be busy disciplining that child because sometimes they will do things just to irritate you. They want to see your reaction...and it affects my work as an educator because I cannot teach in an environment where a learner is disrupting my lesson (KT 52).
Mercy: Yaah, it's not easy to do your work in such a class...Sometimes you become afraid of them. There are big boys and sometimes you know that the boy has got a gun, so you have to tread very safely because anything can happen. Teachers have been shot in classes, so I don’t know... You always have to be very careful with what you say because they also take drugs. Sometimes you may say something innocently and only to find out that you may have offended him. Another thing is those girls who have relationships with the male teachers. It's very difficult to discipline those girls because anything you say they get angry quickly and they rush to tell their people [the teachers they are in relationships
with] that you are always on their case because you are jealousy or whatever (MT 45).
Grace: and that’s exactly what I was referring to earlier when I said that they went to complain about me saying that I am calling them names, because I was moralising them, trying to talk sense into them, that they should not be having relationships with teachers who are supposed to be their parents when they are within the school premises (GT43).
Noah: I think sometimes the behaviour of teachers contributes to the ill- discipline. You know we've got young female teachers, young ladies...and they wear very short, short skirts or dresses and there are boys here who are… (NT 41).
Noah: ...and bashaya amakhwela (they whistle at them), so the question of ill-discipline comes in there, the manner in which teachers conduct themselves. It's not even easy for these young teachers to discipline the learners if they all shout at once and blowing whistles. What do you say to that? So, it's even difficult for us seniors to discipline those learners because they would say… (NT 42).
Mercy: they are appreciating what they see (MT49).
Grace: It’s not about appreciation. Do they do that to their mothers, aunts, sisters or cousins…? It’s just being rude, plain rude and ignorance. Why should you be focussing on what I am wearing? Why are you not focusing on salient matters of your education? (GT 44)
Lack of support from parents, rebellious learners, violence in society which creeps into school premises, dangerous weapons and drug use, girl learners in intimate relationships with male teachers, teacher misbehaviour were identified by teachers as sources of ill- discipline in schools.
In the above extract the discussion started off with Kadesh and Noah pushing the rhetoric of blame, blaming parents for ill-discipline of learners. On the one hand, Kadesh (KT49) talked about parents who were actively involved in the education of their children although in ways that were unacceptable or demeaning to the teachers. He noted that when a parent came to school and questioned the teacher in a confrontational and defamatory way, it rendered the teacher vulnerable and eroded the teacher’s dignity. On
the other hand, Noah talked about parents who were absent from their children’s education, parents who seemed not interested (NT34). Moreover, they both agreed that
‘lack of support from parents’ was one of the contributory factors to issues of ill-discipline in schools.
Kadesh and Mercy talked about societal problems such as drug use, alcohol and violence as creeping into the school premises and creating volatile situations under which teachers were expected to function. The rhetoric of vulnerability was used by Kadesh suggesting that teachers’ lives were endangered by working with learners who were either under the influence of alcohol or high on drugs (KT50). At the same time, Mercy indicated that the issue of substance use and abuse by learners was also closely related to the violent incidences that took place in schools. However, Mercy suggested that the issue of violence in her school was perpetuated by a weak leader who condoned the wrongdoing by not punishing the perpetrators (MT43). Kadesh offered advice as to what Mercy should have done; that is, compiling paperwork as evidence of learners’ behaviour. However, his comment was a contradiction of the statements he made in his one-on-one interview whereby he complained about the compilation of incident reports as time-consuming and taking away teaching time (KT32INT). Mercy noted that teachers were fearful for their lives and the lives of other learners (MT45), as they did not know how to handle the issue of ill-discipline in their schools. The rhetoric of fear was dominant in this instance.
When Kadesh brought into the discussion the issue of learner expulsion as being one of the viable solutions to dealing with ill-discipline, Noah highlighted the non-alignment of policy and practice regarding the expulsion issue. He blamed the Department of Education for the impracticability of the learner expulsion process (NT35/36). According to Noah, the Department of Education made it difficult for schools to expel learners because they were asked to find alternative schools where ‘expelled learners’ would be placed, a requirement which perpetuated ill-discipline in schools.
Another source of ill-discipline observed by Mercy was the female learners who had gained the status of ‘girlfriend’ to some male teachers. Disciplining these girls was always challenging for some teachers, particularly female teachers who would be labelled
‘envious’ of the ‘relationship’ (MT45). Noah changed the focus from the learners to some teachers’ behaviour as being the source of ill-discipline. He shifted the focus to female
teachers whom he claimed wore revealing dresses and therefore, caused the male learners to behave in an unbecoming manner (NT41/42. The whistling by male learners directed to young female teachers was seen by Mercy as an act of appreciation (MT49), whilst it was condemned by Grace who viewed it as idiocy. (GT44)
This discussion highlighted the variety of issues that were regarded as sources of ill- discipline in schools such as lack of parental support, rebellious learners, use of alcohol and drugs, violence, and teacher misbehaviour.