Management of indiscipline among secondary school students in Ilembe District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

South African schools are faced with a serious problem of indiscipline. The available literature reveals that despite the efforts of school administrators and teachers to instil discipline among learners, indiscipline still abounds to the extent of getting out of hand. Based on the intention of this study, a qualitative study was adopted. A qualitative-based study underpinned by the interpretive research paradigm was employed to explore the perspectives of educators in their collaborative roles in managing discipline. The sample comprised twelve educators who were purposively selected from four secondary schools in the Ilembe District, KwaZulu-Natal. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the data. The findings revealed that educators should apply the school code of conduct as a whole-school approach to managing discipline to create meaningful relationships with parents as stakeholders and communicate expected behaviours with learners. It is recommended that in implementing strategies to manage discipline, learners, educators, school managers and the school governing boards of all schools should take a collaborative approach to the management of discipline in secondary schools