Collaboration: The key to managing discipline in South African schools

Abstract

South African schools are faced with an arguably insurmountable problem as a culture of indiscipline continually increases in schools. Despite being undeterred by the legal framework that guides stakeholders in the discipline crisis in schools, indiscipline in schools has soared to critical levels. Scant literature exists on how stakeholders collaborate in managing discipline in schools. The research reported on here was guided by the primary research question: How do stakeholders collaborate in managing discipline in schools? As such, in this article we explore how stakeholders collaborate in managing discipline in schools. Through purposive sampling, 16 participants from 4 secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal were chosen to take part in semi-structured interviews. The sample of participants comprised school management team members (SMT); the principal, 1 head of department, 1 post-level 1 educator and 1 school governing body (SGB) member from 4 schools in the iLembe education district. Themes that emerged from the data include that implementation of the school code of conduct as one of the most effective strategies in managing discipline in schools. The inclusion of stakeholders such as the local community, the Community Police Forum, the South African Police Services and the Department of Social Development in the successful management of learner discipline surfaced as an important theme. Furthermore, participants asserted that a whole-school approach to the implementation of the code of conduct was successful in managing discipline. The participants revealed that the collaboration of stakeholders in schools was very important for the smooth running of the school, including the management of discipline.