Secondary school learners’ experiences of disruptive behaviour that lead to encounters with teachers

Abstract

The study was undertaken to explore learners’ perspectives of disruptive behaviour inschools. The aim of the study was to gain insight and understanding of how learnersexperienced disruptive behaviour leading to encounters with teachers. The supportingconceptual frameworks underpinning this study were Habermas’s theory ofcommunicative action highlighting the significance of validity claims, life-worlds andlanguage in speech acts; Weber’s theory of social action focusing on the dynamics ofauthority, power and legitimacy in social and bureaucratic relationships; a theory ofresistance conceptual framework by Einwohner and Hollander and a theory of resistancein education conceptual framework supported by the study Learning to Labour by Willisas a context in which disruptive behaviour occurs. The study was conducted in one secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal. The purposivesample comprised of 16 learners who experienced disruptive behaviour with teachersand were referred for disciplinary intervention. Semi-structured interviews wereconducted. The data was analysed and thereafter interpreted by means of the threetheoretical frameworks. The main conclusion of this research was that encounters withteachers impacted negatively on the emotional and psychological well-being of learners,particularly when learners were not believed, singled out, smacked, treated unjustly orspoken to rudely by teachers. The emotional and psychological impact of the encounterswith teachers manifested as anger, embarrassment and helplessness in learners. Learners’ views on the desired teacher responses in managing disruptive behaviour andhow discipline could be improved in schools were also revealed in the empiricalinvestigation. One of the recommendations of the study was the establishment of aschool-based support facility with a multi-disciplinary approach to assist learners withcoping skills. Pointers were provided on how to approach this. In addition, the study studyrecommended training (e.g., a workshop) for teachers to develop emotionally and socially intelligent behaviour needed to manage emotions and relationships in challengingclassroom situations. To this end, the training programme was designed and explained.Recommendations were made for further research. Finally, the contribution of the studyand some limitations were pointed out.