Contextual Factors Promoting the use of Alternative Strategies to Corporal Punishment in Basic Schools in Mampong Municipality, Ghana

Contextual Factors Promoting the use of Alternative Strategies to Corporal Punishment in Basic Schools in Mampong Municipality, Ghana

Dr. Kwadwo Oteng Akyina¹, Prof. Prem Jotham Heeralal Heeralal²

¹Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, Ghana

²University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.806240

Received: 19 December 2023; Accepted: 27 December 2023; Published: 24 July 2024

ABSTRACT

The use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment has become imperative as a result of the numerous negative consequences of the use of corporal punishment. This study, which utilized the qualitative research approach, studied 15 Basic school teachers and 15 Basic school headteachers who were purposively sampled from some Basic schools in Mampong Municipality of Ghana. The study was intended to find out the contextual reasons for their use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment. Using interview, focus group discussion and the phenomenological design, it was found that, the teachers use the alternative strategies because of policy reason, need to improve behaviour and the need to avoid the negative consequences of corporal punishment. These imply that the reasons for their use of the alternative strategies are rational. It was recommended that, these grounds upon which the teachers use these alternative strategies should be sustained by educational managers in the Municipality through continuous education of the stakeholders of education.

Keywords: Contextual, Alternative strategies, Corporal punishment, Basic schools, Teachers, Positive discipline, Factors, Mampong Municipality, Ghana.

INTRODUCTION

The use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment in schools has become necessary in recent times of a ban on the use of corporal punishment by most countries largely from the negative effects of the use of corporal punishment. These alternative strategies used include positive discipline strategies like rules setting, rewards presentation, guidance and counselling, changing of seats among others as found in a study by Akyina & Heeralal (2024). Others are premack principle, positive reinforcement, time out, shaping and parental consultation. A number of contextual reasons are believed to influence teachers in their use of these strategies as affirmed in the literature.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The use of these alternative strategies to corporal punishment is premised on a number of reasons. Many of these alternatives are used for their effectiveness and their less harmful effects on students who undergo the use of these strategies (Beerli, 2020; Oxley & Holden, 2021; Wang & Kuo, 2019). To this end, several studies point to the effectiveness of the use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment which therefore encourages their use by stakeholders of education. Studies in Japan and Australia have demonstrated the resolution of most school-related disciplinary problems through the use of restorative discipline (Fronius et al., 2019). Watchel cited in Payne and Welch (2015) reports that restorative discipline enables the school to find its own individualized solutions to school misbehaviour so that the victim, offender and community play key roles for amicable resolution. Settlement is usually accomplished through restorative conference. Sprague (2014) noted that restorative discipline makes people mindful of their actions by engaging them in one-on-one interaction with those they have offended. This makes them aware that everybody has rights.

Beitzel and Castle (2013) reveal that restorative discipline: (1) is successful in dealing with a variety of crime rates not excluding violent offenses, (2) has a high likelihood of acceptance as good by both parties, (3) accounts for a reduction in the level of indiscipline and (4) decreases the feeling of anger, retaliation and the propensity to seek retributive justice. Morrison and Vaandering (2012), on the other hand, opined that restorative discipline builds the student’s sense of maturity by aiding in problem solving, reconciliation and compensation. They further reiterate that this method builds understanding and motivation in others while allowing moods of anger, anxiety and humiliation to be articulated and settled by all parties. Other evaluative studies have pointed to the other positive outcomes of the restorative discipline strategy. For instance, Stowe (2016) saw that restorative discipline improves relationship and promotes empathic understanding for each other. Furthermore, it encourages teachers and pupils to work together and creates the sense in pupils to take control of their behaviour. The outcomes of the use of Collaborative and Proactive Solutions cannot be overemphasized. Studies have documented its effectiveness in resolving several behaviour problems. Greene and Winkler (2019) found that it has a significant effect in limiting school referrals, exclusions and detentions. Furthermore, Greene and Winkler (2019), in their study of 11 empirical studies, found the approach efficacious in families, schools and therapeutic processes in addressing behaviour problems.

Acosta et al. (2019), on the other hand, in an evaluation of restorative discipline utilizing self-report from children with the purpose of finding out how restorative discipline builds a supportive learning environment reported that restorative discipline improves children’s support and bond to each other, their social skills and perception of the climate of the school, and significantly reduces their rate of falling victim to cyberbullying. Studies specifically carried out in England reported that restorative discipline reduced students’ absenteeism and exclusion, and increased their achievement test scores in mathematics and science (Flanagan, 2014). Bevington (2015), in a study carried out in a primary school in London, found out that staff respondents who were six in number gave a positive outlook of restorative discipline. The staff reported that restorative discipline was far more effective in conflict resolution than the traditional punitive approach.

In a longitudinal study of 1,122 schools in the Florida area, Childs et al. (2016) found that implementing School-Wide Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support (SWPBIS) reduced office discipline referrals, in-school suspensions, and out-of-school suspensions significantly. Similarly, Gage et al. (2020) studied the effect of SWPBIS and school disciplinary exclusions. The study, which was a conceptual replication of already conducted studies on SWPBIS, looked at 98 schools strictly implementing SWPBIS and 98 schools not implementing it in California area. The results indicated that the schools strictly implementing it had reduced suspensions on the part of students. Freeman et al. (2016) investigated the association between the application of SWPBIS and school attendance, behaviour and academic performance in high schools, and discovered that rigorous adherence to SWPBIS tenets has a favourable impact on school attendance and behaviour outcomes.

The forgoing discussions indicate that the effectiveness of alternative strategies influence a number of stakeholders of education to use the strategies. Other stakeholders might, however, use the strategies other than their effectiveness and for other reasons.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Several reasons account for the use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment. The literature has established that, most alternative strategies are used for their effectiveness in modifying students’ behaviour. A study by Akyina & Heeralal (2023) found that teachers in Mampong Municipality of Ghana use alternative strategies to corporal punishment to maintain discipline in school. However, since the use of these alternative strategies is based on a number of contextual and cultural reasons, it is prudent to find out what reasons account for teachers’ use of these strategies in Basic schools in the Mampong Municipality. Knowledge of these reasons by the educational stakeholders in the Municipality will help them in their drive and quest to encourage the use of these strategies in schools since the motive for the use of a strategy serves as a first point in encouraging the use of the strategy. This study, therefore, sought to find out the underlying contextual reasons for teachers’ use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment in Basic schools in Mampong Municipality of Ghana. This study was carried out with the objective of identifying, describing and understanding the contextual reasons for teachers’ use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment so as to help educational stakeholders in the Municipality plan to sustain the use of the alternative strategies in its schools. The research question that guided this study was “what are the contextual reasons for teachers’ use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment in Basic schools in Mampong Municipality?”

METHODOLOGY

The constructivism-interpretivism paradigms, the qualitative method, and the phenomenological design were used in this study’s research paradigm, research approach, and research design respectively. The constructivism-interpretivism paradigms are predicated on the idea that knowledge must be built from the perspective of the experiencer because it is not objective in its form (Guba, 1990; Iofrida et al., 2018). The researchers chose these paradigms because they sought to create information using the perspectives of the study’s participants. To enable the researchers to investigate and characterize the perceptions of the study participants on the phenomenon under inquiry, a qualitative technique was chosen. To obtain the lived experiences of the participants on the contextual reasons for their use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment, Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological design was adopted in the data collection and analysis.

Gill (2020) asserts that Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method follows the line of descriptive phenomenology by Husserl. It originated from psychology and its method of enquiry is scientific. The aim of Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method is to reach out to the core essence of a particular phenomenon. In terms of the participants selected to arrive at the core essence of a phenomenon, a minimum of three is suggested for use in this phenomenological method. Key concepts involved in this phenomenological method are bracketing (epoche), eidetic reduction, imaginative variation and meaning units.  Georgi, Georgi and Morley (2017) have presented steps undertaken to arrive at the essence of a phenomenon in the Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method. These steps are collecting the lived experiences of the key experiencers of the phenomenon under consideration, reading through the transcripts of the lived experiences and drawing meaning units from them after bracketing your experiences, and lastly, using the meaning units to form categories, themes and sub-themes after assuming a scientific phenomenological reduction position. These were the steps utilized in arriving at the themes and sub-themes of this study.

Fifteen basic school teachers who had experience in the use of the alternative strategies to corporal punishment, by having undergone professional teacher education which in part, includes topics on behaviour modification strategies of pupils, were purposefully selected for the study after the necessary ethical clearance was obtained. These teachers were engaged in an in-depth interview on the reasons for their use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment. Furthermore, fifteen headteachers with experience in the use of the alternative strategies by virtue of their training and use of the strategies, were engaged in focus group discussion to ascertain their reasons for the use of the strategies. There were three focus groups of five members each. The focus group discussion data were used to triangulate the data from the interviews in the course of analyzing the data. The interview as well as the focus group discussion guides were developed by the researchers and content validated by the Ethical Review Committee of College of Education, University of South Africa.

The data from the two research techniques used namely the interview and the focus group discussion were thematically analyzed to arrive at the themes and the sub-themes of this study. In the analysis of the interview data, the interview participants were represented with the alphanumeric codes P1-P15 while the three focus groups were represented with alphanumeric codes FGD1-FGD3. This was done to ensure anonymity of their responses. Strategies, such as member checking, triangulation and audit trail were used after obtaining the data, to ensure trustworthiness of the findings.

Demographics of the participants

Tables 1 and 2 present the demographic information of the participants of the study.

Table 1: Demographic data of the interview participants

From Table 1 above, it can be seen that nine (9) male, and six female teachers were interviewed. They had years of teaching experience ranging from the least of five (5) years to the highest of twenty-one (21) years. Just two (2) of the participants had their highest academic qualification as Diploma. Most of them had Bachelor’s degrees, with two (2) of them having Master’s degrees. In terms of their ranks in the teaching profession, just two (2) of them were at a near lower rank of the profession, that is, Senior Superintendent II. Majority of them were at the middle and higher ranks, namely, Principal Superintendent and Assistant Director, respectively. This means that the participants had considerable experience in teaching and hence, they tapped from their rich experiences to share their contextual reasons for the use of the alternative strategies to corporal punishment.

Table 2: Demographic data of the Focus Group participants

In relation to the focus group discussions, there were five (5) females and ten (10) males who formed the three (3) focus groups. Twelve (12) of them were at the rank of Assistant Director II, two (2) were at Assistant Director I rank, while one (1) was at the Deputy Director rank. Their range in terms of years of teaching experience was twelve (12) to twenty-eight (28) years.

FINDINGS

In the analysis of the participants’ responses to the research question, the researchers identified three main themes that formed the context of use of the alternative strategies. These were policy reason, for behaviour improvement and avoiding negatives of corporal punishment.

Policy reason

The Ghana Education Service (GES), by mandate, regulates pre-tertiary education in Ghana and, as a result, comes out with policy decisions on discipline in pre-tertiary schools. The current disciplinary policy by the service is that teachers should not use corporal punishment in modifying students’ behaviour but rather, they should use positive discipline strategies and other humane forms of discipline (Ghana Education Service, 2019b). To this end, the use of corporal punishment is banned by policy in Ghanaian schools. The ban on corporal punishment was identified as the main policy reason influencing the use of the alternative strategies by the participants.

Ban on corporal punishment

The policy of the ban on the use of corporal punishment is the policy reason why the participants have switched to the use of the alternative strategies. As a results of the ban on corporal punishment in Ghanaian schools, most teachers do not want to be found at the wrong side of the law and therefore, they currently use the alternative strategies, as revealed by the following verbatim narratives from the participants:

P1: I use them because corporal punishment is banned in schools.

P4: GES ban is the number one reason.

P7: You see, these days they have banned us from using corporal punishment and to make teaching and learning effective, you need to use something that will draw your students closer to you and make teaching also easy.

P9: It is because of the ban. We are restricted from using the cane.

P11: The ban is one.

P12: Well, it is the ban. Yes, that is the most reason why I use these ones. It is the ban on corporal punishment.

P15: Nowadays, the reason we are using this is ban on corporal punishment.

The realization that the ban on corporal punishment is the reason for the use of the alternative strategies is significant. It indicates that teachers are heeding to the call on them to use the alternative strategies rather than corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is noted to have a number of negative effects (Awoniyi, 2021; Addison, 2015; Dlamini, Dlamini & Bhebhe, 2017; Gershoff, Sattler & Holden, 2019) while alternative strategies have a number of positive effects (Fronius et al., 2019; Kemetse et al., 2018; Wood et al., 2011). The ban on corporal punishment, therefore, has compelled most teachers to use these alternative strategies. However, it would have been better if most teachers use the strategies because of the effectiveness of the alternative strategies as indicated by the next theme.

For behaviour improvement

The desire to improve students’ behaviour also came out as one of the reasons why teachers use the alternative strategies. The alternative strategies are seen by some teachers as effective in improving the behaviour of students. Therefore, their desire to improve discipline in school through the use of these strategies was identified from the analysis of the data as one factor influencing their use by teachers. The sub-theme that was identified from this theme was to improve discipline in the use of the strategies.

To Improve discipline

The need to improve discipline in this current period of high indiscipline in schools was a key factor that the participants indicated as a reason for their use of the alternative strategies. The alternative strategies are seen as effective in several areas in improving students’ discipline. The underlisted quotes from the participants indicate their use of the alternative strategies with the pursuit of improving the disciplinary level of the pupils.

P2: I want them to focus, to know they are going to school for their future.

P5: For the writing of the lines, academically it improves their writing skills and hence in a way it is a learning process. Counselling too, if the student listens, it will lead to proper behaviour you are expecting.

P8: Some of the students will not feel very happy if they see you rewarding their other colleagues and you have exempted them. So, they will try their possible best to do whatever you like so that they are going to get the benefit from the reward.

P10: To motivate the other students to learn good habits in the school for them to be disciplined.

P14: I see them as very effective.

FGD3: It helps them to change.

Improvement of behaviour as a reason for the use of the alternative strategies agrees with the findings from the literature that these alternative strategies significantly improve behaviour (Fronius et al., 2019; Kemetse et al., 2018; Wood et al., 2011).

Avoiding the negative effects of corporal punishment

Corporal punishment is associated with a number of negative consequences. These include lower academic achievement, high level of depression, sense of retaliatory feeling (Gershoff, Sattler & Holden, 2019) as well as physical, mental, health and behavioural problems (Heekes et al., 2022). One notable negative effect of corporal punishment is the physical injury and pain as a result of it (Gershoff, Purtell & Holas, 2015). The need to avoid pain and injury associated with corporal punishment came out as a reason for the participants’ use of the alternative strategies and this formed the sub-theme of this theme.

Need to avoid pain

The sense of feeling for the pupils not to undergo pain in the course of discipline came out from the analysis as one reason why the participants use the alternative strategies to corporal punishment. The narratives below from the participants point to this fact:

P4: Sometimes too for the caning, if you don’t take your time, you are going to inflict pain and other things and these I don’t like.

P6: I don’t have to beat the child in a way that will make the child feel pain and unimportant.

The recognition of pain associated with corporal punishment and the need to avoid it agrees with the campaign against corporal punishment by End Corporal Punishment (2022). It also agrees with United Nations Sustainable Goal 16, which calls for the abolition of all forms of violence against children. It, however, disagrees with the religious belief in the use of corporal punishment, as noted by Agbenyega (2006), that the cane should be used to purge evil from the child.

DISCUSSIONS 

It emerged from the findings that three main reasons account for the context of use of the alternative strategies by the participants. These were policy reason, for behaviour improvement and to eliminate the negative effects of corporal punishment. These reasons are discussed below with the policy reason discussed first.

The Ghana Education Service has abolished the use of corporal punishment and introduced the use of positive discipline strategies (Ghana Education Service, 2016). The indication by the teachers of their use of the positive discipline strategies and other alternative strategies because of the ban on corporal punishment is in line with the current discipline policy of Ghana Education service. This indicates teachers’ adherence to the new discipline policy of Ghana Education Service. However, a mere adherence to the policy by the teachers might not help it to work effectively if teachers are not well convinced of the effectiveness of the strategies and do not receive the right education and training on their use. The next reason for the use of the alternative strategies (that is, for improvement of behaviour) is looked at next.

Another reason that came up supporting the use of alternative strategies is the perception on the part of teachers that the use of the strategies improves students’ behaviour. This is supported by several studies that allude to this effect (Beerli, 2020; Bowman-Perrott et al., 2015; Fronius et al., 2019; Kim et al., 2022; Rahmadhony, 2019; Stowe, 2016; Weaver et al., 2020). The perception that the use of the alternative strategies improves behaviour is, however, contrary to studies that indicate that alternative strategies to corporal punishment are not effective and hence, corporal punishment should be reintroduced to curtail misbehaviours in school (Sottie, 2016; Twum, 2021; Yeboah, 2020). The use of the alternative strategies, because of the perception that their use improves behaviour, sustains the use of the alternative strategies and, hence, the new policy on discipline of Ghana Education Service. This is because if teachers perceive that a strategy modifies behaviour, they will be more motivated to use it than when they are uncertain of its effectiveness when used. The next contextual reason for the use of the alternative strategies that is, to avoid the negative effects of corporal punishment, is discussed next.

The use of corporal punishment is associated with several negative effects as reported in the literature (Adesope, Ogunwuyi & Olorode, 2017; Akhtar & Aman, 2018; Elgar et al., 2018; Gershoff, Sattler & Holden, 2019; Heekes et al., 2022; Hussain & Mohammad, 2017; Le & Nguyen, 2019; Maiti, 2021). The use of the alternative strategies to avoid these negative consequences is in support of the motive of alternative strategies. Alternative strategies are meant to eliminate the negative effects of corporal punishment, reform the offender and make the school a friendly environment for the child. The use of the alternatives to avoid the negative effects of corporal punishment is in support of the campaign against corporal punishment as is being waged by End Corporal Punishment (End Corporal punishment, 2022).

CONCLUSIONS

The study has brought to attention that the basic school teachers in Mampong Municipality use alternative strategies to corporal punishment for three main contextual reasons namely for policy reason, to improve behaviour of the pupils and to do away with the negative consequences of corporal punishment. These are refreshing to note because these reasons are in line with the aims of Ghana Education Service (GES) in introducing the alternative strategies in place of corporal punishment. GES aims by introducing this new policy on discipline to ensure improved behaviour of pupils and do away with the negative consequences of corporal punishment hence they expect its strict adherence as a policy.

The use of the alternative strategies in order to do away with the negative consequences of corporal punishment is an indication on the part of the teachers that the alternative strategies are better in effect than corporal punishment. Furthermore, the use of the alternative strategies as a result of their effectiveness shows their trust in the effectiveness of the alternative strategies. Their use as a policy reason shows the teachers adherence to the new line of discipline recommended by GES. It can be concluded therefore that, the three reasons upon which the teachers use the alternative are cogent and should be encouraged by educational stakeholders in the Municipality. Furthermore, the necessary support for the use of these strategies in school, should be provided by educational stakeholders.

The findings, therefore, implies that teachers are adhering to the policy of discipline in using the alternative strategies to achieve their intended purpose. It is therefore expected that, with the use of these strategies, all measures would be put in place to eliminate any form of corporal punishment in schools if any, to ensure the full achievements of the benefits of the use of the alternative strategies.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made for educational managers in Mampong Municipality to sustain the use of the alternative strategies to corporal punishment:

• The use of the alternative strategies based on the three contexts identified in this study should be sustained among teachers in the Municipality. This can be done through continuous education of various stakeholders including teachers, parents and pupils on the effectiveness and importance of the use of the alternative strategies to corporal punishment.
• Studies indicating successful use of the alternative strategies to corporal punishment should be brought to the attention of the teachers and other stakeholders to encourage their use of the strategies.
• Teachers should be educated to always use the alternative strategies as a policy and more especially to believe in the effectiveness of the alternative strategies in curbing indiscipline behaviour on the part of pupils.
• There should be sustained effort to eliminate all the bottlenecks in the use of the alternative strategies to corporal punishment so as to encourage the use of the alternative strategies.

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