Understanding Teachers’ Childhood Exposure to Corporal Punishment and the Abandonment of this Practice: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

In 1996, teachers’ views about school discipline were challenged as they had to work their way into a new world of teaching that did not allow for corporal punishment to be used. Anecdotal evidence suggests that teachers who are currently in the teaching profession in the era of banned corporal punishment have been exposed to it themselves as children. Using a thematic analysis, the current research sought to understand the perceptions of teachers who have been exposed to childhood corporal punishment and their mental process involved in abandoning this disciplinary practice as teachers. A qualitative methodology, by means of semi-structured interviews as a data collection method in a secondary school in the Johannesburg South District of Gauteng, was used where eleven teachers participated. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis was utilized in the data analysis and the findings indicate that teachers’ abandonment of corporal punishment is a result of superficial transformation in response to policies and rules banning the use of corporal punishment in schools. Although this cohort of teachers has abandoned corporal punishment, the study found that they still believe in its efficacy, and they struggle to integrate alternatives to corporal punishment into their learner disciplinary methods. The findings of this study have implications for the Department of Education to help teachers understand the adverse physical and psychological effects of corporal punishment as including why it is considered a form of violence. Further, this study recommends that teachers be both consulted and trained in alternative forms of discipline in the classroom.