Relating school codes of conduct to learner behaviour

Abstract

Schools and other educational institutions mirror the violence and moral decay in South African society. Maintaining discipline therefore in schools these days is a difficult task. There are many factors influencing learner behavior and in this study we investigate to see what impact a code of conduct has on learner behavior in selected schools. I adopted a qualitative approach to answer the research questions that sought to explore whether or not intent of the codes of conduct in sampled schools is primarily moral or administrative, whether the learners in the public secondary schools selected are generally well-behaved, whether or not there is a relationship between learner behaviour and the codes of conduct at the selected schools and whether or not the infusion of values into codes of conduct in general might affect learner behaviour. A case study involving three high schools was conducted. Data was collected through document analysis, interviews and questionnaires. It has emerged in the findings that, with regard to learner behavior, there is a clear link between learner behaviour and the culture of the school concerned as well as between the culture of the school and the culture of the community that is served by the schools. Regarding the impact that existing codes of conduct have on learner behavior, it seems that the impact that a code can have is related to its development and implementation process. Due to these findings, it seems clear that values need to be considered in the development of a code of conduct. This may lead to a positive relationship between learner behavior and codes of conducts for learners. The study hopes to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and will be useful to school governing bodies, principals and educators by enabling them to see the benefits that a code of conduct could have on learner behaviour when values are included in the developmental and implementation process.