The perceptions of school governing bodies with regard to their role of supporting schools in maintaining discipline

M.Ed.The maintenance of discipline at South African schools is emerging as a serious problem. The South African Schools Act has mandated the school governing body of every public school to maintain learner discipline among learners. The school governing bodies have to develop a code of conduct for learners and they have to properly implement it in such a way that learners develop self-discipline and the schools become effective environments for teaching and learning. The lack of discipline has caused many schools to be ineffective institutions of teaching and learning. The aim of this research was to explore and describe the perceptions of school governing bodies with regard to their role of supporting schools in maintaining learner discipline. This research was undertaken with the purpose of formulating guidelines for the school governing bodies to support schools effectively in learner discipline management. A qualitative research method, which was descriptive, contextual and exploratory in nature, was used to collect data. The researcher conducted focus group interviews as a means of data collection. A digital voice recorder was used to capture the views of the school governing bodies with regard to their role of supporting schools in learner discipline maintenance. Transcriptions were made and the data were analysed and interpreted. The data analysis gave rise to the development of themes and categories which were related to the attitudes of school governing bodies with regard to their role of supporting schools in maintaining learner discipline. A study of the existing literature was undertaken to develop a theoretical framework and to further substantiate the research findings. The findings from this research study are, among others, that the school governing bodies should be trained on a continuous basis and that the governing bodies and the involvement of both parents and the governing bodies is important for the effective management of learner discipline