Perceptions of teachers on the ban of corporal punishment in pre-primary institutions in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate perceptions of teachers on the ban of corporal punishment in pre-primary institutions. The objectives of the study were to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards corporal punishment ban in pre-schools and to establish whether the level of education of teachers had an influence on the use of corporal punishment. A descriptive survey design was used. Stratified sampling was used to select the pre-schools; simple random sampling was applied to select all the teachers in the pre-schools. Data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Major findings indicated that: 71% agreed that reasonable corporal punishment is beneficial to the pre-school learners; 80% of the pre-school teachers used corporal punishment to maintain order in the classroom; Teachers perceived negatively the outlawing of corporal punishment; the level of teachers’ education had no influence on the use of corporal punishment. The instances when corporal punishment was used by teachers were non-academic. The results form a basis of re-thinking the initial teachers training curriculum and subsequent in-service training in regard to classroom disruptions and how best they could be handled. As changes occur in educational setting, courses for training of teachers in the initial course, induction course or later in-service courses must reflect such changes and support and develop relevant skills in the staff upon whom these changes will impinge. The teacher trainee ought to be exposed to other methods of behaviour modification and these methods should have their own content and well researched.