Perspectives of a Twitter public on disciplinary practices in a moment of classroom conflict
This exploratory study utilises a qualitative narrative analysis to explore the relationship between online discussions centred around a viral mediated school disciplinary incident and policies related to school discipline in South Africa. The study found that online articulations reflected the gaps, ambiguities, and clashes within educational policies related to school discipline, and shows how multi-disciplinary approaches to education policy research can offer researchers new tools of inquiry. This study set out to answer the following research questions: 1. How is school discipline in South Africa conceptualized in a non-specialist social media space? 2. What is the articulation of a social media conceptualization of school discipline and South African educational policies related to school discipline? 3. How can school discipline be re-conceptualized in relation to pedagogy? The research was carried out using a conceptual framework derived from school discipline related literature. A selected sample of 485 tweets were gathered which were anonymised to conceal the identities of the tweeters and the school in question. The narratives emerging from the tweets were then deductively coded into one or more of the conceptual frames. Findings from the narratives were extracted and discussed in relation to both the literature and South African policies related to school discipline. Key findings in this study include the need for the role of parents as stakeholders in school disciplinary policy formulation to be more clearly defined and expanded in school, provincial and national policies and guidelines. There is a need for discipline to be defined in policy documentation in relation to a consolidated vision of the ontology and epistemology of school discipline. Despite policy ideologies which situate the child/student as a citizen, the discursive field of school discipline policy favours the interpretation of discipline as ‘order and control'. Narratives of 'respect' frequently relate to student subordination and obedience rather than as a mutual responsibility between two people. Overarchingly, this study found that the infiltration of corporate-managerial philosophies in education contribute to school dysfunction and interfere with the actualisation of a non-violent and democratic school disciplinary system.
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