A study of teacher misconduct as a problem in the transition to school democracy in South Africa by Yusufu Mohamedi Walongole.
The study investigated the nature and causes of teacher misconduct in three poorly performing township schools in the Western Cape. It is argued that cases of misconduct arise, because of the fact that democratic values are not strongly developed in the society at large, nor in the schools and the teachers that work in them. The problem of misconduct is therefore, an extremely difficult to resolve within a short period of time. In other words, teacher misconduct is a feature of undemocratic school. Since schools always reﬂect the society, then unless such a time when the whole society is transformed into a democratic society, that is when we would expect to see a real democratic school in South Africa. Issues emerged in the course of this study, that seems to be barriers to the establishment of a true democratic school are: Issues pertaining to traditional and culture, violence and resistance, money, history of the country and illiteracy. Therefore, we would expect to see a true democratic school, when the whole society is democratised, For example, when there will be a sense of accountability, when people understand the importance of education, economic growth, criminal justice etc. Hence any intervention that aim to improve schools in the African townships should take into consideration this problem.
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