Abstract
Students’ challenging behavior is impacting negatively on teachers’ wellbeing worldwide. Currently, teaching for some teachers in South African primary schools has become exhausting and daunting to say the least. Teachers feel that they have had enough degradation and are not receiving the respect they, as professionals, deserve. Students’ relentless rampages and their refusal to listen to teachers are pushing teachers to the near brink of mental breakdown. This article, which embraces a qualitative research design and draws on an interpretative approach, derives from a larger case study conducted at three primary schools in Phoenix. To determine “how does students’ challenging behavior impact on teachers,” semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers from each sample school (N = 15). Thematic analysis was used to classify data for this study. The systems theory applied portrays how behavior transferred from the home and environmental system, into the school system was impacting on teachers. Results indicate that teachers are unhappy and are awaiting their exit from the teaching profession. Furthermore, lack of collaboration between systems deters any amalgamated progress. Future research should concentrate on embracing constructive systems to reduce teachers’ mental and physical stresses in South African primary schools.
Introduction
Students’ challenging behavior has been a consistent problem over time and in different countries (Crawshaw, 2015), reportedly disrupting the teaching and learning process in schools (Kuronja et al., 2019; Rubbi Nunan & Ntombela, 2018). In South African primary schools, challenging behavior has escalated to such an extent that it is becoming very difficult for teachers to perform their daily duties. Students are becoming increasingly overbearing and refusing to listen to teachers which, unfortunately, affects both teachers and students. According to Crawshaw (2015), disruptive behavior affects teachers’ well-being whilst also reducing the students’ chances to learn.
The South African Council of Educators (SACE, 2011) has also highlighted the violent and brutal nature of students in primary schools. This defiant and violent nature of students (Weeks, 2008) is significantly affecting teachers. As a result, many teachers’ psychological well-being is affected and they are physically exhausted under the clutches of arrogant and confrontational students. When corporal punishment was abolished in 1996, South African teachers were not taught any effective strategies to deal with students’ indiscipline. As such, students’ behavior in schools has grown worse with teachers bearing the brunt in the classrooms (Marais & Meier, 2010; Naong, 2007).
Research has shown that South African teachers are not adequately skilled to deal with students’ behavioral problems (Mncube & Harber, 2013) and they are battling with everyday encounters of students’ defiance and confrontations which is taking its toll on them. In fact, the problem has escalated to such an extent that some teachers are “wearing thin” and considering exiting the teaching profession, while other teachers are becoming bitter and altogether regretting joining the profession. This is exacerbated by the lack of assistance from supportive structures to assist teachers to cope with the everyday problems they encounter with students.
This article was inspired by a larger case study conducted in the Phoenix region which explored the dynamics of students’ challenging behavior in South African primary schools to determine how schools experience and address this issue. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the ways in which students’ challenging behavior is impacting on teachers, with the intention of creating awareness of the risks they face and the need for rescue in primary schools by the necessary authorities.
Rubbi Nunan and Ntombela (2018) highlight some of the causes of students’ challenging behavior in primary schools, including attention seeking, power struggles, socio-economic factors as well as negative school cultures. These are important to keep in mind as we explore how challenging behavior impacts on teachers and teaching and learning. They also suggest that teachers require what Butler and Monda-Amaya (2016, p. 277) refer to as “a good understanding of classroom management” which include knowing what the purpose of the behavior is, what intervention is most appropriate to address it, and what role do teachers play in the escalation or de-escalation of that behavior. Butler and Monda-Amaya (2016) maintain that when teachers use appropriate classroom management strategies effectively, they experience fewer disruptions. Arguably, if teachers are not given effective strategies (Naong, 2007) nor the skill to address students’ behavior (Mncube & Harber, 2013), the challenge remains.
Some Ways in Which Students’ Challenging Behavior Impacts on Teachers
Kuronja et al. (2019) report that working with students who repeatedly exhibit disruptive behavior causes teachers stress and tends to make them feel inadequate and helpless. Singh and Steyn (2014) report further, that when students display threatening and volatile attitudes and aggressiveness toward teachers, teachers feel demoralized and do not want to teach any more. After experiencing a violent confrontation with the student/s, teachers take sick leave or stay absent from school for long periods due to the mental strain and depressive state they find themselves in (Singh & Steyn, 2014). The authors convey further that when teachers face humiliation and ridicule by students, it tarnishes their image and creates feelings of embarrassment, which significantly decreases their self-esteem and eventually crushes their spirit.
Kaiser and Rasminsky (2010) and Singh (2012) concur that disruptive students cause disturbances in the classroom, show disrespect to teachers, and prevent them from doing their job adequately. Still, teachers are burdened to continuously police ill-disciplined students which is heightening their frustration levels and causing their passion for the teaching profession to weaken in an unruly and chaotic environment. Negative students’ behaviors also prompt negative reactions from teachers which, according to De Witt and Lessing (2013), lead teachers to develop anxiety and burn-out. Marais and Meier (2010) corroborate that continuing challenges from students place great demands on teachers thereby causing them to experience “burn out.” Furthermore, to expect teachers to satisfy multiple roles, for example that of a psychologist or social worker in addition to being a teacher, is piling up on their shoulders and wearing them down (Segalo & Rambuda, 2018; Walton et al., 2016).
Additionally, students’ misbehavior which is known to escalate into criminal offences, such as the use of weapons to force teachers “into submission” (Singh & Steyn, 2014, p. 81) or the “scratching of cars” (Marais & Meier, 2010, p. 10), not only inconveniences teachers and causes them to suffer financial loss, but also subjects them to unwarranted psychological trauma. Segalo and Rambuda (2018) further highlight that various attacks on teachers by students heavily compromise their health and safety. The researchers also believe that these attacks on teachers disempower teachers to act in loco parentis to students. Segalo and Rambuda (2018, p. 5) also proclaim that teachers “no longer teach with conviction and enthusiasm” because of the powerlessness they experience due to their inability to curb students’ challenging behavior. Their failure to foster healthy relationships with students, also results in teachers experiencing emotional despondencies (Walton, et al., 2016). These states of being also raise concerns regarding teachers’ quality of life and job satisfaction in the workplace (De Witt & Lessing, 2013). Furthermore, the risk in the workplace, as highlighted by Walton et al. (2016), paints visuals of a highly stressful environment, one which is likely to affect teachers’ capabilities and reduce their levels of wellbeing. In fact, the authors highlight further that teachers, in an effort to restore their wellbeing, deliberately try to avoid the misbehaving students.
Theoretical Underpinnings
The systems theory was used to explicate relationships between systems and how behavior is transferred from other systems, namely the home and neighboring community into the school. Systemic thinking indicates that the cause and effect of relationships within a system cannot be viewed in one direction as any action in one part of a system generates an effect on other parts of a system in recurring patterns (Donald et al., 2002). In essence, the systems theory postulates that systems are interrelated and influence each other. As such, behavior occurring in one system or subsystem can influence behavior in other systems or parts of the system (Donald et al., 2006; Von Bertalanffy, 1968).
In this article we argue that behavior modelled, observed and acquired at home or in the community, is brought into schools, thus affecting the functioning of schools. Students and teachers are part of the school system and they should work harmoniously in fulfilling the mandate of schools which is to provide education to students. Gregory (2012) explains the need for different parts of a system to work together to achieve equilibrium. Hence, when certain members within systems fail to fulfil their essential roles, it upsets the natural functioning of the system and propels the system into a state of disequilibrium (Donald et al., 2010). Likewise, when students misbehave and prevent teachers from performing their core function, they cause disturbances in the school system (Mncube & Harber, 2013). Disturbances occurring in any part of the school system, as illustrated by the systems theory, are sure to upset the natural functioning of the system and propel the school into a state of disequilibrium. Similarly, the failure of district officials to provide professional development and support to teachers disadvantages the ecology of the school system. Without proper professional development in dealing with challenging behavior, teachers do not learn effective strategies that can be used to de-escalate it (Butler & Monda-Amaya, 2016).
In the study reported herein, teachers were prevented from performing their duties and were constantly challenged by students’ behavior. From the perspective of teachers, unless the challenging behavior was going to be transformed in some way, the problem would remain. However, the systems theory posits that students cannot be held exclusively responsible for the behaviors they exhibit, as behavior is widely acknowledged as a construct of learning which evolves from the environment (Naong, 2007). Hence, the behaviors students were exhibiting in school can simply be explained as a consequential by-product or reflection of the environment they interact in. As Mncube and Harber (2013) point out, the social dynamics in schools is merely a reflection of society which is functioning ineffectively. Therefore, the need arises to transform the students’ interactive environment positively so that their behavior may be a by-product and reflection of positive behavior, which they will eventually bring into the classroom. However, for behavior to be positive in one environment, such as the school, the behavior has to also be positively effected in other environments, such as the home and society (Chance, 2009).
Methodology
Research Approach and Design
Evolving from a larger case study that assumed a qualitative research approach, this article retorts to the critical question, “what is the impact of students’ challenging behavior on teachers in primary schools?” To produce this knowledge, the research focused on the direct experiences (Crossman, 2020) of the participants with the phenomena. In qualitative research, the understanding of phenomena is constructed from the lived realities of the participants (Alharahsheh & Pius, 2020; Cropley, 2019; Crossman, 2020). Realities are subjective in nature and the views of the participants are considered true (Cropley, 2019). A qualitative research approach was appropriately suited for this study to understand the impact of students’ challenging behavior on teachers.
The interpretive paradigm framed this study. The interpretive paradigm focused on the specific phenomenon to provide in-depth understanding through the interpretation of qualitative data (Alharahsheh & Pius, 2020). The interpretive paradigm is exploratory in nature (Maree, 2007) and enabled the participants to share their interpretation of their experiences as narratives which the researchers translated into meaningful data.
Population and Sampling
Purposive sampling was used to select the fifteen participants for the interviews. The sample population consisted of five participants from each sample school, which comprised of the principal, two management members, and two teachers (having five years or more teaching experience). Since purposive sampling uses the appraisal of experts to select significant participants for research purposes (Neuman, 2011), the teachers were considerately selected by the schools’ management teams. Leedy and Ormrod (2016) expound that a sample represents characters from the population they are drawn from and a few carefully selected participants can provide more meaningful insights into a phenomenon than an entire multitude.
Data Collection Instrument
Face to face semi-structured in-depth interviews, individual (seven) and focus group (four) were conducted with a total of fifteen participants from three sample schools. Alshenqeeti (2014) highlights that interviews are mainly used to collect qualitative data. Further, interviews are effective in probing the participants’ viewpoints through reflection and narratives which offer deeper insight and understanding about a phenomenon (Alshenqeeti, 2014). The interviews, which were scheduled according to the availability of the participants, took place at the respective sample schools and lasted for about forty-five minutes each. With the participants’ consent, the interviews were recorded, however, one principal and one teacher from the same school opted to transcribe their responses instead of being verbally recorded. Their request to transcribe their responses was gladly accepted. Creswell and Creswell (2018) notes that data can be recorded through transcripts and audio recordings.
Data Analysis
The thematic analysis technique was used to analyze qualitative data. Maguire and Delahunt (2017) maintain that data analysis is fundamental to produce trustworthy qualitative research. Thematic analysis involves recognizing and categorizing certain patterns or themes in qualitative data (Maguire & Delahunt, 2017). In thematic analysis, the researchers sought to identify emerging themes that are free of premature notions about what they expect to find (Braun & Clark, 2006). The researchers followed the six steps as outlined by (Braun & Clark, 2006) to implement thematic analysis. The interview recordings and the written transcriptions were carefully reviewed before linking and categorizing the data into the various themes that emerged. Thematic analysis was effective in sorting out the data, especially the color coding system which assisted to make categorization easier and more distinguishable.
Trustworthiness/Reliability
The subjective nature of qualitative research upholds the participants’ viewpoints as a true reflection of their lived experiences and encounters with the phenomenon (Cropley, 2019). Inductive reasoning was applied to verify the participants’ experiences through consistencies that emerged in their responses (Sauce & Matzel, 2017). Data presented in this study is most applicable to the context of the sample schools.
Ethical Considerations
Permission to conduct the study at the school institutions was sought, and all ethical considerations involving a qualitative study was adequately complied with, as outlined by Arifin (2018). Each participant signed a consent form giving their permission to participate in the interview and to record the interview session. The participants were duly informed that their participation was voluntary and that they could retract their participation from the interview at any time. Arifin (2018) highlights the need to protect the participants due to the in-depth nature of a qualitative study. The participants’ confidentiality and autonomy were upheld, and their identities were protected using pseudonyms. To ensure privacy, the selected interview room at each school was carefully monitored by the school’s secretary who controlled access during the interviews.
Findings
Data presented in this article was guided by the narrations of the teachers which, after careful analysis, translated into the following themes: classroom disturbances, violation of personal safety, and stress and ill-health.
Theme 1: Classroom Disturbances
Teachers’ articulated that they had constant disturbances in their classrooms and the teaching and learning process was often interrupted by ill-disciplined students who did not want to obey class rules. As such, valuable teaching and learning time was lost as teachers repeatedly tried to restore order. This is evident in the following statements,
“Students will be walking in the class, screaming and fighting. . .they don’t care. The focus of the lesson is lost. . .to get the students to refocus is challenging.”
“They don’t listen. . .they are constantly bickering. . .teaching and learning is disturbed. Valuable teaching time is denied to the rest of the students.”
“Disruptive students’ disrupt your lesson. . .and your concentration. It disrupts the entire culture of learning because we have to sort out the problem. . .it takes ten minutes to get the students to settle down again because we have large numbers.”
“Students fidget. . .they talk out of turn. When a child disrupts the class we stop the lesson. . .reprimand the child. . .get the child to behave and then carry on with the lesson.”
“Some students hit others while the teacher is teaching.”
“. . .teachers are unable to fulfil their teaching responsibilities.”
“. . .you just turn to write on the board. . .they throwing crayons, throwing papers around. . .then the rest of the class will begin screaming. We got to stop teaching and constantly be sorting out problems.”
The above articulations suggest that the classroom climate in these schools is affected by students’ behavioral problems and teaching time is spent sorting out students’ behavior instead of supporting students in their learning. One can envisage that students seem not to care and behave as they please in the classrooms. This coincides with what teachers were saying in a study conducted by Marais and Meier (2010, p. 8), that students’ display a “don’t-care” attitude. Furthermore, these kinds of behaviors incite questions on the students’ value system and the kind of respect they hold for the teachers’ authority in the classroom. Responses by teachers that the students “just have no regard for authority” (Marais & Meier, 2010, p. 8) confirm that this problem is not exclusively experienced by South African teachers alone. Botha (2014), Mncube and Harber (2013), Moyo et al., (2014) and Naong (2007) also attest to this problem existing internationally. However, it seems that the “buck” stops with the teachers to find ways to “sort” these problems out. What is also clear is that such students’ behaviors impact negatively on teaching and learning (Singh & Steyn, 2014). It is a matter of concern that teaching and learning no longer take place in a safe and conducive environment and that because there seem to be no adverse consequences for inappropriate behavior, it also does not take long for other students to emulate the misbehaving students.
Ironically, according to Gregory (2012), efficient control over the system is essential to identify and eliminate any threats that may affect its functioning. With teaching being constantly disrupted, teachers are often forced to stop lessons and deal with behavioral problems throughout the day. Reordering interrupted lessons can prove to be challenging, especially since the students’ focus would already be lost. What is more is that large class sizes that are a common feature in South African schools, place additional demands and undue strain on teachers. With teaching time being “reduced” it becomes difficult for one to imagine how these students were learning enough to prepare them for assessments and promotion to the next grades.
Theme 2: Violation of Personal Safety
There is evidence in the following narrations to indicate that teachers’ personal safety was being violated by students:
“Students use vulgar language toward teachers. . .backchat, argue, display arrogance and stand up to fight with teachers.”
“Students stand up to teachers at times.”
“Students want to tell the teachers what to do. I had students. . .who stood up to teachers, back chatted teachers. . .threw a pencil at the teacher. . .grabbed a teacher on the arm. . .tried to assault the teacher. . .”
“One student in my grade five class resists authority. . .he has a tantrum. . .he threatens to bring a weapon to school or go to the “Sangoma” to harm the teachers. He is aggressive toward teachers. . .”
Such behaviors suggest that students were aggressive and displaying themselves violently toward teachers. Aggressive behavior, as substantiated by Botha (2014), Coon and Mitterer (2010) and Singh and Steyn (2014), is associated with danger to intentionally cause harm to a person through violence. This is in line with Weeks’ (2008, p. 21) description of challenging behavior as being, “violent in nature.” While the abolition of corporal punishment in South African schools was implemented to protect students, these very students appear to be taking advantage of teachers who are seemingly vulnerable and find themselves in an unprotected situation where their safety is being compromised (Segalo & Rambuda, 2018). Students are evidently confrontational and threatening toward teachers, knowing full well that there are restraints which prevent teachers from retaliating in ways that could harm students physically or emotionally.
In the study by Marais and Meier (2010, p. 8), teachers declared that students were “unruly” and “simply undisciplined.” If students were presenting themselves this violently to teachers, chances are that they were not willing to listen to or learn anything from teachers. Yet, to keep a system (school) purposefully functioning and achieve its goals, Donald et al. (2006, 2010), Gregory (2012), and Naong (2007) accentuate the essential need for all parts of a system to execute their designated roles. Therefore, it prompts one to assume that certain teachers may also be harboring feelings of terror and intimidation toward ill-disciplined students, and confirm what (Naong, 2007, p. 284) asserted, that challenging behavior “creates conditions of fear and intimidation.” Subsequently, teaching and learning for teachers in South African primary schools demonstrates to be a daunting task, particularly since the classroom environment presents as unpredictable, threatening and violent.
Theme 3: Stress and Ill-Health
The following expressions by teachers suggest that students’ challenging behavior was impacting negatively on their wellbeing.
“I was getting so worked up. . .my pressure was so high. . .I was bordering on a stroke. I suffer from insomnia. . .I wake up 2am in the morning and jot down what to do to rectify the problems we are facing at school. Teachers are working too hard. . .they are wearing thin. . .they are getting sick. . .teachers cry in my office. . .”
“This profession has become stressful. . .one teacher had a triple bypass and the classroom is causing him stress. One teacher used to get epileptic attacks in school whenever he became stressed…he passed away in 2012. . .he was only thirty-five years old. I feel helpless. . .no matter how much we try. . .they never seem to listen. We are just trying to keep our jobs. . .it drains your passion. . .it eats at you from the inside knowing you just have to tolerate students who have no respect. Bad experiences with students upset me. . .it affects my pressure and I become sick.”
“Disturbances all day take you to another mode. It frustrates me as a teacher. . .I feel hopeless and sometimes fed-up. Students’ challenging behavior makes me angry and impatient. It weakens my passion.”
“We try to do our best but sometimes we feel down and out. . .we get especially tension headaches. . .and your pressure goes down.”
“We have bad days. . .we scream so much. . .we need time out.”
The tension teachers experienced could be sensed through their vocal expressions of helplessness. Clearly, classrooms in these schools have become stressful environments for teachers to work in, so stressful that it was affecting their physical and emotional health. This cannot be a healthy path to follow. Singh and Steyn (2014) confirmed that students’ behavioral problems were causing teachers stress and ill-health. Teachers, at the very core of their function, are expected to “teach” and deliver the curriculum to students. Instead, they are being ridiculed and exploited by students and drawn to tears in an environment that is meant for teaching and learning. These teachers were convinced that no matter how hard they try; their efforts were in vain as it never seems good enough to turn things around. To hear of teachers as professionals crying over students’ insults and misbehavior is an absolute tragedy, one that is unbecoming and demeaning for any adult to go through. Furthermore, the teachers were expected to face and to “teach” the same students daily as they endured their insults. Although the classroom was no longer a desired environment as it compromised their health, teachers were compelled to work under these conditions as they also needed to keep their jobs.
The stress that teachers experienced caused them deep psychological conflict with themselves.
“Sometimes children can push you to the limit. We get so angry we want to bang the table. . .bang the duster on the chalkboard. We just step out of the door. . .and calm down. . .it’s very stressful.”
“I psyche myself not to lose control. . .I just walk out of my class and get some fresh air. . .else I probably would’ve taken a ruler and lost my control and administered corporal punishment. . .I know it’s wrong, but. . .”
“Some teacher’s just want to give it up. . .then you realize the impact you have on the students and the difference you are able to make. . .”
“I feel suffocated. . .I feel like changing my profession. . .but it’s too late for me. . .I’m thirty years in this profession and waiting for retirement. . .I hope I am able to hold on that long.”
“The teachers get frustrated. . .they send messages to me “mam I can’t manage with these students. . .I just want to go”. . .”
“It depresses you. . .it brings your morale down. You question yourself. . .am I doing the right thing. . ..”
It is indeed heartbreaking that teachers were this unhappy and even regretting their careers in the teaching profession. The study by Naong (2007, p. 291) also revealed that teachers in South African schools were mainly “unhappy, demoralized, and exhausted.” Similarly, in this study, teachers were battling intrinsically to keep their composure and prevent their morale from diminishing, a psychological warfare which is likely to be detrimental to ones’ sanity. This confirms the findings by Marais and Meier (2010), Naong (2007), and Singh and Steyn (2014), that teacher morale has increasingly diminished in primary schools. Although students were disrespecting teachers and challenging their authority, teachers were still desperately trying to latch onto their innate passion for the profession. Some teachers, with much difficulty and conviction, were able to psychologically prepare themselves not to lose control. Other teachers who were struggling, were becoming fed up and developing heightened levels of frustration which sometimes led to them losing control and reacting with corporal punishment, as in the case of Mrs Peter, “Several times I’ve been involved in corporal punishment. . .that is if they drive you to such an extent where you can lose control. At one point I felt that if I didn’t administer corporal punishment the children were not listening. I did get into serious trouble. . .I was involved in a hearing. My self-esteem was at its lowest. I took a term off from work. . .I just relaxed, I went for some counselling. After that, I had to just calm down because my job was in jeopardy.”
Coon and Mitterer (2010) confirm that the use of physical punishment or the urge to destroy things is a common reaction to anger and frustration. It seems as if students were pushing teachers, like Mrs Peter, to such an extent that they were provoking a reaction out of them. It is human nature to try and correct a person, but one can do so only so many times before the frustration settles in and one tips over and loses control. Likewise, teachers found themselves in a similar predicament and since physical discipline is illegal and a dismissible offence, it remains the worst and most sacrificial action any teacher can succumb to when disciplining a student (Moyo et al., 2014; Naong, 2007). Yet, out of desperation, some teachers were still using physical punishment on students. Thus, one can imagine the extent to which students were trying teachers and pushing them, to cause them to take such drastic actions that would put their jobs and livelihood at risk and furthermore warrant them to seek counselling.
Discussion
The findings suggest that primary school teachers work under difficult conditions where students’ challenging behavior is rife and there is not much support from the other systems. The participating teachers reported that they are negatively affected by students’ challenging behavior in their primary schools. Teachers were unable to manage the ill-disciplined students in the classroom and this was impacting negatively on teaching and learning (Coetzee, 2005; Weeks, 2008). Simuforosa and Rosemary (2014) also found that managing students’ discipline in the classroom was a problem facing all teachers.
The conditions under which South African teachers are expected to teach highlight the existence of a serious problem, as captured by Mncube and Harber (2013, p. 1) that South African schools have become “a cause for concern.” There are also concerns that students are defiant and violent toward teachers which are putting teachers’ safety at risk. If teachers experience constant disturbances throughout teaching, it is not only the misbehaving students who are prevented from learning but all students. With the kind of disturbances experienced in the classrooms, the quality of education South African primary schools provide to students becomes questionable. However, with teachers being challenged and humiliated daily, there seems little that teachers can do if they are not getting support from the relevant support structures, especially since there are claims that students’ behavior has grown worse since the abolition of corporal punishment (Coetzee, 2005; Naong, 2007). In the absence of effective alternatives to corporal punishment, teachers were growing helpless trying to control students’ behavior in schools (Coetzee, 2005). Teachers were unnecessarily exhausting themselves trying to get students to behave without any success. Despite teachers being under the relentless attack of students, they were still expected to instil discipline in students, an obligation duly entrusted to parents (Marais & Meier, 2010). To expect teachers, who form a minority against students in school to come up with solutions to their behavioral problems resulted in teachers’ having to endure insomnia, ill-health, and diminishing morale’s (Marais & Meier, 2010). Furthermore, while some teachers sought counselling, other teachers had to take the time to mentally prepare to be able to control their emotions and remain calm in the classroom amidst students’ disturbances and violent escapades.
Considering the conditions under which these teachers work, it is understandable yet regrettable that they express regret and frustration toward the teaching profession and eagerly await retirement, which suggests that the primary school system is in serious trouble. Similarly, 90% of the teachers sampled in Naong’s (2007) study (p. 295) also indicated they wanted to exit the schooling system because of students’ ill-discipline in schools, as they “felt disgruntled and disempowered” and did not have any strength left to fight back. In fact, Singh and Steyn (2014) maintain that students’ challenging behavior has become the leading cause for teacher career changes resulting in their resignations as teachers felt helpless and their images were being tarnished.
Students’ challenging behavior is generating serious concern and raises a red flag as to the socialization of students attending primary schools. It raises concerns about the social dynamics under which they develop within and outside the school system, what behaviors are they exposed to at home, in their communities and schools, and how do these behaviors shape their perceptions of what is acceptable and non-acceptable behavior? Rubbi Nunan and Ntombela (2018) also question the prevailing culture in some schools where students feel oppressed, undervalued, and unaccepted. Such feelings could promote displays of challenging behavior as students seek attention and acceptance.
As redeeming behavior involves exploring the broader environmental elements that influence behavior, a look at the students’ interactive environment may be a precursor to try and transform and shape their behavior to echo a more positive and conducive working environment for teachers. Donald et al. (2008) and SACE (2011) point out that negative patterns of behavior by parents in the home have a direct and controlling effect on student behaviors in schools. Furthermore, Hunt adds that students who emerge from fractured families, where parents cannot cope with their own lives let alone respond to their children’s needs, use behavior and act out in destructive ways in school as a defense to prevent exposure and conceal their family problems and sufferings. Students are also victims whose upbringing is reliant on diminishing family and societal values which they evidently display in the classroom. McAdams et al. (2009) and Weeks (2008) also agrees that the student’s home environment is the main contributor and outward expression of their behavior in school. To prevent these behaviors from occurring, Chance (2009) suggests that the environment should be transformed in some way. To restore its social and cultural values, therefore, the school community requires a paradigm shift, especially since, the school as an open system and its environment is highly interrelated (Begley, 1999). Hence the school, in its failing efforts to manage student discipline, should consider extending itself to the community through integrated awareness and therapeutic programs in affiliation with health professionals, therapists, and the Department of Basic Education to develop competencies in teachers, parents, and students alike, to bring about radical change. Most importantly, schools should strive to develop inclusive cultures where all students matter, and where all students are valued and protected from physical and psychological violation. Inclusive school cultures enable healthy relationships to develop between students and their teachers and between parents and teachers, which makes the ground fertile for meaningful and constructive conversations and partnerships.
Conclusion
The systems theory requires that different parts of a system work together to achieve the system’s common goals (Gregory, 2012), in this case teachers, parents, and students working together to ensure quality teaching and learning takes place, and any problems preventing this from happening being resolved. Moreover, environmental elements influencing students’ behaviors which create a negative culture of assertion and control in the classroom require exploration and conversion. For teachers to be constrained to a classroom culture that lacks order and respect defeats their core purpose and existence in a system which is somewhat or altogether killing their passion for the profession. This is a catastrophe that cannot be good for education or the future generation of South Africans. There are no winners. While teachers are becoming sick and growing tired of returning to the classroom, students are becoming more relentless and losing out on quality education. To try to turn things around we have to be part of the solution. Given that there are no quick fixes or instant solutions to students’ challenging behavior (Naong, 2007), as students “exercise their rights,” resolving this problem will require the role of all stakeholders, especially the Department of Basic Education, to intervene and provide, among other things, psychological support and apposite coaching to primary school teachers.
Footnotes
Previous Submission and Publication
Authors’ Note
Sithabile Ntombela is now at The University of Zululand (UNIZULU), Richards Bay, South Africa.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors would like to acknowledge the National Research Foundation for supporting the Doctoral study.