Although the educator holds the key to disciplinary success, not only in the classroom but also in the entire school (Oosthuizen 2010: 3), yet the researcher is of the view that the principal as the school head and the main agent of change in the school has a major role to play in maintaining discipline among secondary school learners. He/she is at the decision level of the school and therefore he/she has the power and authority to ensure
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that the educators successfully implement the various discipline management policies in practice.
According to Canter’s positive discipline management model and the schoolwide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) model, the principal should be a model for acceptable behaviour and respect of school and classroom rules and regulations so that learners behave responsibly. He/she should lead by example (Mattoon 2015: 15). To achieve this, he/she must craft the school’s vision and goals in terms of learner discipline, and communicate them to the learners in the morning assembly, educators’ meetings and class meetings. The Nelsen, Lott and Glenn’s positive discipline model suggests that the principal teaches learners to respect the rights of others, to feel empathy and to learn how to behave properly. The Johnson and Johnson’s cooperative model recommends that the principal must teach them values such as care, the sense of pride and belongingness to the school community, the sense of self-esteem and the esteem for others to promote learner engagement and learner academic success. This is consistent with the responsive classroom model which suggests that the principal should enhance the learners’ feelings of belongingness through the teaching of social skills, self- regulatory skills, problem-solving skills, responsibility, and rules and logical consequences in the morning meetings with learners and educators. Jones’ Tools for Teaching model states that learners should not only be taught rules and rights, but also their responsibilities. This is likely to promote the social growth of learners which in turn supports academic growth.
The SWPBS model, the response to intervention and instruction (RTII) model, and the Olweus’s bullying prevention model recommend that parent support is important in the principal’s role of maintaining discipline among learners. For the principal to be successful in the effective implementation of learner discipline strategies and interventions, he/ she must encourage the school-home partnership. He/she should communicate the school’s goals and vision about the ideal of a safe and bully-free school environment. These models are in line with the responsive classroom model which posits that the principal should connect families to the learners’ learning goals as well as the
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school’s goals and vision. However, the SWPBS model recommends that parents should be trained so that they may buy into the objectives and goals of the school behaviour management programme or intervention. The progress of the learners concerned is monitored at home and the interventions are strengthened by the parents’ monitoring attitude.
The principal has also an important role to play in the professional development of the educators so that he/she may successfully implement the behavioural strategies or interventions that he/she plans to implement to monitor learner discipline. The Jones’ tools for teaching model, the SWPBS model, the responsive classroom model and the Olweus’s bullying prevention model propound the effective inclusion and engagement of educators in maintaining learner discipline. The principal should provide professional development opportunities to educators so that they are trained about limit setting, compliance techniques, collaboration skills, collegiality, team working, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills. Johnson and Johnson’s cooperative learning model adds that educators should be taught constructive conflict management skills so that they may model them to the learners. According to the Nelsen, Lott and Glenn’s model, the principal should help learners develop interpersonal skills through dialogue, sharing, cooperation, negotiation and conflict resolution. This can only be achieved with the help and guidance of the educators who should demonstrate their expert leadership in skill development and teaching. By so doing, the principal supports them so that they do not develop the feelings of being defeated or helpless.
Nelsen, Lott and Glenn’s model and the responsive classroom model recommend that the principal listens to the learners’ voice and choice so that the latter feel valued and accepted. He/she must listen to the feelings, thoughts, ideas and feedbacks of secondary school learners; take them seriously; and understand their emotions so that the learners are ready to choose to demonstrate acceptable behaviours as expected by him/her and the educators.
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From the above paragraph on the different discipline models, it has become clear that the principal should play a pivotal role in the implementation of all the various strategies mentioned above and analysed in the following paragraph. He/she must be the coordinator of all the instructional strategies and the behavioural interventions at the various levels of the prevention and intervention. With the collaboration of educators in the school, he/she has to monitor the academic and behavioural progress of each and every learner, the successful one as well as the struggling one with instructional and behavioural challenges, by student profiling at class level and subject level. Moreover, he/she should motivate all the individuals concerned in the implementation process through shared visioning of school values and behaviour expectations so that the collaboration of all is obtained as from the early phase of prevention or intervention. Everyone should work towards the effective positive discipline programme under his/her supervision, guidance and behavioural recommendations.
The following paragraph overviews the general literature on the role of the principal in maintaining positive discipline among secondary school learners.
3.4 AN OVERVIEW OF THE GENERAL LITERATURE ON THE ROLE OF