Indiscipline in South African Schools: the Parental / Community Perspective

South Africa is struggling with the problem of indiscipline in schools.  The issue of indiscipline in South African schools has been subjected to research for almost two decades.  This research has revealed that learner (in)discipline in a school is related to six sets of factors, namely learner-related factors, teacher-related factors, school-related factors, education system-related factors, parent-related factors, and society-related factors. All of these factors have now been researched in respect to the situation in South Africa, with the exception of the parent / community factor.  The aim of this article is to report on research that was done regarding this outstanding factor with regard to learner (in)discipline in South African schools. The constructivist-interpretivist approach was employed, in order to recast information gleaned from available international literature into a theoretical framework.  The South African context was then analysed by using the theoretical framework.  It was found that within the parentalcommunity factor in determining the state of learner-discipline in schools four sub-factors can be distinguished, namely parental style, parental model as example, family stress and parentschool relations.  These have definite life-philosophical underpinnings, which are also outlined in analysing and interpreting the South African situation.


Introduction and problem statement
South Africa, nearly a quarter of a century after the advent of full democracy in 1994, is still struggling with the problem of indiscipline in schools. Learner indiscipline, to be distinguished from teacher indiscipline, still constitutes a major problem in schools, as evidenced by the following incidents recently reported in the daily press and in research. On 9 March 2018, a video was released of a teacher at the Three Rivers Secondary School at Sedibeng being hit by a book thrown by a pupil (Slatter, 2018;. In other incidences, a teacher was stabbed to death by a pupil in Zeerust, North West Province, and a 15-year-old student from Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, was arrested for pointing a gun at a teacher and threatening to shoot (Daniel, 2018). A recent Google search (2018) revealed a fairly large number of incidences that attest to ill-discipline in South African schools: a learner stabbing a teacher over a "feeding" argument (2018), a pupil stabbing another (2018), two pupils killed during a knife fight in KwaZulu-Natal (2018), a fatal stabbing of a pupil in a Durban school (2018), and a pupil injured in a knife fight outside the school (2014).
The problem of indiscipline is not limited to the actions of the learners. A school guard recently (2018) allegedly sexually abused 87 girls in a Soweto high school, and to add insult to injury, the police officer investigating the matter allegedly forced two of the girls to undress in a classroom and then molested them. Early in 2017, a Parktown Boys' High School assistant sports coach was charged with sexually grooming more than 20 learners aged between 15 and 16 (Mabuza, 2018). Violence and unrest at the Klipspruit West Secondary School south of Johannesburg starkly illustrate the nexus between indiscipline in a community and the indiscipline displayed by the learners in a school. Because of Original Research www.koersjournal.org.za dissatisfaction on racist grounds with the appointment of a new school principal, the community made the school ungovernable. Community members went so far as to take over the professional management of the school in order to be able to decide who should be the principal, where to buy books and who should be used as service providers. The Department of Education in the end had to appoint a new principal and replace the entire staff. While the parents, the teachers and the school management were engaged in this turmoil, the pupils loitered around on the school grounds, gambled and used drugs on the school premises, gangsterism raised its head, racist actions were perpetrated, pupils arrived late at school and left early, and teachers were insulted and assaulted (Osman, 2017).
The issue of indiscipline in South African schools has been subjected to research for almost two decades. Learner discipline at schools also has been the theme of two special editions of KOERS (68(4) of 2003; 78(3) of 2013). The research so far revealed that learner (in)discipline in a school is related to six sets of factors, namely learner-related factors, teacher-related factors, school-related factors, education system-related factors, parent-related factors, and society-related factors. All of these factors have now been researched and surveyed in respect to the situation in South Africa, with the exception of the parent / community factor. The aim of this article is to report on research that was done regarding this outstanding factor with regard to learner (in)discipline in South African schools. The discussion will be augmented by the results of research beyond the borders of South Africa in order to gain a deeper understanding of the situation.

Research method
The constructivist-interpretivist approach was employed in the research process. People entertain subjective theories based on their personal cognitions about what should be seen as acceptable behaviour on the part of learners in a school. Each researcher has his or her understanding and interpretation of what constitutes acceptable and hence disciplined behaviour. In other words, each person creates his or her own reality regarding what should be understood under the term "disciplined behaviour". A researcher constantly assigns his or her individual meaning to an event or an experience, and based on that experience expects learners to behave in a certain way in accordance with the image that the former has created about the learners and their situation, including the parental home and the conditions prevailing there. In this project, the information gleaned from an overview of available literature was interpreted and recast into the theoretical framework presented below (Leutwyler, Petrovic & Mantel, 2012: 111-112). The roots of the problem of indiscipline in schools are firstly traced back to the entire community in which a school is situated, and thereafter specifically to the conditions in the parental homes that form part of that community. This is then followed by the contention that many South African communities and parental homes still lack the necessary social capital as well as the moral compass required for guiding them towards a solution to the current spate of violence and indiscipline in communities and in schools.
The percipient reader will notice the role that the social space and ethical / moral action or behaviour theory is playing in the background throughout the discussion: the discussion constantly centres on the social space occupied by the relationship between the school on the one hand, and the parental home and the surrounding community on the other; reference is also constantly made, on the one hand, to the lack of a moral compass and to moral bankruptcy of the community (in the form of immorality, anti-social behaviour, anomie, corruption, nepotism and state capture, to mention only a few of the features of this bankruptcy) and in many parental homes, and on the other, to the imperative that all the parties occupying this particular social space should apply themselves to a revival of, and a return to moral values which, as will be argued, are imbedded in some or other religious commitment. It is also important to note the distinction between ethics, in other words a code of conduct imposed from "outside" an individual, a parental home or a  Brown, 2009), and morality, a set of precepts for acceptable behaviour that comes from "within" a person, a family or a community and that the individual or group willingly abides by as a matter of course.

Lack of a moral compass and concomitant moral bankruptcy
Christianity still enjoys a dominant presence in South Africa, both in terms of absolute numbers and percentage of the total population. According to the 1996 and 2001 census statistics, the number of professing Christians in South Africa increased from 30.0 million in 1996 to 35.8 million (from 76.6 percent in 1996 to 79.8 percent in 2001) (RSA, 2004). (The 2011 census did not include religious affiliation.) According to Scheepers and Van der Slik (1998: 679), research has revealed that religious characteristics count among the strongest predictors of moral attitudes. Despite the dominant position of Christianity in South Africa, anomie seems to be reigning supreme in South Africa. The moral bankruptcy of the nation can be observed in the fact that people no longer honour hard work and service to the community; perpetrate injustice and indulge in self-enrichment in the form of favouritism, nepotism, corruption, white collar crime and even state capture. The explosion of the mass media and of social media has exacerbated the situation in that some of the programs watched by students promote pornography, indiscipline and violence (Ngwokabuenui, 2015: 70-71).
The possibility of possessing a moral compass of course is not restricted to Christians alone; all the major religions in South Africa, from Buddhism through Islam, Judaism, Hinduism to Sikh, possess an understanding of what it means to behave morally, in other words to behave in such a way that the interests of others in the community (and the school) are protected and promoted (Revision World Networks, 2018). Also those who reject a theonomous (God-centred; faith-based) understanding of morality and hence favour a heteronomous (originating beyond the self, for instance in the Constitution and the laws of the country) understanding, seem to be lacking the desired moral compass at this juncture in the history of South Africa.

A complex phenomenon
Each (in)discipline problem, like every student / pupil / learner, is individual, stemming from a complex set of circumstances directly linked to the child / person causing the problem. Harris (2017) mentions the following as possible contributors to the problem: the conditions at the offender's home, the influence of peers, perceptions of reality that the offender and those around him or her might entertain, and also disabilities that might offer favourable conditions for indiscipline to raise its head. According to some observers, the violence in schools might be a reflection of the conditions in South African society generally.
According to the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA), "such incidents (in schools) are symptoms of society. All over South Africa, the society is violent. We can't expect that our children will be different" . The current Minister of Education concurs: "There is a correlation between high levels of criminality in the community which is transported into schools. Guns come from communities; the knifing and anger come from communities" (Daniel, 2018). The complexity of the phenomenon can further be illustrated by showing how the parent/community factor is only one among many that might play a role in indiscipline in schools.

The parent/community factor only one among many
An international survey revealed that the state of learner discipline in schools can be traced back to six sets of factors, namely learner-related factors, teacher-related factors, schoolrelated factors, education system-related factors, parent-related factors, and society-related factors (Wolhuter & Steyn, 2003).
Firstly, the incidence of disciplinary problems appears to be related to the ages/phases of pupils. These problems seem to both occur more frequently, and to be of a more serious nature on secondary school level than in primary schools (National Centre for Education Statistics, 2002;Wolhuter, Oosthuizen & Van Staden, 2010). Secondly, teacher-related factors, such as the level of competency of a teacher, the extent to which the teacher is a role model for learners, and teacher-learner relationships also have a bearing on the state of learner discipline (Department of

The parent / community factor as part of the complex of conditions and circumstances
As mentioned, the discipline problems in schools in South Africa could arguably be connected to the circumstances prevailing in the broader community surrounding a school. Life in many communities is characterised by a lack of social capital, by moral bankruptcy (looking after own interests, often at the expense of others), large-scale unemployment leading to loitering, gambling, theft, looting, attacks, drug abuse and many other forms of anti-social behaviour. In some communities, the socio-economic conditions are deplorable (Osman, 2018). If life is like that in the community, according to NAPTOSA, "we can't expect that our children will be different". The violence and bullying happen differently in wealthier communities: "The child bullies the teacher and says 'my mom pays your salary'" . A Government spokesperson agrees that indiscipline in schools is a "societal issue"; "We need parents and communities to play a central role in instilling a sense of right and wrong in our children". Most South African political parties, education stakeholders and ordinary members of the public agree that the issue of violence in schools is a knockon effect of community-based violence perpetrated throughout society, especially in impoverished areas (Daniel, 2018). Children do not see adults in their community behaving accountably and responsibly (Osman, 2018).
Empirical research done in the Cameroon by Ngwokabueni (2015: 64, 69) revealed that society-based factors indeed play a significant role in the perpetration of indiscipline in schools. The study showed that the most common types of indiscipline such as disobedience to teachers and school prefects can be traced back to student-based, society-based and school-based causes. Among the society-based causes of indiscipline in schools count: a poor value system (the moral bankruptcy and the lack of a moral compass referred to above) (reported by 86% of the respondents); injustices perpetrated in society (84%), the unwholesome effect of the mass media (81%), unsatisfactory conditions at home (81%), parental over-protection of children (87%) and parental rejection of children (46%). These findings have recently been confirmed by empirical research in South Africa. The Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (CJCP) (2017)'s investigation revealed that one out of every six children at primary and secondary schools have experienced some form of violence while still at school, including threats of violence, assault and robbery, and that they had easy access to alcohol, drugs and weapons in the school. One in three pupils know classmates who have been drunk at school, while more than half of them know learners who smoke Original Research www.koersjournal.org.za dagga at school. The CJCP concludes: "These findings must be contextualized within the family and community environments in which the learners live".
Parental homes are located in communities. The parental home as a societal relationship is important since this is the context into which the child is typically born, and where he or she spends most of their early years under the guidance of the parents as primary (first in the life of the child) educators. As is widely known, many of the parental homes in South Africa are not intact in the traditional sense of the word, namely consisting of a father and a mother and a number of own and / or legally adopted children. A plethora of conditions have changed the situation: parents divorced, absconded or deceased, leaving the children (occasionally even a group of them) in the care of a grandparent or of an older child. The reasons for the dysfunctionality of parental homes are widely known and need not be discussed any further. It is more important for purposes of this discussion to mention that analysis of the research findings of the CJCP (2017) "shows a strong association between the home environment and violence at school, with one in ten primary school learners reporting parental use of illegal drugs, a similar percentage reporting their caregivers or parent had been in jail, and one in five secondary school learners reporting siblings who had been in jail. These factors, together with learners' experience of corporal punishment at home and at school, all impact significantly on the likelihood of violence at school". Ngwokabuenui The Editor of the influential national newspaper The Star agrees with the above diagnosis of the problem: "I doubt their parents even know where they are or what they get up to. Until there's a shooting or a stabbing at school, by which time parenting has failed… Our kids have become criminals. It is a reflection of us as a country" (Daniel, 2018). The Federation of School Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS) also puts the blame for the indiscipline squarely on the shoulders of the parents: "…the violence that has shocked the country over the past week has more to do with what happens at home. Parents … have not taken responsibility for the upbringing of their children. (In) by far the majority of cases, … the ill behaviour of a child can be directly linked to problems at home" (Dhlamini, 2018b).

The parental factor in more detail
Having laid the connection between the indiscipline in schools with problems that might prevail at the learners' parental homes we can now enter into a discussion of what the parental factor might entail in the indiscipline of learners.
Parents play a crucial role in shaping the attitudes that produce good behaviour in schools. Family stress (this term covers both the emotional and material problems from which families may suffer, such as marital discord, poverty and bad housing) is indicated by research evidence to be conducive to behavioural problems in children at school (Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office, 1989:135). Children from families in the lower socio-economic strata are more exposed to these conditions; therefore the incidence of misbehaviour among children from these families tends to be higher than the occurrence of misbehaviour among children from middle-class or upper-class families (Bear, 1998).
Studies also indicate a positive correlation between parental involvement in school activities and the disciplined behaviour of their children at school (Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office, 1989:124-127).
Original Research www.koersjournal.org.za As has been indicated above, the nature of society or the community of which the parental home forms part has a bearing on the state of learner discipline in schools. It has been demonstrated above that the extant lack of social capital and the moral vacuum in the country are detrimental to learner-discipline in schools ( Van der Walt, Potgieter & Wolhuter, 2009). Examples of violence, racism and other antisocial behaviour which people perceive via the media (especially television and video programmes) could be a cause of misbehaviour and disciplinary problems (McHenry, 2000).
The education system may also play a role in determining the state of learner discipline at schools. Methods to maintain discipline in schools are prescribed by the education system, and the education and Common Law environment. The education system makes available support services to teachers in their efforts to maintain sound discipline in schools. It can reasonably be expected that defects in the administrative sub-system of education in South Africa (Wolhuter, Van Jaarsveld & Challens, 2018), such as the non-delivery of textbooks on time or poor maintenance of infrastructure will be detrimental to the maintenance of discipline in schools. The same applies for the Ministry of Education's unceasing negative comments on teachers that undermine the morale of teachers, and for the never-ending stream of change, reform and restructuring, policy-uncertainty and litigation (conflict between national and provincial ministries on the one hand and school governing bodies, on the other).
The parental / community factor furthermore comprises four variables: the parenting style, the moral example parents set to their children, the family structure and dynamics, and parent-school relations as well as parental involvement in school matters (Wolhuter & Steyn, 2003). Baumrind (1966) distinguishes between three parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. The authoritarian parent attempts to shape, control and evaluate the behaviour and attitude of the child in accordance with an absolute standard, often derived from rigid religious beliefs (Baumrind, 1966: 890). The permissive parent attempts to be non-manipulative, acceptant and affirmative with respect to the child's impulses, desires and actions (Baumrind, 1966: 889). The authoritative parent attempts to direct the child's activities in a rational issue-oriented manner (Baumrind, 1966: 891). Cramer (2002) distinguished a fourth style, namely the neglectful or uninvolved parenting style.

Parenting style
The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ; see Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 2001) based on Baumrind's typology has been widely utilized to examine parenting styles. This questionnaire and the scales used to interpret responses were later reconceptualised by Kimble (2014) to also include Cramer's fourth category. Much research has been done regarding the relation between parenting styles and the behaviour of children. Relationships have been demonstrated. However, parenting style is far from being the only determinant of behaviour of children. The relation is also context contingent (Baumrind, 1966;Adubale, 2017: 112). The research findings pass a negative verdict on both the authoritarian and permissive styles of parenting, and are more positive regarding the authoritative style. The authoritarian style of parenting tends to result in children becoming rebellious and adopting problematic behaviour (Sarwar, 2016). The permissive style, on the other hand, correlates with high levels of self-confidence in children, but also with anxietyrelated problems in children when at school, and also with problems of delinquency and lack of attention in classes (Cramer, 2002;Adubale, 2017: 119). Uninvolved parenting is a predictor of disruptive behavioural disorders (Niccols, 2009), while absent parenthood gives rise to anxiety and disruptive behaviour (Osofsky & Chartrand, 2013). The body of evidence points to the fact that authoritative parenting can achieve responsible conformity with group standards without a loss of individual autonomy or of the self (Baumrind, 1966: 905;Rivers et al., 2012). Their life and world philosophy forms part and parcel of parents' style. It has been suggested in both scholarly literature (e.g. Christie, 1992) and in the public discourse (e.g. Grootes, 2018) that the "old" apartheid South Africa was a conservative society and that particularly the Calvinist philosophy, at least as understood by the Afrikaner component of the population, was conducive to an authoritarian style of parenting. This approach had found its way into the schools for all the different sections of the pre-1994 population, thereby stamping an authoritarian style on school education.

The parental example
The moral example that parents offer their children plays a crucial part in forming children's personalities and attitudes (Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office, 1989: 133). Parents are the primary educators of their children and their examples of selfdiscipline and moral qualities will not only be pivotal during the first five years of the lives of their children, but will continue to exert a powerful force during the school attendance years of their children. The correlation between parental example and child behaviour has been demonstrated by several empirical studies (Acar, Evans, Rudasill & Yldiz, 2018: 879). The fact that South African society displays a concern-raising level of anomie and anti-social behaviour even up to the highest echelons of government (Van der Walt & Wolhuter, 2018;Wolhuter et al., 2018) does not bode well for this sub-factor of the parental role in fostering in future a culture of well-disciplined learners in South African schools.

Family stress
The Elton Report on learner discipline in schools in England indicated a positive correlation between levels of family stress and discipline problems of children at school (Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office, 1989: 135). This stress includes both material and psychic or emotional stress. While there is, as far as could be ascertained, no published research that has investigated these co-variations on South African soil, the extant lack of social capital ( Van der Walt et al., 2009) der Walt et al., 2009: 847). Sixteen point nine percent and 35.8 percent of the population live on less than respectively US$1.90 and US$3.10 per day (the two international poverty datum lines) (World Bank, 2017: 24).

Parent-school relations; parents' involvement with the school
An essential ingredient for parents and schools collaborating in shaping children's behaviour is the establishment of an effective working relationship between parents and schools (Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office, 1989: 133). Put differently, parental involvement occurs in a unique social space between the parental home and the school. This space is characterised by refraining from encroaching on the special competence area of the other party, and calls for reciprocal respect for the autonomy of the two parties, namely the parental home and the school. Parents may, for instance, not usurp the professional management of the school. They may, however, through serving on the school governing body, exert influence regarding (for instance) the religious or life-view character of the school and the education offered therein. Working together in this social space entails the construction of strong links between parents and schools, and parents becoming involved in school matters, without encroaching on the professional autonomy and space of teachers and the school. (This is contra the behaviour of the parents and South Africa has a history of placing a high premium on parental involvement in the schools of their children being part of the basic philosophy of education and schooling. The Dutch education system, which was transplanted to South Africa in the years after 1652, was founded as part of the Dutch (Protestant) revolt against Spanish (Catholic) rule. At the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) during the Dutch National War of Liberation (1568-1648), the basic plan for a Dutch Public Education System was drawn up, allocating indispensable roles to the state, the church and the parents in the affairs of schools (Venter & Verster, 1994). This appreciation of the parents as partners in the school education of their children has continued right up to the current dispensation, where parents are for example given a place in the school governing bodies of schools (Lewis, Colditz & Brown-Ferrigno, 2011).
A number of manuals containing guidelines for parental involvement in schools in South Africa have been published through the years, such as those of Van Schalkwyk (1983, 1990. Research revealed, however, that parent involvement in South African schools has always left much to be desired. More than three decades ago, Postma (1986) found that even in pre-1994 apartheid South Africa, in the exclusively white schools at that point in time, both parents and teachers were sceptical about reciprocal contact, that communication gaps existed between these two stakeholders, and that both parties were not knowledgeable regarding the potential benefits of parent-teacher collaboration in the (school) education of children. Michael, Wolhuter and Van Wyk (2012) also discovered that parents and teachers tended to be apathetic and to be sceptical about parental involvement in schools.
From a specifically learner-discipline perspective, Robarts (2014) reported that 77 percent of teachers were of the view that disruptive behaviour in classrooms could be ascribed to poor discipline at home. Marais and Meier (2010) discovered that foundation phase teachers believed that disrespectful behaviour towards teachers in schools could be traced back to what children learned at home. Segalo and Rambuda (2018) quite recently reported that teachers' authority was undermined by the parents siding with their children in cases of learner indiscipline at school. Meier and Lemmer's (2015) investigation revealed that parents were satisfied with what schools did and how they functioned (regarding school culture, school-parent communication, classroom instruction and classroom organisation). According to Mncube (2009) andSchoeman (2018), inadequate parental involvement in schools could be ascribed to the poor education levels of many parents, especially in poverty-stricken areas or to the fact that, due to racially segregated residential areas, many parental homes are situated geographically far from their children's schools.

Conclusion
There can be no doubt that parents and the community surrounding the parental home play a key role in the indiscipline currently experienced in South African schools. The discussion above revealed that the following actions on the part of the parents tend to play into the hands of this phenomenon that has such deleterious effects on school education and the results thereof: parents over-involved in the affairs of the school, even to the extent of taking over the professional management of the school where they have no right to interfere; parents uninvolved or under-involved in the activities of the school, thereby leaving the schooling of their children entirely in the hands of teachers, a cohort of educators in South Africa that is itself currently still suffering from its own brand of indiscipline; parents not understanding and resultantly neglecting their duties as primary educators of the children at home, leading to the problem of children being left to their own devices; children not receiving the correct guiding, leading, equipping and unfolding on the basis of a sound Original Research www.koersjournal.org.za moral compass rooted in some deep religious commitment, thereby contributing to the lack and loss of moral capital in society, and to the moral bankruptcy of South African society; the dysfunctionality of many parental homes, in some cases unavoidable due to the death of parents, also contributing to the problem. By actively doing some morally deplorable things (such as interfering in school affairs where they have no right) or through the neglect of their duties (such as leaving the education of their children to others), the parent / community factor contributes to the indiscipline currently prevalent in South African schools. In light of this conclusion, it is important for parents to gain insight into the social space where they have to interact with the school and its affairs and also into the fact that their actions in that space should be morally justifiable in that all of those actions should be to the advantage of the parental home itself, the learners, and all the other stake-holding parties in the school.