Corporal and non-corporal Punishment in Schools: A case of Khodabandeh secondary Schools

This study intended to explore the status of corporal punishment in secondary schools of Khodabandeh district in Zanjan province.Clustered sampling was used to obtain data.The sample of this study involved two schools among 27 secondary schools in the district . 38 students were selected from each school, which made the total number of 76 students, the minimum number of 30 teachers were selected and 60 parents were participated in the study. Questionnaires were distributed to teachers, parents and students whereby the types of questions were closed ended and questions with subtle differences were provided to the teachers, students and parents. In analyzing data quantitatively computer package such as Statistical Package for Social Science ( SPSS) , tables and simple percentages have been used. On the other hand, qualitative techniques have been used in analyzing data in narrative form.The findings revealed that most of the teachers, students and parents believed that it is better to continue using corporal punishment but should be carefully administered and managed. When teachers were asked to state if non corporal punishment such as warning help to restore students discipline most of the teachers and parents said sometimes it helps. But the majority of the students said yes . In this case mostly the students accepted that warning may help to restore students’ discipline.Conflict among students is the major reason contributed on the students being punished in the school.Among differnt types of punishments mostly administered in schools, using ruler and among the ways of non-corporal punishments , staying outside of the classroom during lesson had the highest frequency.

Keywords:

Corporal punishment , Non corporal punishment , Students discipline