THE DISCIPLINARY CLIMATE OF SCHOOLS
| Date | 01 February 1984 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009888 |
| Published date | 01 February 1984 |
| Pages | 113-134 |
| Author | BARBARA COHEN,E. BARRINGTON THOMAS |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XXII, NUMBER 2 SUMMER, 1984
THE DISCIPLINARY CLIMATE OF SCHOOLS
BARBARA COHEN AND E. BARRINGTON THOMAS
This paper is a report of a study which examined patterns of misbehaviour and
punishment in 52 secondary schools within the South Central region of the Educa-
tion Department of Victoria, Australia, and considered their significance as
indicators of the implicit values endorsed by the school and as measures of one
aspect of school climate. The results of a factor analysis revealed the existence of
four factors, reflecting differing values emphases within schools. A further statistical
analysis led to the determination of four categories of climate, designated as
"controlled", "conflictual", "libertarian" and "autonomous". The characteristics of
each school system were then considered in relation to these groupings.
INTRODUCTION
Schools fulfill a role which extends far beyond their primary function of
academic instruction. To a greater or lesser extent they are expected by
society to train the younger generation in appropriate habits and moral
beliefs.
Their function of socialization was well recognized by the French educa-
tionalist, Emile Durkheim, whose writings provided a theoretical frame-
work for this study. In his view, school discipline served not merely as
a guardian of peace in the classroom, but, more importantly, as an instru-
ment of moral education.1 He stressed the role of punishment in
upholding the authority of discipline,2 and also the need for the punish-
ment chosen to reflect the seriousness of the offence committed. He
believed that students would always assume that harsh punishment went
with serious crime
—
and the reverse.3
Disciplinary policy is in fact a central feature of school life, which
manifests itself in a large numbers of rules, both written and unwritten, and
in sanctions which are applied when the rules are broken. However,
observers visiting schools are quickly struck by differences between them,
both in the actions which are regarded as misdemeanours, and in the
disciplinary responses which these actions provoke. They are also fre-
quently struck by anomalies — apparent inconsistencies between the
values officially proclaimed by the school, and those which are stressed
unintentionally through this aspect of the hidden curriculum.
BARBARA COHEN is Head of the Department of Modem Languages, Mentone Girls
Grammar School, Vic. 3194. Dr E.B. THOMAS is an educational consultant and part-time
Senior Lecturer at Deakin University, Vic. 3220.
114 Schools'
Disciplinary Climate
In line with Durkheim's argument, it may be that students learn values
more easily from the way in which various misdemeanours are punished
than from written pronouncements, and that a study of misbehaviour and
punishment can provide researchers with a useful guide to the values ac-
tually transmitted to students by schools.
Durkheim also drew attention in his writings to a corporate quality of
school life which he called "moral health" and which resembled closely the
contemporary idea of "climate". He wrote:
There
is
such a thing as a general atmosphere of moral health, which contributes
to the development of good students although they themselves do not personal-
ly deserve the entire credit. Everybody contributes to the whole. Normally,
therefore, collective sanctions play a very important part in the life of the
classroom.4
Drawing once again on his insights, it seems clear that the frequency of
misbehaviour in classrooms, and the number and severity of sanctions
required to curb it, must contribute substantially to the general atmosphere
within the school, and that a register of these acts might provide a useful
way of measuring school climate.
These twin considerations, which have been echoed in the more recent
work of sociologists such as Shipman,5 Musgrave6 and Docking,7 provide
the theoretical basis for the design of the present study.
METHODOLOGY
In recent years, much interest has focused on the areas of discipline and
control, values, and climate, which are the subject of this study. However,
previous studies have usually concentrated on one or other of these areas
exclusively. Examples of important studies of discipline are the Highfield
and Pinsent study of rewards and punishments,8 the Dettman Report on
discipline in Western Australia,9 and the continuing work of Willower and
associates in developing and applying the Pupil Control Ideology10 and
Pupil Control Behaviour11 questionnaires. Among important studies in the
area of values formation are those undertaken by Musgrave12 in Britain
and Connell and associates13 in Australia, using for the most part techni-
ques of participant observation and interview for their research. And the
study of school climate has been pioneered by writers such as Halpin and
Croft,14 Stern,15 Finlayson16 and Walker and Thomas,17 all of whom have
developed or adapted questionnaires aimed at testing teacher and/or
student perceptions of school climate.
However, as the aim in the present study was to use disciplinary
incidents as a basis for examining both values and climate, it was necessary
to design a new questionnaire for the purpose.
The first step in designing the questionnaire was to conduct preliminary
interviews in six schools representing all three systems: State, Indepen-
dent, and Catholic. The interviews sought information about the frequen-
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