Maintaining Discipline in Private Primary Schools through operant conditioning: Teachers’ Perspectives

Maintaining discipline in the classroom is one of the major priorities in any school. A hike in students’ discipline issues is allegedly linked with teachers’ incompetence to manage classrooms after corporal punishment has been banned by the Government of Pakistan. This instrumental case study aimed at identifying teachers’ preparedness for effective classroom management techniques in the current scenario and how no-corporal punishment has affected their satisfaction and commitment with their profession. The qualitative case study approach was adopted for the study and four teachers of a private school in Lahore were purposively selected. The study used a self-constructed semistructured interview guide. The within case analysis of data revealed that teachers felt disempowered in classrooms not because the no-corporal punishment has been imposed but due to their own inability of using alternates effectively. The teachers are aware of and are in favour of the ban, they however, thought that school managements and government of Pakistan should hold training sessions not only for teachers and administrators but also for parents.