George Moyo

Disciplinary practices in schools and principles of alternatives to corporal punishment strategies

The aim of the study was to determine the consistency prevailing between the disciplinary practices in the schools and the principles of the Alternatives-to-Corporal Punishment strategy. The three main research questions that guided the study were to determine (1) How much variance of offences can be explained by disciplinary measures of alternative corporal punishment? (2) How well do the different measures of alternative corporal punishment predict offences? (3) Which is the best predictor of offences given a set of alternative measures? Twenty-nine schools participated in the survey and five schools participated in the case study, so the achieved sample was 34 schools. From the 29 survey schools, one principal and one Life Orientation (LO) teacher participated. All in all 58 people participated. The results revealed that 66.60% of the variation in the offence of vandalism was explained by the predictors. When vandalism was predicted it was found that School identification (â = .693, p .05). The results reveal that there was no established consistency between the disciplinary practices in the schools and the principles of the alternatives-to-corporal punishment strategy.

Bereavement Counseling: A Dilemma for School Counselors?

Abstract The paper sought to establish the challenges faced by counselors as they offer bereavement counseling to secondary school learners in Harare. A qualitative methodological approach was utilized to obtain data from respondents and an interpretivist paradigm was adopted to capture experiences of four counselors from two secondary schools as they offered bereavement counseling to parentally bereaved learners. A multiple case study design was adopted for this study. The paper revealed that counselors experienced a plethora of challenges such as non-cooperation from caregivers and other colleagues in the school, having to deal with the complex nature of children’s bereavement experiences, and lack of expertise in assisting bereaved learners. As such, the paper concludes that counselors face challenges in counseling bereaved children in the selected schools and that learners do not get adequate bereavement counseling as counselors lack confidence in carrying out their counseling duties. Hence, the paper recommends that schools equip counselors with additional bereavement counseling skills so that they can implement it more effectively.

Ethical Behaviours of Student Teachers' Mentors in Forced Same-Gender and Cross-Gender Matches in a Malawian Initial Primary Teacher Education Programme: Implications for Mentor Selection and Development.

Abstract The popularity of assigned or forced same-gender and cross-gender matches between school mentors and student teachers has heightened concerns regarding the ethical and/or unethical behaviours of mentors. In this article the authors present the findings of a crosssectional survey study on the prevalence of ethical and/or unethical behaviours of school mentors in forced same-gender and cross-gender matches from the perspective of their student teachers in Malawi’s Initial Primary teacher education mentoring programme. The study was grounded in a positivist paradigm and a quantitative approach was followed. A structured questionnaire was dropped to and picked up from a census sample of 616 student teachers who were attached to 92 school mentors in 92 primary schools by one of the Primary teacher training colleges in Malawi. Univariate and bivariate analysis using SPSS version 20.0 was employed to analyse the quantitative data. The results revealed that school mentors in forced same-gender as well as in cross-gender matches exhibited more unethical than ethical behaviours to their student teachers; and that their unethical behaviours were graver in demonstrating deontological responsibility such as using their power and authority to expose student teachers to risky conditions. The study also found no significant difference in ethical and/or unethical behaviours of mentors in forced same-gender and cross-gender matches. Overall, the results supported the need for careful mentor selection; regular mentor development opportunities; and regular monitoring of the mentoring processes.

Assessing the Norms and Standards of School Mentors’ Competences in the 1+1 Model of Initial Primary Teacher Education in Malawi: Implications for Mentor Development

Abstract The aim of this comparative cross-sectional study was to assess the competences of school mentors in the Initial Primary Teacher Education (IPTE) mode from the perspective of student teachers and headteachers. The study set out to find answers to the following research questions: (1) what are the competences of school mentors as perceived by student teachers? (2) What are the competences of school mentors as perceived by headteachers? (3) Is there a significant difference in the mean competence scores for student teachers and headteachers? (4) What are the implications of the findings for school mentor development? Ninety-two primary schools and 670 participants comprising 579 student teachers and 91 headteachers participated in a mixed methods research design in which a census survey was followed by a case study of two schools to observe the practices of mentoring for purposes of triangulation and complementarity. Data was analysed by employing descriptive analysis and calculating independent-sample t-test. The results revealed that at student teacher respondents generally confirmed that school mentors demonstrated competency in most of the mentoring aspects under investigation. Very few respondents indicated that mentors did not demonstrate the investigated competencies. The same results were revealed by headteachers about their school mentors. An independent-sample t-test revealed that there was no statistical significant difference in 28 of the 30 competence scores of assessment by the student teachers and headteachers. Significant difference was found in only two competences.

Reconceptualizing the Norms and Standards of Mentor Selection in Malawi's 1+1 Initial Primary Teacher Education Model: Implication for Teacher Development

Abstract Mentoring student teachers during the practicum is a pivotal dimension of quality of teacher development. The key determinant of quality of mentoring is, however, the school mentor. This paper reports on a study, which examined the norms and standards that guided selection of school mentors in primary schools in the 1+1 Initial Primary Teacher Education Model in Malawi. The study employed a mixed methods sequential explanatory design comprising a survey followed by a case study. Data was collected from 92 mentoring primary schools with a total of 183 informants comprising 91 school head teachers and 92 school mentors. Quantitative data was analyzed by employing univariate analysis, and qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that school mentors were selected based on professional behavior, moral behavior, teaching experience, academic qualification, professional grade, age, school responsibility, mentoring experience and gender in order of decreasing frequency of use. A model of mentor selection anchored by the theoretical insights and the research findings is proposed.