Student’s perception of discipline and authority. a case of secondary schools in taita-taveta county, Kenya

Educators all over the world are concerned about the decline in discipline by students as it is critical to the attainment of positive school outcomes. It is in view of this concern that a study to investigate the impact of discipline and authority on student’s perception in Taita Taveta County was envisioned. A descriptive survey design was adopted in the study. The study samples were drawn from randomly selected secondary schools. The sample size comprised of 200 Form Three students, 40 teachers, 5 deputy head teachers. Questionnaires and interview schedules were developed, pilot tested for validity and questionnaires distributed to teachers and students for data collection. The deputy head teachers were interviewed to elicit information on their use of discipline and authority. The value of correlation г was found to be -0.948, which was less than the critical value of 0.6319; an indication that the students in Taita-Taveta County had a negative attitude towards discipline and authority. It was concluded that the perception of students towards discipline and authority was a function of the various ways in which discipline and authority was dispensed plus lack of proper guidance and rationale. It was recommended that teachers’ should be fair while disciplining, avoid name calling or labeling, show unconditional acceptance after punishment, be good models and evaluate students from both home and school backgrounds.