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School guidance and discipline: Teachers’ and students’ construction of classroom knowledge in two Hong Kong secondary schools
Author(s)
Date Issued
2002
ISSN
2049-9558
1477-5557
Citation
The Journal of Doctoral Research in Education, 2002, Vol. 2(1), pp. 23-35.
Type
Peer Reviewed Journal Article
Abstract
Most Hong Kong secondary schools have two teams of guidance and discipline
teachers to manage students’ misbehaviour. The guidance team is mainly responsible for
providing a personal counselling service and for carrying out guidance programmes, such
as sex education. The discipline team works with students who have been identified as
having behavioural problems. They are also responsible for enforcing discipline policy,
such as the wearing of school uniform. Most teachers and school managers are concerned
with the difficulty of integrating guidance and discipline into schooling. Many studies have
shown that guidance teachers are described as ‘soft’ whereas discipline teachers as
described as ‘strict’ and ‘tough’. Each team of teachers has a contrasting rationale as to
how best to help students resolve their difficulties. However, no research has yet been
completed into how guidance and discipline are implemented in the classroom. This article
focuses on this area and reports a study of what classroom knowledge teachers and
students construct, with respect to the relationship between guidance and discipline. The
qualitative methods for data collection are described and two case studies are presented.
The analysis shows that such a relationship differs from school to school, and that
teachers’ construct of classroom knowledge of guidance and discipline is closely linked to
the features of school organisation of the schools to which these teachers belong. Finally,
the paper looks at the implication of this study in drawing school managers’ and policy
makers’ attention to the impact of school organisation on guidance and discipline in the
classroom.
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