Influence of Principals’ Use of Collaborative Decision Making on Students’ Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

The management of discipline has been and continues to be a thorny issue globally for educational managers.
Collaborative decision making is one of the alternative disciplinary methods that governments have come up with for
management of students’ discipline in schools to replace corporal punishment. This paper sought to investigate the
influence of principals’ use of collaborative decision making as an alternative disciplinary on students’ discipline in
public secondary schools. The study objective sough to establish the extent to which principals’ use of class meetings
for collaborative decision making as an alternative disciplinary method influences students’ discipline in public
secondary schools. The study employed Ex post facto research design and targeted 333 public secondary schools in
Kitui County, Kenya. Stratified proportionate sampling and purposive sampling were used to select the sample size.
Questionnaires and interview guides were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse, tabulate
and present data. The Chi-square (x2) test was used to determine the strength of association between holding class
meetings for collaborative decision making and students’ discipline and to test whether the observed relationship is
significant or not. The study established that collaborative decision making was done within the school set up to
enhance discipline. Of the principals contacted, 83.7 per cent indicated that there was use of class meetings as an
alternative disciplinary method. Results of chi square had a P-value of 0.373. This indicates that there is no significant
difference between class meetings for collaborative decision making and students’ discipline. The study concluded
that there is no significant difference between holding class meetings with students for collaborative decision making
and students’ discipline. The study recommends an improvement in implementing the resolutions arrived at during
class meetings for this could lower tensions regarding areas that could be potentially divisive.
Key Words: School Management, Discipline, Alternative Disciplinary Methods, Collaborative Decision Making,
Class Meetings