Determinants of the attitudes of primary school teachers towards corporal punishment

The study investigated the determinants of the attitudes of primary school teachers towards corporal punishment. It sought to assess how teachers’ attitudes towards corporal punishment varied with the length of teaching experience; the relationship between teachers’ past experiences of being punished and their punishing behavior; how male and female teachers differed in their attitudes towards corporal punishment; and how teachers’ attitudes towards corporal punishment varied with professional seniority. An attitude scale that contained 25 attitude statements and two self -report rating scales were administered to 132 teachers of whom 23.5% were males and 76.5% females from eight primary schools in Korogwe district. Using correlation analysis and t-tests, the study results indicated that, overall, there existed high positive attitudes towards corporal punishment amongst teachers. However, there were no significant differences in attitudes towards corporal punishment among teachers across sex and professional seniority. It was also found that there was no significant relationship between the length of teaching experience of teachers, their punishing behavior, and their attitudes towards corporal punishment. In addition, moderate but positive relationship existed between the teachers’ past experience of being punished and their present punishing tendency. It was concluded that teachers’ past experience of being punished was the only strong determinant of attitudes towards corporal punishment among primary school teachers. It is recommended that there should be a program for teachers that would help them change their attitudes towards corporal punishment, and develop alternative means of controlling pupils’ undesirable behaviors.