“You detain yourself if you detain children”: Educators’ perceptions of detention as an alternative to corporal punishment

Abstract

Detention as a method of disciplining children in South African schools has been mandated by the post-apartheid legislative abolition of corporal punishment. Educators have traditionally used corporal punishment to discipline children since the inception of schooling in colonial times. In this article I report on a qualitative case study conducted in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa, where 26 educators participated in the study. Observations and key stakeholder interviews in line with the Cultural Historical Activity Theory were used to explore primary school educators’ transition from using corporal punishment to using alternative forms of punishment, with specific reference to detention. Findings suggest that educators view detention as contradictory to the objectives of schooling, cumbersome in application, contextually irrelevant, and ineffective.