Student incivility in higher education of Afghanistan: Lecturers’ perspectives

Abstract

The study investigated lecturers’ perceptions of student incivility in higher education of Afghanistan. It examined students’ behaviors that lecturers considered uncivil as well as causes and consequences of students’ uncivil behaviors. It also explored strategies lecturers used to address student incivility and to what extent they rated the strategies effective. A survey questionnaire and interview protocols with open-ended questions were used to collect data for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics, and thematic analysis, were utilized to analyze the data. The study revealed that the participants considered threatening, harassing comments, belittling, making waseta, complaining about a lecturer, and cheating on exams as extremely uncivil behaviors. The participants believed that society, students, lecturers, and institutions were the major sources of student incivility. They believed that student incivility had negative impacts on learning environment (e.g. interrupted the normal flow of the class), lecturers (reduced their interest in teaching), and students (e.g. made them lose their concentration). Lecturers used a number of strategies including friendly verbal reminders and talking to a student in private and in front of other students to deal with student incivility, and they suggested individual and institutional strategies to cope with students’ uncivil behaviors. The study recommends universities to develop a policy to address incivility in order to create a safe learning environment for lecturers, students, and other stakeholders.