Teachers and student�s perspectives

Why we suspend students in Port- Harcourt, Nigeria: Teachers and student�s perspectives

A Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of a Master’s degree in
…………………………………………….

Submission Date
Abstract

Suspension has been widely used as one of the methods of instilling discipline among the
students who behave in unwanted manner. Since the students and the teachers are directly
involved in the act of suspension, they both have their own perception on the issue of suspension.

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This paper determines what the teachers and the students believe constitute the rationale of
suspension by examining five schools on Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. The case study applies both the
qualitative and quantitative procedures to assess the perspective of the students and their teachers
with regards to suspension. Findings indicate that student suspension involves issues the students
have with their teachers. On the other hand, the teachers view suspension as a good method of
disciplining their students who behave in unwanted manner.

Table of Contents

Chapter

1. Background…………………………………………………………………………….4
   1.1. Relevant literature……………………………………………………4-5
   1.2. Terminology……………………………………………………………..7
2. Industry background…………………………………………………………………..6

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3. Aim……………………………………………………………………………………8-9
   3.1. Research questions…………………………………………………….9
   3.2. Hypotheses…………………………………………………………….9-10
   3.3. Objectives……………………………………………………………..10
4. Literature review………………………………………………………………………11
   4.1. Introduction to literature review………………………………………11-12
   4.2. Suspension of students………………………………………..………..12-14
   4.3. Impacts of suspension…………………………………………………14-15
   4.4. Counseling of students………………………………………………..15-16
   4.5. Teachers perspective…………………………………………………..16-21
   4.6. Students perspective……………………………………………………21-29
5. Methodology………………………………………………………………………….30
   5.1. Research design……………………………………………………….30
   5.2. Case study……………………………………………………………..30-33
   5.3. Sample and sampling……………………………………………… …33
   5.4. Rationale for sample…………………………………………………..33-34
   5.5. Instrumentation…………………………………………………………34-35
   5.6. Validity and reliability…………………………………………………36
   5.7. Data collection………………………………………………………36-37
   5.8. Data analysis……………………………………………………………37
   5.9. Limitations and delimitation……………………………………………38
   5.10. Timescale…………………………………………………….…………38
6. Findings………………………………………………………………………………..39
   6.1. Student perspective……………………………………………………39-42
   6.2. Thematic analysis………………………………………………………42-48
   6.3. Teachers perspectives…………………………………………………48-50
7. Discussion of Findings……………………………………………………………….51-53
8. Conclusion and recommendation…………………………………………………….54-55
9. References…………………………………………………………………………….56
10. Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………61

INTRODUCTION

1. Background
   1.1 Relevant Literature

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As indicated by Delisio (2003, p.1), students are fundamental resources and most
essential component in education that needs to be handled with utmost care. The manner in
which the students act can build or lessen their chances of educational success in the course of
their studies. Hence, it is important to direct students to show adequate state of mind and conduct
inside and outside the school environment to avoid problems with the administrators (Driekurs et
al, 1998, p.34). Keeping in mind the end goal to attain to a composed and tranquil environment
and keep up peace, and additionally making benefit by the proprietor of the school, school
administration determines principles and regulations that will represent the exercises of
individuals from the school (Dupper, Theriot, & Craun, 2009, p.23).
In schools where students are not restrained, for instance, where students bully others,
parents can move their kids to “better” schools with less disturbance and good discipline. What’s
more, on the grounds that the very much acted for the most part perform better (Rigby, 2000,
p.87), their exchange can have a negative impact to the general performance of that school,
resulting to loss of productivity. Troublesome students can at times make educators over respond
by utilizing discipline by interfering with their learning ability. Anyway, discipline, as opposed
to checking conduct, can irritate matter (Dreikurs et al., 1998). In the expressions of McManus
(1995, p.112): discipline goals of the scholarly business and arrangements wanted to accomplish
them are refined. Train in schools incorporates any normal methodology utilized by instructors to
defeat the issues of the school environment, for example, suspension. To realize powerful train
of understudies, schools concocted an arrangement of principles to guide the behavior of
students. In a few nations like US, zero resilience has been received to decrease the frequency of
awful practices by students (Skiba, 2000, p.92: Skiba and Peterson, 1999, p.43). Required

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suspension exists and in some circumstance, removal of exercises, for example, conveying
weapon to class and involvement in crime related activities.

1.2 Terminology

Student Suspension – This is a leave assigned to students as a form of punishment for perceived
misbehavior in the course of their studies.
Student Discipline – This is the ability of the student to observe order in their learning
environment in order to avoid problems with their teachers.
Perspective – This is the view or the outlook that people usually have with respect to the issue in
question

2. Industry Background
   The educational institutions in Nigeria are still in the process of recuperating from all the
   neglects they have been suffering from all the former governments. According to Ikem and
   Reuben (2012, p.12), education in Nigeria is regarded as an instrument for affecting the national
   development of the country. The country focuses on ensuring that her philosophy in education is
   based on the development of any given individual in the country and all the equal educational
   opportunities for all the students who are present in various schools across the country (Ediyang
   & Ubi, 2013, p. 37). The country ensures all its citizens gain the best from the education that is
   offered to them from primary, secondary and tertiary from all the formal type of schooling
   system in the country. The language that is used for instructing students in their institutions is
   English as the ministry of education is the government body that is in charge of education and
   recommends English for use in all learning institutions (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004, p.
   13). Having been in charge of education matters in the country, the government is in charge of

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regulating all procedures that are used and maintain of the standards of educations that are
needed. The country is geared at producing a sound and an effective citizen who is capable of
bringing developmental matters into the country from what he has learned in class (Garb et al,
2012, p. 54). The level of education in Nigeria is based on 6-3-3-4 system whereby, the first 6
years of schooling are spent in primary level while, the other 3years are spent in junior secondary
school (JSS), and the other is the Senior Secondary School that takes a maximum of 3years. The
remaining 4years, which are spent in university level, but can go up to 6years depending on the
course the student is taking. Other amendments were done on the education system to change it
from 6-3-3-4 to 9-3-4 to mean that a lot of considerations have been made on the domain of
education (Mbaba & Omabe, 2012, p.19). The country is really making steady progress in the
development of education; hence, the reason as to why many universities and schools have been
established in the whole state (Ikem & Reuben, 2012, p.32). There are various subjects that are
taught at primary level inclusive of Mathematics, English language and bible knowledge.
Computer science is offered in primary and Common Entrance Examination for them to qualify
for admission’s that will be done to qualify them enroll for State and Federal government schools
that offers quality education in the country.
The secondary education entails six years due to the three years that are spent in the
junior Secondary School (JSS3), before the students proceed to the Senior Secondary School
where the GCE O’ Levels exams are conducted (Enoh, 2009, p.54). The students are forced to
take this exam for the sake of ensuring that they are well prepared for the Senior Secondary
School Exam that is taken during the last year of high school. All the secondary education are
managed by the Nigerian Federal government who are very keen in ensuring that the best is
given to the students at all level (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004, p.15). Private schools in the

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country are very expensive with better schooling environment, small classes and qualified
teachers. The state government also funds the state owned schools and they are far much better
compared to federal government colleges.
Previous studies have explored the issue of discipline is schools from previous
perspectives. Bagley and Pritchard (1998, p.11) examined the reduction of problem behaviors
and school exclusion in at risk youths. Similarly, Coslin (1997, p.23) examined the adolescence
judgments of seriousness of disruptive behavior at school and the sanctions of dealing with such.
Lewis (2001, p.14) also examined the classroom discipline and the responsibility of the students
from the student’s perspective.
This study can be gathered into studies that investigate the profile of the suspended
students, the adequacy and effect of suspension, student and instructors’ view of suspension and
control. The proposed study will utilize both quantitative and qualitative routines to discover the
conviction of instructors and students with respect to the basis for and the impact of suspension
on Port-Harcourt, Nigeria auxiliary schools. Case studies will be completed on five schools,
namely; Trinitate International School (Located at Eneca Road, Iguwruta, Port-Harcourt),
Dayspring School (Anga Road, Off Peter Odili Road, Abuloma G.R.A, Port-Harcourt), Celias-
Memorial (7 Rumuadaolu Market Road Rumuola Port Harcourt Rivers Nigeria), Kala Stevens
Academy (Dffri Road, Ozuboko, off Abuloma Road, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria), and Gloria
Educational (91-93 Elioparanwo Road, Rumueme, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria).

3. Research Aim

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As has been talked about in the “background” area, the subject of the effectiveness of
suspension has been the subject of much research for several decades. Considering the way that I
am an educator that needs to fire up a school business; this theme has accordingly happened be
an enthusiasm to me. This is on the grounds that the result of the exploration will help me in
fitting classroom administration of the school, which will in the long-term prompts the
productivity of my business. On the off chance that the students are not very much trained they
can bring about issues which can prompt folks of taught understudies withdrawing their
youngsters to a more restrained school and this can prompts misfortune in benefit of the school
business. With a specific end goal to look at this, analysts have utilized quantitative routines to
gather information about suspension in schools (Schiraldi and Ziedenberg, 2001, p.41:
Costenbader and Markson, 1998, p.87: Skiba, Michael, Nardo and Peterson, 2002, p.76) utilizing
diverse strategies from looking at school control records (Skiba et al, 2002, p.77) to having
students report toward oneself by method for a study (Costenbader and Markson, 1998, p.89).
Research completed in the greater part of the created nations has been concerned basically with
the viewpoints of students and their guardians on suspension (Partington, 2001, p.112). On the
other hand, up ’til now there have been little studies concerning the convictions of instructors and
understudies in auxiliary schools of these nations. The proposed study thusly intends to examine
the convictions of instructors and students concerning suspension and to find the best
disciplinary activity or practice that will enhance the results of the students concerned and in
long run enhance the productivity of the school business.
3.1 Research questions
The question that will be addressed by this study is as follows:

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 What do teachers and students believe is the rationale for and impact of the suspension of
students in secondary schools in Port-Harcourt Nigeria?
 What other disciplinary action could be more effective than suspension?
3.2 Hypotheses
 There can be successful discipline and support interventions as alternatives to
Suspension.
This hypothesis emerged in light of the impediments of out-of-school suspension that is
currently witnessed in most schools, including Nigeria. Albeit numerous schools now utilize ISS
programs which are a superior distinct option for OSS, yet misguided ISS projects are minimal
more than “holding tanks” and may fill in as concise stops while in transit to OSS. Instead of
concentrating on conduct change, huge numbers of these misguided ISS projects concentrate on
keeping understudies occupied with school work and disengaging them from different
understudies (Dupper, Theriot & Craun, 2009, p.66). By neglecting to address and chip away at
the practices that brought about being allotted to ISS, students frequently come back to their
classrooms with the definite, or more terrible, practices and wind up in ISS on a rehashed
premise or get suspended out of school (Delisio, 2003, p.1).
3.3 Objectives
 To investigate teacher’s and students’ perception on suspension of student
 To investigate the impact of suspension on students
 To investigate other discipline action that can be more effective than suspension

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LITERATURE REVIEW
4.1 Introduction to literature review
Disciplining students, especially those with chronic or serious problems in their behavior
has become a long-standing challenge to many educators as they must consider balancing the
needs of the school community and those of individual students. At the heart of this challenge is
the use of the punitive versus supportive disciplinary approaches (Lewis, 2001, p.57). The most
common is the use of the punitive approaches to discipline for example “zero tolerance” policies
has proven greatly ineffective and even counterproductive (McManus, 1995, p.83). This remains
true for both the general education student and those with disabilities. Currently legislations and
research offer the best practice strategy that supports the safe education of all students by
ensuring the safety and dignity of both the students and the staffs, preserving the integrity of the
learning environment and adder the cause of student’s misbehavior in order to restore and
improve the behavioral skills and long-term outcomes among the students. This literature
reviews the general cause of the student suspensions from school, discipline methods used,
shortcomings and the benefits of suspension in schools.
As indicated by Mendez and Knoff (2003, p.56), research about in the subject of
suspension can be partitioned into four gatherings: the profile of the students that are suspended;
the adequacy of suspension; educators and students points of view on suspension and order; and
distinct option for suspension. Profiles of understudies that were suspended – Researchers have
attempted to recognize diverse sorts of students that are more prone to be suspended to
distinguish irregularities (Lewis, 2001, p.34; Edinyang & Ubi, 2013, p.38). Reliably, analysts
have established that ethnicity; age (early youth), financial standing, and scholastic capacity have
some bearing on suspension rates (Mendez & Knoff, 2003, p.57; Skiba, 2002, p.45; Partington,

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1998, p. 63). These outcomes are steady with those reported by the Department of Education and
Training in WA, which has prompted the execution both of the previously stated projects and of
techniques that target Indigenous and other distanced gatherings in push to support student
maintenance and cooperation (Department of Education and Training, 2004, p.39).
4.2 Suspension of the students
Singer (1980, p.526) describes suspension as the temporary removal of the student from
school for a specific period of time ranging from one school day to several days off school. It is
important to note that a student cannot take part in any school activity while on suspension. In
many schools there is adoption of zero tolerance approach to school disciple that entails
suspension and expulsion of students as an automatic consequence of gross misconduct,
especially the possession of drugs and weapons. However, there are an increasing number of
schools applying zero tolerance approach to behaviors that do not threaten the safety or welfare
of others. Research reveals that suspension, expulsion and other punitive consequences are not
the only solution to dangerous and destructive behavior of the students (Susan, 2002, p.76;
Troyan, 2003, p.1637; Tanner, 2007, p.443). It further indicates that dangerous students do not
become less dangerous when they are excluded from the school setting (Troyan, 2003, p.1637;
Enoh, 2009, p.59; Ikem & Reuben, 2012, p.1). It is thus important to note that suspension alone
may not be the best treatment for the students who display unwanted behavior in schools and
alternative options needs to be considered. Research by Ediyang and Ubi (2013, p.38) indicates
that positive discipline strategy will focus on increasing desirable behavior instead of simply
decreasing undesirable behavior through punishment as it emphasizes the importance of making
positive changes in the child environment in order to improve the behavior. Such changes may
include the use of positive reinforcement, supportive teacher-student relationship, modeling and

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many others. As revealed by the research, positive discipline strategies benefit the students in the
following ways: one, it provide the opportunity to forge relationship with caring adults and
engaging curriculum that will eradicate discipline problems (Garb et al, 2012, p.3). Two, it
provides discipline that is fair, corrective and provide therapeutic group relationship-building
activities with students reducing the likelihood of further problems (Mbala & Omabe, 2012,
p.17). Three, positive solutions address the needs of the students through teacher interaction and
matching the students with the curriculum and effectively maintain appropriate social behavior
within the school. Finally, proactive behavior support systems that are appropriately
implemented can lead to drastic improvements that have long-term effect on the life cycle,
functional communication skills and behavioral problems in individuals with disabilities or at
risk for negative adult outcome of improved behavior and performance (Troyan, 2003, p.1637).
According to Susan (2002, p.185), behavior problems can be adequately addressed
through proactive behavioral support strategies but not all given the range of the causal factors
and more immediate concern for student safety. However removing students from learning
institutions through expulsion or suspension is not the only answer to the vice (Troyan, 2002,
p.1637; Karp & Conrad, 2005, p.322; Tanner, 2007, p.433). Removal of students from the
regular education setting for even a short while should follow and give appropriate instructions
to that student.
The importance of evidence based discipline policy is highlighted in the IDEA
amendments that govern services to students with disabilities and support those who exhibit
challenging behavior (Legodi, 2014, 65). It requires the consideration of positive behavior
intervention strategy and support when a student behavior impedes his / her own learning or that
of others. This apply not only to direct implementation of support to individual student but also

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addresses the broader issue of the school safety and the environment that is conducive for
learning to all students. According to Fox (1998, p.671), collaboration with families and
community agencies can also impact positively on the school climate and learning environment.
There is significant reduction in the office referral of students by 20% to 60% mainly in the
schools that have effective implementation strategies resulting to improving academic time
engagement with the teacher thereby improving the overall performance for all the students
(Hanon et al, 2013, p291).
4.3 Impacts of suspension
Research by Singer (1980, p.526) indicates that implementation of proactive behavioral
support may improve the cultural competence that focuses on the prevention of problem
behavior and early effective access to behavior support. In return, this will result in sufficient
intensity and scope to produce gains that have significant and durable impact on the behavior. To
individual student, it is important to conduct functional behavioral assessment when the problem
with the behavior is first observed. Examples of proactive behavioral strategies that the student
can use include: positive behavioral support and social skills training that will help the student
with emotional/behavioral disorder and social skills deficit to significantly improve safety and
behavior in school (Susan, 2002, p.181). Secondly, there should be a teacher support intervention
assistance teams that will evaluate both the class climate and the student need to provide support
and strategies to engage difficult students as a prevention measure. The teams should be focused
on continuing the curriculum while therapeutically doing debriefing to identify and eliminate the
root cause of acting out episode that will provide an alternative measure to exclusion. The most
common component of violent prevention programs may range from services from school
psychologist, social worker or counselors, family and community involvement and

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implementation effective school discipline practices (Marachi et al, 2007, p.237). Suspension of
the student will be considered whether the incidence happen within the school compound or
without or in the school-related activities like field trips or in any other circumstances where the
students behavior has a negative implication on the school learning environment.
Zero tolerance policy rely heavily on suspension and expulsion practices that neither
improves school learning environment nor addresses the source of the student alienation that will
aid In improving the school safety (Karp & Conrad, 2005, p331). In most cases it is mainly
related to a number of negative consequences including increased rate of school drop outs and
discriminatory application of the school rules and disciplines offering a restrict access to
appropriate education. As a result, it negatively impact on these minority students to a greater
degree than other students.
4.4 Counseling of the students
Students who are suspended for a period of one to five school working days are expected
to receive a package of homework (Marachi, 2007, p235). On the other hand, students who are
suspended for a period of 11 to 20 school working days are expected to receive academic
program as well as supports to promote positive behavior. For example, career counseling or
anger management support that can help promote and motivate students while encouraging
positive behavior (Susan, 2002, p.179; Tanner, 2007, p.439). The program must follow the
curriculum that will ensure that the student have the opportunity to continue with their education.
If the student have special education needs and have individual education plan, the board must
provide the plan support that is consistent with the students plan. However the program must
identify services and support to help students develop long term positive attitude and behavior

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(Legodi, 2014, p.66). These services may include career counseling for students in secondary
schools, referral for substance abuse counseling and anger management.
According to Troyan (2003, p.1637, p), parents and other education stakeholders need to
know that positive school climate and safer learning and teaching environment are essential if
students have to succeed in school. A positive school working environment should be the one
that parent, staffs of the school and community members feel welcomed and respected (Ediyang
& Ubi, 2013, p.38). Safety and progressive discipline within the school provides the whole
school with a combined discipline and opportunities for students to continue with their education
and learn from the choices they make. It also promotes positive student behavior giving
guidelines to principal to choose the consequences that are appropriate to the needs and the
behavior of the student.
4.5 Teacher’s perspective
Teachers are so much concerned in utilizing disciplinary practices on their students and
this is the reason as to why engage themselves with the students in decision making that will
determine the type of disciple that is expected of each student in the given institution (Enoh,
2009, p.87). To some extent, teachers are mostly frustrated with the behaviors of their students
who are not willing to change their crooked behavior (Garb et al, 2012, p.43). The frustration
that teachers experience in their course of duty is the main reason as to why they abandon the
teaching profession. Lack of autonomy related to the school discipline is one of the reasons as to
why teachers get the opportunity to leave their profession (Ikem & Reuben, 2012, p.45).
Moreover, the lack of cohesive relationship and culture between the staff and the students is also
proved to have been a main reason causing the threat to the safety of teacher’s who deemed it

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necessary to abandon their profession. Majority of the teachers felt that they did not have much
influence towards the discipline of students in the various secondary schools. Teachers are in the
fore front of making decisions of what constitutes students misbehave and how they ought to
intervene on discipline matters.
The ability of teachers to overlook the behavior of students is what makes the students to
misbehave (Susan, 2002, p.179) as they base this to the observations carried out on classroom
basis where the same action was termed misbehavior. When the behavior had challenged the
classroom disclosure is the time when the teachers took it to the authority outside the classroom.
This is the main reason to why teachers tend to believe that what student behavior does on the
dynamics of classroom is contingent to what constituted misbehavior (Cornell, 2003, p.711). The
prior knowledge on students also contributed to the impact of teacher belief on the student’s
behavior. Teachers who perceive that the student’s behavior is what contributed to the fall of a
school really attended to the negative behavior that was evident among the students to ensure
that they behave according to the required standards. Comparing such teacher with the ones who
perceived the school to have standards of discipline, they less comment positively on the
behavior of the students. The student’s causes of the perceived misbehavior in various
institutions are due to the teacher perception on discipline matters that re to be taken on a serious
note (Hannon et al, 2013, p.291).
Teachers are so much concerned in researching the cause of student’s behavior
attributions (Mbaba & Omabe, 2012, p.19). They mainly focus their research on finding out if
the attributions are internal or external or whether they are based on static or dynamic views of
the student’s behavior that is very crucial in being rectified for the success of their studies and
good performance. Teachers westernized thinking contributed to the student misbehavior

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attributions that resulted to the internal and individual deficits that were evident in the students
learning. The lack of disciplining the student’s also contributed to the misbehavior that was
evident among many students in schools (Bargely & Pritchard, 1998, p.45; Brooks et al, 2000,
p.36; Ikem & Reuben, 2012, p.1). They also lacked to motivate their students and this was seen
to be a bad action that created a basis to the students to misbehave as much as they wanted. This
contributed to the high concern that teachers had to show their student’s in correcting their
behavior. Teachers have contributed to the misbehavior of students as they led to the internal
cause in a primary child that tempered with the personality of the child at a very high rate. Socio
cultural causes were also evident in the child due to poor parenting and lack of good supervision
form his teachers who never looked into external factors that could be affecting the child in the
school environment (Coslin, 1997, p.31). The pupils really misbehave as they cannot adhere to
school scheduling and there is high peer influence because their teachers have not given a hand
in disciplining tem as required. Explanations that were geared on placing blame on the students
is what was the teachers liked the most and this did not change even to the point where the
teacher were now in a better position of recognizing the role of school in students misbehavior.
The rate of misbehaving increased contributing highly due to lack of resources that could be
allocated to modify the student’s behavior (Mbaba & Omabe, 2012, p.18), lack of time to
discipline the students (Ikem & Reuben, 2012, p.1) and lack of enough training that could be
given to the students to ensure that they adapt to the right way of behaving towards academics
(Garb et al, 2012, p.3). Creation of students categories based on social norms is what teachers
highly considered as they categorized student on performance levels either high, low and
problem students. Teachers attributed student’s misbehaviors with immaturity, static conceptions
of all the deviant personality and delayed development that led to slow thinking in adapting the

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school environment (Department of Education and Training Western Australia, 2004, p.13) This
is drawn from the psychological disclosure of student’s development that makes the teachers
unwilling to intervene on matters that regard helping students at all cost to behave well.
The interpretation of classroom behavior of teachers regarding their students is totally
different due to distractions caused by internal factors like fear, anger and aggression that lead
student’s misbehaving in school (Coslin, 1997, p.56). According to the in-service teachers, they
had a different explanation towards the reason as to why students used to misbehave. They
claimed that misbehavior among the students was reasoned by the students and they did it
intentional from the arising internalized morals that drove then to misbehaving and doing what
they knew was not right at all (Costenbader & Markson, 1998, p.36).
Teachers are smart in having good and different choices of disciplinary interventions
because, what they do towards the perceived misbehavior among students are what matters the
most (Driekurs et al, 1998, p.45). Teachers utilize strategies like negotiations however they talk
with students to know where the problem is coming from for it to be solved. They as well
employ the use of contacts and enticing of student self-regulation to ensure that they carry out
the disciplinary matters the right way as required by the law (Dupper et al, 2009, p.65). They
also have established expectations that they also seek to ensure that they carry out the
disciplinary matters that are required to students for them to stop misbehaving. Group
participation is another method that is employed by the teachers in ensuring that their students do
not misbehave because; they seek to ensure that all the appropriateness of their students is highly
considered to ensure that intervention matters are well coordinated (Driekurs et al, 1998, p.81).
Rule and consequence option of disciplinary is another method that was used in ensuring that the
intervention technique was put in place as required. This method of disciplining students was

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applied by teachers on the male students whom they found misbehaving. In case the student who
was found to be misbehaving was female student, the method of disciplining that was employed
for use by the teachers was the confronting contacting intervention method of disciplinary.
Maximum power was highly employed in the case where the teachers were dealing with
indiscipline matters that pertained a male student and less power in the case a female student
misbehaved because women are a weaker sex (Dupper et al, 2009, p.27).
Teachers of different countries carried disciplinary matters indifferent ways (Delisio,
2003, p.1; Mendez & Knoff, 2003, p.39), such that the teachers in some countries like US
reported misbehaving of students using extrinsic reinforcement that was comprised of stickers
and tokens in the process of addressing the disruptive behavior in class. Revocation of the
student’s privileges was another method that was employed for use by teachers in carrying out
disciplinary measures to students who had chronic behavior. Removal of the students from the
class is another method that was employed for use by the teachers in dealing with the chronic
behavior that was evident in students who were in the class (British Educational Research
Association Annual Conference, 2004, p.21).
In disciplining the students, teachers relied mostly on administrative intervention and
parental intervention to ensure that students are well disciplined. The teachers were forced to use
the teacher reinforcement activities to students to stop them from misbehaving and they also
utilized the verbal and non-verbal warnings in their duty of disciplining students (Kilpatrick,
1998, p.1). Grade reduction was a strategy that was employed for use to ensure that students who
misbehaved were punished through the use of corporate punishment (Lewis, 2001, p.43; Mendez
& Knoff, 2003, p.65). Context that influences the teachers on the disciplinary actions that they
are supposed to take is another method that influences the type of disciplinary intervention that

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can be employed for use by the teachers. Their beliefs that the teachers have and they influence
the disciplinary decisions that they are likely to make when dealing with the students. These
beliefs are inclusive of attributions of causality that are very impacted of the discipline measure
that the teachers will employ for use in rectifying the students behavior (McManus, 1995, p.113).
This implies that whatever the teachers think is the cause of action that drove the student to
misbehave will definitely determine the disciplinary action that will be used towards him.
According to Lewis (2001, p.61), there are competing views that are attached to the misbehavior
that is evident in students of a given school. These views are comprised of the model view,
deficit model and the alternative model view (Partington, 2001, p.41). The deficit model view is
linked with the student’s background, while the alternative model view is a type of misbehavior
that is linked with the school factors experienced by the students inclusive of rules, curriculum
offerings, policies of the school and the attitude the student has towards a certain teacher
(Minichiello et al, 1995, p123).
4.6 Student Perspective
According to British Educational Research Association Annual Conference (2004, p.34),
students have spoken towards the injustice that they saw or experienced in their spheres of
influence. Their speech has been done using word and also using action that they deemed
necessary for their information to be passed home. Students have a lot of forums where the can
now be involved in educational issues that are taking place in globally (Lewis, 2001, p.24). In the
current world of technology, students can easily express their displeasure through the social
networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, among others (Legodi, 2014, p.72).
These injustice actions mostly are education linked to an extent a school related policy
curriculum was considered in the recent in the change of the old curriculum. According to Susan

21
(2002, p.178), academia and politics are the areas where student views have not yet been given a
hearing. In most cases, students are very bitter when decisions are made concerning and they are
not invited in the forum. Research has been carried out to seek the student’s perspective on the
dropout rate, educational reforms that they need them carried out, teacher’s practices that do not
impress them, and schooling in general (Marachi et al, 2007, p.238). This research was aimed at
knowing the reason as to why student’s perspectives are silenced in various institutions of
learning and yet students have issues that need to be considered for their own well-being.
Students were much frustrated on matters where teachers frustrated them by belittling them
especially their thoughts on race and gender matters. This is the reason they did not give a
hearing to their perspective of the students whom they viewed as youngsters who still don’t
know the right way of choice in regard to academic matters.
Susan (2002, p.179) and Legondi (2014, p.69) agree that there are efforts that are really
working towards the voice of students. The main obstacle is the intellectual paradigms that
subtracts or discredits and finally dis-powers all that is said by the students who want some
changes done to make their learning smooth in their various institutions. In most cases, these
obstacles affect the researchers who carry out the student’s perspective in the education view.
The hardening of the educational policy is a factor that contributed to no input from students
(Karp & Conrad, 2005, p.331) and this is made impossible through the standardization and the
accountability measures that are employed by the policy. Curricular practices are geared towards
silencing the resistance that might be employed by the students in ensuring that they are not
pinned down or mistreated in times of punishment (Fox, 1998, p.671). The teachers are urged to
take the perspective of students regardless of how counter hegemonic they seem to be before
them (Hannon et al, 2013, p.288). The ability of the teachers to deny taking the student

22
perspective is the main reason as to why they slow down the process of taking the student’s
perspective. There has been space where the students allude to the school discipline that is
required of them. Students had all the space of talking about the related schooling that they
attended on a daily basis. Student are so open when tackling issues of race, all the academic
instructions, and social class that is very consistent with other research that is carried out
concerning the perspective of students that will finally explain the pattern of perspective that
ought to be employed.
Students alluding to school discipline have been specifically about the classroom or
school disciplinary interventions. Teachers are supposed to take student’s perspectives into the
right considerations no matter how counter-hegemonic they may look like (Garb et al, 2012, p.3).
Teachers viewed students to be ineffective in their classroom management and discipline and
this contributed to them not considering their perspectives that of high importance. Students on
the other side appreciate teachers who could not manage discipline matters in the classes despite
them teaching and adequately controlling the discipline of the students in the classes. They did
not have any explanation to do with why they did not take the students perception on education
maters accordingly. Some students terminate their schooling due to the orientations that were
toward the instructional practices and due to the lack of the meaningful relationships that were
evident between them and their teachers. The students could not take the bad relationships from
their teachers; thus, they decided to leave school for them to be certain that they avoid such
experiences in totality. Studies were previously done and proved that students were not happy by
the fact that their teachers could not be content by taking their perception on education matters
(Bagley & Pritchard, 1998, p.78). Students were mostly given disciplinary suspensions that
contributed to them leaving school as they were not happy for have wasting time at home while

23
other students were learning in school. These students are so resistant to policies and practices
that were so unfair or even illogical and this was like an encouragement that students got from
the administration from the school. Some students have perceived disciplinary action to be a
matter of life and death; hence, they feel highly disappointed when teachers do not do what is
highly required of them. This has led to creation of an examining body on matters to do with
schooling and how teachers intervene when the rules set aside are not followed (Brooks, 2000,
p.41).
According to Garb et al (2012, p.3), students have different perception regarding the
schooling rules that they are forced to follow to improve on their discipline matters. These rules
are categorized as official and unofficial rules whereby, non-academic students perceive official
rules to be more irrelevant to them. This is because, they are not schooling leading to creation of
their own rules at they deem necessary and relevant to be followed within the school locality.
There is a very big drastic change when it comes to evaluation of what the students saw fair and
unfair in comparison with their teacher’s perception on the same (Coslin, 1997, p.56). Therefore,
this was a source of conflict between the students and the teacher’s due to mismatch that existed
between them. Some of the students realized that academic efforts are not in any way
consequential to their success in future and this made them to put less effort on their academic
matters. Therefore, the students deliberately acted out in defying the school rules and this led
them to a point of disqualifying themselves from all the benefits they used to experience from
education. According to Ikem and Rouben (2012, p.32), the act of these students leaving school
was termed as a rejection to the school norms and values that was accompanied by a statement of
their own autonomy. Misbehavior from most of the male student’s was due to the resistance that

24
they were showing towards the rules that were tools of control to many students because, they
ensured conformity to them and gave them relieve in their hearts.
The mismatch of how student view school rules together with their teachers is due to the
disruption that the students showed their teachers due to the application and the use of the rues
that were set to be followed by all to enhance educational matters. Students are the passive
recipients of socialization, and they researchers easily realized the resistance that was evident on
the ground of school rules and regulations that had been laid ahead due to the high critique that
came from the students (Garb et al, 2012, p.4). In a hidden curriculum, the perception of students
was not well understood leading to students giving up on the classroom. Not all students perceive
education to be of importance to them, leading to their varying perception of life (Ikem &
Reuben, 2012, p.23). Students who are found education to be of no meaning were mostly likely
to act out, defy the system for they felt that the rules that were applied were unfair or even
illogical according to them. These students resisted taking such rules whereby; they perceived
their teachers to employ a bad method of disciplining them as they claimed that suspension gave
them a right to enjoy education despite them having done mistakes.
Exploration directed in the US has demonstrated that African-American understudies are
lopsidedly spoken to in suspension insights (Skiba, Michael, Nardo & Peterson, 2002, p.92),
similar to the individuals who get free snacks, which is a recommendation of low financial status
(Mendez, Knoff & Ferron, 2002, p.33). Additionally, scientists have essentially utilized
quantitative information gathering and investigation routines in these studies, including as
records recurrence checks from school disciplinary records (Skiba et al, 2002, p.45), scholastic
execution on government sanctioned tests (Mendez, Knoff & Ferron, 2002, p.31), and reactions
to class control reviews (Mendez and Knoff, 2003, p.32). Mendez, Knoff and Ferron (2002,

25
p.51) did, notwithstanding, incorporate meetings in their study and utilized these information to
strengthen conclusions drawn on the premise of the quantitative information.
Partington (1998, p.18) analyzed the accounts of Indigenous students who had been
taught with the point of observing whether the understanding of the students and the
administration issues of the educators were at chances and could represent the over-
representation of Indigenous understudies in disciplinary practices. Through interviewing the
students and concentrating on five cases inside and out (meeting both the students and instructors
concerned), Partington reached the conclusion that social contrasts between the educators and
student may add to the lopsided number of Indigenous students who are suspended.
The Effectiveness of Suspension – As prior specified, exploration to date has not upheld
the productivity of suspension as a conduct administration strategy (Schiraldi & Ziedenberg,
2001, p.49; Kilpatrick, 1998, p.81; Costenbader & Markson, 1997, p.65; Vavrus & Cole, 2002,
p.22). The purpose behind suspension, particularly in the US, is to give an assent to major
disciplinary issues, for example, the utilization of weapons, medication ill-use, and group
battling. Exploration has indicated, in any case, that suspension is being connected frequently for
lesser issues, for example, absence of reliability, rebelliousness, and insolence (Skiba, 2000,
p.23). Probably, suspension has turned into the frequently utilized authorization for improper
conduct (Skiba & Knesting, 2002, p.41) since the initiation of zero resilience approaches
(Brooks, Schiraldi, & Ziedenberg, 2000, p.52).
Disregarding the way that suspension has been in a build, yet research has not possessed
the capacity to secure whether this assent is really lessening the recurrence of the practices it is
intended to authorize. Atkins et al. (2002, p.39) discovered that suspension demonstrated to be an
inadequate discipline in reducing improper conduct. Other studies has likewise recommended the

26
probability of undesirable reactions from suspensions, including higher rates of dropping out of
school, medication misuse, and wrongdoing in focused on understudies (Kilpatrick, 1998, p.56;
Schiraldi & Ziedenberg, 2001, p.91
Instructors and students points of view on suspension and control- Analyzing students
viewpoints on classroom administration and suspension practices may give experiences into how
such sanctions impact them and their conduct. Researchers have utilized these convictions as a
beginning stage when examining the adequacy of suspension and order hones (Partington, 2001,
p.61; Gordon, 2001, p.33; Coslin, 1997, p.77; Lewis, 2001, p.47).
Some studies have shown that students are more prone to acknowledge discipline and
feel that they are being dealt with decently on the off chance that they have a positive association
with their instructors (Partington, 2001, p.62; Partington, 1998, p.19). Students suspended for
progressions of less infractions (i.e., in which instructors alluded on the premise of a “combined”
impact) have reported feeling ‘singled out’ and seeing suspensions as out of line or unjustifiable
(Vavrus & Cole, 2002, p.5). Further to this, in one study led by Costenbader and Markson (1998,
p.81), understudies reported being “furious at the individual who sent [them] to suspension” and
“upbeat to escape from the circumstance” (p.76). Responses gotten demonstrate that some see
suspension as a decent reason to stay at home and to them “It’s simply a get-away.” (p. 76).
Reactions, for example, these recommend that suspension is not having the impacts that it should
have on numerous students. By implication, these outcomes again raise doubt about the
productivity of suspension as a conduct administration procedure.
Alternative to Suspension – Some analysts have additionally thought of different option
for suspension, for example, in-school suspension, but is there any advantage in that as

27
disconnection methods still rely on expelling students from learning situations, which can thusly
put their scholarly improvement at danger (Hallam & Castle, 2004, p.72
Different choices that intend to keep the students in school incorporate getting social
specialists to work both with the students and with their families. The recent methodology is
grounded in comprehensive methodologies which point not just to oversee offense and unseemly
conduct in schools, additionally to connection hindered families to administrations that could
help the home-existence of the students (Bagley & Pritchard, 1998, p.65, Blanchard, & Brooks,
1996, p.12).
The proposed exploration will take an alternate course from those of the past researchers,
in that they concentrated on the suspension in created nations where there are set down
arrangements on the most proficient method to train a tyke, this approaches advises when to
remove or suspend an understudy and utilized the outcome to sum up the various schools both
created and non-created nations including Nigeria (a creating nation). Illustrations of these
approaches are The Gun-Free Schools Act (Pub L No. 103-882) of 1994 obliges schools to
remove, for a time of at least one year, students who have conveyed a weapon to class (Taras,
Frankowski, McGrath, Mears, & Murray, 2003, p.19) Another strategy is zero-resilience
approach. The U.S. Traditions Agency added to zero-resilience in the 1980s to focus on the
blasting medication exchange (Henault, 2001, p.81). In Nigeria there are not set down tenets like
in created nations but rather schools are given the chance to figure a disciplinary activity for each
of the diverse terrible practices. By exploring the points of view of teachers and students with
respect to how suspension is done in their schools and why they trust it is a piece of the control
activity accessible, this examination will accentuate the expert information of teachers in the
setting they will be acquainted with the impact of suspension in schools in created nation and in

28
addition in creating nations and would have the capacity to further make an inference. Up to this
point, no other exploration has taken this pattern, either abroad or in Nigeria.

29

5. METHODOLOGY

5.1 Research design
According to the nature of this study, case study will act as an appropriate method to
apply qualitative procedures as well as quantitative methods. The aim of the assignment is to
assess the perspective of students and teachers with regards to suspension. The case study will be
based on five schools within the Port-Harcourt in Nigeria. The boundaries of the case study will
be will be confined to the five schools under investigation. The data within the case will be
analyzed within the context of the school mind. The study applies mixed method research since
the researcher aims to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior as well as the method
that collects data through interviews, observation, and review of various documents. This
research needs to give information about the background of the samples; the teacher’s experience
of teaching and the average number of suspensions in a year, which can best be met by
quantitative research methods.
5.2 Case study
A case study examination is an inside and out examination that comprises of an oral,
archival, and optional source-based relic of a past or present wonders. At the point when
connected to a study, contextual analysis exploration or techniques will receive to the sort
sources and systems that are accessible, particularly in a manner that the strategy has been
received to some sociology examinations. Case study gives a deliberate method for taking a
gander at occasions, information accumulation, and data investigation, reporting of the
investigated report (Myers, 2009, p.87). The consequence of the methodology will help the
analyst to secure sharp learned limit of why the occurrence happened as it did, and what may get

30
to be imperative to explore at all the more widely later on exploration (Gering, 2007, p.91).
Another proposal is that case study can be seen as an examination approach, an experimental
request that investigates a sensation inside its genuine setting (Yin, 2009, p.80). At the point
when portraying the contextual analysis, a few analysts contend that the unit of investigation is
the most basic perspective for the situation study subsequent to separate from concentrating on a
gathering or people; it has a tendency to concentrate on the technique or strategy for activity.
There are three types of case studies that can be conducted with each having its own
resolution. First, there is the explanatory case study that is majorly used in conducting casual
investigations (Myers, 2009, p.123). An exploratory case study will be conducted as an
introduction to more in-depth research and gives investigators a chance to acquire additional
research before formulating their hypothesis. A descriptive case study starts with a descriptive
model where the subjects are then perceived and investigators use the results to do compared
with the original model. An intrinsic case study is one in which the investigator has a personal
interest in the case in question. The study is undertaken to appreciate the uniqueness of the
individual case under study. A collective case study is one in which there are several or groups of
cases that requires investigations (Gilbert et al., 2008, p.1472). It is also referred to as a multisite
case study. An instrumental case study is one where the researcher uses a certain case to attempt
to comprehend something else.
Case study, research receives consideration as one of the best ways of generating new
theoretical understandings that are not expected by other research methods (Yin, 2009, p.119). It
does not aim at testing the hypothesis, but rather the development of contrasts, measures, and
testable hypothetical propositions by closely investigating the interaction of a number of factors.
These factors are both anticipated and emergent and are at play in a particular occurrence of the

31
spectacles of interest by maintaining a deep connection to the framework that behavior is
entrenched (Durepos, 2013, p.98). There are three major questions that the case study research
can answer, and they include: when there is a “how and why” questions are to be answered,
when the investigator has a limited control of events, and when the research focus is situated
within a real-life perspective.
Case studies can be imperative in identifying exceptional features that may otherwise be
lost in a larger scale data and that these unique features may in fact hold the key to
comprehending the situation (Yin, 2009, p.87). By focusing on small samples, investigators can
give an exceptional attention to cross-level relations and contextual factors, for example,
institutionalization, sequential processes and structural factors that large scale empirical studies
often must ignore or mechanism. A case study method is used when an investigator purposefully
wants to cover circumstantial conditions that might be highly relevant to the spectacle of study.
In common with other qualitative research methods, the most frequently mentioned
weakness of case studies is that their outcomes do not provide scientific generalizations that can
be made and that a strong conclusion cannot be held by one case study alone or facilitate the
transferability of procedure from one framework to the other (Myers, 2009, p.133). However, in
the study, research, generalization is not the pivotal issue since the relevance of a case study is
more significant than the ability for the generalization (Zivkovic, 2012, p.95). When a case study
is carried out both method and critically with the aim of understanding improvement then it is
important, and if any publication of the results extends or expands the restrictions of existing
knowledge of the subject area, then it is an effective form of research. One of the biggest
disadvantages to the use of case study procedure involves an external verses internal validity.
When using case study method, the investigator often do not have control over certain variables

32
and events and, therefore, cannot control them as the investigator could do in a lab experiment
(Farquhar, 2012, p.86). Therefore, the investigator using the case study technique must be
comfortable that his/her findings may only be relevant to similar cases. What the case study
achieves in internal cogency, it loses while carrying out external validity. Another drawback of
the case study is that investigators sometimes give different definitions for the same issue
making the approximation of the final research result puzzling (Zivkovic, 2012, p.111). In
addition, there can be numerous other difficulties when using secondary data. The investigator
has to know broad details about the process that has created the information, for example, the
samples that have been used and whether the procedure has taken all the crucial information into
account. In many cases, satisfactory information is very challenging to be found or even
impossible to achieve (Gering, 2007, p.50). A number of researchers lament that the method is
restrictive together with other qualitative methods to sociological and phenomenological research
(Farquhar, 2012, p.74).
5.3 Sample and sampling
The samples for this study will be taken from five secondary schools within Port-
Harcourt, Nigeria. The samples incorporate five teachers within this school with more than one
year teaching experience, together with 15 students. The options that will be considered for this
study includes; English teacher, Mathematics teacher, literature teacher, computer science
teacher, and integrated science teacher.
5.4 Rationale for the sample
The five subject areas will act as the representative sample of the entire subject being
taught in the secondary schools in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. The teachers from various learning

33
areas will be interviewed from each site to maximize the variation while different students will
be provided with questioners to fill in order to determine their perception of their school
suspension.
5.5 Instrumentation
The quantitative data will be received from the questionnaire form that will be conducted
on the teachers experience on the issue of suspension. Qualitative data will be received from
interviews. Interviews are the most famous method in social science domain and they are also a
major source of collection qualitative data in terms of understanding a situation (Maes et al,
2014, p.49. Interview enables the researchers to explore problems and ideas of the participants,
which the information is probably not able to be obtained by the research methodologies.
Interview appears as a form of dialogue where the researcher gets information from the
participants on how they perceive a certain problem. Participants are given a chance to display
their own thinking that will later be translated into the research analysis and normally the
conversation is centered upon a particular problem. In an interview one person’s gets a good
opportunity to be able to ask preferred questions and the other person is able to answer them. The
whole process is done particular on a pre-set topic that would be further researched and hence
interviews are considered as an important tool for the purpose of further research, such as
experimentation as well as observation. Interviews are available in many forms such as on-line
interview, in-depth interviews; semi structured and structured interviews among others.
Unstructured interview is an informal interview, not structured by a list of questions and hence, it
is conducted followed by a sequence of questions using time-varying strategy to observe how
interviewees respond with the questions. In open-ended procedure participants are able to

34
develop their own ideas deeper compared with their initial response towards the particular
research topic (Ekanem, 2007, p.105).
Structured or unstructured interviews are important for the use of pilot study, which can
primarily test the interviewee’s response to adjust the interview schedule to be better adopted in
a final research. The interviews could allow questioning to be leaded based on the researchers
wish and the point can be clarified even clearly rather than a mailed questionnaire whereas
another impressing advantage of using interview is the flexibility (Myers, 2009, p.61). Thus,
there is a strong possibly that the interviews have the chance to dip into further information of
particular research topic and in the process the personal information and feelings can be provided
and quoted in details. Interviewers can ask for further clarifications during the interview process
when confusion crops in and interviewees maybe in a position to offer help hence assisting the
interviewers to understand a particular issue more clearly. Interviews help students to explore
experiences which they find difficult to overcome in their student life and researchers can then
use the information they obtained from the interview for the purpose of testing their hypothesis.
In a situation where a research has a number of variations they may tend to have different
responses and it is important to consider response on each determiner. Students are therefore
allowed a chance to express their own level of cognitive understanding on a particular issue
mostly in an interview.
The disadvantage of interviews is that it is highly time consuming and a lot of time is
required in interpreting and translating the information given by the respondents. In an interview
procedure one should highly consider trust so that the whole procedure can be flexible and the
respondents can be impressionable to answer the question (Woodside, 2010, p.91).

35

5.6 Validity and reliability
A review instrument is valid when it can quantify and precisely attain to the examination
reason for which the exploration was planned (Zivkovic, 2012, p.95). Since legitimacy is a
matter of degree, the center ought to be to what degree the measuring instrument is legitimate or
not substantial since no measuring instrument is superbly substantial (Myers, 2009, p.77).
Regardless of this, the specialist need to pick the measuring instrument that issues me a
certification that the outcomes delivered should be precise and satisfactory. This will ingrain in
me some certainty and the capacity to direct the study and present his discoveries with less
feedback.
The inquiries intended for the study was subjected to an acceptance process for face and
substance legitimacy keeping in mind the end goal to test its adequacy in taking care of the study
process. The inquiries were additionally subjected to substance legitimacy to test its capacity to
test the scope of conduct spoke to by the hypothetical idea being tried. Amid the acceptance
handle, the duplicates of the inquiries together with the examination questions they are planned
to answer were circulated to specialists to survey their capacity to sufficiently answer such
inquiries. The specialists surveyed the examination inquiries and the structure of the inquiries
and recommended that this poll was powerful.
5.7 Data Collection
Data collection is one of the central roles of any research process as it enables the
researcher to have enough information for interpretation purposes. Two sorts of information
accumulation will be utilized; talks with and overviews (poll). Every meeting will last 10-12
minutes so as not to take a great part of the instructor’s chance as instructors are extremely

36
occupied while in schools. Accumulation of the information will be in two stages; to begin with,
an arrangement of 10 semi-organized inquiries will be solicited from advantages, confinements
and change. Qualified teachers probably taught in the auxiliary school for at least one year will
be given priority to the study.
The second stage will be interviewing of the participants in order to get the raw data
needed for this study. Past studies have concentrated on the points of view of the understudies
and/or the folks (Partington, 2001, p.67: Coslin, 1997, p.49: Lewis, 2001, p.54). The kind of
meeting strategy that will be utilized is that of the semi organized or centered meeting.
Minichiello, Aroni, Timewell and Alexander (1995, p.87) contend that this style of meeting
empowers the scientists to utilize both an organized approach and a more conversational’ style in
noting the examination questions. The meeting will be recorded with a recording device and I
will likewise scribble down any perception in my journal. As noted over that two sorts of
information will be gathered; the second kind of information to be gathered is overviews
whereby poll are given to 15 students from each of the five schools. The survey will be gathered
that same day to abstain from being lost by the students. Before starting on gathering of the
information, I would have gotten authorization from the school management to avoid coming
into conflict with the administrators.
5.8 Data Analysis
Due to the nature of the study thematic analysis will be applied in order to get the student
and teachers perspective of suspension. The data will be well interpreted, before relevant
conclusions are drawn from them that can be used to answer the research question. On the other

37
hand, the qualitative data will be measured by the constant comparative technique and the
synthesis of data using critical thinking.
5.9 Limitations and Delimitations
This study is limited by the cost and time, in that it will be expensive to both in time and
money to cover the wider areas of Port-Harcourt. In this regard, focusing only in five schools
may not provide a conclusive report that can be used to generalize on other areas outside Port-
Harcourt.
5.10 Timescale and Resources
In educational research, time is of essence and the researcher needs to balance his time
accordingly. I will dedicate my time from Monday to Friday in ensuring I capture the views of
the students and their teacher in those weekdays they are available. In these days, I dedicated my
time to interviewing of students and teachers such that the interview and filling of questionnaires
are done at the same time. This will enable me to write and finish the project within two to three
days before the completion date. Money will be needed to cater for various logistics such as
traveling in the five different schools. Energy is needed to enable me collect sufficient data
needed for the study.

38

6. FINDINGS

6.1 Student perspectives
In order to develop verbal portrait in my analysis, I was able to analyze all the interviews
that I administered to different students whereby, I could easily woe together various of the
quotes that they used in presenting their experiences at a more coherently perspective. In
developing the verbal portraits I choose to represent the students through the use of the exact
words that they spoke about. This was very crucial; since I personally had not experienced what
the student had undergone through, thus I had to use their experience for me to understand what
they were experiencing in a more clearly way. This type of research, seeks to borrow the ideas of
other people in order for one to understand what is being talked about in a better way. This was a
good way for me to understand what it was like for students who had been suspended from
school and how they felt about the experience and more so what it meant to them for having been
suspended form classes. I began interviewing students by asking them questions of whether they
had been suspended and if they could tell me more about the suspension. The following are the
results from some of the selected students;
Martin Reagan
I was able to interview Reagan just before the school ended whereby, after I introduced
myself he proved to be very polite and very humble as I interviewed him. I requested him to
select one of the pseudonyms despite him giggling but finally he spoke up. This is what he was
able to say during the interview that lasted for thirty minutes.
Suspension will come after the teachers caution you to stop doing something that you are
doing in class repeatedly. If you don’t listen to what they are telling you they will get tired and

39
they will write you up….sometimes they will inform you that they will write you up but in other
occasions they don’t inform you as they deem tat to be a waste of time . Other time you just see
them write you up and this will mean that they you have to face the consequences of your
mistakes either good or bad. Once your name is written up to the principal the next thing is to
wait for your name to be called out after, which once in her hands she could take you to her
room and once you are there she would ask you what you think should be done. Sometimes she
would buy the idea or dismiss it then from there she would make the right choice.
Christopher Makomere
This is a student who was very much out spoken during the interview time and I tried my
best to grasp all that the student said. Below is what the student said during the interviewing
process that I had with him.
The suspension action is what I don’t like because it’s boring…it requires one to sit and
do all the work that is assigned to him…you have to sit there all day as per the requirements of
the punishment. I was as well accused of having stood up to go and pick a pencil that was on the
other side of the desk an cat that could not have interfered with my participation in class. The
suspension teacher make us do all that she needs or else we be given zero for having not done
that us required of us by the school. The suspension teacher is bias and only good to those she
likes and likes yelling to people when they do contrary to the expectations. Her yelling is too
uncouth and it’s really insensible and makes no meaning at all to the victims. After yelling at
people she writes them up and get her good students back to their studies on a normal basis. The
process of signing up is done when a paper is presented forth for one sign all his or her details
after which the principal puts down her signature that give the disciplinary panel to chase you
out of the school permanently. Personally i was accuse of walking form class and going to use

40
the bathroom during class time and thus was illegal since I did not have the permission to do so.
I had done a mistake by walking out without the permission form the tutor. I decided to do so
because I could not wait to be permitted to do so, I was so pressed and decided to do so.
This finds suspension so boring to him since he has to sit down there the whole day while
the suspension teacher do not do their best in getting them out the trouble that latter face them
after them doing that is not required of them. He is a student who has been learning in the Port-
Harcourt area for a very long time and is very disappointed due to the perception that he has
concerning the suspension teacher whom he believe hates him so much and does not like
anything to done with him; hence the high yelling that he does to him.
Jane Uzuku
This student proved to be very talkative and was ready to share matter to do with
discipline of teachers and how the interaction between students and teachers takes place. This is
what she shared in the interviewing process.
Personally I am not a trouble child and this is the main reason as to why I don’t like the
suspension panel because to me they are unfair. They accused me of what I did not do and I felt
offended by their wrong accusations. I felt like a prisoner informant of the panel that was
dealing with my indiscipline case and it really portrayed a lot of rudeness to extend they could
not even give me a chance to explain myself. The other reason that makes the panel so boring is
the fact that they want you to eat what they ask to buy and not you want to eat. The lady in
charge of the suspension panel is a lady with a snoozy attitude and very rude indeed throughout
my experience with her. She believes that you whatever you have been accused of is what you did
and you have to face the consequences of your mistake s at all cost. The lady yells a lot and sees

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you to be a very big criminal and doesn’t want to hear any explanation for you as she sees you
as a very crooked person to have not done all that was required of you. She even abused me for
having called a teacher ‘bitch’ yet I did that out of frustration that I underwent from the teacher.
The teacher permitted to go to the bathroom and when I came back he seemed to have forgot that
he had given me permission, he even accused to have come late in class and decided to lock me
out of class. I was so frustrated that I called him a bitch but according to me that was a mistake
that could warrant me to be written off the school. The lady locked me out of class to imply that
she did not want anything to do with me anymore.
Janet account of suspension revolves around unfairness that she experienced before the
panel that was led by the lady teacher. Janet referred the suspension panel as prison due to the
unhealthy relationship that he had with his teacher and she preferred that the suspension panel
could be erased all together due to its unfair treatment that it portrayed to students.
6.2 Thematic analysis
I realized that each student experience about the suspension was very different from each
other despite there being comes themes that were shared by all the interviewers. The experiences
that the students gave cannot be correlated with the schools that they attended because the
interview was conducted from three different types of schools. However, students from the same
school did not even give the same experience concerning teachers not getting back their work to
the suspension room and all the essence of the shared experience is given below. Despite the
familiarity of the themes of all the participants, they also portray uniqueness and variance that
was a key observation that I personally made. The themes that I developed from my interviewers
were inclusive of: Getting Written up; our learning time; the suspension teacher is a nice lady

42
with a Snoozy Attitude; there are some teachers; sometime it’s fun and sometime it’s boring.
These themes are well illustrated in the diagram below for better understanding.
Figure 1: student experience of suspension

The themes as I have discussed below I have tried to work the relation it has between itself and
other themes and how they tend to overlap as well. The account of student getting written up is
all that I begin with in my discussion and further a small discussion on how the students made
meaning of the process of getting into the suspension.
Theme1: Getting Written Up

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This theme represent students accounts of getting written up through encompassing the
way the students made sense out of their experience that led them to be suspended. Getting
Written Up theme is related to, There are Some Teachers is a them where the students discussed
their relationship with their teachers and other stakeholders who played part of the suspension
program. The student highly complained about the classroom mood that was portrayed by their
teachers of what they perceived to be bad instruction given to them by teachers on a bad day or
even the breaking of the rules that had been set aside for them to adhere to. These accounts were
conveyed through stories given out by the student’s concerning unfair treatment from their
teachers, dislike from their teachers and tales of bad day that accompanied them all through.
Some of the students admitted that whatever they had been accused of was true while others kept
on insisting that they were wrongly accused of what they never took a hand in. After analysis, I
realized that these different stories form the students were related with the method of their school
in terms of dealing with indiscipline cases. Some of the student elaborated the outline of the rules
in their schools and how they were used to pin them for mistakes they had not done. They
describe the methods as detention mechanism that their teachers employed for use as a means of
instilling discipline in them. The system of rules and consequences was the main thing that I
tackled in the getting written up theme. I then focused on the Breaking the Rules theme that
relates to the students expressing their frustrations with the unfair method of getting written up
that can be described inn other terms as per the students ‘I Din’t Even Do Nothin’.
In summary, all schools have a predesigned system of plagiarism in place and the student
I interviewed did not touch so much about e system in their school; since, they felt it was unfair
to them. This implies that they might have been familiar with all that took place in their school
but the problem could be resulting from the fact that they were written up. The students found

44
this unfair to them as they did not think that whatever they did could lead them to suspension,
thus they complained of being written up in such unfair manner. Students complained of
understanding rules in their own perspective and this proved that they broke the rules knowingly
as proved in another account a written up.
Theme 2: Breaking’ the Rules
This is a reflection of the getting written up account of the students and this is mostly
proven where they did not deny breaking the rules they had been accused of breaking leading to
their suspension. Most of the students were very free in sharing all that they had done that led to
their suspension and after analyzing I realized that their suspension as they said was somehow
fair due to what they had done in their schools. They were suspended because; some expressed
their feeling of how they could not shut up as they liked talking, others explained their lack of
respect that led them to being suspended. Other student were suspended because they threatened
of hitting others whom they didn’t want them to say even a single word from their mouth. This is
a clear prove that the students knew all that was expected from them and it was their own
negligence of not adhering to school rules that led to them being suspended. Others skipped
classes to go the auditorium due to tardies and this was a very big mistake that led to suspension
of such students. Students knew that they were not supposed to mouth off to teachers, be tardy or
even threaten other students and because they went against what they already knew, that is why
they could easily be suspended out of school. Despite all these I could not easily tell why the
student had to engage in such nasty behaviors that they knew were very offensive and could even
cost their schooling.

45

Theme 3: I Din’t Even Do Nothin’
In this theme, the account of student getting written up is all that is discussed where the
sample that is analyzed they proved to deny the mistakes that they had been accused of. Students
expressed their dissatisfaction with the way their teachers treated them and they weren’t happy at
all with the way things were done unfairly to them by their teachers. They were bored with their
type of treatment that led them to being written up by the disciplinary panel. The system of
writing up students had no advantage to them at all thus they viewed it to be unfair process that
was not supposed to be followed. The application of such rules was unfair according to the
students who claimed to have been treated in a very unfair manner that they did not deserve
either.
Theme 4: Stupid rules
The students shared that the rules that were applied by the suspension panel were very
stupid as one of the students claimed to have been written up for having woken to pick up a
pencil that was on the other side of the desk. According to the student that was very unfair
treatment form the teacher who wrote him up for just picking a pencil that he needed to use at
that very moment. The picking of pencil could not have interfered with the student who could
still continue participating in the class activities that were ahead of him. This was just a way of
teacher to express their extreme power over the students according to Martin who took the
pencil. The teacher wanted to bring out misunderstanding between them and the students who
were innocent according to Martin.
In the case of Chris, it was somehow ridiculous; since, it was a chip that led to
misunderstanding between him and his teacher who forwarded his name to the suspension panel.

46
George used a bad term to refer to the teacher as a dude where the teacher responded him by
telling him that he wasn’t a dude but a teacher. The whole class found tis very funny and they
laughed back to the conversation a factor that made the teacher to be highly disappointed decided
to take the right measures on the student who was disrespectful to him. Teacher overlooked
disruptive behaviors in some schools during class times not unless where a student disrupted the
whole class is when they could react. Here, the student could be on the wrong for having
challenged the accepted coed of behavior in the class. Despite all this, the students felt so upset
due to the fact they were treated unfairly.
Theme 5: Unfair treatment
Most of the students were humiliated due to the unfair treatment that they had to undergo
from their teacher who initially accused them unfairly. It was not funny either being in the
suspension panel and this came after he accused of things of past that they felt they had not done.
Only the ones who admitted their mistakes found it to fair for they were accused of what they
had done. Other student like Jane viewed the enforcement of these rules to be insensible to her
for she was accused of being late in class where the teacher locked her out of class yet according
to her she was not late. She was bored by the whole incident and felt intimidated and afforded to
stay out of class for the whole period the teacher was in class. According to her the teacher
seemed to have forgotten that he had given her permission to go to the bathroom and shower and
yet he afforded to write her up due to a mistake that was not really a mistake. After getting from
the bathroom she was not late but the teacher accused her of being late an incident that led her to
calling the teacher a bitch due to the high frustration that she felt. The students seemed to be
telling teachers to think of what they are doing before writing students up.

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Theme 6: There are Some Teacher…
This is a type of theme at revolves around the experience the students had with their
teachers. The students claimed to have had a bad experience with their teachers who led them to
the Suspension panel led by a very tough lady whom they described to be having a snoozy
attitude that was very rude. The influence from teachers affecting the suspended students is very
negative as they lost their chance of enjoying academics from their school of choice. Student
describe teacher to be very rude and not polite to them as they did not even understand them or
even give them a chance of explaining themselves as to why they went against what was require
of them. Student were written up in class for talking during class time
Theme 7: I Don’t Like It When Teacher Yell All the Time
Student attributed their suspension with the action of their teachers which were unfair to
them. According to them, the teacher led them to trouble that was not good at all to them and for
this reason they were suspended unfairly. Sometime the mood that was portrayed by the teachers
is what led the students to misconduct themselves in class leading to their suspension. Teachers
so it necessary to yell to students especially those who were very disruptive during class time and
teachers who had bad time had it on students.
6.3 Teacher’s perception
Just like students, this research reveals that the teachers also have their views of
suspension that somehow differs with the students view. The suspension program was designed
to help students be well behaved through instilling of good behaviors in them that would give
them a good direction in their academic work. This program would help keep student in school
very disciplined and in case a student could be taken to the suspension panel, his or her class

48
teacher would be informed of the same. The teachers were mandated with the gathering of all the
information concerning the student and forward it to the suspension panel before any charges
could be given forth. The suspense room was the new home for the suspended student who could
sit there for a long time regarding the administration that had been given by the administration.
In my analysis I came out with the finding that the teachers perceived the suspension panel to be
very effective in dealing with student case that was arising from time to time. The suspension
panel aimed at monitoring students who had misbehaved to ensure that they get back on the right
track. According to the teachers, suspension was a good way of keeping students out of
classroom and evades the stubbornness that was a result of their behavior. The perception of
teachers was different from that of the students because; they viewed suspension to be very
important as student could still catch up with what they could be missing in class despite the
punishment that they were undergoing at the same time. Suspension was a way that teacher used
to manifest their superiority to the student and decided to use it to keep up the students who
could fall behind at any time. Teachers really esteemed the disciplining panel they really praised
it for its work. Teacher had a different perspective where they articulated for addition of some
program in the suspension panel that would be adding counseling aspect to ensure that the
students are given some of the important information that will be of great use in their discipline
times in school. Teacher had a different perspective that aimed at getting a good counselor fill
the position of suspension of students. This would help the teacher deal well with the issues of
students and council them to know the right direction that they are supposed to follow in life. A
good counselor can help change the bad perception that students had against any teacher or that
drove the in doing that which was illegal. This teacher perception showed how they cared about

49
their students in ensuring that they help them to enjoy the success of education in their future
life’s the way they themselves were earning a living from their teaching profession.

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7. DISCUSION OF FINDINGS

For data to be well collected there was the need of interviewing some of the teachers to
attain more information that could help in analysis. The teachers whom I interviewed had at least
a student who had faced the suspension panel and they had a lot to tell from their experience. It
was easy for me to put the themes that surfaced from the data and decided to put up with all that
was required for my analysis to be viable. Suspension of student has some benefits that the
teacher expressed during my interview with them.
The advantages were inclusive of; keeping students in school despite them undergoing
the punishment that was entitled to them. Teachers were really for the idea of keeping students
under punishment through the suspension program for they saw it as a good method of ensuring
that the students realized their mistakes and did what was required of them. Teachers were really
concerned with the issue of students attending school at all times and really spoke about it during
the interviewing process. Students were required to work even despite them being in suspension.
This is what one of the teachers had to say during the interviewing process that lasted for
thirty minutes.
Students have to be controlled in schools they do not know what is right at the moment
and if they mess now they will have messed their future lives. When students are not controlled
they feel like a free day for them and they end not being serious with their studies or even their
class duties. In school teacher are like their parents they have to take full charge of them and
ensure that they behave responsibly to their advantage.
School attendance is what many students face as a big challenge to them. Student enjoys
the advantage of getting all that they have been missing even though they are under suspension.

51
This is one of the reasons as to why students have to be kept in school; since, some of them their
home life out of school is pure suffering. Student who come from single parent family do not
anyone to supervise them and this is the reason as to why they suffer a lot for lack of no
supervision since their single parents are working. This is a reason that led to the suspension
program that would help instill discipline in students. Another teacher named Jacinta had the
following o share during my interview with him.
The suspension program is good as it gives the student at chance to rethink of their past
mistakes during the day and at the same time they make up their work that they missed by not
being present in class. This in turn keeps them in pace with the class work that the rest of the
students were taught by their teachers implying that the loose very little when under suspension.
This program is useful as it helps the students to keep up with the class pace despite the fact that
the students are confined under one room all day long; since it’s a form of punishment.
Students are entitled to deliver their assignment to their teacher on time through the
suspension room on timely basis and they have the chance of doing their work to perfection.
They are rarely marked out of zero since they work hard to void this due to the fact that of
undergoing punishment at the same time. If they get a zero, which is impossible it will mean a
big challenge to them to graduate out of high school and proceed with their education in higher
level of learning.
The suspension that is anticipated for by various teachers of different schools is a god
tool that is used to instill disciplinary in many students. This type of disciplinary ensures that
students are kept at the rightful pace, their class attendance is as well improved and they are well
disciplined during class hours. After analysis if found out the limitations that were in my study
were very few and could be overcome through the use of the right program.

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Students attendance; is very key as most of the students have to be kept reminded of
attending school on a daily basis failure to which they will be punished. Students will often be
punished if they engage in tardiness and truancy and they will accountable of their own mistakes
that they have done. Credit is another way that I used in the measure of my results that I
collected from the teacher’s perspective. It is claimed that when a student loses a daily credit he
or she will have lost a lot that he should have gained during class hours. Students had to be kept
on track all they do all that was required of them as set in the school rules and regulations. When
a student is not kept on track he will end up losing their detrimental to their success. Students
who have been suspended from class are supposed to be kept at the right pace as this will help
them on their transition back to the class for their won advantage.

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8. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

8.1 Conclusions and Recommendations
The purpose of this study was to improve the understanding of the lived experiences of
the students who had undergone the suspension program. Discipline is measure that has to be
well reviewed to ensure that it disciplinary measures are instilled in the right place. In my own
experience as a teacher, I have been able to find many classrooms unsafe with an antagonistic
environment that take learning as a secondary goal to students. From other teachers perspective I
have gained experience matters to do with discipline in the classroom that is very crucial to
students. I was prompted to investigate the way students conduct themselves during class time
and discipline level that they are able to portray during such times. I was able to analyze the way
students made meaning from the suspension that they had underwent after doing all that was not
required of them. In the previous chapter I was able to give the discussion of my findings of the
study that I carried out
The findings of this study represent the students and teachers experiences in relation to
school suspension. From the above results, it is evident that most of the issues that surround
student’s suspension related to the issues they have with their teachers as supported by
Costenbader and Markson (1998, p.34). A good number of students used the word “There are
some Teachers” to show the level of frustration the students have with their teachers. In this
regard, it is evident that the nature of the relationships between the students and their teachers
plays a very big role in determining the reason for suspension. In most cases, the student thinks
that the teachers are unfair and unkind in the manner in which they are being treated (Partington,
2001, p.21). On the other hand, there are a few cases whereby the students think the teachers are
supportive in the manner in which they are treated in relation to school discipline. In some cases,

54
the students think that the teachers did not like them in the manner in which they are being
treated by their teachers. In this regard, the action of the teachers plays an important role in
determining whether students will be suspended or not. Such students argue that the teachers did
not like them, the teacher was in bad mood, or the teacher was just trying to get rid of them so
that they don’t become parts of their classes or part of the school. It can thus be argued that the
student’s suspension highly revolves around their relationship with teachers since such
relationships plays an important role in determining whether the students find themselves in
trouble or not. In the case where the students have poor relationship with their teachers, they are
likely to misunderstand each other, resulting into problems that result into students’ suspension
from the school. On the other hand, the good relationship between the students and their teachers
plays an important role in fostering mutual relationship between them and good understanding
that enables the students to avoid problems. Students also contributed to the study by talking
about their experiences with suspension. A good number of students concur that suspension is
boring and it greatly interferes with their learning time. In this regard, the students view
suspension and the overall loss in learning time as a torture
This study brings forth several implications to the educators and the educational
researchers concerning suspension in schools. From the above study, it is significant that the
students’ perspective should be included in research and teaching practices. There is need for the
teachers to learn from the behavior of the students and this may play a key role in averting
suspension related issues. This is supported by literature that asserts that teachers are likely to
create a good environment that will make them less involved in disciplinary cases if they create a
conducive learning environment.

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Coslin, P.G., (1997). Adolescents’ judgements of the seriousness of disruptive behaviour at
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