Vocational high schools and the discipline system: A study from the perspective of teachers

This study focuses on the disciplinary experiences of teachers working in vocational high schools. Vocational high schools are generally accepted as schools where disciplinary incidents occur intensively, where mostly working class students with low academic achievement and disadvantaged students prefer. Based on the experiences of teachers working in vocational high schools, the research critically examines the disciplinary incidents they encounter in schools, their approaches to disciplinary incidents and their conceptualisations of discipline. The research also aims to raise awareness about teachers' traditional and authoritarian disciplinary methods and to provide policy recommendations within the framework of contemporary positive discipline approaches. Within the scope of the research, twelve teachers and four administrators working in two vocational high schools in Düzce province, where disciplinary incidents are known to occur frequently, were interviewed. The research was carried out using qualitative research type and phenomenological design. Interviews with semi-structured interview forms, informal conversations and observations made by the researcher in schools were used as data collection tools. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling methods were used to determine the participants. The criteria for inclusion in the sample were working in a vocational high school and having served in disciplinary committees before. Interviews were conducted face-to-face at schools during the hours when teachers did not have teaching obligations. Teachers in vocational high schools use traditional methods such as setting rules, forcing to obey rules, and punishment. They categorise the disciplinary offences they encounter into two categories: frequently encountered and serious disciplinary offences. In the face of frequent disciplinary offences, they prefer traditional disciplinary methods such as punishment and ignoring. In the face of serious disciplinary offences, informal punishment methods such as removing the student from school, persuading his/her family to enrol in open high school, psychological pressure on the student in the form of attitude and changing the relationship are generally preferred. In their disciplinary practices, they behave in a fault-finding manner such as surveillance and catching them red-handed. These practices show that the teacher takes on the role of a watchman or police teacher. It is of significant importance to implement measures that guarantee educators abandon the conventional disciplinary techniques that fail to address issues and inflict detriment upon students' academic pursuits. Instead, they must adopt a contemporary positive disciplinary approach that facilitates the growth of their inherent potential within an educational environment characterised by mutual respect and free from the constraints of punishment.