The relationship between secondary school teachers' perception of school culture and the perception of discipline types they use for classroom management

The purpose of this study is to find out the secondary school teachers' perceptions of school culture and the perceptions of discipline types they use for classroom management; and also to identify the relationship between these perceptions and to find out if there is a statistically significant difference between school culture perceptions and the perceptions of discipline types used in classroom management according to the demographic characteristics of teachers. The research was carried out in the survey design. Population consists of 563 secondary school teachers working in Bolu province in 2013-2014 academic years. In this study 244 teachers were reached. The research is based on the population and as part of population 244 teachers from 28 secondary schools were reached. Data were collected through "personal information form", "school culture scale" and "discipline types that teacher use for classroom management scale". Data were analyzed with SPSS and frequency, percentage, t-test, Mann Whitney-U Test, Kruskal Wallis-H Test and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were used. According to the results of the study, teachers' perception of school culture and its sub-dimensions (integration and belonging, cooperation, support and trust, democratic governance and attendance, school-environment relation) is at the level of "agree". The perception of teachers in all dimensions of discipline types they use for classroom management is at the level of "frequently". While teachers always agreed with using "preventive" and "supportive" discipline types, they mostly agreed with using "improver" discipline type. Teachers' perceptions relating sub-dimensions of school culture show no significant difference according to gender, age, work experience, seniority, level of education and fields of study. Teachers' perceptions relating sub-dimensions of discipline types they use for classroom management show no significant difference to gender, age, work experience, seniority, level of education and fields of study. There is a difference between the teachers who have 1-5 years of work experience and the teachers who have 6-10 and 11-15 years of work experience in the "improver discipline" sub-dimension of discipline types teacher use for classroom management. It is found that teachers who have 6-10 years and 11-15 years of work experience use improver discipline more than the teachers who have 1-5 years of work experience. Also, it is confirmed that there is a positive, statistically significant, low relation between teachers' perceptions on school culture and teachers' perceptions on discipline types they use for classroom management. It is believed that the study will contribute to the literature about school culture and discipline types that teacher use.