There is no doubt that the personal and social development of children is influenced by the schooling and parenting they receive in their daily lives both at home and at school. One central aspect, which underpins the process of schooling and parenting, is discipline. Discipline is a prevailing theme in educational research, and has been investigated for a long time in many countries throughout the world; however, there is little research reported to date that attempts to involve teachers, parents and pupils at the same time in a single study, either internationally or in the specific context of China.
The main aim of the present study, therefore, is to investigate both teachers’ and parents’ discipline strategies in Chinese primary schools and families, with a particular focus on the shift in teachers’ and parents’ discipline strategies when children misbehaved for a second time in classroom or at home, and the difference between teachers and parents in their self-reported use of discipline strategies; and furthermore to explore how teachers and parents view each other’s discipline strategies, as well as pupils’ perceptions of their teachers’ and parents’ discipline strategies.
The present study firstly conducted questionnaire research among 148 Chinese primary school teachers and 142 parents of Chinese primary school pupils. It then conducted interviews with 36 Chinese primary school teachers, 34 parents of Chinese primary school pupils, and 60 Chinese primary school pupils.
The research findings clearly identified the dominance of non-aggressive discipline strategies among Chinese primary school teachers and parents. The discipline behaviours of both teachers and parents appeared to be affected by the occurrence of children’s misbehaviours. In addition, the personal attributes of teachers and parents (e.g. gender and age), as well as the pupils’ personal attributes (e.g. gender, age and usual behaviour) were also found to be influential for the teachers’ and parents’ choice of discipline behaviour. The interviewed teachers and parents expressed an understanding of most of the discipline behaviours that they reportedly used when pupils misbehaved, although they both expressed worries about the effectiveness of using similar discipline behaviours for dealing with children’s repeated misbehaviours. Interviewed pupils reported receiving more confrontational discipline behaviours than their teachers and parents admitted to using. Moreover, children seemed to believe that boys and girls should be disciplined in the same way at school, as pupils, but in different ways at home, as sons and daughters.
