Citation

Laurence Lwo L, Yuan Y. Educ. Urban Soc. 2011; 43(2): 137-164.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0013124510380232

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Corporal punishment (CP) has been officially banned since December 2006 in Taiwan. It would be useful to explore the perceptions and concerns of elementary school teachers on the issue of banning CP and on alternative methods of discipline in 2008, two years since the ban took effect. In this study, 323 teachers were stratified randomly and drawn from 42 schools in Keelung City for the survey and 5 teachers were interviewed. The main finding of this study is that while most teachers understand and support the policy of banning CP in schools, there remain certain concerns on the effect of such a ban in schools. These concerns and conflicting viewpoints are especially over issues related to the difficulty in disciplining students and respecting the students’ human rights. An overwhelming concern is that some teachers might ignore students’ misbehavior and passively discipline to cope with the new law.