Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
The question of exercising authority has become crucial as a result of many disciplinary
problems which educators progressively encounter. Social structures in educational context are presently changing drastically and consequently children and adults are facing new demands in their disciplinary relationship. This study forms part of a research project initiated by the Department of Educational Sciences of the Rand Afrikaans University. The importance of ten facets of discipline in the consideration of the discipline of children is being investigated. The aim of this study is to determine the importance of authority as a facet of discipline. Once this is known, educators in future could be directed towards this. In this research project authority has been fundamentally analysed. A literature study revealed aspects such as the acceptance of the child that he/she is subjected to authority, the child's attitude towards authority, the childs human decency, the mutual support of teachers and parents in implementing authority, the fact that the child should know that educators have authority over him/her, that the child should know that authority is the "rule of life" and that the child should know that authority is meant to protect him/her. Following the identification of the above mentioned aspects, a questionnaire was compiled to establish perceptions regarding the importance of authority as a facet of discipline. Parents and teachers were approached to respond to the questionnaire. The validity of the findings obtained from the questionnaire were investigated through factor analyses. A principal component analysis (peA) was followed by a principal factor analysis (pFA). The reliability of the information was investigated by means of an item analysis. Hypotheses on gender, language, qualification, educator status, school involvement, age, permanent residence religion marital status of respondents, number of children in primary
school, number of children in secondary school and income level of respondents were tested. Significance was tested on the 1%- and 5%-level. The most important findings of the above mentioned investigation are as follow: The high averages obtained on all of the items on the importance of authority indicate that authority as a facet of discipline is very important. The high value which was attached to the mutual support of teachers and parents in ' implementing authority, that the child should know that authority is meant to protect him/her and that the child's human decency should be considered in an authority situation, show these aspects to be of fundamental importance to education. Significant differences of opinion between respondents were found to exist between gender, language groups, qualification groups, religious groups, marital status groups, residential localities, number of children in secondary school and income groups. No significant differences of opinion were found between respondents at different degrees of school involvement, educator status, age groups and number of children in primary school. It is concluded that respondents are of opinion that authority is of the utmost importance in the disciplining of children. It is recommended that guidance programmes in authority should be developed to equip parents and teachers with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding regarding the discipline of the child.