Drama Participation as a Strategy in the Management of Discipline among Students in Secondary Schools in Central Region, Kenya

Abstract

Indiscipline among secondary school students remains as a significant challenge in virtually all countries globally including Kenya. Despite the various educational reforms instituted at national and international levels such as banning corporal punishment, cases of indiscipline in secondary schools had been on the upward trend. Various strategies that are used to inculcate discipline among students in secondary schools have proved to be ineffective prompting debates among stakeholders on the best way to combat the problem of indiscipline. This study is a continuation of this debate. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to interrogate the relationship between drama participation and the management of students’ discipline among secondary schools in central region, Kenya. The study, therefore, sought to determine the influence of drama rules and regulations on students’ discipline; establish the role of drama skills in regulating students’ behaviour; assess how drama activities inculcate responsibilities in students and finally, examine schools’ management use of drama activities in the management of discipline in secondary schools. The study was guided by Skill Acquisition Theory, the Systems Theory and Canter’s assertive behavioural model. The study was premised on a positivist philosophy and used the quantitative approach through the descriptive survey design. The target population was 79 deputy principals, 79 drama teachers, and 1888 drama students and non-drama students in secondary school in Central Region, Kenya. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the schools while deputy principals and drama teachers were selected through a census. Systematic random sampling was used to get a representative sample size of students. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and data collection sheet. Pretesting of instruments was done in schools from Laikipia County. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics involving percentages, means and standard deviations and inferential statistical techniques such as Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and Multivariate Linear regression with the aid of Statistical IBM SPSS Statistics version 22.0. The study found that the relationship between strategic rules and regulations in drama and discipline among secondary school students was not significant. However, the relationships between drama skills regulating students’ behaviour, drama rehearsals and drama genres and management of discipline in secondary schools in Central Region, Kenya were all statistically significant. The study, therefore, concluded that drama strategic rules and regulations, drama rehearsals, drama skills and drama genres all significantly influenced discipline management in secondary schools in the area with drama rehearsals having the most prominence. The study therefore recommends that there is need to explore more on the effectiveness of more non curriculum activities on the discipline management in learning institutions. There is need for school administrators to encourage the continual adherence of drama rules and regulations in their institutions. There is need to encourage and support drama activities in all learning institutions. This is evidenced by the fact that rules and regulations are crucial in instilling a culture of punctuality and time keeping. Finally, school administrators should encourage the drama clubs to take in more drama genres so as more students could participate in them to encourage them to be more disciplined.