Using Social Norm Approaches to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Schools in Sierra Leone

by Janet Tucker

Talk Structure

Overview of Current situation in sierra Leone• Why is Corporal Punishment a social Norm?• Current Intervention Strategies –Ineffective

• How to shift expectations• New Intervention Strategies

• Process of Change• Target Groups• Conclusion

Overview of current situation• Corporal Punishment used nationwide as the main form of

punishment

• In this context corporal punishment is taken to mean physical punishments such as : caning, flogging, standing/kneeling long in the sun, working long hours in the school or in a teacher’s private garden.

• The fear of Corporal punishment scars away children from school and thus affects regular school attendance and retention.

• Corporal punishment increases risk of child abuse.

Why is Corporal Punishment a social Norm?

Belief(social as well as personal normative belief)• Most people in sierra Leone, regardless of their educational status

and religious background, believe that corporal punishment is the most appropriate form of discipline for children. They believe that it is the language of discipline that the African child best understands for compliance.

• This belief is not only widely accepted , they claim its legitimacy from biblical idea of ‘spare the rod, spoil the child(Proverbs 23: 13,14,29)

Empirical Expectations• The majority of Sierra Leoneans, parents, educated and non-

educate, and teachers alike(about 95%) use corporal punishment as a form of discipline for children.

Corporal punishment as a Social norm -continued

• Teachers who fail to use corporal punishment are considered weak and spoiling the children, who may turn out to be social deviants.(Sanction)

• There are a few people who would like to employ alternative methods of discipline on children, but they prefer to use corporal punishment, especially in school, because everybody else is using it.(conditional preference)

Normative Expectations• Parents believe that teachers ought to use corporal punishment to discipline

children in school • Because teachers believe that parents think that corporal punishment is the best

form of discipline for children, corporal punishment is widely used in schools.

Current Intervention Strategies that have not worked well.

• Enactment of a Child Right Rights(2007)to domesticate the CRC• Development of a Code of Conduct for teachers• Development of community bye-laws

Why Ineffective? • Reference networks not targeted for public deliberation for generation of

common knowledge, commitment for collective action and organised diffusion.

• Positive Alternative Discipline not identified , adopted and diffused.

• Conflict between empirical expectations and legal norms – people continue using corporal punishment(empirical expectation)

How to Shift Expectations

• Abandon old Norm –Corporal Punishment

• Adopt New Norm- Positive Alternative Discipline

• (Mackie)

Interventions Strategies that may apply

• Based on two case studies learned from the course

• Part of the Foot binding intervention model in China

• The domestic violence reduction case study in Barrancabermeja–Colombia-

Foot binding model (Mackie)as it relates to this case study

• Use education campaign to publicise the disadvantages of corporal punishment and the advantages of Positive Alternative Discipline

• Organize public information campaign and mass meetings • Organize Positive Alternative Discipline Committees and

replicate across schools and communities in Sierra Leone

• Long school and community deliberations

Domestic Violence Reduction model in Barrancabermeja, Colombia- Corpovisionarios)as it relates to this case study

• Whistle blowing against corporal punishment• Theatre –forum – to educate on the disadvantages of

corporal punishment and advantages of positive Alternative discipline

• Collective decision to enact change• Relationship with media and local government

institutions• Sustained public deliberations and diffusion

Process of Change• Use core groups in relevant Reference Networks to facilitate collective public

deliberations (Mackie, Mercier, ) on the benefits of alternative discipline to influence people’s schemata and scripts ( Bicchieri) using Mass media, coordinated community meetings

• Sustained public engagement through: social media, C4D communication tools, community theatre, role plays, community meetings to generate common knowledge, public pledges and collective action for change

• Organised Diffusion model -Using core groups within Reference networks to diffuse messages within their networks .

• Encourage relevant networks to influence their respected strong ties, for them to utilize weak ties to extend the messages to other component networks.(Muldoon)

Process of Change-continued• Development of action plans to implement positive Alternative

Discipline –to create confidence within relevant networks(Bicchieri)

• Monitoring of the implementation of the action plan by all stakeholders

• Enact sanction for deviance and reward for compliance – e.g whistle blowing (Corpovisionarios)

• Review of the code of conduct, Child Rights Act to integrate the Positive Alternative Discipline measures agreed by stakeholders

• Collaboration with the media and government institutions for diffusion and implementation(Corpovisionarios)

• Create Positive Alternative Discipline Committees (Footbinding)

Target Groups

No. Reference Network Core Group(s)1 Teachers, Principals and Head

teachers, Sierra Leone Teachers Union(SLTU)

Council of Head Teachers and Conference of Principles of secondary Schools, SLTU Focal Points for the Code of Conduct for Teachers.

2 School Management Committees, PTA/CTA, Child Welfare Committees

PTA and CTA representatives

3 Parents, guardians, caregivers Mothers clubs, new Committees on Positive Alternative Discipline

4 Children Children’s Network Forum(CFN), children’s clubs5 Civil Society and Community-Based

OrganisationsCaucus groups, Send-your-child-to-school Ambassadors

6 Community opinion leaders Chiefs, respected elders, youth leaders, women leaders

7 NGOs Education and Child rights Organisations

8 Government institutions Ministry of Education, Local Councils9 Universities and Teacher Training

collegesFocal Points of Code of Conduct, Child Centred Teaching Techniques and Emerging Issues

1011

The MediaReligious Groups

New Committees to be establishedPastors/Reverends and Imams

ConclusionCorporal punishment is a harmful social norm that contributes to irregular school attendance and low retention rate. It must be abandoned(Old harmful norm)

• Positive Alternative discipline(new norm) should be adopted

• Core groups within Reference Networks should be targeted for organised public deliberations and diffusion to generate common knowledge for collective action to abandon the old empirical expectations and create new normative and empirical expectations(R. Muldoon),(C. Bicchieri)

UNICEF has not been using the social norm approach in the past in their human right- based approach to programming. However, there is empirical evidence that social norm approach is crucial for sustained behaviour change interventions.