STUDENTS’ RESISTANCE BEHAVIOUR AS A FORM OF STUDENTS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY IN THE CLASSROOM

Abstract

The study sought to do a number of things: to identify the various forms of resistance behaviour in the classroom; to establish the causes of such resistance behaviour; to investigate how classroom teachers interpret resistance behaviours; and finally to explore how teachers deal with it. The study was conducted in three purposefully selected secondary schools in Karonga district in the NED of Malawi. The schools were grouped as co-education and single sex. The data was collected using classroom observations, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and documentary sources. Fifty four (54) participants took part in focus group discussions and in-depth interviews while 437 were observed. The data collected were categorized into themes and quotations were made from interview notes. Various forms of student resistance behaviours were identified. The causes of such behaviours were poor management skills and poor teaching. Teachers tend to interpret student resistance behaviours as childishness and a challenge to their authority, which must be punished. The major conclusion of the study is that generally teachers fail to appreciate that apparently disruptive behaviours in the classrooms are attempts by students to communicate their feelings, attitudes and concerns in the context of institutionalized dominance and subordination. This failure to appreciate the communicative role of disruptive behaviour is one of the contributory factors to the persistence of poor teaching and learning in the classroom.