Abstract:
Corporal punishment continues to be practiced at unacceptable rates in Egyptian schools, at the same time that violence rates are rising. Corporal punishment in schools reflects a large gap between current education policy that bans corporal punishment and actual implementation of this policy. This gap between policy statement and actual practices could be attributed to family-based or school-based factors. First, family-based factors are represented by family acceptance to corporal punishment, lack of awareness of current policy and what course of action to be taken to protect their children, or family conviction that their input would not make any difference with the school practices. Second, school-based factors are represented by the school failure to enforce policy effectively, lack of communication with parents, and inability to find alternatives for teachers and to activate the role of social workers in reforming students. The purpose of this research is to answer the main research question of why corporal punishment is being practiced in schools in spite of its legal ban. Answer to this question would allow us judge to what extent family and school administration are responsible for these practices. An investigation of the attitudes of teachers, parents and recent-graduate students about the use of corporal punishment as a tool for discipline indicated the causes and consequences of corporal punishment.
The research findings demonstrate that corporal punishment in schools is highly correlated to family acceptance by practicing corporal punishment at home and lack of parental reporting of corporal punishment practiced by teachers, in addition to the school acceptance through having school principals practice corporal punishment and tolerate teachers using it, failure to respond to parents' complaints by taking action with teachers, lack of communication with parents, and inability to assign tasks to the social workers.
