Abstract
This study explores teacher’s view on school discipline practices in public schools through an exploratory mixed-method design. The approach involves an initial qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase. More specifically, it aimed to construct, develop and evaluate the dimensions of teacher’s view on school discipline practices in public schools’ scale. In the qualitative phase, there were seven teachers who participated in the in-depth interview and ten teachers participated in the focus group discussion. There were five themes that emerged from the interview that put emphasis on authoritarian view in disciplining, permissive view in disciplining, restorative justice view in disciplining, behaviorist view in disciplining, and democratic view in disciplining. A 100-item teacher's view on school discipline practices in public schools’ scale were also constructed based on the results of the interview. In the quantitative phase, 200 questionnaire responses were analyzed for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results showed eight underlying dimensions of teacher’s view on school discipline practices in public schools. A total of eight themes on dimensions of teacher’s view on school discipline practices in public schools questionnaire was developed which are authoritarian view in disciplining with a total of 14 items, permissive view in disciplining with a total of 14 items, restorative justice view in disciplining with a total of 8 items, behaviorist view in disciplining with a total of 7 items, democratic view in disciplining with a total of 12 items, balanced and empathetic discipline with a total of 11 items, flexible discipline with a total of 7 items, and critical and collaborative discipline with a total of 7 items and the overall the scale has a total of 80-item questionnaire. This study recommended that to effectively address the complexities of disciplinary challenges in public school settings, it is recommended to prioritize a collaborative and inclusive approach. This involves fostering open dialogue and communication channels between teachers, administrators, students, and parents to co-create disciplinary strategies that reflect the values of empathy, understanding, and fairness.