Teachers’ perspectives on strategies for the moral regeneration of secondary school learners in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Abstract

South African society and schools have been at the crossroads for a long time, facing the turmoil of moral degeneration. There is an urgent need to find and effect solutions to redress the moral crisis. The depravity of values and destructive behaviour have reached a level where the entire teaching profession is under threat of collapse and intervention is required. The origins of the Moral Regeneration Movement was initiated in June 1997 by the late State President, Nelson Mandela, and aimed to address the degeneration of South Africa into a 'moral slum'. Moral regeneration would confront crime, women and child abuse, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, drug trafficking, and corruption through a principled commitment to a Code of Conduct (Richardson, 2003:5-7). Moral apathy left a vacuum where none of the objectives were addressed, leading to a tacit acceptance of unacceptably high levels of moral degeneration. An inclination for the regeneration of this vision of Nelson Mandela provided the impetus for this study, which explored teachers' lived experiences of moral de/regeneration of secondary school learners, gaining insights on how strategy development for moral regeneration could be optimised in South African secondary schools. A qualitative research approach situated in an interpretive phenomenological paradigm was adopted. The sites selected for the study were ten schools within five education districts of the Gauteng province, South Africa. The methodology comprised the purposeful sampling of teachers within these schools along with semi-structured interviews to generate data; thematic data analysis was employed. Methods of ensuring trustworthiness, as well as the necessary detail to ethical considerations, were emphasised. Implementation was made of the normative paradigm of interpretivism to generate new knowledge by through the lived experiences of secondary school teachers. Exploration of teachers' experiences lead to the findings where four broad themes emerged of moral degeneration in secondary schools. Themes centred on these aspects: teachers' views on morals and moral degeneration; challenges in facilitating a value-based education; evolving discourses on morality; and strategies for moral regeneration. Discoveries in theme four were incorporated into the strategy development for the moral regeneration of secondary schools in South Africa. The conceptual and theoretical framework revealed the importance of positioning the conceptual model in a value landscape, and played a significant role in the development of a value-based education framework. Considering the complexity and interrelation of concepts, the purpose of moral mechanisms, principles of human morality and moral character traits, moral foundations theory and reasoning, the pillar approach and moral reasoning, moral prototypes and the model for moral motives were considered for the seven strategies developed. Each of the seven strategies contributed towards the development of a value-based education framework. There is much literature about the moral complexities within the education system and how moral deterioration is mainly responsible for the regression of learners' behaviour. Most research studies have focused on the problem, and how unruly, disrespectful and disobedient behaviour negatively affects the teaching and learning environments in school contexts. A dearth of strategies exists in the intervention and provision of moral education. Exploring teachers' experiences appear to have been overlooked in research on moral degeneration and the establishment of frameworks for moral development. The strategies developed in this study for the moral regeneration of secondary schools in South Africa is a contribution to the body of knowledge, aiming to promote moral regeneration of secondary school learners in South Africa. These seven strategies individually and collectively address moral degeneration, and aim to promote moral regeneration through the intentional implementation of each strategy. Each strategy has its own specific rationale for implementation, its role players, its methods of implementation, and its desired outcomes. These strategies contribute to a value-based education framework where important aspects are addressed, allowing the assimilation of core values to become embedded within the education system (at school and community level). The strategies create opportunities for training and involvement by important role players, allowing individuals to learn from one another and to engage in the fostering of moral turnaround. This study not only addresses the moral crisis within our education system, but provides a value-based education framework where the seven strategies developed aim to contribute to learners' and teachers' long-term ethical reasoning, their moral judgement and social interaction, and to the inculcation of positive attitudes. Nelson Mandela's intention for initiating the Moral Regeneration Movement could possibly be partially achieved by implementing these strategies developed for a value-based education model in South African secondary schools.