A collaborative framework for enhancing sustainable learning for learners with disruptive behaviour in a rural school context.

Abstract

This study investigated how a collaborative framework could be utilised to enhance sustainable learning among learners with disruptive behaviour in a rural school context in Zimbabwe. The literature confirms that a collaborative framework has the potential to emancipate and empower teachers, parents, other stakeholders interested in education and all learners, including those with disruptive behaviour. Working within the critical emancipatory research paradigm, the study involved participants from a rural school context. An eclectic approach that combined the theory of Ubuntu and the concept of critical consciousness was employed to understand disruptive behaviour as a socially constructed challenge in a natural setting. While Ubuntu highlights collaboration, interconnectedness and interdependency among people, critical consciousness aims to promote critical thinking, emancipation and empowerment, and address inequality, oppression, domination, suppression and alienation. Participatory action research design, provided a platform for the participants to critically engage in meaning-making discourses about the lives and circumstances of learners with disruptive behaviour in a rural school context. Purposive selection was utilised to select participants and the data was generated by means of focus group discussions, document analysis and reflective journals. The data were analysed following three levels of using critical discourse analysis. The study’s findings revealed that there was limited collaboration to deal with disruptive learner behaviour in this rural school context. The participants noted that such behaviour has mainly negative consequences for learners, teachers, parents and the broader community and that it needs to be addressed in order to enhance sustainable learning. The challenges that hinder collaborative practices, strategies to mitigate them and preventative measures that could be adopted to prevent disruptive behaviour were identified. Finally, the participants agreed that a collaborative framework should be utilised to address this issue and that monitoring and evaluation should be conducted at all levels of the framework. Based on these findings the study proposes a collaborative framework to enhance sustainable learning for learners with disruptive behaviour in a rural school context.