Challenges with the Use of Alternative Strategies to Corporal Punishment in Ghanaian Basic Schools

Despite the documented benefits of the use of alternative strategies to corporal punishment, Ghana continues to grapple with indiscipline in schools since the abolition of corporal punishment and the subsequent introduction of alternative strategies to corporal punishment. This study sought to find out teachers’ lived experiences of the challenges with the use of these alternative strategies to corporal punishment in Ghanaian Basic schools. The qualitative research approach and the phenomenological research design were adopted for indepth interviews with fifteen basic school teachers and focused on group discussions with fifteen basic school headteachers, who were purposively selected for the study because of their experience in the use of alternative strategies. Two themes namely the nonfearful nature of the alternative strategies and implementation challenges with their use emerged as the main challenges with the use of the alternative strategies. It was recommended that these identified challenges should be addressed by educational stakeholders to prevent the revert to the use of corporal punishment in Ghanaian schools.