Organisations Opposed to the Corporal Punishment of Children
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Contact: [email protected] HOW HAS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN NEPALESE SCHOOLS IMPACTED UPON LEA‘NE‘S LIVES? by Khum Raj Pathak Canterbury Christ Church University Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Year 2017 i ABSTRACT: This study explores how the corporal punishment experienced by learners in Nepalese schools can impact upon multiple aspects of their lives. I examine how these short and long-term effects can extend into adulthood using an auto/biographical methodology; from a perspective influenced by my own encounters as a corporal punishment survivor from Nepal. Corporal punishment continues to be used in Nepalese schools, with the support of many teachers, parents and school management committees, despite several government policy initiatives and court rulings against it. In contrast to worldwide developments (notably in Scandinavia and America), research into corporal punishment in Nepal tends to be rare, quantitative and focused upon the prevalence and short-term effects as described by group participants and newspaper articles. This study addresses the urgent need to increase public awareness, using personal accounts describing the long-term outcomes of corporal punishment, with a depth of detail facilitated by an auto/biographical research methodology. Participants in the study expressed feelings of relief and increased self-understanding, although for myself at least, these were accompanied by feelings of grief and confusion. The lives of five corporal punishment survivors are explored through a series of interviews carried out in the Devchuli municipality of Nawalparasi, Nepal, between November 2015 and January 2016. The first is my own story, the second is a pilot interview and the other three are discussed under the themes of immediate compliance, severing dichotomies, disempowered bodies and the spiritual threat of spatio-temporal appropriation. The participants, whose identities are protected, look back, as adults, upon their experiences of corporal punishment at school and consider possible links between these and their current social, political, economic and spiritual halleges. “iultaeousl, the stud uestios hethe effets a ee be oeptuall o tepoall otaied ithi ulti-faeted ad eoig idetities, usig eaples fo the patiipats self-appraisals. I examine literature from the global debate on the effects of corporal punishment upon children, including the contrasting methodologies of Murray Straus, Alice Miller and Elizabeth Gershoff. The impact of corporal punishment upo otios of pesohood is eploed usig Theodo Adoos itepetatio of reification and comparable notions of objectification challenged by Andrea ii Dworkin, Martha Nussbaum and Paolo Freire. Corporal punishment is discussed i elatio to poe, oflit ad the Holoaust, usig Adoo ad Bauas descriptions of authoritarian behaviours and immediate compliance, and Nietzsche and Fouaults otios of puishet as a spetale. Coditios fo the possibility of corporal punishment are located to traditions deifying teachers, judgement-based belief systems and neo-liberal ideologies of competition and performativity. These are contrasted with alternative, non- punitive pedagogical and theological resources. Participants explore the ways in which healing and holistic self-development can be blocked by everyday vocabularies of violence and conditionality, triggering destructive individual and collective over-determined reactions. M stud oludes ith efletios upo ho opoal puishet has affeted patiipats lies: ith thei soial oles hapeed defesie masks and evasive dances; their political lives blocked by fears of punishment; their economic lives stilted by caution and low self-esteem and their spiritual lives distorted by disenchantment and disappointment. Methodology and theory converge as my study rejects inherently disciplinarian, Enlightenment-led demands fo** atioal o sietifi poof of pshologial effets, pesetig auto/iogaph itself, espeiall hild-stadpoit aaties, as valid revolutionary praxis, effervescent with resistance to punitive ideologies and practices and dedicated to the liberation of our present from a painful past. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful for the considerable support that I have received throughout my PhD. Firstly, I must thank my supervisor, Professor Hazel Bryan, for her constant academic, emotional and practical support throughout my study and especially during my periods of illness. I wish to thank Professor Hazel Reid, whose arrival on my supervisory team ignited my passion for auto/biography and helped me discover a holistic notio of aee that encompassed the inner self. I am grateful to Professor Trevor Cooling for his reassuringly gentle yet robust presence and profound spiritual insights. I must mention my debt to Professor Linden West for providing me with valuable meetings beyond the call of duty and for facilitating my participation in international conferences. Finally, I wish to thank Dr Allan Bainbridge for sharing his experiences so generously in my practice interview and for the immensely valuable Auto/biography theme group meetings. The highly specialised assistance that I have received and the wealth of literature that I have been guided through has left me convinced that there is no better place in the world to carry out auto/biographical research than Canterbury Christchurch University. Without their unique help, I could never have made it this far. I would like to give a special mention to my Aunt, Mrs Nil Kumari Kafle, who helped me in my struggles to find a female participant during my research trip to Nepal, by literally going door to door and for accommodating me during that period. I am grateful to my friend Mr Bal Krishna Upadhyay for the time he spent driving along dangerous roads to remote villages on his motorbike to help me find participants and for taking me to follow-up interviews. I am indebted to Adrian Doughty and friends for their magical and creative attempts to promote my work and raise consciousness of violence against children. I also want to thank the Global Initiative to End Violence Against Children for supplying pamphlets for my presentation and for their tireless research. I would like to thank my mother, for always caring about my studies despite her endless workload and my father, for the sacrifices he made towards my life journey. I want to thank my beloved wife Chandra, for her unfailing practical support, centring and for understanding my absences and also my beautiful son Gagan, for his laughing eyes and inspiration - and for being willing to watch his cartoons with the headphones on during my most intense study periods! Finally, I dedicate this thesis to the beaten children of Nepal, in the sincere hope that it may help to release their stifled voices and contribute to the eventual abolition of legalised violence to children. iv Abbreviations ANC African National Congress ARNEC All Round National Education Commission BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BNP British National Party BPEP Basic and Primary Education Programme CA Constituent Assembly CBS Central Bureau of Statistics CCCU Canterbury Christ Church University CIA Central Intelligence Agency CIAA Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority CP Corporal Punishment CPN - M Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist CPN - UML Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist Leninist CSP Community Support Plan CNNV The Churches Network for Non-violence CVICT Care for the Victims of Torture EDSC Educational and Developmental Services Centre EFA Education for All GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education GIEACP Global Initiatives to End Corporal All Punishment HDI Human Development Index HLEC Higher Level Education Commission HRW Human Rights Watch HSEB Higher Secondary Education Board IELTS International English Language Testing System IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development INGO International Non-Governmental Organisation v INSEC Informal Sector Service Centre LGBT+ Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Trans Person and other groups such as Questioning, Queer or Asexual. LWF Learn Without Fear MoE Ministry of Education NEC National Education Committee NESP The National Education System Plan NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NNEPC Nepal National Education Planning NRS Nepali Rupees OPHD Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination SEE Secondary Education Examination SLC School Leaving Certificate SMC School Management Committee UCPN United Communist Party of Nepal UKIP United Kingdom Independent Party UN United Nations UNCRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child UNESCO United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation