Students’ Opinions on School Rules and Regulations as a Governing Tool

A Case Study of a Peri-Urban Mixed Secondary School In North-Rift Kenya

Abstract

The objective of the study was to investigate students’ opinions on school rules and regulations about students’ council-student relationships. The theoretical framework of the study was informed by Etzioni’s Compliance Theory. The approach is qualitative while the research strategy is a case study. The philosophical orientation is relativist ontology and constructivist epistemology. Unstructured interviews were used in data collection followed by data transcription. Trustworthiness was achieved through “the member check” to check validity, while reliability was enhanced through cross-checking the transcripts for obvious mistakes.  Piloting was carried out on form 4 students in a peri-urban mixed secondary school in South Rift, Kenya. Ethical considerations were observed throughout the study. Data were analyzed thematically and the results were presented as reported by the participants with the aid of thematic networks. According to the study's findings, the global theme that emerged was that school rules and regulations were incongruent. The organizing themes that emerged were: school rules and regulations encouraged partisanship, and inequality, the way they were administered was unappealing and they encouraged intimate relationships. From the results, the study concluded that the student council ought to have applied school rules and regulations fairly. The study recommended that the deputy principals ensure that the students’ council administers school rules and regulations in a non-partisan way, with equality to all, administration be appealing to all, and ought not to be used to attract intimate relationships.