Several studies have highlighted the multifactorial nature of school incivility, pointing to family, social, political, and institutional determinants. However, fewer investigations have systematically examined how educational actors perceive these causes and how such perceptions can inform the promotion of effective civic and citizenship practices. Beyond these traditional explanatory factors, contemporary school environments are increasingly shaped by language practices and digital communication technologies. The widespread use of mobile phones, social media platforms, and digital content has transformed students’ modes of interaction, exposure to discourse, and representations of authority. In this context, incivility is no longer limited to physical or face-to-face behaviors but extends to digital incivility, characterized by inappropriate language use, online aggression, and the circulation of disrespectful or politicized narratives. Language plays a central role in this process.

As a medium of socialization, transmission of values, and construction of civic norms, language mediates students’ relationship to rules, authority, and citizenship. When linguistic norms are destabilized (through the influence of media discourse, political instrumentalization, or uncontrolled digital communication) the foundations of civic behavior within schools are weakened. This study builds on a broader research project entitled “Good Civic and Citizenship Practices in Post- Primary and Secondary Education in Burkina Faso :

Content and Training Strategies for Educational Actors.” Its main objective is to analyze the perceptions of various educational actors regarding the causes of school incivility, while integrating a digital and linguistic perspective that sheds light on emerging forms of incivility incontemporary educational settings. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following research question : what causes of school incivility are identified by different educational actors in secondary education in Burkina Faso, and how do language practices and digital technologies shape these perceptions ?

1. Methodology
This study is based on a qualitative research design grounded in the analysis of actors’ perceptions of school incivility in post-primary and secondary education in Burkina Faso. The empirical material consists of a textual corpus drawn from 99 semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in 22 post-primary and secondary schools located in three regions of the country : Kadiogo, Nando and Guiriko. These regions were selected to reflect a diversity of educational contexts, including urban and semi-urban settings, as well as public, secular private, and religious private schools.

2. Results
The presentation of results follows a comparative approach based on the perceptions expressed by the different groups of actors involved in the study. The analysis first focuses on teachers’ perceptions, then successively examines those of students, parents, school principals and public administration officials, and finally traditional, religious, and civil society leaders. The results are drawn from the frequency-based analysis of coded interview data using QDA Miner.

2.1 Teachers’ perceptions of the causes of school incivility
This section examines teachers’ perceptions of the causes of school incivility, drawing attention to how educators interpret and explain everyday disruptive, disrespectful, or aggressive behaviors observed in school settings. Teachers’ viewpoints are particularly significant, as they occupy a central position at the intersection of classroom practices, institutional norms, and students’ social backgrounds. By analyzing overall perceptions, gender-based differences, and variations according to institutional status (public, secular private, and religious private schools), this section highlights both shared concerns and contextual nuances in teachers’ interpretations of school incivility.

2.1.1 Overall perceptions of teachers
The initial analysis examined the perceptions of all teachers taken together. The results indicate that all eleven causes of school incivility identified in the analytical framework were mentioned, albeit with varying degrees of importance. Seven causes emerged as particularly salient. Teachers’ overall perceptionsthe most frequently cited cause was lack of parental monitoring and supervision (23%), followed by lack of civic education (19%), political instrumentalization (17%), negative role models provided by parents and teachers (16%), proximity of drinking establishments to schools (14%), breakdown in the transmission of values (11%), and misuse of mobile phones (11%).

From a digital and linguistic perspective, the prominence of mobile phone misuse and political instrumentalization highlights the growing influence of digital discourse, media exposure, and informal communication practices on students’ civic behavior within school environments.

2.1.2 Gender-based differences among teachers
Both male and female teachers identified several common causes of school incivility, though with different intensities. Female teachers cited a slightly broader range of causes (10 out of 11) than male teachers (9 out of 11).

Among female teachers, lack of parental monitoring was the primary cause (10%), followed by four equally cited factors (7% each) : breakdown in the transmission of values, political instrumentalization, negative role models among parents and teachers, and lack of civic education. Male teachers, by contrast, identified lack of civic education as the leading cause (8%), followed by proximity of drinking establishments (7%). Other causes, including lack of parental monitoring, breakdown of values, and political instrumentalization, were cited at similar levels (6%). These differences suggest gendered sensitivities to institutional norms, moral discourse, and authority structures, which are increasingly challenged by evolving communication practices and media environments.

2.1.3 Teachers’ perceptions of school incivility by institutional status
This subsection examines how teachers’ perceptions of school incivility vary according to institutional context, distinguishing between public schools, secular private schools, and religious private schools. This comparative analysis makes it possible to identify both shared concerns and context-specific patterns, while also highlighting the role of institutional culture, normative frameworks, and regulatory environments in shaping interpretations of incivility. The analysis is based on frequency-coded interview data processed with QDA Miner.

2.1.3.1 Public school teachers’ perceptions
Public school teachers identified ten out of the eleven predefined causes of school incivility, Seven causes stood out as particularly significant : lack of parental monitoring, political instrumentalization, lack of civic education, misuse of mobile phones, breakdown in the transmission of values, proximity of drinking establishments, and negative role models among parents and teachers, indicating a broad and multifactorial understanding of the phenomenon. This diversity of cited causes reflects the structural complexity and social heterogeneity characterizing public secondary schools in Burkina Faso.

Lack of parental monitoring and supervision emerged as the most frequently cited cause, confirming public school teachers’ perception that families play a decisive role in shaping students’ civic behavior. This concern is closely followed by political instrumentalization, lack of civic education, and misuse of mobile phones, which together reveal a strong sensitivity to extra-school influences and digitally mediated forms of authority and discourse. Public school teachers also emphasized the breakdown in the transmission of social and moral values, the proximity of drinking establishments to schools, and negative role modeling by adults (parents and teachers). These factors point to an environment in which institutional authority is constantly negotiated and sometimes undermined by competing social norms and discourses.

From a language and ICT perspective, the prominence of mobile phone misuse and political instrumentalization is particularly significant. Teachers described classrooms increasingly affected by informal digital language, exposure to politicized media narratives, and difficulties in maintaining respectful communicative norms. Incivility, in this context, is not only behavioral but also discursive,manifesting through disrespectful speech, digital provocation, and challenges to symbolic authority.

Interpretive value : The study highlights structural and digital vulnerability of public schools. The explicit mention of mobile phone misuse underscores the role of digital technologies in reshaping classroom interaction, disciplinary practices, and students’ relationship to authority. It supports discussion on ICT regulation and civic education reform for quality education.

2.1.3.2 Causes of school incivility according to secular private school teachers
In private schools, all eleven causes were cited. However, one cause clearly dominated : negative role models provided by parents, teachers and community.
Interpretive value : the study demonstrates the centrality of exemplarity and adult discourse. It reinforces the linguistic dimension of civility with a stress on speech, attitudes and tone. Other causes cited with moderate frequency included lack of parental monitoring, lack of civic education, and proximity of drinking establishments. Structural factors such as overcrowded classrooms or unfavorable laws were mentioned far less frequently, indicating that secular private school teachers tend to locate incivility within micro-social and relational dynamics, rather than systemic constraints.

From a linguistic standpoint, the emphasis on role modeling underscores the importance of everyday discourse, tone, and interactional norms. Teachers highlighted how disrespectful language, aggressive speech, or contradictory messages from adults, both offline and online, are rapidly reproduced by students. Digital media amplify this effect by increasing students’ exposure to adult discourse beyond the school setting.

2.1.3.3 Religious private school teachers’ perceptions
In contrast to public and secular private schools, teachers in religious private schools identified only seven out of the eleven causes of school incivility. This reduced number of cited factors suggests a more contained and normatively regulated perception of incivility.

2.1.4 Comparative synthesis across institutional contexts
A comparative reading of teachers’ perceptions across institutional contexts reveals three major trends. First, public schools display the widest range of perceived causes, reflecting their exposure to diverse social influences, limited regulatory capacity, and strong interaction with digital and political discourse. Second, secular private schools concentrate their interpretation of incivility around exemplarity and adult responsibility, highlighting the central role of language, discourse, and daily interactions in shaping civic behavior. Third, religious private schools identify fewer causes overall, suggesting that coherent moral frameworks, regulated communication, and institutional discipline can mitigate certain forms of incivility, particularly those linked to digital practices.

A more refined comparative analysis between secular private schools and religious private schools shows that in religious private schools, seven out of eleven causes were identified, with greater emphasis on lack of parental monitoring, political instrumentalization, ratification of unfavorable laws, and lack of physical education. In contrast, secular private schools identified all eleven causes, with negative role models and breakdown in the transmission of values emerging as the most prominent. These findings suggest that religious private schools may benefit from structured moral discourse and normative frameworks that partially mitigate certain forms of incivility, including those linked to language use and digital exposure.

2.2 Students’ Perceptions of School IncivilityFigure
Students’ perceptions, analyzed globally, revealed that four causes were particularly salient. The most frequently cited cause was lack of parental monitoring (37%), followed by breakdown in the transmission of values (28%). Misuse of mobile phones (16%) and influence of money on students (16%) were also prominently mentioned. Additional causes, such as political instrumentalization, media influence, and ratification of unfavorable laws, were cited with much lower intensity. Notably, students’ emphasis on mobile phone misuse highlights their direct experience of digital incivility, online interactions, and informal communication norms that conflict with school expectations.

2.3 Parents’ perceptions
The results indicate that lack of parental monitoring is identified by parents themselves as the primary cause of school incivility, followed closely by the breakdown in the transmission of values. This pattern reveals a notably self-reflective stance, in which parents explicitly acknowledge their central role in shaping children’s civic behavior. With the exception of unfavorable laws, all other causes were mentioned, though with relatively low frequencies. This selfreflective stance underscores parents’ awareness of their role in shaping children’s behavior, particularly through language use at home, value transmission, and supervision of digital practices.

Other causes such as misuse of mobile phones, influence of money, political instrumentalization, media influence, negative role modeling, and lack of civic education were mentioned, but with comparatively low frequencies. The relative dispersion of these secondary factors suggests that parents tend to interpret incivility primarily as a familybased and moral issue, rather than as a consequence of institutional or political structures.

From a linguistic and digital perspective, parents’ emphasis on monitoring and value transmission highlights their awareness of the importance of language practices within the household, including everyday speech, moral discourse, and supervision of children’s digital interactions. This finding reinforces the view that school incivility is closely linked to early socialization processes, where norms of respect, self-regulation, and communicative behavior are first constructed and later reproduced in school environments. These parental perceptions complement teachers’ and students’ views by reinforcing the centrality of the family as a foundational space for civic, linguistic, and digital socialization.

2.4 School principals’ and public administration officials’ perceptions of school incivility
Among school principals and public administration officials, two causes were identified as particularly significant : lack of parental monitoring (28%) and negative role models provided by parents and teachers (16%). These were followed by breakdown in the transmission of values (13%), misuse of mobile phones (12%), and political instrumentalization. These results reflect a strongly institutional reading of incivility, in which families and adult exemplarity are viewed as central to maintaining school order and authority but also institutional concerns regarding authority, disciplinary discourse, and the regulation of communication practices within schools. Secondary factors such as the breakdown in the transmission of values, misuse of mobile phones, and political instrumentalization are also highlighted, pointing to broader challenges faced by school leadership in regulating students’ behavior in increasingly complex social and digital environments. The emphasis on mobile phone misuse underscores administrative concerns regarding the control of communication practices, both inside and beyond the classroom.

Overall, these perceptions reveal a governance-oriented understanding of school incivility, in which maintaining discipline is closely linked to the coherence of moral discourse, the credibility of adult authority, and the effective regulation of linguistic and digital practices within schools. These institutional perspectives complement those of teachers, students, and parents by foregrounding issues of authority, regulation, and school governance in the interpretation of incivility.

2.5 Traditional, religious, and civil society leaders
To capture community-based and normative perspectives on school incivility, interview data from traditional leaders, religious leaders, and representatives of civil society organizations were analyzed using frequency-based qualitative coding. Figure 10 presents the distribution of perceived causes of school incivility as identified by these actors, whose interpretations are deeply rooted in collective moral values, social cohesion, and community responsibility.

Traditional leaders, religious leaders, and representatives of civil society organizations identified nine out of the eleven causes. The most salient were lack of parental monitoring (24%), breakdown in the transmission of values (14%), and political instrumentalization (13%). Their perceptions emphasize the erosion of collective moral discourse and community-based norms, which are increasingly challenged by media narratives and digitally mediated forms of socialization. The results indicate that lack of parental monitoring is perceived as the most significant cause of school incivility by traditional, religious, and civil society leaders, followed by the breakdown in the transmission of values and political instrumentalization.

This pattern reflects a community-centered interpretation of incivility, in which moral education and social regulation are understood as collective responsibilities extending beyond the school and the nuclear family. The emphasis on value transmission underscores concerns about the erosion of shared moral discourse, traditionally sustained through communal practices, storytelling, religious instruction, and intergenerational dialogue.

From this perspective, incivility is seen less as an individual behavioral problem than as a symptom of weakened community cohesion. Secondary factors such as misuse of mobile phones, media influence, negative role modeling, and lack of civic education point to the growing challenge posed by digitally mediated forms of socialization, which often bypass traditional channels of moral regulation. Leaders’ references to media narratives and political discourse highlight anxieties about external influences that reshape youth behavior and language practices in ways that conflict with community norms.

Overall, these perceptions frame school incivility as a societal and cultural issue, calling for renewed collaboration between schools, families, and community institutions to restore coherent moral guidance, regulate digital communication practices, and reinforce shared civic values. Together with teachers’, students’, parents’, and administrators’ perspectives, these community-based views complete a multidimensional picture of school incivility as a phenomenon rooted in family, institutional, digital, and socio-cultural dynamics.

CONCLUSION
This study set out to analyze educational actors’ perceptions of school incivility in secondary education in Burkina Faso by adopting an integrated institutional, linguistic, digital, and socio-cultural perspective. Drawing on qualitative frequency-based analysis supported by QDA Miner and comparative visualizations, the findings demonstrate that school incivility is neither a marginal nor a purely behavioral phenomenon. Rather, it emerges as a multilevel process, rooted in the interaction between family-based moral and linguistic socialization, institutional norms and pedagogical practices, digitally mediated communication, and broader socio-political dynamics.

Across categories of actors including teachers, students, parents, school principals, public administration officials, and community leaders, a strong convergence appears around the central role of parental monitoring and value transmission. This shared diagnosis highlights a perceived rupture in intergenerational socialization, exacerbated by socio-economic pressures and the growing influence of digital media. At the same time, important divergences reflect actors’ differentiated positions within the educational system. Teachers and administrators emphasize issues of authority, exemplarity, and disciplinary discourse ; students foreground digitally mediated incivility and informal communication norms ; community leaders interpret incivility as a symptom of weakened collective moral frameworks. A major contribution of this research lies in its demonstration that school incivility is profoundly discursive.

Language practices, both offline and online, play a central role in shaping students’ relationships to authority, respect, and civic responsibility. The increasing salience of mobile phone misuse, media influence, and political instrumentalization confirms that incivility must be understood in relation to evolving communicative ecologies, where digital discourse often escapes institutional regulation. From an African theoretical perspective, these findings underscore the need to situate school incivility within broader debates on endogenous development. As argued by Ki-Zerbo, Wiredu, and Nkrumah, education in Africa cannot be reduced to technical instruction but must function as a space for ethical formation, communal responsibility, and cultural continuity.

The philosophy of Ubuntu further reminds us that social order and human flourishing depend on relationality, respect, and moral interdependence. When schools, families, and communities fail to coordinate their normative and linguistic frameworks, incivility emerges as a manifestation of disrupted social cohesion rather than individual deviance. In this light, addressing school incivility requires context-sensitive civic and citizenship education strategies that integrate language awareness, ethical discourse, and digital citizenship, while reconnecting schools with families and community institutions. Such an approach positions education as a key lever for reinforcing social cohesion and fostering development trajectories that are locally grounded, culturally meaningful, and sustainably endogenous.

CONGO Aoua Carole, SORGHO ZINSONNÉ Félicité Marie Lucile, HIEN Christophe,
Institut des sciences des sociétés /CNRST

REFERENCES
Adeyemi, M. B., & Adeyinka, A. A. (2003). The principles and content of African traditional education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 35(4), 425–440. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-5812.00039
Biesta, G. (2011). Good education in an age of measurement : Ethics, politics, democracy. Paradigm Publishers.

Durkheim, É. (2006). Moral education. Dover Publications. (Original work published 1922)
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis : The critical study of language. Longman.
CONGO Aoua Carole, SORGHO ZINSONNÉ Félicité Marie Lucile, HIEN Yorsaon Christophe, 2025, Civic and citizenship practices in secondary education in Burkina Faso : actors’ perceptions of school incivility in a linguistic and digital context, REBUSS/HL, Volume N° 05, pp.769-800

Ce document de vulgarisation est tiré de l’article : « CONGO Aoua Carole, SORGHO ZINSONNÉ Félicité Marie Lucile, HIEN Yorsaon Christophe, 2025, Civic and citizenship practices in secondary education in Burkina Faso : actors’ perceptions of school incivility in a linguistic and digital context, REBUSS/HL, Volume N° 05, pp. 769-800 »