Social media are technologies that facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration and enable deliberation across stakeholders. The study sought to develop strategies for managing the influence of social media on students’ discipline in secondary schools. The objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which social media has influenced students’ discipline in schools based on the research. The study utilized the pragmatic philosophical paradigm and the mixed methods research design where both positivists and constructivists approaches and techniques were combined. The study was undertaken in Bungoma County in Kenya. It was carried out in 306 secondary schools in the County targeting a population of 19,000 Form 3 students. Scott Smith`s formula was used to determine the sample size of 600 students from 40 secondary schools as respondents. Purposive sampling was applied to select the 40 deputy principals and 40 heads of guidance and counselling departments from the selected secondary schools as respondents in the study. Three categories of boys’, girls’ and mixed schools were chosen from each sub-county. The questionnaires used had both closed- and open-ended items. Interviews were also used to get more information for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyse data. Social media was found to have influenced students’ discipline negatively in schools. The study recommended that parents, educational and political leaders should implement policies on limiting social media influence on students’ discipline. It is expected that the Kenya Ministry of Education and other education stakeholders will utilize the results of the study to manage the influence of the social media on students’ discipline in secondary schools.
Keywords: Discipline, Influence, Kenya, Secondary Schools, Social media, Students
