TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF SOME CODES IN NIGERIAN TEACHERS’ CODES AND ETHICS

Abstract

The textual analysis of the Nigerian teachers’ codes seems not to have been wholly explored by textual analysts, hence the researchers’ interest to take up an aspect of the analytical landscape by embarking on textual analysis of Nigerian teachers’ codes and ethics using Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory. The researchers are motivated by the factors of misinterpreting the codes by some people to attempt interpreting the codes with the view to drawing out the functional messages contained in them and to figure out why some teachers misinterpret the codes. The data for the study is drawn from TRCN Teachers’ Code of Conduct, the internet and print materials and the researchers use qualitative research design for data analysis. After a study of the codes, the researchers uncover that teachers’ codes are professional guidelines with adequate discourse structures that can be analysed using dissimilar linguistic theories. Another unearthing is that the functional messages of teachers’ codes revolve around professional guiding principles that stipulate how teachers should relate with learners, parents, fellow teachers, employers and the society. Also, the study reveals that one of the reasons teachers’ codes are misinterpreted or misapplied by some teachers is because the codes are not interpreted to them. As result of some of these findings, the researcher suggests that subsequent editions of teachers’ codes should stipulate how the codes will be interpreted to teachers from time to time.