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Abstract
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In this article we report on a South African study conducted with 1,779 learners aged 11 to 18 years from 8 schools in urban areas in and around Johannesburg. These learners' perspectives on school safety confirm that South African learners experience their schools as unsafe. Their primary concerns related to coercion and violence against learners by peers or teachers on school grounds, although they regarded the physical school environment and domestic and community conditions as impacting school safety. To address safety concerns, learners desired the punishment of offenders and greater involvement and accountability of adults. We recommend an urgent whole-school intervention using a critical gender lens.
Schools are a "site of violence, [a] producer of violence, and [a] starting point for ending violence" (Morrell, 2002:39). Many South African schools are places of physical and emotional vulnerability and danger (Burton & Leoschut, 2013; Ncontsa & Shumba, 2013; Van Jaarsveld, 2008; Zuck, Mathews, De Koker, Mtshizana & Mason-Jones, 2017). Unsafe schools disrupt both the education and broader development of those affected. In contrast, learners thrive in safe, caring schools where both the fear of, and actual threats to, safety are absent (Burton & Leoschut, 2013; Darling-Hammond, Flook, Cook-Harvey, Barron & Osher, 2020).
Using a gendered lens, in this article we report on a South African study in which we examined the perspectives of learners regarding their biggest worries at school. With the study we aimed to address the paucity of learner voices in school safety research, and to inform the services and advocacy efforts of the Teddy Bear Foundation (hereafter referred to as the Foundation), a non-governmental organisation treating and preventing child abuse. We offer recommendations framed by the participating learners' voices, strengthening the evidence-based informing school-safety interventions (Burton, 2008) and supporting the advancement of caring and safe school environments. We conclude that a whole-school, multi-dimensional approach (Kreifels & Warton, n.d.; Parkes, Heslop, Johnson Ross, Westerveld & Unterhalter, 2016; SaferSpaces, 2022) informed by a critical gender lens is needed to shift schools towards greater equity, peace and safety.
Conceptual Framework: Framing School Violence as Gendered
Language: en |