Are bullying and reproduction of educational inequality the same thing? Towards a multifaceted understanding of school violence

Abstract

Violence is considered a major concern in society, specifically regarding school. In this article, the concept of school violence is explored. Different categorisations and manifestations of violence are presented, and the dividing lines between them are discussed. The questions highlighted in the article include the following: How is school violence defined, and what are the taxonomies of school violence? How and in what ways is school violence theorised and comprehended? The ways in which violence are characterised and comprehended vary between decades, contexts, disciplines and scholars. In general, violence is usually defined and can manifest itself through physical, relational, verbal, cyber and sexual expressions, and through systemic, structural, symbolic and objective forms. The former manifestations relate to more explicit and direct types of violence, which are also more often related to and included in the concept of school violence, while the latter manifestations focus on less visible and subtle forms. Definitions of violence are numerous yet highly overlapping, making school violence a complex and far from unambiguous concept that is problematic to define. Yet, the concept would benefit from including structural and symbolic forms of violence to avoid treating school violence as an individual issue at the expense of societal power relations underpinning school violence.