Abstract
The article uses the normalisation theory to understand, through the analysis of educators’ perspectives, how school-based violence could be curbed in South African public schools. School-based violence is mostly the result of the normalisation process whereby children who are exposed to more risk than protective factors are said to be more likely to use violence. The causes of school-based violence, as revealed in the small-scale study conducted in South Africa, are discussed. The main aim of the study was to examine educators’ perspectives on violence in schools. The objective of the study was to look at causes of school violence and how the school managers and educators are coping with violence. Qualitative research was used and individual and focus group interviews were conducted to collect data from school management teams and educators. The findings indicate that while children who are not exposed to violence can still be violent, children who are constantly exposed to violence display violent behaviours more often than those who are not. The article then suggests the incorporation of the Invitational Educational theory of practice as a strategy to reduce school-based violence as this theory takes into account the normalisation of violence among children.. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1394
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundViolence and crime are prevalent antisocial maladies in a significant number of schools in South Africa
“This way of understanding school-based violence will minimise the possibility of this problem being reduced to the level of the individual in which the particular parties involved in the violence are viewed as the sole problem”(SACE School-based violence report: an overview of School-based Violence in South Africa: 2011: 23)
This study reveals there are many causes for in-school violence
Summary
Violence and crime are prevalent antisocial maladies in a significant number of schools in South Africa. These maladies have, ostensibly, had debilitating effects on learning and teaching. This reality, that crime appears to be a way of life in South Africa, has been expressed by Le Roux & Mokhele (2011: 318). Trends are emerging that suggest that the requisite environment for effective learning and teaching is increasingly being undermined by a growing culture of school violence and that this is impacting negatively on the education sector (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2001:1). It is important to critically analyse the causes of violence in order for the School Management Teams (SMTs) to be able to align the strategies to be employed in eliminating the scourge of violence in schools
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