Social context of school crisis and the patterns of school violence

Abstract

The article starts from the idea that crisis in society, especially in instances such as the Macedonian society in the period of transition, conditions the crisis of the school. Symptoms of the latter ar not just the declining quality of teaching but also increased frequency of physical forms of school violence. The concept of violence is complex and its definitions range from 'verbal violence' to 'uncivilized behavior'. School violence occurs always in a certain social context, considered in this article at three levels: 1) the level of Macedonian society; 2) the global level or globalising context and 3) mass communication context (television, internet, computer and video games, cell phones etc.). Various forms of violence occurring in the family, in the social setting (which forms the background to both family and school) and in the school are closely related and mutually dependent. According to J. Dumay, school violence has three forms: 1) exogenous, 2) the violence proper to the school, implying some form of 'school incivility', and 3) anti-school violence aimed at institutions. In such a social context, the school itself with its authoritarian forms of teaching, textbooks related to the 'hidden curriculum', and inadequate organization and management is a source of violence against students. Research data presented in this paper confirm these claims. The findings also indicate that in terms of incidence of school violence Macedonia ranks at the top of European countries. The pressing character of the problem has urged some countries to develop programs for preventing and reducing school violence, as well as models of effectively organized school.