Teacher Responses to School Violence in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

Although researchers have been interested in the psychological impact of school and community violence on children in South Africa, little work has been done on the effects of exposure to school violence on teachers. de Wet’s exploratory study of South African teachers and administrators is an exception, although her focus was on student bullying of school personnel that included violence, rather than violence per se. Because there is so little research on the impact of school violence on educators in South Africa, we took an exploratory approach conducting four focus groups (and one in-depth interview) to investigate the impact of school violence on educators. Specifically, the research focused on school violence and its social and psychological effects from the perspective of educators in South Africa. The research also included a standardized measure of exposure to violence and victimization, and a measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Eight major themes emerged in the focus groups and interview; the most common theme was frustration and the fourth most common theme was actually teacher aggression and the use of corporal punishment as a response to learner violence. The findings are discussed in the context of violence in postapartheid South Africa, and in terms of social–psychological theories of violence and sociological perspectives on “mock” bureaucracy and role breadth. Possible interventions to reduce social and psychological distress as well as school violence are also discussed.