The geographies of bullying in a secondary school context

Hamilton Ndati Sikhakhane,Melanie Martin,Nithi Muthukrishna

doi:10.15700/saje.v38ns1a1589

Hamilton Ndati Sikhakhane, Melanie Martin + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v38ns1a1589

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Abstract

This study, undertaken at a secondary school in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, sought to research bullying – a phenomenon seen globally as a major social problem that has a serious impact on the wellbeing of children and the youth. Participants were eight Grade 10 learners, 4 male and 4 female. The research tradition was a narrative inquiry as the aim was to foreground the participants’ stories of the places and spaces of bullying at the school. Data generation involved individual and focus group interviews. Data was analysed using thematic content analysis guided by theoretical concepts from New Childhood Studies and Children’s Geographies. The findings indicate that bullying is a serious problem at the school and has a negative impact on the wellbeing of children. Children emerged as social actors who were able to provide insight into the kinds of bullying they experienced and how they constructed ‘bullying’ as a phenomenon. The study was able to capture the reality of the children’s experiences of the complex power-laden spaces and places of bullying at the school. The study shows that bullying is situated in a context and an in-depth analysis of context is necessary to capture the intricacies of the phenomenon.Keywords: bullying; children’s geographies; narrative inquiry; new childhood studies; secondary school; South Africa

Highlights

Finding concrete solutions to decreasing school bullying is imperative given the increasing levels of school violence both internationally and nationally (Da Costa, Xavier, De Souza Andrade, Proietti & Caiaffa., 2015; George, Alias, Khader, Jabbar & Ranjith, 2017; Swart & Bredekamp, 2009; Zuze, Reddy, Juan, Hannan, Visser & Winnaar, 2016)
Countries like South Africa with limited financial resources allocated to education, do not prioritise research into school violence and bullying, and there is a lack of reliable data (UNESCO, 2017), where this study aims to fill in this gap
The nuanced, situated understandings provided by learners themselves of how it unfolds in an emerging economy context is a significant contribution of the study

Summary

Introduction

Finding concrete solutions to decreasing school bullying is imperative given the increasing levels of school violence both internationally and nationally (Da Costa, Xavier, De Souza Andrade, Proietti & Caiaffa., 2015; George, Alias, Khader, Jabbar & Ranjith, 2017; Swart & Bredekamp, 2009; Zuze, Reddy, Juan, Hannan, Visser & Winnaar, 2016). Bullying is a worldwide phenomenon and its continued prevalence is a key concern given that the rights to learning and safety for children are compromised. Similar findings are reported by Richardson and Hiu (2016) who add that such high incidences of bullying, relative to different countries, should indicate that the inability of society to protect the rights of children is a social problem.

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