Gender Violence In Schools Research Articles

Las acciones educativas para la prevención de la violencia de género desde la percepción de estudiantes adolescentes de Andalucía

Resumen:Los estudios actuales muestran que existen necesidades formativas en materia de igualdad y prevención de la violencia de género entre adolescentes y desvelan una falta de acciones efectivas que las mitiguen. Nos interesa saber qué piensa el alumnado sobre las acciones educativas relacionadas con la igualdad y en contra de la violencia de género, conocer su percepción sobre el machismo en su centro educativo y saber si hay diferencias significativas en función del sexo y la edad en la valoración de estas acciones. Se realiza un estudio descriptivo tipo encuesta sobre una muestra representativa de 875 estudiantes de entre 14 y 19 años de Andalucía siguiendo un muestreo estratificado por afijación simple en función del tamaño de los municipios de residencia, la edad y el género. Los resultados indican que hay un porcentaje relevante de estudiantes que se muestran indiferentes hacia estas intervenciones, dejando entrever que o no las identifican como tales o no se han realizado de una manera significativa para ellos/as. Un notable porcentaje piensa que existe machismo en el centro educativo. Se observan diferencias en función del sexo y la edad en las valoraciones de las acciones. El estudio revela el papel de las acciones formativas y su repercusión para los estudiantes andaluces. También muestra la necesidad de hacer más visible a los estudiantes, el sentido que tienen y su relevancia. Las intervenciones se han de plantear de forma que resulten significativas para sus momentos vitales e impacten en su conciencia de género, debiendo ser específicas y diferenciadas para hombres y mujeres.

‘This is a competition’: The relationship between examination pressure and gender violence in primary schools in Kenya

This study explores the relationship between gender violence in schools and teaching and learning processes in two case study primary schools in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. For seven months in 2015, the following qualitative methods were used: participant observation, individual teacher interviews, individual art-based student interviews and member-check interviews with teachers and students. Findings indicate that examination pressure can directly and indirectly perpetuate gender violence in schools by using corporal punishment and public humiliation as motivational tools and by diverting resources from efforts to enhance safety and equality to ever more time for exam preparation.

Interrogating gender inequality to address gender violence: Using literary texts as catalysts in an English Education lecture-room

abstract In this briefing I argue for the necessity to confront sexist values articulated by student teachers. I contend that acceptance of gender inequalities enables gender violence, and student teachers are well placed to serve as advocates for gender equality and activists against gender violence in schools. I present findings from a two-year participatory action research (PAR) study that used literary texts as catalysts to interrogate issues of gender inequality and violence. The study was underpinned by critical pedagogy and asserted an empowerment and transformation agenda. Using qualitatively analysed data from observations, interviews, focus-groups and written tasks, I found that when the student teachers, the majority of whom were female, discussed representations of gender inequality in the literary texts, they articulated an acceptance of patriarchy. While they understood that patriarchy and gender violence needed to be denounced, they perpetuated those values. The study thus had to engage them to confront such values. However, as the cycles of the study proceeded, they were able to interrogate issues of gender from an informed position and thus engender their journeys towards empowerment and transformation.

Gender violence in schools: taking the ‘girls-as-victims’ discourse forward

This paper draws attention to the gendered nature of violence in schools. Recent recognition that schools can be violent places has tended to ignore the fact that many such acts originate in unequal and antagonistic gender relations, which are tolerated and ‘normalised’ by everyday school structures and processes. After examining some key concepts and definitions, we provide a brief overview of the scope and various manifestations of gender violence in schools, noting that most research to date has focused on girls as victims of gender violence within a heterosexual context and ignores other forms such as homophobic and girl-on-girl violence. We then move on to look at a few interventions designed to address gender violence in schools in the developing world and end by highlighting the need for more research and improved understanding of the problem and how it can be addressed.

Researching gender violence in schools: Methodological and ethical considerations

Summary This paper examines a number of methodological and ethical issues around research with children, arising from a recent study of the abuse of adolescent girls in schools in three African countries. The research used open-ended interviews and participatory workshops exploring visual representations of school life to uncover incidents of sexual, physical, verbal, and psychological abuse. It found that abuse was perpetrated mainly, but not exclusively, against female pupils by male pupils, teachers, and other adults in the community. The paper examines some methodological issues in doing such research and also some of the ethical dilemmas faced by the researchers when girls revealed sexual abuse by teachers and other adults.

Gender violence in schools in the developing world

This paper explores gender violence in schools in what is commonly known as the ‘developing world’ through a review of recent research written in English. Violence in the school setting has only recently emerged as a widespread and serious phenomenon in these countries, with the consequence that our knowledge and understanding of it is embryonic; much of it remains invisible or unrecognized. Informed by research from elsewhere, we use theories of gender/sexual relations to provide a more coherent understanding of the issues, to point to absences and open up spaces for further research with the potential to contribute to strategies through which it might be addressed. We start by clarifying the purposes and the broad position adopted in writing this paper. Then, we trace the conceptual connections between gender/sexual relations and gender violence in schools, acknowledging the importance of locating understanding of the phenomena within the context of the school’s culture, its structures and processes. We organize the review using two overlapping categories: implicit gender violence, which relates to the everyday institutional structures and practices, and explicit gender violence, which relates to more overtly sexualized encounters. Both categories cover gender violence perpetrated by students on other students, by teachers on students, and by students on teachers. In the final section, the theoretical connections (and distinctions) generated by the research allow for a critical overview of the strategies that have been used to address the problem to date.

State and bureaucracy: symbolic access?

LINDA CHISHOLM and VERNET NAPO document some of the emerging gaps between policy and practice in relation to two areas of policy, mainstreaming gender and gender violence in schools