| Summary: | School represents a critical phase of an individualâs life. Apart from educational gain, learners are
socialised to become productive members of society. Violence in the school environment holds a
range of adverse consequences for learners and educators alike. Efforts have been launched across
the globe to determine, manage and prevent the complexities of school-based violence. South African
institutions have added to this literature, although several aspects of school-based violence remain
outside the academic spotlight.
Even though the nature and extent of school-based violence has received substantial attention in
recent years, studies are marked by methodological differences which make comparisons difficult.
Research on coping strategies used by adolescents is still in its infancy. This also pertains to the lack
of evidence on factors influencing the use of different strategies, in particular from a gender
perspective. Democratic change necessitated changes in the education system, which inevitably had
an impact on the manner in which school administrators manage and prevent school-based violence.
However, little is known about the disciplinary methods and violence prevention strategies applied by
educators, along with challenges they may face in this regard.
In order to address these shortfalls, an investigation was launched to ascertain how schools deal with
violence, with particular focus on learnersâ coping and school administratorsâ management strategies.
Subsequently, the dissertation set out to describe and explore the nature, extent, coping strategies
and management of school-based violence in two schools in Moakeng, Kroonstad, Free State
province.
The study stems from a partnership between the Centre for Health Systems Research and
Development (CHSR&D) and the Department of Criminology (both from University of the Free State),
and the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). In order to accommodate different target groups
(learners and educators) and different sources of information, a mixed methods approach was
utilised. The research design was a partially mixed sequential dominant status design that consisted
of a survey and personal interviews. The self-administered survey was conducted among 710
learners with a structured questionnaire, while six educators took part in semi-structured personal
interviews. Mixed methods research inherently guarantees a level of triangulation, which promoted
the validity and reliability of the data.
The results confirm the presence of violence in the selected schools. Higher levels of violence were
recorded among the learners when compared to other South African studies. Different types of
violence were identified, both between learners and between learners and educators. The causes of
violence featured across all six levels of the ecological systems theory model. The study identified
numerous long-term consequences for learners who are victimised by school-based violence. Learners applied different coping strategies, although it appears that problem-focused coping was
used more often.
Little differences were found between male and female victimsâ use of coping strategies, with the
exception of emotion-focused strategies. In light of the high levels of violence, the results suggest that
learners have little confidence in their schoolsâ administrators to effectively manage and prevent
violence. An overall lack of learner supervision in the schools was reported, along with a lack of
physical security measures. Educators were found to follow official guidelines relating to disciplinary
methods, even though corporal punishment was widely used in the schools. Finally, the schools did
not have strong relationships with stakeholders such as the local police and governmental structures
at the district and provincial levels.
It was concluded that the schools under scrutiny were marked by different types, causes, effects and
reactions to violence. Seen broadly, it was identified that 1) learners apply a range of different coping
strategies to deal with victimisation in school, which can be perceived as mostly positive, and 2) that
educators lacked skills in managing and preventing the violent behaviour of learners. The findings lay
a foundation to further explore aspects of school-based violence, ultimately to inform policy and to
ensure an environment conducive to learning.
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