This study sought to understand what the schools do to promote the culture of nonviolence. In asking the question, "How do school work to develop a culture of nonviolence?" I produced data through the exploration of the activities and practices implemented in school. The critical question and sub question posed in the study were, firstly, how do school work to promote the culture of nonviolence? Secondly, how does the SMT do to promote the culture of nonviolence? Thirdly, how do teachers manage their teaching and learning activities to promote the culture of non-violence? Fourthly, how do learners experience the different activities and practices that the school adopts to promote the culture of nonviolence? Using Satyagraha theory as the theoretical lens for the study, I offer an understanding on how the school as a site offers the potential to promote nonviolence. Using a participatory research approach, I used one secondary school in ILembe District to participate in this study. The data sources used to produce the data included the individual interviews, focus group interviews, photo voice, classroom conversations and observations. The findings of the study show that within the physical environment of the school, different stakeholders attempt to actively adopt non-violent ways within the particular and common spaces of the school to develop in learners the capacity to differentiate between personal and societal forms of violence. The findings signal the need of a stronger partnership with other systems of the society such as the family system, social service, police service, media and the public at large since learners learn different forms of personal and social violence from different spaces and through different relations. The school is one system of a larger system and the study shows that it can not predict, control or remove the forms of violence that play out outside of the school and in individuals who choose to think and act in violent ways. Learners and teachers also bring violence to school. This study promotes the perspective that there are activities and strategies needed to be done inside and outside the classroom to promote non-violence, but this can be easily undermined in the absence of support mechanisms and structures at multiple levels outside of the school. While the school, through different strategies and practices such as morning assembly and surveillance mechanisms can help learners to differentiate between personal and societal forms of violence although some learners and teachers within the school still act in a violent way. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Smith College School for Social Work, 1996. / A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Thesis (M.S.)--Youngstown State University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-49). Also available via the World Wide Web in PDF format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Family and Child Ecology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 2, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-110). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Additional advisors: Nataliya Ivankova, Rosemary Newton, Linda Searby, Yu-Mei Wang. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 9, 2008; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-70).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Charles R. Figley, Florida State University, College of Human Sciences, Interdivisional Program in Marriage and Family Therapy. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 23, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 30, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Lanny Morreau (chair), Kenneth H. Strand, William Tolone, Thomas Caldwell, Eddie Glenn. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-116) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 89 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-62).

M.Ed. / A school is a place where children are equipped for the world with all its challenges. School has always been developed to be a place of safety, away from all the brutality of the world, and a safe haven for children from the rising tide of perils they increasingly face; perils such as substance abuse, violence, unwanted pregnancy, drop out, teen smoking, and depression (Salovey & Sluyter, 1997). However, headlines in newspapers, 60 POLICE CALLED IN TO QUELL SCHOOL MAYHEM (The Star, 29 August, 2007) and PRIMARY SCHOOL OF CRIME REVEALED (Cape Argus, 29 May 2007) and SWORD-WIELDING SCHOOLBOY KILLS FELLOW PUPIL (Mail & Guardian, 2008) reflect almost all these threats as daily realities for our children. Headlines featuring such crude and often fatal accounts of school violence appear to be the most concerning. It is clear that some children are turning the safe haven which school is intended to be, into a nightmare. In addition, over and above speculation as to the reason for this phenomenon growing in intensity and frequency, the fact remains that schools are no longer safe havens where children are afforded the chance to realize their full potential. Schools are instead becoming four walls and a roof for the breeding ground of moral decay, readily highlighting the urgent need for attention, understanding and action in response to this devastating phenomenon. Having taken cognizance of and perceiving the reality of the broader context of school violence, and encouraged by my passion for children as an educator and future educational psychologist, my research set out to explore the phenomenon of school violence - not through how it plays itself out in schools, nor as a reaction to the phenomenon being experienced at schools, but rather from the preventative and proactive stance of trying to make sense of and harness skills that could better equip and support our children in their daily negotiation of school.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Working from a child participatory perspective, the study aimed to explore children's perceptions and experiences of screen violence. Within this process there is an attempt to understand how children assign meaning to these violent screen images at an interpersonal and broader social level. / South Africa