This study explored learner experiences of school violence in a secondary school in Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho. The aim of the study was to understand learners’ experiences of violence as it happens in their school. Internationally, violence in schools is one of the most challenging issues facing educators and learners and school communities at large. The research design was a case study. The research method was the qualitative case study method. Data were collected through individual and focus group interviews with learners and document analysis. Fifteen learners participated in the study, 7 girls and 8 boys. The study found that learners are exposed to complex patterns of violence in the school, and these are experienced in multiple forms that affect learners in different ways. Some of the patterns of violence could be seen in enactments such as solving problems with aggression, violence from teachers, the discourse of blame, collective bullying. The study also found that in certain ways schooling itself can be viewed as violence in that the school had an ethos of authoritarianism and control. Violence in the form of corporal punishment, suspension and expulsion emerged as the most tangible symbol of an authoritarian school. The study also found that violence was a gendered phenomenon at the school. The study highlights the need for proactive programmes that are directed at the attaining goal of building school communities that are safe havens. The findings suggest that a key component of such programmes should be critical self-reflection and self-scrutiny by all members of the school community. In such a process teachers and learners would need to examine and challenge existing social attitudes, ideologies, norms, and injustices in school policies and practices. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for degree of Master of Education in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand / This study explored learners’ experiences of bullying and how it makes them feel excluded in a school in Botha-Bothe district, Lesotho. A qualitative research method was applied, which included analysis of data obtained from narrative essays and from individual, semi-structured interviews. A narrative essay question was given to 76 Grade eight learners who participated in this study to write about their experiences of bullying and how it makes them feel. Out of these 76 Grade eight learners who wrote narrative essays, a purposive sampling was used to select 6 learners who seemed to experience multiple forms of bullying to participate in individual, semi-structured interviews. Various forms of bullying, the effects and factors that contribute to bullying which make learners feel excluded in a school environment are described. The study explicates that learners were exposed to multiple forms of bullying, for example, physical and verbal bullying. In addition, it was established that bullying exhibits psychological and emotional effects, particularly on the victims. Unique to this study were participants’ perceived reasons why they think they are vulnerable to bullying and what they think triggers some learners to bully others. The study was brought to a conclusive end by highlighting the need for a systematic way of assessing and addressing the problem of bullying in schools. The study also highlighted that parental involvement is as crucial in dealing with cases of bullying as it is presumably caused by the way in which children are raised from their homes. / MT2017