The purpose of this study is to explore South African educators’ subjective experiences of school violence within their schools. Educators’ experiences as victims and perpetrators of school violence were examined to gain an understanding of the definitions, contributing factors, impacts and incidents of school violence. An interpretive qualitative research method was used and interviews were conducted with 12 educators selected from two government schools in the low-income community of Alexandra. Participants’ data was then analysed using a thematic content analysis. The findings suggest that current definitions of school violence are too narrow and require expansion so as to include all acts of school violence, victim-perpetrator relationships beyond the confines of the school. Violence in schools was found to increase educators’ dysfunctional coping mechanisms, absenteeism, attrition, burnout and to compromise teaching efficacy and the performance of school. Using Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Approach the principal conclusion of this study was that school violence is a result of the interplay between individual, familial, school, communal and societal factors.

Violence and bullying in schools have become major issues of concern to teachers, students and parents in the new millennium. As evidence mounts of the destructive, pervasive and sometimes lethal impact of these phenomena within the education milieu, it has become apparent that an approach which compromises a pragmatic intervention informed by innovative theoretical perspectives is urgently required. The body of work presented in this portfolio attempts to address this need by presenting a comprehensive model for intervention in violence and bullying in schools. Based upon the findings of a survey of four Sydney metropolitan schools, and drawing upon extant theory and research, a number of important theoretical perspectives were identified. The proposal that violence may be resolved through education is explored and perceptions about contemporary influences, including the impact of exposure to media violence, are challenged. The conceptualisation of peer abuse as a legislated child protection issue is initiated and discussed. The necessity for the development of resiliency as an individual attribute for victims is examined and the function of peers as formal advocates for victims is proposed. In summary, this portfolio presents a body of scholarly, professional work focused on addressing the issues of violence and bullying in schools through new perspectives and a comprehensive model for intervention that can readily be implemented by educators / Doctor of Education (Ed. D.)

Violence in American schools has declined significantly over the last two decades but still remains an important topic on the public agenda. This unusual dialectic, driven by the recent increase in extreme cases of violence, has fostered a renewed interest and scholarship in school violence and public policy focused on reducing this phenomenon. At present, schools across the nation are adopting and implementing policies based on past research to combat this new wave of school violence; however, the majority of the research in this area is limited to evaluations of the immediate problem in a localized region, or are a theoretic government reports that focus on correlates over causes and offer little guidance for understanding the policy environment. This dissertation takes a first pass at large-scale quantitative evaluation of violence in schools. I begin by adapting contemporary policy theory and blending it with contextually applicable causal models. I then test three separate aspects of this policy area. First I examine if institutions do have control over extreme behavior within their purview. Second, I examine the organizational covariates with violence. Finally, I examine the policy system including outputs, effects and actor influence within the subsystem. I find that schools are not simply victims of the external environment, but victims of the political environment. There are no substantive reductions in violence associated with any specific prevention measure; however, there are dramatic consequences when school administration or programs focus on this event.

School violence is considered the most significant problem facing United States schools (Elam, Rose, & Gallup, 1999, 2003, 2004). Although school shootings receive the bulk of media attention, incidents such as physical assaults, property crimes, intimidation, and sexual harassment are much more common (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004). In addition, little is known about the experiences of teachers. The present study examines the relationship between various types of school violence and teacher burnout. The final sample consisted of 315 high school teachers who returned surveys that assessed knowledge of direct and indirect experiences with violent acts at school over the past 12 months. Respondents also completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory. A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses was used to determine how much variance in three domains of professional burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) was accounted for by direct and indirect experiences with violence. Results suggest 1) that teachers experience and witness a broad range of violent acts (particularly sexual harassment) in their workplaces, and 2) that direct and indirect exposure to both physical and psychological forms of violence resulted in higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Implications are discussed.

Violence in American schools has declined significantly over the last two decades but still remains an important topic on the public agenda. This unusual dialectic, driven by the recent increase in extreme cases of violence, has fostered a renewed interest and scholarship in school violence and public policy focused on reducing this phenomenon. At present, schools across the nation are adopting and implementing policies based on past research to combat this new wave of school violence; however, the majority of the research in this area is limited to evaluations of the immediate problem in a localized region, or are a theoretic government reports that focus on correlates over causes and offer little guidance for understanding the policy environment. This dissertation takes a first pass at large-scale quantitative evaluation of violence in schools. I begin by adapting contemporary policy theory and blending it with contextually applicable causal models. I then test three separate aspects of this policy area. First I examine if institutions do have control over extreme behavior within their purview. Second, I examine the organizational covariates with violence. Finally, I examine the policy system including outputs, effects and actor influence within the subsystem. I find that schools are not simply victims of the external environment, but victims of the political environment. There are no substantive reductions in violence associated with any specific prevention measure; however, there are dramatic consequences when school administration or programs focus on this event.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 36-40.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-93).

Efforts to explain the causes of victimization have been limited to the pioneering work of von Hentig, a few post hoc explanations of research findings, and scattered references to victim provocation. Victimologists have not only demonstrated little concern with the causes of victimization, they have also failed to give sufficient attention to the offender in their discussions of victimization. Explanations of victimization are necessarily related to theories on the causes of deviant behavior and changes of the offender since the offender's behavior is the direct cause of victimization. A review of the literature on victimization, the etiology of deviant behavior, and the operation of the legal system reveals that six different hypotheses about the causes of victimization have been advanced. These hypotheses predict that the probability of victimization is determined by: (1) exposure to offenders; (2) social distance from offenders; (3) economic attractiveness; (4) high status; (5) legal risk; and (6) physical intimidation. The image of the deviant and/or the motivations to deviate implied by each hypothesis are explored. Predictions from the six hypotheses are tested on questionnaire data from a middle class suburban high school in the Southwest. As expected, the research findings are most consistent with the predictions of the exposure hypothesis. The more exposed a student is to offenders, the greater the probability that he or she has suffered a theft or property destruction victimization both at school and elsewhere. The causes of both provoked and true personal victimization at school are also investigated. Exposure to offenders affects the probability of both true and provoked threat victimizations at school. However, high status and/or social distance from offenders also seem to play a role in true threat victimizations. Similar processes may be important in explaining attack victimizations at school.

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The aim of my study was to investigate the nature of possible conflicts between Grade nine learners. Focus group discussions were conducted with about forty learners; boys and girls, Black and Indian, aged between fourteen and sixteen at a formerly Indian school near Durban. In these, I started by asking very general questions and then picked up on what the young people said, asking them to elaborate and illustrate. In this way, I tried to put the onus on young people themselves to set the agenda. I am interested in investigating whether learners will talk differently about conflict depending on whether they were in different kinds of groups marked by 'race' and gender. Therefore, I divided the participants into mono-racial single sex as well as mixed gender and mixed 'race' groups. According to all the participants in the focus group discussions, conflicts between pupils were very common at Grade nine levels. However, what sort of conflicts they spoke about and how these were spoken about, and especially those that related to gender and 'race', differed significantly between the various kinds of focus groups mentioned above. This paper reports on these conflicts and compares the kinds of conflicts spoken about in the different kinds of groups. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.