77% learners in South African schools experience their schools as unsafe.
This shocking fact, coupled with various media reports about incidents of violence in schools, necessitates that this problem be addressed.
The Department of Education, teachers, parents and learners, expressed their shock and concern about this situation. From this background, the influence of school culture and school climate as a possible solution to the problem of violence in schools is studied.
In Chapter 2 the concepts school culture and school climate are described according to the literature. In this study, school culture is regarded as a reflection of shared ideas, suppositions and convictions which determine each schoolâs own identity and standard of behavioural outcomes. School climate is regarded as the quality and character of school life. According to that, school climate is based on learnersâ experiences of school life and it reflects the norms, objectives, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching en learning practices, and organisational structures. An overview of the concept school culture is firstly provided by taking a look at the elements of school culture, the importance of school culture, the effect of school culture upon school life, and the correlation between school culture and violence at a school. The concept school climate is studied from a broad perspective by describing and analysing the core dimensions. Finally, the relation between the two concepts school culture and school climate are discussed. This is done by studying the similarities, differences and related characteristics of school culture and school climate.
In Chapter 3 the concept violence at schools is described according to the literature. This study has been undertaken against the background of general violence in the South African context and the possible effect of this violence upon South African schools. After a general discussion of the concept violence, violence as schools in the South African environment and the possible causes thereof are investigated.
In Chapter 4 the research design and the methodology of this study are described. An exposition is given of the explanatory design model, which is indicative thereof that both the quantitative and qualitative research methods have been utilised. In this chapter, the data collection techniques of both the quantitative and the qualitative research are set forth and discussed. Finally, the compilation of the random sample, the role of the researcher in the data collection process and the ethical considerations are set forth.
The focus in Chapter 5 falls on the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the quantitative data. The quantitative data were collected with the California School Climate and Safety Survey â Short Form (CSCSS-SFI), whereafter the data were analysed and interpreted statistically in order to determine the influence of school culture and school climate upon violence at schools. With the analysis of the data it has been determined that the more positive the school culture and school climate are experienced, the lower the levels of violence. The opposite, namely, the worse the school culture and climate are experienced, the higher the levels of violence, is also true.
In Chapter 5, the qualitative approach to the research is explained. In this chapter, all the individual aspects of school culture and school climate, as well as the aspects of violence at schools are investigated and described by means of semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were done with learners from high-risk schools as well as learners from low-risk schools. This method renders itself thereto that learners could convey their personal experiences pertaining to school culture, school climate and violence at their respective schools. By applying the quantitative and qualitative research methods, the triangulation of data ensures the validity and reliability of the study.
In the last chapter, a summary is provided of the findings in the different chapters. Findings regarding the problem questions, namely what school culture, school climate en violence at schools entail, as well as what the influence of school culture, school climate and violence at schools in the Eastern Cape Province are, coupled with the experiences of learners pertaining to school culture, school climate and violence at schools, are set forth. It has come to light that there are deficiencies in the school culture and school climate and that these correspond with the occurrence of incidents of violence at schools. However, the most important finding is that school culture and climate play an important role in the prevention of violence at schools. These findings pertaining to school culture and school climate are of importance for education, particularly with regard to the future planning and management of programmes to prevent violence at schools. Finally, findings emanating from the research have been formulated in order to reduce or prevent violence at schools.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08102011-110601 |
| Date | 10 August 2011 |
| Creators | Barnes, Abraham Karel |
| Contributors | Prof NC de Wet, Dr ST Brynard |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08102011-110601/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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