In this article we report on a South African study conducted with 1,779 learners aged 11 to 18 years from 8 schools in urban areas in and around Johannesburg. These learners' perspectives on school safety confirm that South African learners experience their schools as unsafe. Their primary concerns related to coercion and violence against learners…

Literature on gendered violence in education suggests that the perspectives of those most affected must inform knowledge generation and interventions. However, research with these populations is fraught with methodological and ethical challenges. This article reflects on photovoice as a method which privileges participants' perspectives. Drawing…

The rise of violent incidents in South African schools has sparked widespread concern. Most studies on school violence focus on the experiences of learners; little attention has been paid to educators' experiences. As a result, violence against educators is both underreported and understudied. The research question prompting this study was: What…

Gendered norms construct teaching young children in Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a 'feminine profession' and as 'women's work'. Subsequently, men who teach young children are often scrutinised. One troubling factor confronting men entering the profession is the construction of men as potential paedophiles. Scholars in the Global North have…

The dominant 'heterosexual script' positions men as sexually desiring subjects who initiate sex and use active displays of power to attract women, and women as passive sexual objects who use indirect means to attract men (e.g. physical appearance). While much research has highlighted how this script is deployed in high school settings, less work…

This qualitative media study, undertaken within an interpretative research paradigm, aims to expand our knowledge of sexual violence perpetrated against learners in South African public and private schools. Due to ethical, normative and methodological barriers surrounding research on sexual violence in schools, South African English language…

Violence occurring in South African schools takes various forms and is a concern for all stakeholders. All forms of violence have negative effects, i.e. physical and psychological, educational damage and societal breakdown. The overall aim of the study reported on here was to explore the nature, causes and consequences of school violence, and then…