In recent years, the South African basic and higher education departments have been besieged by egregious forms of violence. Although this has been a worrisome phenomenon dating back to time immemorial, of late, violence is at a very concerning and alarming level. The profusion of violence serves as an indictment to various stakeholders including…

In this paper, the author explores some of the issues associated with teaching about compulsory heterosexuality and schooling in an undergraduate sociology programme. Using a novel approach to gathering data, the article analyses the stories students submitted about themselves or others who were counter normative in terms of gender and sexuality…

As a signatory to the United Nations, South Africa is obliged to ensure that all children have access to quality education. The reality though is that there are many barriers which make access to education difficult if not impossible. School violence, an escalating worldwide phenomenon, is widely cited as one of the challenges that are faced by…

Students' challenging behaviour is a persisting problem in some primary schools. In South African primary schools, however, students' challenging behaviour is mainly understood as disruptive classroom behaviour. To establish how primary schools experience this phenomenon, interviews were held with twenty-one participants, purposively selected from…

In this paper, we contribute to the understandings of young masculinities by turning attention to the South African schooling primary school context. In the context of scarcity of interventions around violence in the primary school, we focus on how young boys construct, negotiate and experience violence. Notwithstanding dominant discourses around…

Violence and bullying in schools keep escalating and have become a world-wide problem -- also in South Africa. This problem is continuing unabated, despite the different intervention strategies in place. Intervention strategies include the Child-Friendly Schools (CFS) programme, the National School Safety Framework (NSSF), the Safe Schools…

Violent crimes and domestic violence are notoriously high in South Africa, which leaves many children defenceless to struggle with emotions such as loneliness and sadness. The healthy development and socialisation of children can be difficult in a society characterised by domestic tribulations, poverty, crime, single-parent homes, and absent…

Bullying incidents amongst learners are realities that have made, and continue to make news headlines internationally, and South Africa is not immune to such incidents. The phenomenon of bullying not only affects the bully and the victim, but also the school, parents, and communities in general. In this paper, the researcher highlights factors…

School violence plays a significant role in shaping a school's culture and climate, which can have an impact on the participation and performance of learners in secondary education. In many instances, school violence can hinder the educational aspirations of learners. This paper investigates the impact of school violence on learners through the…

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…

In this article, we draw on data from focus group discussions to examine the ways in which some young boys in a South African township primary school construct and negotiate hegemonic masculinity through bullying, and other forms of violence, within the school. Deviating from the simplistic victim-bully binary, we draw from critical masculinity…

Studies about workplace bullying recognise that teaching is becoming a high-risk profession. Despite the global concern about teacher-targeted bullying by learners, a dearth of studies remain regarding the bullying of teachers. This study aims at contributing towards the limited corpus of knowledge on the preponderance of the phenomenon within the…

This article reports on a qualitative study that explored bullying in the learner toilets of a township secondary school in South Africa and the reasons for its persistence in this particular school. The exploratory study used focus group discussions to collect data to address the research question. Newman's 'defensible space' framework, which…

This article explores the gender and sexual diversity perceptions of teachers in a support unit at a South African school. The School Based Support team (SBST) is a formal structure that consist of selected teachers who are responsible for creating enabling, inclusive and safe learning environments for all students who experience barriers to…

This article reports on the emotional factors that contribute to children's sadness. As teachers are the most appropriate caregivers to detect problems and to address the impact of these challenges, 30 teachers asked 224 children (N=224) to draw and describe their experiences of sadness. From these drawings, two distinctive themes emerged, namely…