SCHOOL VIOLENCE IN AN IMPOVERISHED SOUTH-AFRICAN COMMUNITY

Objective: The aim of this anthropological study was to create an unde rstanding of school-related violence experienced by adolescents in the context of chronic poverty in a South African community. Method: Qual itative methods of data collection such as participant observation, in terviews, and group discussions were utilized for data collection. Six teen children and three adults in turn kept diaries and wrote reports during the research period of three and one-half years (June 1992-Dece mber 1995). All the Standard seven pupils (N = 76) of the local school completed a self-concept questionnaire and wrote two essays about the mselves and their lives, respectively. Results: The ideology and struc tures of apartheid created a context of impoverishment and structural violence to which children were exposed. The school was one of the soc ial institutions where children were subjected to structural, psycholo gical, and physical violence on a daily basis. Violent behavior or dis cipline was justified as being just and an effective teaching practice by authoritarian parents and teachers. The manifestations of poverty included emotional erosion, a negative self-concept, and reactive viol ence. Conclusions: School-related violence was structurally interwoven with the very fabric of the social hierarchy of the school set-up and was sanctioned as an effective strategy to gain social control and di scipline children. Poverty in itself provided the breeding-ground for violence at home and in the school. Children were caught up in a vicio us circle of pro- and reactive violence and socialized to accept viole nce as an instrument of empowerment. Recommendations for possible inte rvention and further research are offered. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science L td.