Abstract
Schools are supposed to be safe and nonviolent environments. The reality, however, is that schools – both in South Africa and internationally – are constantly plagued by school violence. The numerous articles recently published on bullying, assault and corporal punishment, as well the structural violence and lack of respect to which teachers are subjected indicate that school violence is a multidimensional and complex problem and that the methods currently used to deal with it are unsuccessful.
The aim of this research was to develop an alternative approach to school violence and education by shifting the focus away from school violence to an integrated healing approach (IHA) based on eight value-driven principles. The research was conducted within a transformative paradigm, and given that it focused on South African schools, the transformative paradigm was expanded to include Afrocentric principles such as cultural empowerment, the absence of economic or moral fear and the willingness to pursue the goals of freedom.
To achieve this goal, this article focuses on four themes. The first theme explores the nature and content of school violence, and the interplay and distinction between school violence, power and discipline. Our conclusion is that (school) violence dehumanises and prevents victims from reaching their potential, while power is the ability to act assertively and influence the actions of others. Discipline has a dualistic character. On the one hand it is the power used externally as a social control tool and on the other the internal power harnessed by an individual to develop her potential. The reality is that most schools continue to use power and discipline in the form of social control to deal with school violence. School violence is therefore not considered as a separate phenomenon. This results in school violence not being dealt with satisfactorily.
Because we believe that the answer to school violence lies in a focus away from school violence to a transformed school culture, the second theme focuses on several educational approaches that can support the change in school culture. These include anti-violence programmes from NGOs, circles of courage, positive peace approaches, social-emotional learning programmes, forgiveness education and restorative education. These approaches can all contribute to a value-driven school culture, but unfortunately they all lack certain elements. Some of the key gaps are that these approaches do not provide answers to class teachers to deal with school violence and often focus on school violence while there remains uncertainty about the nature of restorative education (which is a very attractive alternative) as well as the way in which structural school violence can be dealt with. To fill the gaps in these approaches and bind them to a unity, we turned to Freire’s approach to education. Freire’s approach provides support for restorative education because it compels members of the school community to face structural school violence and the actions of outsiders who limit their life potential and respond transformatively to it. On the other hand, the ethically religious core elements of his approach and those about teaching practice foster the value-driven mindset with which violence-driven education can be tackled and implemented. In addition, Freire’s approach supports and reinforces different aspects of the educational approaches dealt with in the previous section, such as empowerment and the importance of dialogue. It further provides support in the problem-formulating and learner-oriented way in which it can master obstacles such as school violence.
In the third theme the focus is on developing an integrated healing and anti-violent education approach that focuses on a transformed school culture and also on eight “education is …” statements or principles. We refer to the integrated approach as “integrated healing education” because the purpose was to establish a whole or healthy school community and not simply, as the concept of “restorative education” may suggest, “to restore what was broken”. We prefer “healing” because the approach suggests an ongoing process.
The eight “education is ...” statements underlying IHA are the following:
(i) Education is empowering. In the context of school violence it refers to all the role players who must be empowered against school violence and its consequences by enabling them to address controllable school violence and manage non-controllable violence by transforming structural power formations. However, the empowering nature of education also means that the school community should be prepared to change their circumstances and not wait for others to do it.
(ii) Education is humanising. This means that all role players should work together to enable those who were mere objects of education or oppression to recover or humanise their human dignity. It also means that everyone should accept that all people – as agents within their own lives and within society – share the same intelligence, regardless of their class, “race”, geographical location or gender.
(iii) Education is based on hope and love. Education is not merely another profession, but a calling based on principles of love, humility and religion in which teachers remain “torchbearers of hope” and together with learners create a vision of a society without violence.
(iv) Education is value-driven and context-bound. This means that the culture and living context of learners and teachers are important and that both teachers and learners should be willing to create space for other people’s cultures and living contexts. It also means that education can never stand apart from values such as love, hope, humility and respect. Within the South African context it should not merely take note of and pay lip service to the ubuntu concept, but rather apply it in practice.
(v) Education is learner-centred. From an IHA point of view, this means that teachers still need to take the lead in changing existing school culture from a punitive-driven to a value-driven culture – one that focuses on proactive actions, relationships, and social and emotional learning. However, it also means that they must be willing to adopt the form of Rancière’s ignorant schoolmaster and realise that they do not have all the answers but can discover them together with learners and the rest of the school community.
(vi) Education is dialogue. Education is not an individual process but a common search and sustained questioning of the existing reality where all the parties learn something all the time and where no hierarchy prevails, but rather a horizontal relationship of common trust among the interlocutors.
(vii) Education is problem-formulating. Learners need to become critically aware – and given the opportunity to become aware – of their circumstances. This enables them to find both deeper-seated questions and solutions to problems by initially looking at the “normal” problems in their school community and formulating these problems – thus questioning what are considered as givens.
(viii) Education is political. Education is not only a means of understanding the world, but also of controlling and transforming the existing reality so that it will be more equitable and just, and less at odds with positive values and norms.
In the fourth theme a framework for the practical implementation of IHA is explored. The implementation framework consists of implementation areas and an implementation process. Implementation takes place within the learned and lived curricula. The “learned” syllabus consists of the formal syllabus and informal school curriculum or class activities that are not aimed at formal assessment. The “lived” curriculum refers to the school culture and school character. These two areas encompass the environments within which the school community should set goals to avoid violence, be co-builders to a violence-free school community and change school culture. The implementation of IHA is not a haphazard process. It should be done based on a properly structured and planned process negotiated and determined by the school community. One way in which it can be done is through participatory action research, which shares values with IHA, including empowerment, relationship building and developing and exchanging knowledge to produce positive results.
The possible areas of concern for IHA, such as a focus on violence, cost, time and teachers’ views and attitudes, were also discussed. Our conclusion was that these concerns can be overcome and that IHA manages to create the possibility of establishing a school community that is less cruel and inhumane. The article concludes with several recommendations for action at national, provincial and school level.
Keywords: dialogue; discipline; “education is ...” statements; empowerment; humanisation; integrated healing education (IHE); learner-centredness; power; school culture; school violence
- This article’s featured image by Tina Floersch was obtained from Unsplash.