Bullying at a high school in KwaZulu-Natal : narratives of eight grade 10 learners.
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Date
2015
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Abstract
This study sought to research bullying – a phenomenon which is seen as a major social
problem that has a serious impact on the wellbeing of children and youth. The study
contributes to the small body of research that has emanated from South Africa in the last
decade or so and was conducted at one of the high school situated in Durban, province of
KwaZulu-Natal. The study was a narrative inquiry and participants were eight (8) grade 10
learners; four male and four female learners selected through a process of purposive and
stratified ransom sampling. Data generation involved individual and focus group interviews.
In addition, a participatory research tool, mapping, was used to explore with the
participants the places and spaces of bullying at the school.
The findings of the study showed that bullying was a problem at the school and
operates in varied and complex ways. The findings in the study revealed that bullying
happens at the school in pervasive and varied ways very much in line with international
studies. Overall, participants referred to bullying acts as harassment, teasing, spreading
rumours about a learner, name-calling, physical aggression and verbal abuse. Learners were
unanimous in their view that bullying is a form of aggression that leads to physical and
emotional suffering in victims.
Listening to the voices of the child participants in the study, who are clearly social
actors in their own right and who have views on the issue, provided important insights into
the phenomenon. Their stories showed that bullying occurs in many power-laden spaces
and places of the school and is for most part invisible to school management and teachers.
The school as an institution has clearly not engaged with the problem of bullying which
often goes unreported by learners. The study suggests that school leadership and teachers
need to understand the complex contextual factors that sustain bullying in the school.
Interventions to address bullying need to involve partnerships between school personnel,
parents, community members and most important, learners.
Description
Master of Education in Social Justice Education. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood 2015.
Keywords
Bullying in schools--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal., School violence--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal., Theses--Education.