Free State educators' perceptions and observations of learner-on-learner, learner-on-educator and educator-on-learner school violence

This paper examines the experiences and observations of a group of Free State educators of learner-on-learner, learner-on-educator and educator-on-learner violence and violence-related behaviour against the background of a literature study. The research instrument was an adapted version of Joshi and Kaschak's violence and trauma questionnaire. The data revealed that Free State learners and educators are mostly exposed to verbal and physical violence. Furthermore, it was found that school size, age, as well as location, have a statistically significant influence on most forms of violence and violence-related behaviour. Secondary schools, schools with 500 or more learners, as well as schools located in rural areas, were identified as the groups with the highest incidence of most forms of learner and educator violence and violence-related behaviour. Based on the results of this study, a few short-, as well as long-term strategies to prevent school violence are made.