Principals’ experiences and strategies of managing learner violence in Katlehong public primary and secondary schools

M.Ed. (Educational Management)Learner violence is and has been a thorny silent issue among learners and teachers as well as part of daily schooling in South African schools before and after the advent of democracy. This epidemic is not only unique in South African schools but the world over including developing and countries where it does not receive necessary attention from both parents of the victims and perpetrators, authorities and with no coverage from the media. The South African government through The Bill of Rights in The Constitution Act 104 of 1996 together with the Department of Education (DoE) through legislation such as South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996 made provision through School Governing Bodies (SGB) and school managers of ensuring that violence in schools should be managed and be eradicated by means of formulating sound policies with appropriate measures to discipline whoever is found in transgression of good behaviour. However, irrespective of endeavours by authorities to curb these problems, we are still witnessing the serious incidents where learners are committing forms of violence against other learners . This motivated the researcher to explore the experiences and strategies of school principals, in particular public school principals with regard to how they manage learner violence in their schools. In addition, it was of importance to determine the contribution of stakeholders such as parents towards the management of violence in the school as regulated by SASA and what are the impact of violence on learners themselves as observed by principals. The aim was to research incidents of violence in schools, and what are the principals’ experiences and strategies of managing learner violence. A qualitative research method study was used through a semi-structured interview to get in-depth experience and knowledge from identified participants