Human Rights Education
Exploring the Safety of Teachers in South African Secondary Public Schools
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22257154 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ernest Mpindo (0000-0001-6725-7829, Central University of Technology, corresponding author), Constance Mphojane (0000-0002-3855-731X, Central University of Technology) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Pages | 247-256 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | E-Journal of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2720-7722 • E-ISSN: 2720-7722 |
| Publisher | Noyam Publishers (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.38159/ehass.2024538 |
| OpenAlex | W4392600060 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
This paper examined the extent and nature of safety for teachers in their different school settings and further underscored the importance of safety for teachers in the school context. The current school environment is violent owing to the increasing lack of teachers’ ability to maintain order in schools due to the uncertain alternatives to corporal punishment. This creates a hostile learning environment that weakens the teachers’ position of power and prohibits them from using their authority and fulfilling their duty to provide learners with compassionate monitoring. A qualitative interpretivist research paradigm was used in this study employing Critical Emancipatory Research (CER) as a research framework. A CER framework aims to strengthen the liberating, enlightening, emancipating, and empowering democratic values of equality and justice among the researcher and the participants in the research setting. A team of four teachers, a principal, and the School Governing Body (SGB) member from each school were purposively sampled to apply the principles of PAR in Lejweleputswa District in the Free State Province in South Africa. A focused group was employed to answer the following questions: What are the perceptions of secondary school teachers regarding their safety in the school setting? To what extent does learners’ violent behaviour threaten teachers’ safety at schools? And, how can teachers be assisted to change their minds regarding Human Rights Education as a tool for peaceful education? Data was analysed thematically. The findings of this research showed that teachers do not feel safe at their workplace, they fear both learners and parents who most of the time come to humiliate them physically and emotionally in front of their learners. The study contributes to a debate on the safety of teachers in schools for professional development. Keywords: Human Rights Education, Teacher-Learner Relationships, Teachers’ Safety, Parental Involvement
Human rights · Mathematics education · Medical education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Education Discipline and Inequality · Medicine · Peace and Human Rights Education · Psychology · Values and Moral Education
Relationships among school climate, school safety, and student achievement and well‐being
‘I Dread to Enter Some Classrooms’
A Systematic Review of Corporal Punishment in Schools
Physical education teachers’ professionalization
Human rights education in US social work
Challenges to teacher resilience
Factors Contributing to Teacher Burnout During Covid-19
Teacher-Child Relationship and Behavior Problem Trajectories in Elementary School
Engaging critical emancipatory research as an alternative to mitigate school violence in South Africa
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |