Forging Inclusive Solidarities: Developing Learner-Centred Interventions to Prevent and Reduce Violence in South African Schools

Schooling in South Africa has been characterized as unequal, unjust, unsafe, and generally dysfunctional. The level of school-based violence is particularly alarming, with many scholars contending that it is an enveloping experience, arguably one of the most critical issues facing young people in South Africa. However, school-based violence is experienced uniformly, and it mainly impacts the Coloured minority and African majority in rural areas and urban peripheries. A substantial body of scholarship has been dedicated to uncovering the complexities of school-based violence at schools attended by mostly African youth. However, very little research has been done to examine how school-based violence impacts Coloured youth. I should pause to mention that South Africa’s history of colonialism, slavery, and Apartheid, essentialized race, racism, and race thinking to the extent that race structures all facets of South African society. To answer my main research questions: (i) How do young Coloured male learners experience and navigate school-based violence, and (ii) how these experiences impact the educational trajectories of young Coloured men, I conducted a 13-month-long ethnographic PhD study in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. My study reveals that gender-based and homophobic violence is rampant and has lasting implications for Coloured male learners and schools attended by Coloured youth. My findings suggest a clear sense of unhappiness and frustration with the culture of misogyny and homophobia that stigmatizes and excludes many young Coloured men. Learner narrative suggests that interventions to counter the scourge of violence should be multipronged and not limited to infrequent discussions in Life Skills classes. Adults (teachers as well as parents) need to break the silence on homophobia andcultivate a disposition of tolerance and respect. Additionally, such discussions and programmes should be discussed in partnership with young people and not be isolated and hidden from the public domain.