The psychosocial implications of school violence on teachers’ work performance

Abstract

This study investigated the psychosocial implications of school violence on teachers’ work performance. The study’s main aim was to investigate the psychosocial implications that teachers encounter due to school violence, how these implications affect their work performance, as well as strategies that could be applied to deal with school violence towards teachers. A qualitative approach was adopted, utilizing interpretivism paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from twelve teachers in four schools in the Motheo District using face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The study adopted phenomenology to explore the essence of the school violence and its implications for teachers’ work performance. The generated data was transcribed from the audio-recorded interviews and analysed thematically. Themes and sub-themes emerged from the coded data and the findings revealed that teachers were struggling with psychosocial implications of school violence. These challenges included, among others, social isolation, alcohol abuse, avoidance behaviour, humiliation, absenteeism, frustration, as well as demotivation. The study’s results indicated that teachers need psychosocial support from the Department of Basic Education (DBE), workshops, as well as training on how to deal with violent learners, to mitigate violence against them. Also, the findings revealed that there is lack of parental involvement in schools and that learners behave violently because of the challenges they face in their homes. Furthermore, findings revealed that schools need to create safer environments for teachers and apply tighter security measures to protect teachers in their workplace. Lastly, the findings suggested that the DBE need to hire school social workers and ensure that every school in Motheo District has a social worker that is providing social services to learners with underlying issues.