Abstract
M.A. (Psychology)
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder has been used to describe an individual's reaction to an
event "outside the range of usual human experience". South African society is one fraught with violence, to the point where authors have contended that South Africans have become accustomed to a "culture of violence". Children and Adults are victims of this violence, "whether they be directly or indirectly affected by it.
In such an unstable society the school can provide children with a setting which offers them stability and a normative influence. In order to make the school effective in the aid it offers its students, teachers have to be assisted in developing and strengthening already existing constructive ways of detecting and handling of children's problems.
The teachers themselves also need to be provided with support in order to assist them with their own personal problems.
This study examines the effects of trauma on the teacher-pupil relationship by providing
workshops for teachers in order to learn from them and guide them in the assistance they give to children who have been profoundly affected by the violence in their environment being direct or indirect victims thereof.
It is my hope that this exploratory study will broaden the understanding of Post-traumatic
Stress Disorder and provide useful guidelines in an understanding of the impact violence has on children.