Abstract
During a period of ten years, having worked at a township called Winterveldt in the Gauteng Province, it became a very frustrating teaching journey due to the high rate of crime that occurred in and around our schools. It remained a big question in my mind as to how schools were going to address this issue. Learning and teaching have been affected quite a number of times and it has been very difficult for most of the teachers to ensure that there was a conducive learning space. Through this research I came to realise that not enough has been done to curb violence that occurs in the vicinity of our schools. Learning and teaching are disrupted drastically, and this cannot be allowed to happen in this democratic country. The investigation into the issue of violence was really imperative to find out the impact of violence on quality learning and teaching in order to generate greater understanding of the circumstance underpinning this research. The sole motive of this study was to look into the impact of violence on quality learning and teaching in and around secondary schools in Winterveldt under the Tshwane West District in the Gauteng Province. There are many stakeholders, such as School Governing Body (SGB) members, principals, and educators, who have little knowledge of the Code of Conduct for learners “as stipulated in the South African Schools Act (84 of 1996)”. Subsections 8 (1) and 20 (d) of this act states that the school governors have the power to adopt the code of conduct for learners at the school after they have discussed it with all the stakeholders. However, it seems that few schools are able to comply with these stipulations as the SGBs seem to lack policy development knowledge and skills. The problem that was investigated focused on how violence affects teaching and learning, and it investigated the ways in which different schools respond to violence. It is quite clear that schools no longer offer safe teaching and learning environments. Subsection 12 (1) of the Bill of Rights in South Africa (RSA 1996) clearly stipulates the safety and protection of all. However, the amount of violence which is currently happening in schools contradicts this emphasis on safety and security. Therefore, this research needed to be undertaken.
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)