Article Sidebar
Published:
Oct 23, 2014Article Details
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publication rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose. AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Note: If you need to comply with your funding body policy, you can apply for the CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.
Main Article Content
Learners’ experiences of teachers’ aggression in a secondary school in Gauteng, South Africa
Abstract
Objectives: The objectives set for this research were to explore and describe learners’ experiences regarding teachers’ aggression toward them and to formulate guidelines for learners and teachers to facilitate their mental health.
Method: The population consisted of school learners at a secondary school. Inclusion criteria for sampling were that participants should be grade 11 and 12 learners, between 16 and 18 years of age and should have experienced aggression from teachers in the school. A purposive sample was taken of learners who complied with the inclusion criteria. Data were collected by means of four in-depth phenomenological interviews, 88 naïve sketches, observation and field notes. One central question was posed to the secondary school learners: ‘What are your experiences of teacher aggression toward you in your schooling environment?’ Open coding was used for data analysis. Measures to ensure trustworthiness were applied to ensure the rigour of the research. Ethical principles were adhered to throughout the research process.
Results: The secondary school learners were belittled, as well as emotionally and verbally abused. They also experienced fear and anger. Guidelines were derived from these findings for learners and teachers.
Conclusion: This research found that learners experience aggression in their school environment and need support to facilitate their mental health.
