bullying of educators by learners

157 Pages·2017·3.51 MB·English

BULLYING OF EDUCATORS BY LEARNERS: A PASTORAL CHALLENGE

BY

REV VUYISILE M SONTI

(13341388)

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE REQUIREMENT OF THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

FACULTY OF THEOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA

SUPERVISOR

PROF M J MASANGO

OCTOBER 2016

© University of Pretoria
DECLARATION
I, Vuyisile Matshawe Sonti, hereby, declare that this dissertation which I submit for the
degree of Masters in Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria is my own original work
and has not been previously submitted by me for a degree at this or any other University. All
sources of Authors or people that I used have been indicated and duly acknowledged by

means of a complete reference.

TITLE: BULLYING OF EDUCATORS BY LEARNERS: A PASTORAL

CHALLENGE.

Student No: 13341388

Rev VM Sonti _____________________ ____________________

Name of student Signature Date

Prof. MJ Masango ___________________ _____________________

Name of Supervisor Signature Date

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DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to the memory of my late parents, Khakha and Nomzwakhe Sonti, my
late grandmother Nomatyala Sonti, my late sister Thenjiwe Sonti and to all izinyanya zase
Mampondomiseni o Jola nezase Mawusheni Oqubulashe. Rest eternal grant unto them O
Lord and let light perpetual shine upon them.

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© University of Pretoria
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

May I take this opportunity to first thank my God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for

His ever Presence in my Studies. Without Him this study would not have been completed.

I must express my sincere gratitude to my loving wife Maserame and my caring son Thando

for their support and encouragement which strengthened me throughout my studies.

I also thank my supervisor Prof M.J Masango for his constructive and honest criticism. His
guidance and patience throughout the four years I have spent with him. Prof you are a man of

integrity, a true comrade in education and a father to many written off black woman and men.

To my typists, Thandi, Lorato,Kgomotso, Nonkululeko and Noloyiso. I thank you for the
many hours you took to come and type my work (you all know it would have taken the whole
year if I was the one typing).

To my two brothers Lungile and Fanele who out of interest read my work and argued with

me, your teasing questions helped me to go deeper in this work. Not forgetting my sister

Nonkululeko and the whole family for prayers, nongomso bo Jola!

To the parish of St Manche Masemola and the diocese of the Highveld for their financial

contribution towards my studies.

To my friend and study mate Fr Armstrong Kwakwari for his motivation and support

throughout. I cannot forget to thank all former educators and former learners who volunteered

to be participants in this study, your views, thoughts and experiences were a great help to me,

not forgetting the warm relationship we had during our interviews and data collection

sessions.

Lastly I salute all my fellow class mates of B.A Honours and M.A in practical Theology.

YOU KEPT ME GOING.

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KEY WORDS

 Bully

 Educator

 Learner

 Bystander

 Behaviour

 Repeated act

 Pastoral

 Emotions

 Physical

 Internal scars

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© University of Pretoria
ACRONYMS
SGB – School Governing Body
APB – Anglican prayer book
SMT – School Management Team

SLRC – School Learner Representative Council

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© University of Pretoria
ABSTRACT

Aims and objectives

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of bullying of educators by learners they
teach, thereby make an effort to improve the methods of dealing with bullying in our schools
by introducing a pastoral counselling approach to our schools.

The objectives of the study were the following:
 To journey with the bullied educators through method of positive deconstruction, so
as to give a supportive system and to cease their pain of being shamed and belittled.

 To develop a pastoral model to help bullying victims and perpetrators.

 To avail to the educators another possible effective method to deal with bullying in
our schools, “A formation of pastoral model”.
 To combat the acts of violence in our society

 To create awareness of bullying in our society.

This qualitative study endeavoured to answer the following research questions:

What is the impact of bullying on the educator?

The other forms of bullying like verbal bullying, teasing and threats found hard to investigate,
as at times it is the victim‟s word against the perpetrator‟s word. The research found that it‟s

not easy to get witnesses, especially from learners. Cases of the bully acts normally get
neglected, unless, they ended up being physical.

Findings and recommendations

The study, presented findings and recommendations. These were to be piloted in one school
with the aim to get to buy in of the Department of Education, so to have this approach
implemented in all schools and be incorporated in the already existing policies and

programmes of intervention.

The author aimed at assisting our Department of Education and schools with an alternative

method that can improve interventions.

The study was feasible, as it was easy to find former educators and learners for interviews

and study cases. Not much information was found from schools due to protocol, red tape and
right procedure given our schools by the Government as far as information related to learners
in our schools. It would have been difficult to complete this study on time if the author was to

wait for authorization.

Financially the author had to rely on his congregational and diocesan support. The author

being a former educator was able therefore to work with adults who are no longer at school
but have experienced bullying as former learners and educators.

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© University of Pretoria
The following points are in the authors mind, as he seeks to research on the bullied, the
bullies and the bystander:

 Physical bullying is the most feared form of bullying and educators felt it a challenge
as they can‟t retaliate due to policy.

 Cyber bullying is the most difficult form of bullying that is highly perpetuated against
educators and caused internal wounds and scars that take very long to heal.
 Sexual bullying is one of the causes of high pregnancy amongst girls in our school.

 Drugs and alcohol are a catalyst to many boys who bully their educators

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© University of Pretoria
SUMMARY OF STUDY

Title: Bullying of educators by learners: A pastoral challenge.

Background

This research is a result of the high price of bullying in our South African schools recently.

Focus

The focus is on bullying of educators by learners without the school. Our South African

media has published many articles on this concept. Some of these articles read as follows.

“Pupil expelled after camera records attack on a teacher” (Sunday Times 22September, 2013)

“Drunk 17 year old, punched a female Teacher” (The Star 2013)

“Bullying of Teachers a serious problem” (SAPA- 09 April 2013)

There are more of these incidents in cell phone video cameras of many of our learner. These

remain untold stories and unreported cases that are not in our statistics. The study‟s aim is to
develop a methodology that will address the problems statement. Two theories are going to
be used to achieve this, and these are: Mucherera, 2009: Holistic, Narrative, pastoral
counseling approach in assessing and service from his book “meet me at the palaver”.

This study pays attention to definition of bullying in the western context then moves on to

look at types of bullying , forms of bullying, causes of bullying, effects of bullying, myths

around bullying and bullying of educators specifically. Not only the two above theories will
be used in the study but also a qu alitative approach which has to do with data collection from
the participants who have experienced bullying in their life time. Either as victims or
perpetuators when observed or witnessed an educator being bullied. This study is not
oblivious also of the fact that the educator do bully learners. At the same the same time

educators are not bullied not only by learners, but also by colleagues, school management,

education officials, parents especially School Governing Body and the system itself. In

conclusion the study discovered from case studies and questionnaires that bullying cannot be

dealt with out of the context of religion and culture of the indigenous people of that

community. Where a particular school is placed.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Declaration ii
Dedication iii

Acknowledgement iv

Key words v

Acronyms vi

Abstract vii

Summary of study ix

CHAPTER

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH 1

1.1 Title 1
1.2 Background 1
1.3 Introduction 1
1.4 Problem statement 5

1.5 Research Gap 5

1.6 Methodology 6

1.7 Aims and Objectives 8

1.8 Definition and terms 9

1.9 Limitation of study 11

1.10 Preliminary conclusion 11

CHAPTER 2

METHODOLOGY

2.1Introduction 13

2. 2 Mucherera‟s narrative model 14

2.3 Exploring Nick Pollard‟s model of positive deconstruction 23
2.3.1Identifying the underlying worldview 27
2.3.2 Analysing the underlying worldview 27
2.3.3 Affirming the elements of truth of the underlying worldview 28
2.3.4 Discovering the underlying worldview errors 29
2.4 Oral traditional method 29

2.5 Qualitative method 30

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