Rethinking School Violence Theory, Gender, Context

The essays in this book examine how norms of gender, culture and educational practice contribute to school violence. Taking a sociocultural approach to understanding violence, chapters explore how language, image, text and everyday practice play a significant role in the production of violence in schools. Drawing on a range of theoretical traditions from across the humanities and social sciences, contributing authors ask readers to consider how taken-for-granted assumptions and normative schooling practices can be understood as part of the problem. The book argues that rethinking school violence involves considering more than student behaviour and prevention or management strategies. Instead, it requires that difficult questions be asked of educational institutions, their gendered power relations and systemic inequalities. The authors in this volume also provide strategies to intervene in and address violence in educational contexts.

SUE SALTMARSH Associate Professor of Educational Studies at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, Australia. She is founding co-editor of Global Studies of Childhood, and her book The Discipline of Gentlemen is forthcoming.
KERRY ROBINSON Associate Professor in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. She is the lead author of Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood Education and has a forthcoming book Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood.
CRISTYN DAVIES is Researcher at The University of Sydney, Australia.

AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: The Case for Rethinking School Violence; K.Robinson, C.Davies& S.SaltmarshPART I: SCHOOL VIOLENCE IN CONTEXT'The Kid Most Likely': Naming, Brutality and Silence Within and Beyond School Settings; S.SaltmarshThe Historical and Political Roots of School Violence in South Africa: Developing a Cross-National Theory; R.CasellaFYI…Virtual Space has a Context: Toward an Alternative Frame for Understanding Cyberbullying; A.Chapman& R.Buchanan PART II: GENDER AND SCHOOL VIOLENCESexual Harassment in Schools: Issues of Identity and Power - Negotiating the Complexities, Contexts, and Contradictions of this Everyday Practice; K.RobinsonSchools, Violence, Masculinities and Privilege; M.Mills'I'm Not Scared of the Teacher – I Can Hold Him – I Can Hold Him With My Bare Hands': Schoolboys, Male Teachers and Physical Violence at a Durban Secondary School in South Africa; R.Morrell, D.Bhana& V.HamlallPART III: LANGUAGE, REPRESENTATION AND PRACTICE Speaking Violence: Homophobia and the Production of Injurious Speech in Schooling Cultures; C.Davies& D.McInnesRandom School Shootings, Teen Culture and the Representation of Violence; S.KnoxYoung People, Ethical Sex and Violence Prevention; M.CarmodyConclusion; K.Robinson, C.Davies& S.SaltmarshBibliographyIndex