Educational violence

The different forms of educational violence

• Educational violence of a physical nature
  Hitting, slapping, spanking and snipping are all forms of physical educational violence, as is refusing to allow a short absence to pee. Or denying a meal or sleep. Or denying movement during learning hours, when movement stimulates the blood circulation needed for concentration.
• Educational violence of a verbal nature
  All words that diminish learners, even though the aim of education is to help them grow, develop and flourish: mockery, insinuations, insults, denigration linked to differences in gender, culture, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic type, various skills and disabilities.
• Educational violence of a psychological nature
  All forms of violence – verbal, non-verbal, allusive, written, visual, etc. – that are psychologically demeaning, causing shame and humiliation, thereby negatively affecting not only learning, but also the personal skills that learners need to develop – their self-confidence, self-esteem and self-image, all of which are fundamental to the learning process.
• Educational violence of a moral nature
  All forms of violence with an educational aim that publicly demean or even slander, particularly in front of other students.
• Discriminatory and/or exclusionary educational violence
  All forms of violence that discriminate and/or exclude one or more children or pupils in relation to others in educational acts: favoritism at home or in class, unequal treatment between brothers and sisters, towards slow learners, but also towards the hyper-talented, between well-behaved and restless pupils, etc. As a result, restless students often find themselves excluded from class, or even from school – to the detriment of their learning.
• Educational violence resulting from overcrowded classes (over 30-35)
  Above 25 pupils, it’s virtually impossible to give equal attention to every student. Yet in some countries, there are still classes approaching or exceeding 50-100 pupils. The bottom rungs of the class are systematically excluded from contact with the teacher and from the opportunity to participate actively. This makes inclusive education virtually impossible to achieve: students at the bottom are denied access to education even though they are at school. The result is a very low level of literacy and numeracy on leaving elementary school, which is a form of violence whose consequences will affect these pupils for the rest of their lives.See inclusive education in overcrowded classrooms for possible solutions.

Motives used to justify educational violence

Those who use educational violence tend to justify it for one or more of the following reasons:

• it’s the generalized norm
• it’s the norm they themselves experienced as children, and yet they’ve learned
• this is the only authority model they know – they have not been familiar with, sensitized to or trained inpositive authority models – those that pull the learner upwards and foster his/her development so that he/she learns the targeted knowledge and life skills with motivation.