Introduction
Fundamentally, all children deserve a school
environment that is tranquil and safe. The environment will permit them to
grow, express their potential and take full advantage of their skills and
abilities. However, a reasonable number of students are facing a different
day-to-day basis exposure to gender-based violence. The exposure is via both explicit and
implicit forms that enormously affect children’s social interests and academic
endeavors. This study, therefore, sought to explore gender-based violence using
the evidence-based mechanism, the whole school approach. A whole school
approach refers to mitigating strategies that work at multiple tiers, at the
school and community, for preventing and responding to gender-based violence.
In the narrow view, effective whole-school approaches deal with a range of
spheres simultaneously. They include but are not limited to the school
environment, culture and pedagogical mechanisms.
The study premise is engulfed in eight minimum
standards elements to establish a safe, gender-responsive and all-inclusive
school environment. These are 1) top-notch school leadership and community
engagement; 2) creation and implementation of a code of conduct; 3) capacity
building of the teachers and teaching staff; 4) creating children's awareness
on knowledge of child rights, participation and dealing with gender inequality;
5) enhancing reporting, managing and accountability; 6) Dealing with incidents;
7) improving conditions of the physical environment and 8) improving engagement
with parents. The report further uses
whole-school approach evidence-based based on the four perspectives:
comprehensive-health, three-tier model, social-ecological and strength-based
perspective.
The paper is divided into five parts. The first part
is the introduction. The second part expounds more on gender-based violence
with the support of data. The third part is the rationale underpins of the
whole approach and its prevention strategies.
The implications of school responses to gender-based violence constitute
the fourth part. Part five and the concluding part is the report conclusion.
Gender based violence
GBV
can be defined “as acts or threats of sexual, physical, or psychological
violence occurring in and around school, perpetrated as a result of gender
norms and stereotypes, and enforced by unequal power dynamic” (Unesco et
al., 2016). The phenomenon impacts
negatively on the lives of millions of children globally. Although the research on school-based gender
based violence is limited, data indicates that the students and teachers
experience extensive physical, sexual and emotional abuse within the school
surrounding. Precisely, genders, teachers and students can be victims and the
perpetrators of this phenomenon and it can result in serious and long-term
consequences (Unesco, 2016). Gender
based violence wears many faces. They include but are not limited to gang
undertakings, personal items theft, bullying and intimidation, use of dangerous
objects and guns and verbally abuse.
Although
much of the scale and scope of the GBV in schools remain concealed, the
available data on violence against students that include but are not limited to
bullying and physical violence, allow this report to build a partial, despite
fragmented, picture of the pervasive nature of GBV in learning’s institutions.
According to research by Plan International (2013), nearly 0.25 billion
children world wise are suffering from school-based violence yearly. In some
European countries such as France, 40% of the students have complained of cyber
bullying (Menesini et al.,
2014). Another research indicates in
Zambia, 61% of the children have reported bullying on the monthly basis
(Fleming and Jacobsen, 2010). Unesco (2016) reports that more than one million
children in school suffer from physical violence under the pretext of
discipline: 50% of all children globally live in countries where there is weak
or no legal protection from corporal punishment.
Research
has indicated gender-based violence is promoted by numerous factors. To begin
with, schools located longer distance serves as disincentives to schooling and catalyst
GBV. According to Suleman et
al.
(2013) distance from the school in most cases is affecting girls' schooling.
Furthermore, they are more cases of school girls being raped by their male
counterparts, or members of the community and even cases of disappearing (Small et al., 1993).
The second factor is media which is associated with students’ exposure
to a violent culture. Notably, most young people learn violent behaviors
through observation. Media also provide
a dimension that exposes students to sexual behavior mostly through
pornographic. Therefore, it has an impact on increasing the cases of rape and
other forms of gender-based violence.
Evidence-informed responses
The prevention of gender-based violence in the
community and school-based is through the provision of the impetus to develop
the guidance premises at strengthening gender responsiveness to make the
learning environment safe. Furthermore, it provides an evidence-based framework
for action that guides policymakers and practitioners to design the best
mitigation strategies. We have learned a great deal about the integration of an
evidence-based whole school approach in responding to gender-based violence. The monitoring, evaluation and learning
strategy applies to a gender transformative approach in paradigm shifts in
attitudes and behaviors among all stakeholders.
The perspective includes comprehensive school health,
strength-based, social-ecological systems and three-tiered planning.
Figure
1 evidence based
Prevention from
the minimum standards
Based on the
eight minimum standards, the prevention is executed in the following ways.
Strengthening of
the school and community leadership
The support and leadership of school and community
governing organs are imperative in encouraging undertakings that create a
culture of non-violence and respect in society. Strong leadership in all
dimensions plays a vital role in ensuring all the codes of conduct are
implemented, reporting and the incidents response mechanisms are seamlessly
monitored and execution of the appropriate and necessary actions are. An
effective code of conduct forms the fertile ground that creates a sense of
shared ownership and responsibility for ensuring a non-violence learning
environment. Also, it increases accountability and indicates the approach to
reporting and addressing misconduct.
School leadership is responsible for coordinating with
community authority on the monitoring and budget-based issues within the school
vicinity, and is an important part of the implementation of a whole school
approach (UN women, 2016). Precisely, successful policy implementation in
school requires full support from all the stakeholders such as the education
authorities, community leaders and the teachers receiving training. In other
words, school principals, teachers, students and even parents work collectively
to develop the approach and respond to cases of gender-based violence.
Consequently, local entities such as the police and other organizations partner
with the school to develop and respond to incidents of gender-based violence.
Furthermore, these engagements are associated with the creation of referral
paths and the promotion of safe schools.
Engagement with parents and communities
Ensuring the success of the whole school approach to
gender-based violence requires robust practices of consulting with the
stakeholders, Involvement of the school community is salient for gaining their
support. The aspect is particularly significant for responding to intense abuse
and violence to safeguard the students against gender-based violence. (UNICEF,
2009), making parents and the school community part of the discussion against
gender-based violence has the ripple effect of creating opportunities to
directly address the disdain issues embedded in GBV. Therefore, the parents and
community are involved in school to keep the students safe. The discussion on
the role of social norms and societal inequality forms the ground for
understanding violence (Parkes, 2020). According to Crabble et al. (2012),
although schools may be creating a safe learning environment, gendered
attitudes in the community need to be accounted for. Therefore, school-building
alliances with members of the communities help broaden the salient dialogue on
students’ wellbeing.
Furthermore, to prevent gender-based violence, parents
are expected to use positive parenting and discipline techniques. Corporal
punishment is a challenging space that requires drastic changes. Phiri et al. (2015), there is need to review the sphere of corporal changes,
since the school may be supporting child-friendly values, and parents and the
communities may be regarding corporal punishment as a discipline instilling
mechanism. Thus positive disciplinary methods are achievable through
discussions between the school and the community meetings. These meetings avail
platforms where the parents and teachers provide their perspectives on both
corporal punishment and positive discipline. According to Mugadza et al. (2019), it is important to have forums to discuss the reasons
fuelling corporal punishment is widespread in the community. These forums also
should form the ground for the community to be encouraged to contribute to the
development of positive discipline practices in the community.
Evidence based-responses
the
paper focuses on two perspectives. To
begin with, the comprehensive school health backbone is on the planning of the
student's well-being and school safety.
It recognizes that healthy young people are well designed to achieve,
especially academically. The whole school curriculum approach to addressing
gender-based violence; takes appropriate action in all junctures of students’
schooling. Therefore, creating awareness
of gender-based violence through cumulative lessons helps students in their
quest to identify, discuss, report and address the incidents of violence
against their peers and friends (Wilson, 2015). Among the approaches is the
integration of children's rights into the curricula. Through teaching and learning, children understand
to have inherent capabilities as well as rights and responsibilities which
should be respected and promoted. In a nutshell, the school curriculum
discusses the rights and responsibilities of students and educators for the
protection and to promote non-violence learning environments.
The second perspective is the three-tier model that
offers a framework to identify evidence regarding the strengths, needs and
priorities. The framework should offer both proactive and responsive
practices. They are divided into three
tiers: primary, secondary and tertiary.
Since the report is dealing with a high level of gender-based violence;
the emphasis will be on the secondary and tertiary tiers. In the secondary, the implementation of the
response and prevent gender-based violence is through the provision of early
intervention and support. The
intervention is executed collectively to take less time, lessen the impact and
enable sustainability in coordinated programs. On the tertiary tier, the
execution is through focusing on minimizing the immediate effect of
gender-based violence on the victims. For instance, building the capacity of
teachers and the community to the point stakeholders feel more equipped to take
the risk needed in handling sensitive issues such as gender-based violence
(Parkes, 2020). In particular, it is significant in engaging with students and
communicating with the community about sticky topics such as bullying and
sexual harassment.
The social
ecological emphasizes the importance of connection and the community.
Therefore, schools under this pretext create a sense
of belonging and help to develop students' social, emotional and physiological
well-being. Therefore, the concept is
integral to prevention of the gender-based violence since it builds the
foundation of caring that will support the problem-solving process in case of
GBV. Furthermore, connection creates a sense of belonging hence developing
positive relationships and communicating support to resolve incidents of GBV.
Figure
2 Social-ecological system perspective
Finally, it is
the strength-based practices perspectives confined to a belief system with
partnership processes and as well practices that empower individuals by
building on their potential and provision of a supportive environment. Responding with restorative rather than
harsh disciplinary practices such as corporal punishment is ideal for creating
a positive learning environment free from violence. Furthermore, integration of
the positive behavior supports creates a calm and safe environment.
Implications of
the research
Sustain a
positive school environment in most cases is driven by the school authorities
and it can be disrupted by job transfers or inadequate resources. Therefore, for effective implementation of
the whole schooling approach is salient for the school administrator to lobby
for enough resources from the authorities for successful projects. Some of the
resources are prerequisites for hiring school counselors and psychologists,
organizing meetings with the community and building more facilities. Through strength-based practices, there is
the integration of social and emotional learning. Thus, the stakeholders can have emotional
competencies in terms of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and
relationship skills. According to
Lisandra et al. (2016) social-based strength improves students' behavioral
adjustment in terms of increased social behaviors and improves overall academic
performance. Therefore, this paper,
recommends that school administrators have worked closely with the education
authorities at all levels to ensure that the school-level project has enough
resources and is monitored.
Monitoring undertakings and evaluation of the
effectiveness of the whole school approaches can be a challenge since there are
multiple pathways of change occurring. In effect, it has resulted in limited
evidence based on the implementation of the approaches. According to Belot et al. (2018), it is
recommended that learning institutions develop a robust and long-term
prevention plan that addresses the issue of gender-based violence. Furthermore,
the three-tiered health framework provides the framework to address
gender-based violence within the set of behavioral and academic concerns.
Therefore, this paper recommends that the school and the community should
invest in the monitoring, accountability methods and collection of the relevant
data on the approach that is contributing to the reduction of violence and it
is sustained.
The whole school approach model requires many
stakeholders and activities. This nature
makes it complex to implement and hence requires a sophisticated process to
ensure its success. Therefore, it should
be routine for all these stakeholders to work together within management
committees and other groups involving parents and teachers. Working together as per comprehensive healthy
perspectives fosters a healthy relationship. Therefore,
this paper recommends that the implementation of a whole school approach should
be tailored to the needs and priorities identified by the school and the
community. Research has suggested that rather than having a sole focus on
ending just one gender-based violence, it is imperative to create a caring and
respectful school environment and positive results that include but are not
limited to emotional well-being and social wellbeing. Furthermore, these
environments are attributed to the provision of the critical context for
shaping students’ self-esteem, self-efficacy and high level of self-control
over their lives. Furthermore, there should be strengthening of the school
system to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. Therefore, the
identification of students needs mental and other helpful services to help them
plus their families to find the appropriate services.
Conclusion
In a nutshell implementation of the whole school approach
in addressing gender-based violence, success is confirmed by the reduced number
of victims of gender-based violence. In other words, there should be few cases
of gender-based violence reported. This is achievable through a good
relationship between the stakeholders. All the parties should actively
contribute to strengthening initiatives and policies aiding to respond and
preventing gender-based violence. Furthermore, a successful implementation
means that there is an adaptation of initiatives that directly reduce
gender-based violence such as using other disciplinary action rather than
corporal punishment. These positive disciplinary methods ensure that students
are availed easy schooling time without being subjected to any unwanted action.
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