School for Men: An Ethnographic Case Study of Routine Violence in Schooling (From Human Aggression: Naturalistic Approaches, P 122-150, 1989, John Archer and Kevin Browne, eds. -- See NCJ-124351)

• NCJ Number: 124355
• Author(s): J Beynon
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: Routledge
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

A naturalistic examination of violence in a school for boys ages 11-12 in Wales concluded that violence was the means by which both students and teachers projected themselves, provisionally typed each other, and established the institution at the start of the year as a "school for men."

Abstract

The research was part of fieldwork as part of a broader project that focused on the initial encounters between teachers and students during the youth's entry into secondary school. The observations focused on staff induction strategies toward new pupils and on the ways in which the new pupils reacted to the academic and disciplinary demands of the new school. Participant observations and interviews during the first 8 weeks of the fall term showed that many staff used threats and physical coercion from the start as part of the institutional "welcome." A group of male teachers regarded coercive measures as a virtue. The students variously regarded teacher violence as humorous, real, and part of a teacher's duty, with humorous and justified violence considered acceptable. The pupils also engaged in considerable violence among themselves. The findings also showed the benefits of naturalistic research of the type used in the study. Figure, table, notes, and 52 references.