Leadership Practices to Mitigate Violence and Promote Social Justice in South African Schools

Abstract

Due to the repeal of apartheid laws (Bantu Education Act of 1953 and the Education and Training Act of 1979) that segregate learners on the basis of their skin colour, the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 was enacted to place all learners on an equal footing. The latter gave learners freedom of speech, equality and human dignity. However, the introduction of this system presented new difficulties in the instructional domain. One of these issues is school violence between learners and educators, which has led some authors to question whether the idea of in loco parentis is still applicable in educational settings. School violence not only brought headaches for teachers, but also for principals in the leadership and management domain. Principals are rendered incapable of instilling discipline in schools due to school violence. For education to flourish, respect for one another is paramount, but is often lacking when violence is present. This conceptual article seeks to present leadership practices to provide social justice in schools which have been negatively affected by violence.