NCJ Number
191557
Journal
Urban Education Volume: 36 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2001 Pages: 374-399
Date Published
May 2001
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article discusses current studies of school violence, with emphasis on how they regard and research the issue of context.
Abstract
Research has revealed that specific school subcontexts (e.g., hallways, cafeterias, and bathrooms) tend to be violence prone. However, students’ understanding and teachers’ understanding of violence in these school subcontexts remains an underresearched topic. Current research on school violence often has a singular focus on either subjective assessments of violence as a problem or on the frequency and severity of violent events in school. Such research does not offer detailed conceptual explanations regarding why certain school subcontexts are consistently more prone to violence. Another concern is the lack of a philosophical discussion surrounding the meaning of school violence to school professionals, students, and society. The analysis argues that school social context is multifaceted, multidimensional, and varied from subcontext to subcontext and that researchers and practitioners need to focus on both physical and social components. Note and 96 references (Author abstract modified)