TRUSTWORTHINESS AND TRANSFERABILITY

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Research problem

Having taken cognisance of the media hype surrounding sexual abuse at schools, I was curious to find out how common it is, and why it is happening at all. I knew that in terms of the Sexual Offences Act (RSA, 2007), any person found guilty of sexually exploiting or abusing a minor could be sent to jail; yet sexual exploitation continues. In fact, there are no indications that school-based sexual abuse is decreasing. Instead, according to the DoE (2002a), South Africa falls among the countries that experience the highest rates of violence, including sexual abuse, at schools. Sexual abuse incidents including the rape of learners under the age of seventeen years is ever increasing, especially in the poor and rural areas.
The DoE report triggered some questions in me. Are teachers disenchanted with their profession? Are they unwilling to accept the ‘in loco parentis’ role? Or is there some other reason (traditional taboos, perhaps)? The Department of Education (DoE, 2002b) further indicates that, in most cases, parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. Parents are embarrassed to talk about such things and their silence undermines the teaching of sex education in schools. Hules (2005) argues that parental silence and child sexual abuse are not recent issues. These issues have been spreading throughout all cultures since ancient times. During biblical times, child sexual abuse was kept secret and perpetrators were rarely punished. The church also turned its back on sexual abuse because women and children were considered the property of men. They had no right to refuse men’s sexual demands. As a result, rape was not considered a crime. This encouraged sexual abuse to go unchallenged to an extent that children – irrespective of age – had to suffer in silence. As a teacher, and laterally as a principal of a secondary school in a rural area, the issues noted above have reminded me of the cultural taboos regarding any discussion of a sexual nature. I was reminded of these taboos by three incidents that occurred shortly before I decided to embark on this study. In the first incident, a secondary school principal had allegedly committed a sexual act with the teenage girlfriend of the school’s SRC (Student Representative Council) president. The boy’s outraged friends reacted by burning down the principal’s cottage while he slept. The principal escaped, the boys were expelled from school, and the rest of the learners went on strike. To defuse the situation, the Department of Education transferred the principal to a different school. The principal continued working without any apparent punishment or sanction, while those who reacted to the alleged sexual activities between him and their fellow learner suffered the consequences. In the second incident, a female Grade 10 learner, who had been impregnated by one of her teachers, dropped out of school to give birth and care for their baby. When she returned to school a year later, the teacher impregnated her again. Instead of marrying her, he decided to marry a student teacher who was, at the time, doing her teaching practice at the same school.
Both of them now teach at this school. The schoolgirl concerned had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a psychiatric hospital for intensive care. The learner’s future was doomed, her parents kept quiet, and the teacher is still working at the same school. The third incident involved a female teacher and a Grade 9 schoolboy who were having regular sex in her cottage, even during school hours. When the principal was informed of the situation, he confronted the boy; who admitted his guilt and left the school. The teacher is still employed at the school. The parents, who were called for a consultation, declined to prosecute. According to them, it was a private family matter in which the school had no right to interfere. In these incidents, parents were not willing to discuss the sexual abuse with the school administrators. They opted to settle the matter within the family.
These cases triggered further questions in me. Do parents and administrators choose to ignore teacher/learner sexual abuse at schools? Do they condone what is happening? Are school administrators protecting teachers? Are learners, as victims, safe in such a school environment? How, if at all, is justice served? In trying to find answers to these questions, I consulted a number of articles and books on sexual behaviour in schools. I specifically wanted to find out what reasons there might be for teachers and learners to engage in sexual activity and what effect such activity had on them and the schools they attended. To answer some of these questions, Hules (2005) states that African culture and religious tradition have a moral blind spot towards sexual abuse. He ascribes the perpetuation of sexual abuse to gender inequalities from ancient times. Child sexual abuse incidents were kept secret and were a regular occurrence. Perpetrators took an advantage of the silence and continued abusing children sexually, while the victims did not have any grounds upon which to object.
In line with Hules (2005), the findings of research carried out by Vujovic (2008) indicate that the African tradition of patriarchal social order forbids women and children from discussing sexual matters. Women and children are treated as men’s property; a view which serves as a universal code of sexual conducts. The cultural tradition of enforced silence has created an environment that is vulnerable and open to a variety of abuses. It is not surprising, therefore, that the silence surrounding the sexual exploitation of women and children have contributed to a high rate of sexual abuse in South Africa. In additional to the contributing factors indicated above, a high level of poverty renders women vulnerable to sexual abuse (Sikes, 2006; Van Niekerk, 2005). Men take advantage of this poverty, exercising their role as masculine providers to achieve more power over women. They go to the extent of abusing women sexually because they are in control. Men regarded women as people who cannot take major decisions (DoE, 2002b). Therefore, according to Makgoka (2007: 7) and Sikes (2006), socio-cultural and socio-economic factors contribute to the sexual exploitation of women and children. Sexual abuse is a social and cultural problem.
Turning a blind eye to it and pretending that it does not exist will not solve the problem. Social problems need social solutions. The reasons mentioned above struck a nerve with me. Being a school principal in a rural area, and having grown up in a traditional rural community, I know how poor and steeped in tradition most of the communities are. I wondered whether the secrecy surrounding sexual abuse in the areas where I worked could be ascribed to either poverty or traditional beliefs. Were the values and human rights contained in the Constitution perhaps regarded as a threat to the old customs and ways of being? Was it perhaps symptomatic of a community trying to protect its identity? Could it be a form of passive resistance against a perceived imposition of liberal western values on traditional African communities? If this is the case, what is the possibility of breaking the silence in order to reconcile traditional and constitutional values and ensure that social justice is served?

Research rationale

The primary reason for my desire to investigate school-based sexual abuse can be found in the seeming ineffectiveness of the laws, policies and interventions aimed at the eradication of such incidents in South African schools. In addition to this, my own experience of the impact that sexual abuse had on learners has convinced me that stopping them is a matter of urgency. The reason for my stance is that teacher/learner sexual abuse is illegal, immoral and unprofessional. It threatens the culture of teaching and learning and renders schools unsafe.

Researcher positioning

Given the assumption on which my thesis rests, namely that school-based sexual abuse, as well as the silence surrounding the abuse, might be culturally related; I decided to approach the problem from a socio-cultural angle. More specifically, I wanted to determine whether or not the connection between sexual exploitation, poverty and traditional cultural ways; as mooted by Van Niekerk (2005), Ncaca (2006), Sikes (2006) and Makgoka (2007); also existed in the schools where I planned to conduct my investigation. Informed by this decision was my contention that a critical understanding of socio-cultural issues was crucial to the investigation of a socio-cultural phenomenon like sexual abuse (Hules, 2005). Deciding on a theoretical framework was somewhat more complicated given my ontological position that, because people’s realities are influenced by or constructed during the course of their lived experiences (Henning, Van Rensburg, & Smit, 2004). Every person’s reality is uniquely different (DeMarais & Lapan, 2003; Henning et al., 2004). I therefore used a theoretical framework that accommodated the existence of different socio-cultural realities. Hules (2005) indicates that sexual abuse is a social and cultural problem.
As a result, my epistemological position, namely that insight into such realities requires an investigation of the reasons for people’s behaviour, suggests that my research should be aimed at the uncovering of people’s beliefs, values and attitudes (Merriam & Associates, 2002). My epistemological position rests on the investigation of African cultures’ attitudes and secrecy regarding school-based sexual abuse. Culture is a mixture of values, beliefs, attitudes, and customs shared among people across generations (Mulaudzi, 2003). Richerson and Boyd (2005) ascribe culture to the social interactions accepted by a particular community. The implication is that sexual abuse and the secrecy surrounding it would depend on how different cultural communities attach meaning to it. Also, since people construct their own realities, the most reliable sources of information on these realities are the people themselves. If, as I argue, sexual abuse is a social construct; the investigation would have to be framed in a theoretical paradigm that would enable me to interact with either the perpetrators or the victims of school-based sexual abuse.

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• CHAPTER RESEARCH PURPOSE AND PARAMETERS
  • 1.1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
  • 1.2 CONCEPT CLARIFICATION
  • 1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEM
  • 1.4 RESEARCH RATIONALE
  • 1.5 RESEARCH PURPOSE
  • 1.6 RESEARCHER POSITIONING
  • 1.7 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
  • 1.7.1 Sampling and data collection
  • 1.7.2 Data analysis
  • 1.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
  • 1.9 TRUSTWORTHINESS AND TRANSFERABILITY
  • 1.10 SIGNIFICANCE OF MY RESEARCH
  • 1.11 LIMITATIONS OF MY RESEARCH
  • 1.12 STRUCTURE OF MY STUDY
  • 1.13 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW
  • 2.1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE
  • 2.2 DEFINING SEXUAL ABUSE
  • 2.3 SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES OF SEXUAL ABUSE
  • 2.4 CULTURAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SEXUAL ABUSE
  • 2.5 IMPACT OF SEXUAL ABUSE
  • 2.6 CULTURAL CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
  • 2.7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
  • 2.8 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER CASE STUDY FINDINGS
  • 3.1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE
  • 3.2 CASE STUDY CONTEXT
  • 3.3 CASE SELECTION
  • 3.4 CASE STUDY DATA COLLECTION
  • 3.5 CASE STUDY DATA
  • 3.5.1 SCHOOL A PROFILE
    • 3.5.1.1 School A Principal interview
    • 3.5.1.2 School A Learner questionnaire
  • 3.5.2 SCHOOL B PROFILE
    • 3.5.2.1 School B Principal interview
    • 3.5.2.2 School B Learner questionnaire
  • 3.5.3 SCHOOL C PROFILE
    • 3.5.3.1 School C Principal interview
    • 3.5.3.2 School C Learner questionnaire
  • 3.5.4 SCHOOL D PROFILE
    • 3.5.4.1 School D Principal interview
    • 3.5.4.2 School D Learner questionnaire
  • 3.5.5 SCHOOL E PROFILE
    • 3.5.5.1 School E Principal interview
    • 3.5.5.2 School E Learner questionnaire
  • 3.5.6 SCHOOL F PROFILE
    • 3.5.6.1 School F Principal interview
    • 3.5.6.2 School F Learner questionnaire
  • 3.6 CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
  • 3.7 EMERGING CASE STUDY PATTERNS/THEMES
  • 3.7.1 School climate and culture
  • 3.7.2 The nature and extent of sexual abuse
  • 3.7.3 Factors contributing to sexual abuse
  • 3.7.4 Response to sexual abuse
  • 3.7.5 Impact of sexual abuse
  • 3.7.6 Participant strategies for the prevention of sexual abuse
  • 3.8 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER THE BIGGER PICTURE
  • 4.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 4.2 THE LIMPOPO CONTEXT
  • 4.3 SEXUAL ABUSE IN LIMPOPO
  • 4.4 THE NATIONAL CONTEXT
  • 4.5 CAUSAL AND CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
  • 4.5.1 Nature and scope of abuse
  • 4.6 CURRENT STRATEGIES
  • 4.6.1 Education departments
  • 4.6.2 The South African Police Services (SAPS)
  • 4.6.3 Other organisations and bodies
  • 4.7 LESSONS LEARNT
    • 4.7.1 Provincial attitudes to sexual abuse
    • 4.7.2 Factors contributing to sexual abuse
    • 4.7.3 Veil of silence
    • 4.7.4 Action taken
    • 4.7.5 Future strategies
  • 4.8 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • 5.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 5.2 RESEARCH PURPOSE AND PROCESS
  • 5.3 RESEARCH FINDINGS
    • 5.3.1 Case study picture
    • 5.3.2 Provincial picture
    • 5.3.3 National picture
  • 5.4 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
  • 5.5 THE VEIL OF SILENCE
    • 5.5.1 The veil of silence of parents
    • 5.5.2 The veil of silence of victims
    • 5.5.3 The veil of silence of schools
    • 5.5.4 The veil of silence of the community
    • 5.5.5 Poverty and the veil of silence
    • 5.5.6 Silence versus speaking
  • 5.6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • 5.7 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
  • REFERENCES
  • APPENDICES

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