An Exploratory Study on How Democratic School Management Practices Affect the Dynamics of Violence in Schools
Pages 86-98

Petro van der Merwe

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2016.05.08

Published: 26 May 2016

Abstract: The goal of teachers, schools and support staff is the optimal development of learners. This goal depends on effective school management, which in turn depends on an adequate curriculum and supporting teaching and learning environments. This paper is focused through a literature review on the dynamics of violence in South African schools and the need for democratic school management. The necessity of emotional intelligence teaching in the classroom and learner-centred teaching is shown. This study also investigated the coordinated and integrated management of positive learner behaviour, whole school development and management of a culture of positive behaviour. The establishment of a safe school depends on the management's interaction with the larger social and organisational context in which they find themselves. The study concludes that there is a correlation between Emotional Intelligence teaching methods and learners' behaviour. The use of Emotional Intelligence in the classroom can be regarded as the corrective aspect of discipline, thus, preventing inappropriate behaviour of learners. Recommendations and guidelines for the use of effective adjusted and alternative teaching methods to support school management in the use of emotional skills in the school context are provided.

Students’ Social and Emotional Competence Promoting Positive Social Relationships and Skills
Pages 105-112

Reizo Koizumi and Yohei Yamada

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2016.05.10

Published: 25 May 2016

Abstract: The current study examined causal relationships between social and emotional competence and social relationships and skills in the classroom. Participants were 2,410 third- to ninth-grade students and they responded to the scales of social and emotional competence (SEC), self-esteem, and normative behavior. The classroom teachers rated their normative behavior in the classes. The results indicated that perceived SEC has influences on children’s actual normative behavior through self-esteem and perceived normative behavior, and that self-esteem partly mediates the cause-and-effect process between perceived SEC and perceived normative behavior. The same causal structure was found among both elementary school students (third to sixth grades) and junior high school students (seventh to ninth grades), with age-related differences in some path coefficients. The findings support that SEC enhancement by social and emotional learning brings positive outcomes in students’ perception and social relationships and skills.

The Influence of Social Relationships on Conduct Problems in School Context – Does School Engagement Matter?
Pages 113-122

Maximiliano E. Korstanje and Geoffrey Skoll

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2016.05.11

Published: 25 May 2016

Abstract: There has been an increase in the prevalence of problem behavior during adolescence over the last decades. Thereby, studies have found that social bonds and relationships as well as school engagement as a form of connectedness play an important protective role. However, less is know whether school engagement is as a potential mediator in the association of social relationships with peers and teachers and conduct problems. The current study examined this interplay in a large non-clinical sample of students (N= 1.088; M_Age= 13.7 SD=0.53 at T1; N= 845; M_age = 15.32, SD = .49 at T2) in secondary schools in Brandenburg, Germany. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the mediating effect from school engagement in the association between students’ social relationships in early adolescence and conduct problems in middle adolescence. The results show that school engagement function as full mediator in the association of both student-student relationships and teacher-student relationships at T1 and conduct problems at T2. This highlights that fostering school engagement in early adolescence might be an essential starting point for prevention and intervention strategies of conduct problems in middle adolescence.

Conflicting Voices in HIV/AIDS Education of the South African Youth: School Culture Versus South African Traditional Healers Using Ancestral Worship
Pages 123-142

Miriam Siwela and Cecelia Jansen

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2016.05.12

Published: 25 May 2016

Abstract: The United Nations Agency of International Development (2013) states that an estimated 24.7 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 71% of the global total. The 2.9 million are young people aged 15–24 and this generation is living in South Africa. These alarming statistics reveal that various HIV/AIDS prevention strategies have met limited success. The question arises: why? The South African youth face the dilemma that they receive conflicting messages from two opposing sources, each with a strong persuasive pull of its own where HIV/AIDS education is concerned. On one hand, the voice of modern medical science proclaims that the disease is caused by a viral infection that suppresses the victim’s immune response, while on the other hand spiritual voices of African traditional healers offer explanations such as witchcraft or angry ancestors. This article is an attempt to discover whether either or neither of these voices is gaining ground amongst the youth. This article is based on a qualitative phenomenological study conducted at an urban secondary school in Pretoria, South Africa. Empirical findings resulted from the purposive sampling by means of interviews conducted with two focus groups of teachers, three focus groups of grade 12 school learners and one school principal. This was followed by thematic analysis involving the identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. Facts emerging from the research were that conflicting voices are stressful for young people who are subjected to societal pressure to conform and comply with unrealistic expectations. The South African social culture of ancestral worship is very powerful, yet school culture has significant countervailing influence that sheds liberating “light” where gloom of fear, uncertainty and superstition used to prevail. It is critical to note in this regard, for instance, that where HIV/AIDS remedies are concerned, there is no standardised solution for the ‘entire world’ and that a unique situation prevails in the South African social cultural environment where ancestral worship exerts a critically real influence on people’s response to the threat of HIV/AIDS.

Crime Story in the Macedonian Printed Daily Newspapers
Pages 14-24
Stefanovska Vesna

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2016.05.02

Published: 15 April 2016

Abstract: The paper examines the media coverage of crime in the Macedonian printed newspapers and the way in which certain circumstances related to the offender, the victim and the crime are depicted. The content analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from the media articles within three-month period by using written coding instrument.

The main findings indicate that there are different approaches to and prioritization of criminal offences worth publishing in daily newspapers. The latter exhibit uneven representation of violent compared to property crimes, which means that the former crimes compared to property felonies, although less frequent in occurrence, note higher representation in part of the newspapers. In addition, differences according to the place of crimes commission are noticed between media in Macedonian and Albanian. Albanian media tend to emphasize crime perpetrated in areas where majority population is of Albanian origin compared to other major municipalities in the country. In this way, one gets the impression that these areas are incomparably much more burdened with crime, which makes them less safe than other major municipalities.

The findings relate only to media texts published in the printed newspapers on the research topic and to the classifications and definitions contained in criminal laws. Therefore, in-depth analysis on crime news depiction, not only in printed media, but also in electronic media in general, and at the web portals, in particular is challenging for scholars. This will bring new scientific insight into Macedonian criminological critical thoughts related to the role and meaning of the media and their discourse in construction of crime and criminality.