Exploring stakeholders’ perspectives on educators’ safety in selected Secondary Schools in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District, North West Province, South Africa

Abstract

Violence against educators is a critical global issue that detrimentally affects teaching environments, educator well-being and educational outcomes. While prevalent internationally, this study focuses on the specific and severe challenges within South African high schools, particularly in the under-researched Ngaka Modiri Molema District of the North West Province. This region, characterised by socio-economic disadvantage and systemic resource constraints, has experienced high-profile violent incidents, including fatal assaults on teachers, underscoring a crisis in educator safety. This situation contributes to professional attrition, demoralisation and compromised schooling environments. Employing a qualitative research approach, this study is underpinned by Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (1977) as its theoretical framework, through which violent behaviour is analysed as acquired via observational learning and modelling. The study engaged 38 participants – comprising seven school leaders (principals/deputy principals), 11 heads of department and 20 classroom educators – drawn from six purposively selected secondary schools in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Key findings reveal that learner‑on‑educator violence manifests primarily as physical assault, verbal aggression and intimidation. Contributing factors include dysfunctional home environments, peer influence, weak school climate, over‑age learners, progression policies, and inadequate policy enforcement. Existing safety measures are perceived by educators as insufficient and inconsistently applied, creating a policy‑reinforcement gap that inadvertently sustains rather than reduces violence. By addressing a significant gap in localised research in communities such as the Ngaka Modiri Molema District, this investigation intends to provide actionable insights for policymakers, the Department of Basic Education and school stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to inform the development of targeted interventions and robust safety policies to protect educators' constitutional rights, foster safer school climates and aid in retaining teaching professionals within the South African educational system. This study developed an original analytical framework – the Policy‑Reinforcement Gap Framework – which theorised the structural disconnect between existing school safety policies and their implementation in under‑resourced South African school districts. This framework constitutes a theoretical contribution to the scholarship on educator safety, offering analytical transferability beyond the Ngaka Modiri Molema District to similar under‑resourced contexts nationally and internationally