Narratives of Teachers’ Experiences of Cultural Violence in South African Farm Schools

Abstract

Cultural violence is often overlooked in studies of school violence, yet it legitimises and sustains both direct and structural violence in schools. This paper draws on Johan Galtung’s violence triangle to examine how cultural violence shapes everyday interactions, authority relations, and teachers’ professional positioning in South African farm schools. Farm schools in South Africa reflect historically entrenched hierarchies shaped by colonialism, apartheid, patriarchy, and class, which continue to inform schooling realities. Situated within an interpretivist paradigm, the study employs narrative inquiry. Four teachers were purposively selected to participate in focus group interviews to narrate their experiences of cultural violence. Narrative analysis revealed that teachers experience cultural violence through the demonisation of cultural belief systems, weaponised language, gendered intimidation, ritualised apologies, and sexualised insults. These practices operate as forms of symbolic aggression that undermine teachers’ authority and pedagogical practices while legitimising direct and structural violence. This paper demonstrates how cultural violence within micro-level educational interactions functions to legitimise and normalise violence in everyday school life.