I sincerely thank my supervisor and mentor Deevia Bhana (Ph.D.) for her support and guidance in the preparation of this thesis. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the dissertation does not contain material previously published or written by another person, unless the dissertation is properly referenced. The overall conclusion that emerges from the research project is that attempts to reduce the masculinity of violent gangs in school must include a gender equality strategy that tackles gender inequality.
Introduction ...... '"
- Defining a gang
- Rationale of the study
- Background and context
- The outline of the thesis
- Conceptualization of masculinity
- Race, class and protest masculinity
- Masculinity, gangs and schooling in South Africa
- Gangs, violence and schooling in South Africa
- Conclusion
These experiences and observations have led the researcher to identify some of the boys in the school as gang members. These conditions put the school at increased risk, i.e. prone to violent acts by outside gangs in the community. Gang cultures are reproduced within the school and have resulted in the 'disruption of learning'.
Introduction
Research site
As deputy principal of the school studied, he maintains pre-existing relationships with staff, which allowed him to easily access respondents. The researcher has been a teacher at the school studied since 1994, including nine years as deputy director. They are blind to the way boys at the school studied hurt themselves and others.
The sample size and sampling procedure
A brief biography of the ten boys interviewed and a list of gangs operating inside and outside the school is given below. In 1996 corporal punishment was outlawed and the school established a policy on alternatives to corporal punishment. In this context, students became unruly, disobedient and lost respect for educators at school and elsewhere.
The respondents
Due to time constraints, dealing with the smaller sample allowed the researcher to access relevant information that was likely to provide a better understanding of a concept of research interest. The use of isiZulu ensured maximum levels of communication between the researcher and the informants during the study. The researcher also provided detailed information about the nature of the study so that respondents could explain the research process to their parents.
Research design and methodology
- Observation
- Interviews
This section will describe the approach the researcher used to collect the data that will be analyzed later. Thus, the success of this data collection method was highly dependent on the researcher's ability to question Emine's behavior. The advantage of an interview is that it involves a one-on-one verbal interaction between the researcher and a respondent.
Limitations of the study
Their regular absence from school is manifested in their poor academic performance in the classroom. The imposing size of the researcher and the position of authority he holds in the school may have intimidated the boys, but this problem was minimized by being friendly with the key informants. To achieve this, he communicated with the boys in tsotsi-taal, which made them feel very comfortable and sometimes, to some extent, forget about the research processes.
Conclusion
Secondly, the connection between violence, gangs and masculinities in the classroom and on the playground was investigated. Third, the question of how violent (gang) masculinity is connected to issues of race/ethnicity and class influence on the creation of youth gang cultures was also explored.
Hegemonic masculinity and gangs
The study examined the ways in which boys who are gang members construct their masculinity. Boys who are in gangs develop hatred and aversion to boys who are associated with the authoritative power of the school and begin to define their masculinity against them. The prefects and other boys who work with the educators show the hegemony that is the dominant culture of the school, according to the boys' gangs.
Violence, masculinities and schooling at NPS
The boys of the gang thus enact protest masculinity to stand up to teachers, prefects and other students. As a sign of protest against being equated with femininity, gang boys often resort to violence and are prepared to fight to the death. Bullying or fighting was an important means of testing, changing or validating protest masculinity among gang boys.
Relationship with educators
Although the educators are simply telling the truth, their statements marginalize and exclude gang members from the majority of boys in the school. When probed with questions about their antagonism toward this particular educator, all participants said, "Uyaphoxa. The use of such sweepingly aggressive terms and expressions—always carrying threats of gender violence—often led to fistfights, stabbings, and sometimes shooting incidents and can be understood in terms of turf protection, male bonding and interdependence among gang members.
It is important to note that teachers are thus complicit in the maintenance of protest masculinity. Being violently associated with gang culture not only harms victims, but also puts gang members at risk of injury, incarceration and death. For example, a 'protest masculinity' can be constructed through defiance of authority – a strategy these boys use to express their rebellious behavior of being marginalized by the school.
The pervasiveness of gang violence masculinity was illustrated in the interview with Ganda, a 13-year-old boy. He told about an incident in which swearing, threatening, intimidating and stabbing among gang boys was an everyday experience. If they dare to report to a teacher, they will ask for trouble from amajitha (a gang) after school.
Breaking the rules and regulations of the school is just one example of the strategies that gangs use to challenge the authority figures and the daily management of the school.
Relations with other boys
34;Ngizataka nshalmvu" (I shoot you) echoes the everyday experiences of boys, where extreme violence is taken up as an appropriate means of exercising power. The perpetrators were a gang of about five boys led by a 16-year-old Saddam who had tried to ' tighten screws' by placing a knife on Zama's chest for not paying the amount demanded by the gang on time. It is noted how Saddam uses the gang structure to exert a form of power on a powerless boy as a way. to prove his masculinity.
From the field notes, a gang within the school known as 'Amajimbosi' had threatened to kill a boy from another gang in the school called 'The Bafanas' because one of their members wanted his girlfriend. Fortunately a member of staff who saw Bhele behaving strangely searched his school bag and seized a gun. The practice of direct intimidation and violence is mainly explained by the contribution of Glaser (1990) in which he states that gangs are an embodiment of violent youth street culture.
Here, violence is accepted as a normal way of life and is imported into the school, where young boys act out street patterns of gang behavior. Within this macho culture, violence is a means of self-assertion and often the only known mechanism for conflict resolution.
Race and gang activities
There are many socio-economic factors that affect the school, such as poverty, family violence and gangsterism. The alienation of African boys provided the context in which alternative social mechanisms, such as gangs, could develop. Boys' oppositional practices stem from another cause: gang boys' rejection of the school's social values and their accompanying disciplinary system.
As an African boy, Lomo clearly articulates the way in which gang membership is linked to power (and economic power). These findings focused on how violent (gang) masculinity was received (constructed) by African boys within gang cultures at a primary school in Amaoti in Inanda, Durban. This study investigated the ways in which a group of boys, often members of gangs, construct their masculinity.
The focus was on African boys' construction of their masculinity within gang cultures at Nhlonipho Primary School (NPS) in Inanda, Durban. Qualitative methods, including observation and unstructured interviews, were used as tools in an attempt to demonstrate the interrelationships between violence, gangs and masculinity in the school environment. Furthermore, this research project has exposed how protest masculinity is constructed and linked to issues of race/ethnicity, gender, class and context in the creation of youth gang cultures.
This research has also shown that there are many factors that negatively affect school, such as poverty, family violence, gang cultures and gangsterism.
Discussion
The study has highlighted that the school's dominant culture provided a fertile context for the emergence of violent gang masculinities. The prefect system, which functions to maintain discipline in the school, is perceived as a symbol of authority. The researcher's observation shows that gang masculinity is established against other masculinities within the school context.
As shown in the research, there are many socio-economic factors that negatively affect the school, such as poverty, family violence and gangsterism. In the first place, the school context is important in the implementation of violent masculinity. This research project investigates African boys and gangs: The construction of masculinity within school gang cultures.
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements of Masters in Education in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. Gang culture is identified in this study as a male style of male protest against the dominant culture of the school. This contempt and disrespect for the hierarchy of the school wins the admiration of their peers.
Within these contexts it is not surprising that gang cultures and violence are widespread and a taken-for-granted phenomenon in schools. This information was valuable to the researcher in selecting ten key informants for this study. The researcher chose seventh-grade boys because gang cultures are most visible in seventh grade—based on the physicality, size, and age of the boys at the school.
The observation of gang boys within the school context added useful insights and data to the study. He considered this option to protect his position as vice principal at the school under study.
