Interview with Eric Debarbieux : “We can’t eradicate violence in schools, but we can contain it”

• © DR

Eric Debarbieux is Director of the International Observatory of Violence in Schools and professor of education sciences at the University of Bordeaux 2 (France).
As UNESCO hosts the experts’ meeting “Stopping Violence in Schools: What Works?”, he reviews current issues around the subject.

Interview by Agnes Bardon, Bureau of Public Information, UNESCO

Is violence in schools a global phenomenon?

It would be more accurate to say that it’s a phenomenon that arouses global concern, but when it comes to the actual reality, there’s much more contrast. There are in fact countries, if not entire continents, that escape it almost entirely. Two years ago, an investigation in primary schools in Djibouti showed that there was less violence in schools than was feared. Schooling for girls or lack of materials emerged as much more urgent problems.

In many African countries, violence in school does not reach the intensity found in industrialized countries. This is partially due to the fact that not all children are in school, but also that in certain poor communities a solidarity exists that protects the school. This is the case notably in Burkina Faso, in Senegal, and even in Brazil. These are communities in which the value of school is prevalently recognized, while in industrialized countries we see the development of anti-school violence, in other words directed at the institution itself. It is caused by groups of young people who identify with being against school and act it out in violent behavior with teachers or in vandalism.

Can we say there is a general increase in violence or escalation of acts that are committed?

We must be careful not to dramatize the situation based on such events as the shootings that have taken place in high schools or universities in the United States. These events remain exceptional. The risk of being caught in a shoot-out in an American educational institution is infinitesimal and getting smaller. In other words, we are not witnessing a “savaging” of youth. More worrisome on a daily basis are the repetitive, wearing acts of violence that continue in the long term. We know for a fact that a student who is harassed by schoolmates has a four times higher risk of committing suicide as an adolescent. Other forms of violence exist as well like corporal punishment, which is still very widespread.

In some developing countries, young girls endure an intolerable form of blackmail to the point that we talk about “sexually transmitted grade point averages” to define the phenomenon, which consists of making the receiving of good academic results dependent on sexual favors. But to prevent such phenomena, we first have to be able to evaluate them accurately to assess them and act effectively. In France, going by statistics from the National Education administration, which records students’ complaints, 0.03% of children are victims of extortion. But if we question the students directly, it seems 6% are the victims of theft accompanied by threats.

Are there strategies that work for stopping violence?

There are no magic bullets, but some strategies have proved effective. We can cite the example of the anger management program launched in the United States in the 1980s. It consists of showing films to children aged eight or nine in which you see children getting angry. It gives them a chance to realize that often the reasons behind this very negative behavior are trivial. After the screening, there’s a class discussion. The method has had rather spectacular results. Training for teachers is also a determining factor in stopping violence. But as it turns out, such training tends to be incomplete.

A study conducted in Quebec has shown that trained teachers were twice less likely to be the victims of violence than the others. The cohesion in the adult team is also very important. There too, when there is solidarity in the pedagogic team, assaults are two times less numerous. We can’t eradicate violence in schools, but we can contain it.

• 25-06-2007