Estudio de la violencia escolar en los Centros de Educación Media de Juan Lacaze, Uruguay

Abstract

School violence is considered as one of the topics that most interest has arisen in recent decades within the general population. Violence as such, present in all modern societies, has managed to secure an important place in education, manifested in particular ways, and as the phenomenon to which this thesis refers. This research concerns the violence in education, especially among teenagers, from the perspective of the students, teachers and from the educational institution itself. Research has proven how damaging violence can be to those who live it closely, either as victims, perpetrators or spectators. The study of school violence today, notes the importance of addressing multiple factors within a social and cultural context in which such violence takes place, as well as internal factors to the school environment that can determine its existence. School violence in Uruguay is still an unexplored issue; some research has been done in recent years to identify its impact, but much more remains to be done. In this sense the study presented here, represents an answer to the need of knowing what is happening in terms of school violence within a particular context and even without previous Studies. This context is the town of Juan Lacaze, Uruguay. The study was made in three Media Education centers in that city. 775 teenagers and 19 teachers were surveyed. The compiled information was analyzed and then registered in the “Conduct Notebook”, a space to log situations of school violence in the center. The analysis of the three points of view of the situation, and subsequent results have yielded a descriptive map of what is happening there, demonstrating the existence of violence in schools at all levels. We have evaluated the various manifestations of violence at schools, the attitudes of students and teachers to violence, as well as needs to address it. The discussion proposed in this thesis, demonstrates the interrelation of the three perspectives studied, as well as the shortcomings of the tools used and the urgent need for action to decrease school violence.