The use of film as an intervention in addressing gender violence: Experiences in a South African secondary school

abstract

In the South African film Yesterday, the filmmaker’s concern is to highlight the harsh social realities of violence and to offer ways of conceptualising, visualising and critiquing violence. In so doing the film offers both a political and pedagogical space for audiences to consider issues of gender violence at school and in the broader society. In this article, I outline how I used this award winning film with Grade 11 learners to address issues of gender, and especially gender-based violence. I argue that issues of gender and sexuality should not be confined to one subject such as Life Orientation but rather should be integrated across the curriculum. The study raised issues which are pertinent to South African society and will continue to be relevant until gender equality is attained. The study is unique and innovative within the isiZulu discipline in that it has employed a cinematic text rather than a conventional print text to address issues of gender and sexuality. It investigated Grade 11 learners’ responses to gender, sexuality and gender violence representations in the film through comprehension and other meaning-making activities. The activities involved questions and discussion before and after viewing the film by focusing on the interplay between the cinematic text and the lived experiences of the learners. The use of critical literacy and feminist theory enabled some of the learners to deconstruct texts. Findings show that through film analysis as a pedagogical intervention, these learners not only acquired analytical and interpretative skills but also critical thinking skills, particularly in the context of gender. The findings have pedagogical implications for isiZulu teachers in that the practice of exploring different texts and applying innovative teaching methods have great potential for engaging learners in a critical social issue such as gender inequality.

Keywords:

• gender
• sexuality
• youth
• gender violence
• pedagogy

Notes

1. Factors related to violence against women at different levels of the social ecology:

“Personal history > witnessing marital violence as a child, being abused as a child, absence of the father figure; Microsystem > male dominance in the family, male control of wealth in the family, use of alcohol, marital conflict; Exosystem > unemployment, isolation of woman and family, delinquent peer association; Macrosystem > male entitlement/ownership of woman, masculinity linked to aggression and dominance, rigid gender roles, acceptance of interpersonal violence, acceptance of physical chastisement” (Heise, 1998:265).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nokukhanya Ngcobo

NOKUKHANYA NGCOBO is a lecturer in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Her research and teaching interests include language and gender, critical literacy, youth, health, sexuality, gender and HIV and AIDS in education, cultural identity and media, mother-tongue based bilingualism and multilingualism. Email: [email protected]