Geographies of school-related gender-based violence: children's visual accounts of school toilets

ABSTRACT

We report on a qualitative study that engaged learners in understanding their experiences of school-related gender-based violence in and around their school toilets in a township high school in South Africa. The study used photovoice to address the research question. In this paper, we do a close reading of the photovoice images produced by the participants to uncover the meanings they communicate. In their images, participants presented school toilets as geographies of gender-based violence and microaggression, for example, with negative messages written on the walls. In particular, the images presented toilets as spaces where boys (mostly) perpetrate various forms of heterosexist violence and sexual harassment against girls. Paradoxically, some images presented the school toilets as spaces where some learners seek refuge or safety from the violence and microaggression they experienced in and around the school. The findings point to the need for gender-transformative interventions that target various spaces in and around the school, including school toilets, and that seek to develop these spaces as clean, safe, and inclusive physical and social environments for all children.

KEYWORDS:

• Children’s geographies
• participatory visual methodology
• photovoice
• school-related gender-based violence
• school toilets

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ethical considerations: The University of KwaZulu-Natal College of Humanities and Social Sciences Ethics Committee, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, and the school’s management granted permission to conduct this research. The participants’ caregivers gave written informed consent for their children’s participation, while the participants assented to being part of the study.

2 The first author facilitated the photovoice workshop