Sexual violence through corporal punishment: Rethinking siloes in school violence prevention using feminist theory and data from Uganda

Children can experience significant violence from teachers and peers in schools. Growing evidence from low-and-middle-income country settings shows the potential for interventions in schools to reduce violence and improve school environments, however these tend to act in siloes and address particular subsets of violence. Further, little is known about how to prevent teacher sexual violence, a particularly sensitive form of violence. We conducted a qualitative semi-ethnographic study in two primary schools in Luwero District, Uganda in 2017. Methods included participant observation, 21 semi-structured interviews with school staff and a range of participatory methods with children aged 8–16 years. The study employed a child protection referral protocol, and 16 children received follow-up healthcare and/or counselling services.

Teacher-perpetrated sexual violence occurred in both schools, and at times through sexualised corporal punishment. The boundaries around teacher sexual violence, corporal punishment and emotional violence, and peer violence, were often blurred as they influenced and shaped each other in practice. Drawing on feminist theory, our analysis reveals how interconnected forms of violence occur within overlapping forms of gender, institutional and generational inequality. There is potential for school interventions to address teacher sexual violence and other forms of violence as interconnected, by moving beyond siloes and addressing gendered, institutional school contexts that give rise to violence.