Verbal and Nonverbal Violence in Algerian Schools: A Sociological and Communicational Approach

Abstract

A universal issue, a worldwide pandemic, a health issue, a social epidemic, a dangerous threat, an alarming problem. These are the words used to introduce school violence around the world. Researchers, experts, from their respective perspectives tried to define school violence but in vein. The Algerian schools with their different specificities could not find the responses in de-contextualized researches. Most of the attention was unfortunately directed to the consequence, i.e., physical violence, and not the hidden roots: verbal and nonverbal violence. In order to reach that admittedly titanic objective, the present study is based on a mix method approach. The complexity of the phenomenon urged us to opt for several research tools like the observational research, survey, and content analysis. Relying on the methodological chapter would not be sufficient. Therefore exploring the answers provided by the literature has been exploited as well. The results showed that almost all the physical incidents were preceded by either verbal or -mainly- nonverbal phases of violence. Therefore, revisiting the definitions, (re)training the stakeholders, reviewing the strategies and the programs should be the new priority. Promoting peace is the responsibility of all the stakeholders. The whole community can be endangered by school violence, not to say violences, if we are still focusing on the tip of the iceberg.