PhD Graduate Examines Parent Partnerships as Key to Safer Schools

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Dr Presley Dube’s study has explored the lived reality of schools - where school violence undermines children’s right to basic education as well as safety, and negatively impacts their development.

Supervised by Professor Thamsanqa Bhengu, his PhD study: ‘The Role and Complexities of School-Parent Collaboration in Reducing School Violence: A Multiple Case Study’ draws on interviews with principals, School Governing Body (SGB) chairpersons, departmental heads, teachers, and parents to understand how collaboration between schools and families are built and why it often breaks down.

Dube’s interest in the topic stems from years of experience within the education system.

“As a circuit manager, I would receive telephone calls from mostly secondary school principals, alerting me to fights that had broken out between two learner factions at schools,” he recalled.

He said that what followed was often prolonged disruption. In some cases, disturbances continued for weeks, with learners hiding, regrouping and returning after school hours to ambush rival factions.

“In nine secondary schools under my supervision, four of them had constant faction fights. The remaining schools still faced violence in multiple forms - bullying, intimidation, vandalism, sexual harassment and in some cases murder.’

Dube noted an increasingly unsafe school environment with teachers fearing going to classrooms and learners carrying all sorts of weapons including knives, sticks fitted with bolts, tomahawks and others.

He added that in these conditions, schools frequently called parents in, but not as partners in prevention. Most parents would go to school with the sole aim of defending their children from being suspended or expelled. The result was confrontation rather than collaboration and limited progress in addressing underlying behavioural challenges.

Against this backdrop, his study asked what changes could be expected when parents are brought into the life of the school in a structured and meaningful way. In practice, this would include involving parents in the development of learner codes of conduct before approval, holding regular academic and behavioural engagements and assigning shared responsibilities in school activities such as matric camps.

The study highlights moments where collaboration shifted outcomes significantly. In one case, a participant described a parent who, after seeing improvements in discipline and academic performance, funded the construction of a school hall worth R1.2 million and continues to donate a cow annually for matric camp activities.

Another turning point emerged in 2019, when a parent initiated a school violence indaba that brought together Amakhosi, government departments, parents, learners and the circuit office. The intervention marked a decisive shift, resulting in the end of faction fights at the school.

For Dube, such examples underline a central principle: “No people can work together and be successful if they do not respect and trust each other.”

He positions trust and respect as the foundation of collaboration, supported by invitational and transformational leadership theories, which emphasise inclusion rather than enforcement.

But the study also shows why these relationships remain fragile. Some parents, he notes, “exhibited negative attitudes” when called to school, while others are constrained by work commitments, financial pressure or distance. Communication, in many cases, remains inconsistent and reactive, focused mainly on disciplinary incidents.

Despite this, the impact of sustained collaboration is measurable in the schools where it takes root.

Participants reported improved academic performance, with matric results rising above 90% across the schools studied - in one case moving from 84% to 93%, and later to 98%. Enrolment also increased as community confidence in the schools improved.

Dube shared that school violence cannot be separated from school functioning itself. When violence persists, teaching time is lost, teachers disengage, absenteeism rises, and schools lose community trust.

He noted that leadership is central to changing this trajectory. School leaders must first prepare teachers, then engage parents and sustain communication that builds mutual understanding and respect.

“When parents feel that the school trusts and respects them, they become flexible and avail themselves,” he said.

His research suggests, that when that happens, schools begin to shift from environments defined by conflict and fear, to spaces where responsibility for safety and learning is shared between educators, parents and the wider community.

Words: Rakshika Sibran

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini