From Peer- to Systemic School-based Violence: Deconstructing Institutional Narratives in Slovenian Primary Schools

• In Event: School Violence and Bullying: Research, Policies, and Ethical Concerns

Abstract

Recently, peer violence has been identified as a significant problem in Slovenian primary schools, calling for policy responses that rely on stricter measures against individual children labelled as the perpetrators of violence. While such measures are viewed favourably by the general public, they sideline the complexities of peer violence, its development, and the consequences it has for individuals, their families, schools, and communities. This paper critically examines the dominant rationales underpinning the understanding and regulation of peer violence in Slovenia. Based on 18 focus groups with primary school pupils and teachers, it reveals how systemic and institutional narratives of essentialism, biological determinism, developmentalism, and permissive pedagogy shape perceptions of violence, its causes, and appropriate responses. More specifically, schools often perceive children as fundamentally different from adults, driven to violence by their biology, assumed to progress through life in a universal and linear way, and not responded to firmly enough. These perspectives inform school policies that fail to address systemic factors, disregarding intersections of class, race, gender, and culture, which reinforces institutional violence while claiming to combat peer aggression through a reductive and disciplinarian approach. In rethinking peer violence through a contextual and structural lens, the paper challenges conventional punitive responses and argues for a more nuanced, community-centred approach that accounts for the socio-political and institutional forces shaping school violence. It seeks to reframe the discourse on peer violence beyond simplistic behavioural explanations, also acknowledging key systemic issues within Slovenian education, including the paradox of school democratisation versus a 'crisis of authority'; the grading system as a form of violence; and fractured relationships between teachers, students, and parents, leading to institutional mistrust.

Authors

• Jasmina Arnež, Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana and Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford

• Hana Hawlina, Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law Ljubljana & Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana