Changing perspectives on corporal punishment in schools: Insights from Ugandan young people
This paper contributes to decolonising ways in which corporal punishment has been understood and represented in Africa, through engaging with the complex views of young Ugandans about corporal punishment in schools. Conceptualising time as non-linear, and violence as a web of power, our analysis of longitudinal, mixed method data traces how physical punishment functioned to maintain the generational order, and as a regulatory practice in schools. While young people adopted critical standpoints against corporal punishment, structural conditions and violence in schools evoked feelings of insecurity, that could generate resistance to change. Our analysis problematises assumptions that legal bans alone will create meaningful change.
Authors
- Joan Ritar Kasidi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4761-462X)
- Dipak Naker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5797-2762)
- Karen Devries (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8935-2181)
- Tvisha Nevatia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2893-0053)
- Amiya Bhatia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8163-2568)
- Colin Murray Parkes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3399-0226)
- Janet Nakuti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3244-9585)
- Rehema Nagawa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9161-3586)
- Simone Datzberger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1215-1274)
- Junior Brian Musenze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3452-8132)
- Daniel Carter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0218-829X)
Institutions
- University of London (GB)
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
- Raising Voices (UG)
- University College London (GB)
- Uganda Virus Research Institute (UG)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Childhood
- Published
- 2025-10-31
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682251392494
- Primary Topic
- Child Abuse and Trauma
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00