Examining teacher sexual violence as institutional violence in two primary schools in Uganda

Teachers often play a frontline role in caring for children, yet can also perpetrate violence. Research has begun to show how teacher sexual violence can occur in schools, linked to gender inequality and poor implementation of violence prevention and response polices. However, we know little about its institutional dynamics or responses in schools. This paper examines teacher sexual violence in two primary schools in Luwero District, Uganda, drawing on a semi-ethnographic study conducted in 2017 with teachers and pupils. Developing a theoretical framework examining how teachers and pupils negotiate schools’ ‘bodily-institutional regimes’, this study explores institutional teacher sexual violence; the impossibility of overtly addressing it; and covert response actions. Future research and intervention approaches should take account of this institutional significance that affords male teachers impunity, and should engage with covert efforts used to address teacher sexual violence in schools.