ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 5 No 20 September 2014 1136 The Influence of School Organisational Variables on School Violence in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa Kalie Barnes Susette Brynard Corene de Wet University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein, South Africa Email: dewetnc@ufs.ac.za Doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1136 Abstract This article reports the findings of a sequential mixed-method study about the influence of school organisational variables on school violence in the Eastern Cape Province. An adapted version of the California School Climate and Survey – Short Form (CSCSS-SF) was used as data collection instrument during the first phase of the investigation. The questionnaire was completed by 900 Grade 10-12 learners, half of which were from high-risk schools, and the rest from low-risk schools. During the second phase of the study, in-depth, personal interviews were conducted with eight learners from four schools: two high- risk schools and two low-risk schools from the Queenstown District. The purpose of the interview was to complement and elucidate the quantitative results. The results revealed that campus disruption, drug abuse and carrying weapons were realities at both the high-risk and the low-risk schools that participated in the study. However, statistically, respondents from high-risk schools felt significantly more unsafe than those attending low-risk schools. Furthermore, it transpired that statistically, significantly more respondents at high-risk schools, than learners at low-risk schools were the victims of school violence. These results were confirmed by the findings from the second phase of the study. The close connection between a positive school climate and culture and school safety not only transpires from the quantitative results, but also from the narratives. Keywords: mixed method, school climate, school violence, South Africa 1. Introduction In 2002, the South African National Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Health, published a report resultant from a survey about dangerous behavioural patterns amongst school-going youth. In the foreword, the former Minister of Education, Kader Asmal (Republic of South Africa, 2002) stated that the safety of learners and teachers, as well as the prevention of violence at South African schools posed enormous challenges. In the report, further concerns were expressed about the levels of violence, as well as the apparent increase in violence at South African schools. The report also reached the conclusion that violence at South African schools was a problem that had to be addressed. From the report (Republic of South Africa, 2002) it further transpired that 16.7% of South African learners took weapons to school, 41% were harassed, 30.2% had already been involved in physical fights, and 14,3% were gang members. Newspaper headings like, Two pupils hurt in gang violence (Ndabeni, 2009), Boy shot in school fight over cellphone (Dimbaza, 2009) and Teen fights for his life after school stabbing (Jack, 2006) in The Herald, an Eastern Cape Province regional newspaper, contribute to the situation that the Eastern Cape public and parents increasingly became concerned about the safety and welfare of learners during school hours. It also contributed to the perception by the public in general that school violence was the order of the day. Research has largely proven that Eastern Cape parents should be concerned for the safety of their children (De Wet, 2003; Mlisa, Ward, Flisher & Lombard, 2008). The Eastern Cape is not only a province where violence is rife at schools, but corruption prevailed in education (Ellis, 2010; Fengu, 2011). Unemployment and poverty are acute (Mlisa et al., 2008) and a decline in family structures occurs in rural areas (Mlisa et al., 2008). The latter could also be ascribed to the migration of parents to urban areas in Gauteng to find work and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The preceding negative scenario of the Eastern Cape Province in general and, more specifically, education, does not mean that education in the Eastern Cape is in a total state of disarray and that violence is rife at all schools. The Eastern Cape Department of Education, like the Western Cape Department of Education (2003), draws a distinction