A qualitative study of educators’ lived experiences of homophobic victimisation in private secondary schools

Although South Africa is a democratic country with constitutional safeguarding of homosexual-oriented individuals, victimisation based on sexual orientation still occurs frequently at schools with detrimental physical and psychosocial consequences for victims. The objective of this research project was to explore and explain educators’ lived experiences of homophobic victimisation at independent secondary schools. The study adopted a qualitative, phenomenological approach rooted in Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory (BST), employing an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Innsbruck Vignette Research (IVR) methodology separately and then integrating the findings in a three-phase approach. The study was conducted through educator focus group interviews at three independent secondary schools in Johannesburg, Gauteng.In Phase 1, the IPA of the focus group interview transcripts gave rise to five main themes: (1) educators’ general understanding of homophobic victimisation and its expression in the school context, (2) influencing factors that complicate or remediate incidences of homophobia and victimisation, (3) attitudes expressed and experienced by educators, (4) school policies and mitigating strategies to raise awareness and prevent homophobic victimisation, and (5) the school as a microcosm of the broader community. In Phase 2 of the study, six vignettes were crafted by the researcher from his observations during the interviews. In Phase 3, the Phase 1 and Phase 2 findings were integrated to result in a synthesis of the findings, which concluded that educators experience their schools as striving to embrace diversity and eliminate homophobic victimisation.