Safety and security at school: A pedagogical perspective

Education law and policy currently focus on broader physical aspects of safety and security at schools, as well as, for example, on pedagogical insecurity such as is caused by discriminatory teaching, but law and policy have yet to pay attention to the overall and far-reaching pedagogical safety and security of learners.By means of a descriptive study, quantitative in nature, we explored teacher and learner responses to a questionnaire in order to determine to what extent teachers accommodate diverse pedagogical needs in the classroom.The significance of this article lies in its exploration of pedagogical safety and security in a South African context that extends education law literature beyond the established knowledge base on physical safety and security.The research found (1) discrepancies between teachers' approaches towards teaching and accommodating learning needs, (2) deficient equipment of teachers to meet the pedagogical needs and fundamental rights of learners, and (3) lack of accommodation of learners' preferred learning styles.