Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Abstract Background and aim: Schools are pivotal for socialization but also serve as arenas where power relations and daily interactions can foster violent experiences for children. Children’s voices, especially in sociological research, remain marginalized. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring the contexts of school violence from the perspectives of third- and fourth-grade students in Shiraz, Iran. It aims to move beyond adult-centric analyses by centering children as active social agents to provide a nuanced portrayal of the phenomenon.
Data and method: Using a qualitative approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 primary school students (boys and girls) from grades three and four in Shiraz. Participants were selected via purposive and convenience sampling to maximize socioeconomic diversity. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis, involving initial coding and the extraction of basic, organizing, and global themes. Member checking was used to enhance trustworthiness.
Findings: The analysis identified six principal organizing themes that constitute the contexts of violence: 1) Overcrowded educational spaces, 2) Inflexible rules, 3) Teacher characteristics and practices, 4) Violence-facilitating physical structures, 5) Systematic child-negating attitudes, and 6) Incoordination among school authorities.
Conclusion: The findings reveal school violence as a multi-dimensional phenomenon woven from structural, cultural, and interpersonal factors. It is reproduced within a matrix of power relations and historical educational structures, perpetuating symbolic, structural, and direct violence. Consequently, the study underscores the urgent need to re-evaluate educational policies and structures, advocating for reforms that place children’s voices and experiences at their core.

Abstract This study aims to identify and understand facilitating environment of delinquency among the Kahnouj teenagers. Research methodology was based on grounded theory. The participants included 30 teenagers from Kahnouj which were selected via purposive sampling, maximum variation strategy and theoretical sampling. Data collected by in-depth semi structure interview.    
Data analyzed through triple coding strategies, open, axial and selective. Data analysis culminated in 9 categories and a core category which are, docking area and easy access, crime generative context and socialization of the crime, perception of deprivation and underdevelopment, identifying lineage, metaphors and myths of delinquency, facilitating common sense, social networks and delinquency reproduction, , status failure and fragile resistance, vague borders of the law and subculture of delinquency. Finally the core category is “constructing and synergy of delinquency.