Situated Violence in rural school: experiences of girls and boys in Nariño, Colombia

Abstract

This article analyzes how rural children and adolescents in Nariño, Colombia, perceive violence in their school environment and how, based on this perception, they develop practical categories to understand, anticipate, and resist it. Using a socio-legal approach and drawing on contributions from social studies of childhood, a qualitative documentary review of norms, jurisprudence, and public human rights documentation is conducted, supplemented by secondary evidence from published narratives and testimonies about school experiences in conflict contexts. The analysis is organized around four dynamics that structure exposure to violence in rural schools: (i) recruitment and use of children and adolescents; (ii) forced displacement and confinement; (iii) occupation, attacks, and militarization of educational institutions, including the presence of landmines in school environments; and (iv) threats and violence against teachers with a direct impact on educational continuity and retention. The results show that, in children's experience, school shifts from a “safe place” to an “exposed place”, and that intermittent institutional responses produce a form of institutional violence observable by children and adolescents, expressed in categories such as “zone”, “dangerous route”, “silence”, and “no one answers”. It is argued that guaranteeing the right to education, assessed using the 4A standard, requires localized school protection measures, recruitment prevention integrated with educational policy, and strengthened mechanisms for teacher support and retention.