TITLE:
Resisting Eduphobia and Normalizing the Culture of Violence against School Children and Teachers in Nigeria
AUTHORS:
James Urien, Peter Urien, Henrietta Amen Usunobon
KEYWORDS:
Eduphobia, Normalizing, Violence, School Children, Teachers, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.17 No.10,
October
29,
2026
ABSTRACT: This study focused on resisting eduphobia and normalizing the culture of violence against school children and teachers in Nigeria. Two research questions were raised in the study. The research methodology employed a survey design with multiple instruments to examine the relationship between resisting eduphobia and normalizing the culture of violence and approaches to curb eduphobia. The population for this study comprised 1000 teachers and 9000 students in public secondary schools in Nigeria. A purposive sampling procedure was used to draw a sample of 500 participants (300 SS1-SS3 students and 200 teachers) from ten (10) states, namely Delta, Edo, Anambra, Ondo, Kaduna, Bornu, Zamfara, Rivers, Ekiti and Kogi. Data were collected using three self-developed questionnaires: Resisting Eduphobia Questionnaire, Normalizing the Culture of Violence Questionnaire and Approaches to Curb Eduphobia Questionnaire and a Rotated Component Matrix using 4 component labels. Questionnaires were administered and retrieved, with ethical protocols for consent and debriefing observed. Letters of introduction and permission were obtained from the school principals and information sheets and consent forms were distributed. The study received institutional ethics approval before it began. Participants completed questionnaires that measured variables such as age, education, ethnicity and state. Data collection utilized online platforms such as Google Forms and Microsoft Forms. Responses were anonymous. Online administration with no direct interpersonal contact further supported anonymity, reduced social pressure, and made withdrawal easy without consequences. Descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to analyze data. Conclusively, resisting eduphobia and ending the normalization of violence against schoolchildren and teachers is essential for Nigeria’s survival and progress. Schools must cease being sites of fear—whether from external attacks by insurgents and bandits or from internal practices such as corporal punishment, bullying, and abuse that society has long accepted as discipline. When violence is treated as routine, it destroys learning, drives children out of school, traumatizes teachers, and perpetuates cycles of aggression across generations. Protecting education requires coordinated action: effective security for schools, strict enforcement of existing laws against violence, a decisive shift away from physical punishment toward positive discipline, and a collective rejection of any ideology that brands education as a threat. Only by making schools truly safe and valued can Nigeria equip its children to build a more peaceful, prosperous, and informed nation.