Hidden curriculum and violent behaviors: what our female students learn in schools

This study aims at exploring and representing the violent behaviors which have been learnt unpredictably by female high school students. The research was conducted in a junior female high school in capital Tehran. Methodologically, the research may be considered as qualitative, while interpretive ethnography is the research strategy. To gather required data and necessary information, semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation were used. The informants (10 students and 4 teachers were selected purposefully by convenience sampling and chain sampling. Data were also analyzed by thematic analysis. To establish credibility, the last version of themes was reanalyzed and modified by three seasoned qualitative researchers and the final themes appeared. The credibility procedure indicated roughly that the findings represented the emic reality properly. The findings were categorized into three major and seven sub-categories as follow: psychological violence (humiliation, jealousy, giving bad name), social violence (school deprivation, family monitoring), physical violence (masochism and sadism).