In the master's thesis, we discuss the problem of the reactions of practitioners of two kindergartens in Slovenia when they perceive, or when they were informed that the child was an alleged victim of domestic violence. In the empirical part of the task, we interviewed eight practitioners from two kindergartens (2 educators, 2 assistant educators, 2 counsellors and 2 headmasters) and determined with a semi-structured interview whether the kindergarten practitioners noticed physical and behavioural signs in a child that could indicate violence against children in the family. We found that two practitioners themselves perceived violence against a child in the family. One of them witnessed the violence, and the other noticed physical signs of violence against the child. Two practitioners were informed about the alleged violence against the child in the family by the assistant educator, two practitioners, i.e. kindergarten counsellors, informed the child's educator, and two practitioners learned about it from the counsellors. We also found that the majority of practitioners followed the requirements of the formal procedure according to the Rules on handling domestic violence for educational institutions (2009) when they perceived or when they were informed that a child was an alleged victim of domestic violence. The majority of practitioners included in the research evaluate their own performance in the kindergarten's internal team, which was convened upon perception or when they were informed that a child enrolled in the kindergarten is an alleged victim of domestic violence. They rated their own performance as good, and all of them also rated their mutual cooperation as good. Regarding what knowledge should be acquired during secondary school education or during studies and in education and training programs that are aimed at upgrading, improving or supplementing their already acquired knowledge, skills and competences, they all answered that they propose the following content or topics: basic knowledge about violence; how to recognize violence; how to react to violence; how to deal with violence; how to personally process violence against a child in the family; how to talk to a child; formal provisions concerning the procedure for dealing with the alleged victim and the legal basis of the report; boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour towards the child; examples of preventive activities, etc.
|