While violence prevention is a ubiquitous mandate in global education policy, this paper argues that safety in education systems often functions as a technology of gendered governance. Drawing on feminist institutionalism, it examines how school violence prevention efforts unintentionally reproduce the very inequalities they seek to dismantle. Based on multi-actor qualitative research conducted in Aceh, Banten, and Maluku, Indonesia, the findings reveal a bifurcated governance of harm: boys are framed through discourses of physical aggression and toughness, attracting punitive discipline, while girls are positioned as morally vulnerable, triggering surveillance and protectionist controls.

The paper identifies a critical implementation gap in which formal commitments to gender equality collapse under cultural and religious logics. Although teachers receive gender equality training, they frequently justify differentiated treatment through appeals to kodrat and moral order. Similarly, while parents endorse gender equality in domestic labor, they enact strict controls over girls’ mobility and bodies in the name of safety. As a result, violence prevention mechanisms do not merely prevent harm but actively govern students into traditional gender roles, casting boys as risks to be managed and girls as subjects to be guarded. The paper concludes that without a gender-transformative approach, school safety policies risk operating as a hidden curriculum of moral regulation, prioritising order over equity.

Authors:
Widi Laras Sari, Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing - Universitas Indonesiav, Indonesia

About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Widi Laras Sari is a researcher at the Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing (PUSKAPA), Universitas Indonesia. Her work focuses on child protection, gender equality and social inclusion, youth participation, and climate-related vulnerability.

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