Bullying at School

The Program

The Dealing With Bullying program provides hands-on, intensive training for students and professional teachers, giving them practical experience before they have to face complex situations in the working environment. The course prepares student teachers to deal with the inevitable ethical dilemmas they will face as professional teachers.

All the data from the program is used as part of the wider research into the impact of simulations in Education.

The Need

Bullying (and dealing with Ethical Dilemmas in general) as a subject has not been dealt with adequately in the training of teachers.  Typically a teacher will enter the working environment having had no training in dealing with real, complex situations on the ground.

When bullying situations arise, teachers will often react instinctively to their own bullying situations from childhood as these are the only real experiences that their brains have as a reference. 

Giving students yet another lecture on the theoretical background is not an effective method of preparing them for these high-stress moments in their career.

This Compathy Method course prepares student teachers in the same way sportsperson trains for competition - through practice in real-time environments.  By placing the young teachers in simulated high-stress environments involving different constellations of parents, children, headmasters and colleagues, they gain the experience and confidence required for the inevitable situations in their professional lives.

Academic background

Bullying is a worldwide scourge in schools that impinges on educational activity. It includes anti-social behaviours with physical, emotional, social and academic consequences that cause many students to perceive school as an unsafe environment for them (CDC – Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017; Harel-Fisch et al., 2011).

Comprehensive studies conducted in 2016 under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that 29% to 46% of children in the world are regularly exposed to bullying in schools (Unesco, 2017).

An international study under the auspices of the WHO, with a sample of 6,613 students from 40 countries, found that 33.1% of them reported having been victims of bullying, harassment and intimidation at least once in the preceding two months, and 14.7% of the students reported experiencing various forms of bullying on school grounds (Harel-Fisch et al., 2011; Unesco, 2017).

The term "Bullying" refers to any form of attack with or without the use of physical force. It includes "violence", which refers to acts that include the use of physical force and is only one of the many forms of bullying (Fishman, 2015). Various researchers relate to bullying in school as any directed behaviour intended to emotionally or physically harm other people, their property or school property, characterised by hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition. That includes physical, verbal and social bullying (Bebenisty, Huri & Astor, 2006; Cassidi, Jacson, & Brown, 2009; CDC, 2017; Fishman, 2015; Sela-Shayovitz, 2009).

Social surveys of the OECD and educational studies reflect the significant public and social attention bullying in schools has attracted (Dedousis-Wallace et al., 2014; Unesco, 2017). It is considered a severe problem whose consequences pose ethical dilemmas that are serious enough to threaten the future of global society. Teachers feel helpless in the face of bullying-related ethical-dilemmas, with little or no support from the system, and they report a desperate need for tools to cope with the problem (Dedousis-Wallace et al., 2014; Unesco, 2017).

However,  this theme is not an integral part of the teacher training curriculum. Results of existing studies show that the majority of pre-service teachers did not receive any form of bullying prevention training in the general teacher training curriculum (Kandakai & King, 2002; Sela-Shayovitz, 2009).

Bullying as a subject has not been dealt with adequately in the training of young teachers.  Typically a teacher will enter the working environment having had no training in dealing with real bullying situations on the ground.

Consequences of Bullying

The picture that emerges of the consequences suffered by students exposed to bullying is grim. Bullied Students experience feelings of anxiety, lack of protection, dissatisfaction with life, and high levels of depression, including suicidal thoughts. These facts turn school bullying into a problem that threatens the education system and even the world economy. Therefore, a significant response must be found (Bonanno & Hymel, 2010; Burger et al., 2015; CDC, 2017; Isaacs, Hodges, & Salmivalli, 2008; Unesco, 2017).

Teachers' Perceptions of their Training to Deal with Bullying

Various studies indicate that most teachers are profoundly disappointed by the lack of attention that bullying and dealing with bullying receives in the teacher-training curriculum.

In their view, bullying is considered a low-priority item as compared to teaching theoretical content and absorbing academic teaching-learning strategies (Gaikhorst, Beishuizen, Korstjens, & Volman, 2014; Gotlib, 2009; Sela-Shayovitz, 2009). Studies indicate that many teachers enter class feeling a lack of empowerment to deal with bullying. Most tend to view existing procedures as disconnected from the emotional needs of both learners in school and of themselves. Others see the procedures that are in place as too rigid and therefore more harmful than beneficial (Gotlib, 2009, Hayward & Gowen, 2001; Kandakai & King, 2002; Sela-shayovitz, 2009;  Shavit & Blank, 2010b).

Solution

Various studies show that teachers need to practice and apply a variety of alternative methods of coping with bullying in a supportive environment. These methods should include opportunities to exchange experiences, ideas and opinions about the difficulties they encounter. (Author, 2013; Gaikhorst et al., 2014).

These findings underscore the importance of workshops like the one operated in the current research, as a means of preparing teaching trainees to deal with bullying in a practical, reflective and protected way that matches their basic every day needs as teachers (Author, 2013; Gotlib 2009; Sela-Shayovitz, 2009)

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