Bullying - Have we got it wrong?
Nowadays there is no school that doesn’t have an anti-bullying policy, which clearly states it will not condole, in any way, such behaviour.
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But, have anti-bullying policies been effective, has it actually worked?
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Has there been a real tangible benefit to the bullied victim?
Teaching 2 teach has found that bullying can be a hidden cause in teacher stress or performance and that those affected teacher are often unaware that bullying is the cause for their difficulties in their classrooms. In a number of cases difficult students were found to be victims themselves to bullying, externally or covertly caused.
Due to these findings, Teaching 2 teach, has reviewed the effectiveness of anti-bullying policy in an effort to reduce stress, improve performance and classroom behaviour management. It has shown to make positive inroads in combating bullying and its adverse effect.
Defining Bullying
Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behaviour in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally. Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person.[1]
Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus defines bullying as when a person is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons. He defines negative action as when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways.[2]
If we look this over, we find that most teachers and students, alike, can easily detect aggressive behaviour but have great difficulties to detect covert and masked aggression, addressed either towards others or even themselves. Surveys show that small carping criticism were rarely even considered as bullying but have shown to significantly affect morale and attitude over a prolonged time. In addition, the longer these covert attacks are undetected the more confused the victim becomes as to who and what was said, making detection more difficult.
Furthermore how do we find the right perpetrator? - In fact, this is likely to be one of the reasons why today’s anti-bullying policies haven't been as successful as hoped. Teachers do not have the time to closely monitor and map their students behaviour and associations.
Bullying - Empowering the bullied victim!
Let’s take a new look at this age-old problem and this is what Teaching 2 teach has done, instead of focusing on weeding out the bullies which has a very high chance of getting it wrong, we focus on empowering the victims; the group, the class. Creating a better and stronger group ethos through education and practical assigments brings about a better understanding of how bullies work and often reduces bullying from "within." A bully works on singling out, on lying about people to others behind the victims back, he can’t face a group. He will hide in a group of people to be undiscovered.
Today's anti-bullying policy has in a number of cases shown to push bullies to become more underhanded and covert in there dealings.
However, a group that is well educated in spotting and understanding how bullies really operate can effectively reduce bullying.
We deliver a seminar to your teachers which you can role out to your classes or we deliver the seminar for you. Bullies can be dealt with effectively if they are exposed by the group.
Contact us for more information on how to empower the bullied victims.
[1] Besag, V. E. (1989) Bullies and Victims in Schools. Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press
[2]Olweus, D