How Bullying Can Be Reduced in Schools - Essay Example

How Bullying Can Be Reduced In Schools Irrefutably, bullying has become a serious problem worldwide, and it is even getting worse as people embrace the digital world and use social networking sites because this has created a new form of bullying called cyber bullying. In general, school bullying incorporates elements such as physical, psychological, verbal attack that is meant for causing harm to the victim (Farrington and Ttofi, 2009); but the most widely used definition of bullying suggested by Olweus is that individuals get bullied when they are continuously exposed to negative behaviors from others (Leong, 2008). Studies reveal that many schoolchildren aged between 5 and 14 have experienced bullying during their school term period either directly or indirectly. Quite a number of schoolchildren claim that they have been bullied while some claim that they have seen their colleagues being bullied. Bullying has been associated with negative action involving hostile behavior and power differential whereby an individual with power victimizes others people particularly those incapable of defending themselves. In most cases, there is an imbalance in strength existing between the bully and the victim and the victims lives a miserable life while at school and may be at home; however, bullying in school can be reduced by implement a whole-school approach that focuses on all levels of social ecology of the school (Dupper, 2013). This paper critically discusses bullying in schools, emphasizing on how bullying can be reduced in schools and to what extent can it be reduced. Agreeably, bullying is a common problem that threatens the wellbeing of individuals with about 50 percent of children being the perpetrators or victims (Leong, 2008). According to Hayes and Herbert (2011), bullying is any behaviour that is unwanted and unwelcome and has a negative impact on others. School bullying may affect the teacher-student relationship, relation among students, and academic performance among others (Livingston, 2008). Notably, bullying can take place in various forms such as hitting other people physically, teasing, abusing other people verbally through name-calling, taunting, intentional social exclusion, and physical aggression among others (Rasmussen and Salkind, 2008). Some children turn to suicide as a way out of being severely bullied. Arguably, bullying takes place in many schools and unfortunately, it is not reduced since the bullies are seldom punished and peers or teachers do not fully intervene to ensure that bullying has been stopped. More so, most individuals think that they can bully and get away with it, and this way, they are encouraged children to be bullies. However, in a situation where people especially school children are aware of the serious consequences of their bullying behavior such as expulsion from school, no student will resort to bullying because they are afraid of these consequences. Students who bully others seem to feel powerful and in control and they also have strong self-esteem, whereas the bullying victims are typically anxious, insecure, rarely retaliate when confronted, have low self-esteem and lack confidence (Rasmussen and Salkind, 2008). More so, psychosomatic symptoms and excessive drinking and substance misuse and eating disorder have been also pointed out among the bully-victims (Cowie and Jennifer, 2008). Bullying behaviour has been associated with criminal convictions of individuals, sadly, chronic bullies tend to maintain their behaviours into adulthood and this influence them negatively by preventing them from developing and maintaining positive relationships. On the contrary, the victims of bullying do fear school and perceive school as the unsafe place to be in, and being bullied causes depression and low self-esteem, which individuals can carry into adulthood. Children who are bullied exhibit some signs such as sadness and are also frightened (Hayes and Herbert (2011), and these signs can be used by parents to address bullying and protect their children from becoming bullying victims. Various combative means can be put in place in order to reduce bullying effectively in schools and other places as well. Types of intervention of school bullying include class-based rules or whole school policies, improving school environments by supervising playground areas among other (Dixon and Smith, 2011). Many school-based intervention programs have been put in place and implements to help reduce bullying, and they target on the teachers, peers, bullies, victims and the school in general (Farrington and Ttofi, 2009). Bullying is a problem that takes place in the social environment as whole and so operational interventions should encompass the entire college community and not concentrate on the culprits and targets alone. This in order to eliminate or reduce bullying, it is necessary to establish whole-school bullying policies, improve the school playground environment, implement curricular measures, empower school children via conflict resolution, establish peer counselling and assertiveness training among others. Primarily, the use of questionnaires, that is developing and distributing questionnaires to both students and adults can assist in creating awareness on the extent of the bullying problem and justify various intervention strategies. More so, these questionnaires may serve as a benchmark to determine the impact of improvements in the school environment once the intervention efforts are in place. To start with, at an individual level, the school should make use of certain measures to stop bullying either by talking to the bully and their victim. The bullies should be warned that such acts is prohibited and will never be tolerated in school. More so, teachers can as well involve the parents by asking them to intervene to help reduce or eliminating school bullying, and this can be very effective when parents have been warned about the possible action taken when a child is found bullying. A parental awareness campaign can be carried out during conferences, newsletters or meetings to increase parental awareness of the bullying problem. During these campaigns, it is necessary to involve parents and encourage parental support to contribute in reducing bullying. Direct actions such as warnings and removal of school privileges including playtime, detention or even outright eviction from school, can be very useful in passing the information that bullying will not be tolerated at any cost. Studies confirm that direct sanction method help in reducing bullying and in most cases, it is applied in incidences of physical, racial as well as homophobic bullying common in high schools. Normally, individual level measures involve talking to parents and engaging them in particular trainings such as anti-bullying training, and various studies reveal that talking and providing anti-bullying training to is very effective more than other methods such as warning students since parents act as role models for their children. Furthermore, class level measures requires the school to implement some measures such as introducing anti-bullying rules to students and warning all students that bullying within the school environment will not be tolerated. Firstly, there is a need to raise teachers’ awareness about bullying to enable them recognize the possibility of bullying happening and be able to intervene in bullying interactions (Livingston, 2008). More so, teachers can work students at the class level to develop class rules condemning bullying. Again, this way, some students can learn to assist victims, and how they can engage students to work together and create a secure school environment where bullying is not tolerated at all. Talking with both children and parents and discussing various issues that affect children is necessary. For instance, the use of the curriculum that educates children about school bullying and discussing this issue and the possible ways to stop it can significantly contribute to eradicating bullying in schools. In some schools, classroom measures such as creation of cooperative groups have been useful in reducing bullying. Curriculum uses class teaching to educate students on bullying in general and advises students not to bully others, whereas cooperative groups bring students together in workshops where the bully and the victims are mixed to enable them socialize and stop attacking or harming other people in any way. However, these cooperative groups, students sit in circles and talk openly about bullying in schools. Cooperative group learning in classroom plays a very significant role in addressing the issue of bullying and come up with easy to reduce and eliminate school bullying (Cowie and Jennifer, 2008). However, various schools have noted a problem with cooperative groups and circle time in that it needs a lot of time that inconveniences them and other school activities. Classroom strategies have been noted to very economical to use and effective in reducing bullying in school especially in classes. Studies reveal that schools that have used classroom measures have found or regarded it to be an effective way of reducing bullying. Accordingly, the school level recommends the school to form coordination and supervision groups and have a positive modelling from an adult to serve as an example, and at this level, it is important to conduct an accurate assessment of the nature and extent of bullying in schools (Dupper, 2013). More so, schools are encouraged to establish and have playground policies that can be used to target bullying on the playground. It is also a requirement that schools have anti-bullying policies that address the possible actions to be taken when bullying occurs. Arguably, adult modelling of positive relationships can assist in reducing school bullying, and this is possible when a school staff receive training to act as positive role models for the children. They can lead by example by showing students respect and empathy when addressing them. The problem with this method is that it is very expensive for schools and cost a lot to fully implement playground supervision strategy, however, this method can be made more economical when anti-bully supervisors interact with students as they play or just look out for bullying spots and intervene immediately. Notably, an effective way of reducing bullying in schools totally depends on the implementation of a whole school approach using all the available resources to target the bullying. However, making use of just one approach will be ineffective and so using a lot of approaches can reduce bullying largely. The most effective anti-bullying school level measures include improved playground supervision, establishing classroom rules and improved classroom management, and holding school conferences to address the same issue. For instance, when schools implement all these measures, bullying will be reduced greatly and may be a forgotten problem in many schools. Reports show that using school-based programs helps in reducing antisocial behaviour including bullying (Dixon and Smith, 2011). Concisely, bullying is a very serious problem in schools and it can dramatically affect students’ ability to develop or progress academically or socially. There is no single strategy that can be sued to stop bullying completely in everyday life, and within the school environment, however, a combination of methodologies have been found to be effective in reducing bullying. Arguably, the extent to which bullying can be reduced in school depends on the use of multidimensional approach and how much involvement of teachers, parents as well school children. Therefore, the use of one method will not be very effective in eradicating or reducing bullying, for instance, involving only children and excluding parents and teachers will not address the problem of bullying in schools positively and appropriately. It is necessary to develop a very comprehensive intervention plan that incorporates all schoolchildren, parents as well as school staffs to ensure that students learn in a safe and bullying-free environment. References Cowie, H., & Jennifer, D. (2008). New Perspectives on Bullying. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. Dixon, Roz; Smith, Peter K. (2011). Rethinking School Bullying: Towards an Integrated Model. Cambridge University Press. Dupper, D. R. (2013). School bullying: New perspectives on a growing problem. New York: Oxford University Press. Farrington, David P., and Ttofi Maria M. (2009). School-Based Programs to Reduce Bullying and Victimization. Campbell Systematic Reviews. Vol. 6. Hayes, Rosemary, and Herbert, Carrie M. H. (2011). Rising Above Bullying: From Despair to Recovery. Leong, F. L. (2008). Encyclopedia of Counseling. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE Publications. Livingston, Patrisha K. (2008). A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Anti-bullying Programs on Students. ProQuest. Rasmussen, K., & Salkind, N. J. (2008). Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications. Read More