Defining Bullying: Teachers Views - Essay Example

?Findings Defining “bullying teachers’ views A key finding was that most Teachers had similar opinions about the nature of bullying from the interview indicating that bullying is a behavior that “intentionally hurts another people physically or mentally” (Olweas). Moreover, several teachers have mentioned the behaviors are “repeated” , that some children tend to have a proclivity for this type of bullying behavior, while occasionally it seems more accidnetal/unthinking and will stop when addressed.. When asking “what obstacle you have encountered when dealing with bullying?”, almost all teachers complained that “bullying behaviors (such as theft, name calling, teasing and so on: definition will be discussed further below) “have happened again and again, which makes me feel frustrated, because I did not prevent them from committing the same thing again”. However, in relation to views about “power imbalance” between victims and perpetrators of bullying, teachers had contrasting opinions about this aspect of bullying behavior While many researchers and experts on bullying have highlighted the feature of “power imbalance”, according to Olweus (1993), bullying has two vital characteristics that have been recognized as the psychological or physical form of hurts which take place frequently along with factor of power imbalance. Meichenbaum (2008) for example maintains that it is “a form of aggression in which there is an imbalance of power between the instigator and the victim” (Donald Meichenbaum 2008 pg. 83), some participants in the present study have shown different and variable views on this aspect of bullying. One teacher maintained that in their experience victims of bullying did not conform to popular stereotypes: “not necessarily those physically small students will be bullied, sometimes the physically strong ones, who I thought will not be bullied become the targets”. It appears that teachers expectations are thus largely based on physical ability, and they play close attention to who could be bullies based on factors such as size and strength. The fact is, however, that these are not necessarily important factors in bullying behaviour: large children with good disposition will obviously not be as prone to bullying as a small but poorly disposed one. Bullying is fundamentally about the willingness to harm another person, something that is not related directly to size. In Pepler et al.’s study (1999), emphasizes this point, indicating that a lack of empathy, what they call “cold cognition” was the most important predictor of bullying behaviour. 2. Teachers' perception of the extent of bullying behaviours Teachers' perception of the extent of bullying was found to vary depending on the gender of students Boys were thought to be mainly bullied by same sex peers, including one single boy or a group of several boys; while girls are likely to be bullied either by boys or by girls, such as several girls or one girl. From the view of population involved in bullying behaviour, Chinese teachers have the opinion that girls are less inclined to bully as compared with show much smaller number than boys in both bullying and getting bullied. As they mature and grades moving up, teachers tend to believe that the number of girl bullies shows an insignificant decrease, while that of boy bullies indicates a sharp decrease, according to teachers. In all the grade levels, the number of boy bullies is much higher than that of girl bullies. Some have attempted to argue that girls lack of bullying boys and lower rates of bullying overall was a consequence of smaller size or physical “vulnerability” (Guoan, 1997), but as discussed above these are relatively simplistic assumptions and do not stand up well to critical readings. In the present study , 7 out of 12 Chinese teachers find that verbal bullying is one of the most common types, results that largely correspond to findings on teacher perceptions out of the United Kingdom (see Table1). Verbal bullying may happen every day in the school. A teacher stated that: "I think, in my teaching experiences, students to make fun of others, to say insulted words to each other, to spread rumors or other verbal attacks are very common, and I can see it happens in every class everyday". However, as to physical bullying like fighting, teachers think that this type of behavior happens rarely. It is reported that even if fighting takes palce the these fights usually escalated out of a verbal confrontation of some sort, further emphasizing the issues with verbal bullying. Teachers perceive that it is unusual to punching or kicking other students in the middle school stage. In addition, cyberbullying was found to be a relatively new concept to Chinese teachers. Even though most teachers have heard about cyberbullying and can identify it in when presented with it in interviews, they do not think it often happens in school. In the interview, 9 out of 12 teachers admit that some students receive messages or emails like threatening or pornographic information since more and more students have cellphones and are using internet frequently as bullying behaviour. However, one teacher maintained that "it is not bullying behaviour, because it doesn't have exact target. The messages and emails are just junk mails which can be found everywhere in the society". Another teacher also expressed that "it is not a bullying behaviour because students are passive receiver, they are just reluctant." Overall however yberbullying is believed by nearly all participants (Chinese teachers) as unusual type happened in middle school. Table1: Common type of bullying Sometimes type Unusual type Verbal harassment physical assault Cyberbullying Spread rumour Blackmail Coercion, intimidation Exclusion 3. Teachers' understanding of the bullies and the victims 3.1 Teachers' Perception on the bullies This study found that teachers believed that students who bully others had the following personal characteristics, in relative order of commonality of response: • A “hot” and quick temper, including weak impulse control; • Poor results in school work and assignments and/or had difficulty undertaking course work and studying; • Long-term exposure to violent TV programs or daily violence; • They came from a disprupted family where the parents have separated or have divorced, or have disharmonious parents’ relationship like always quarrel or have inconsistent ? parenting styles. Chinese teachers thus seemed to think of bullies as “large” characters, confident and angry, rather than introverted and distant, a portrayal more common in the West. . In addition, some teachers reported that bullies are academically able pupils who are confident, different characteristics than those usually ascribed to bullies by teachers in the United Kingdom : "relatively more clever, and have stronger sense of superiority", some teachers believe bullies are "proud of themselves, and have a sense of fulfillment", another teacher also mentions that "students who are good at study usually adopt psychological tactics rather than violent methods when bullying others This suggests that certain perpetrators may be a group of advantaged and able students, who have more peer support than those students who are the recipients of bullying behaviour . In the research by Sutton (1999), it found that the bullies who are in the leader position usually get very good mark in psychological test. They know how to hurt others, how to make members in other groups follow them, and are adept at avoiding teachers' supervision and control. 3.2 Teachers' Perception on the victims In this research, Chinese teachers were found to think in stereotypical ways and view victims as introverted individuals, that they were reticent and shy, and have few friends. Teachers reported that victim’s academic achievement was better than that of bullies, but not by particularly significant margins.. At the same time, teachers believe that the victims usually are not those who have hot temper, outgoing and lively, which is in accordance with the findings in Siann's (1993) interviews and Sonia's (2002) questionnaires. Teachers reports thus repeat what research has already indicated: that differences in personality seem to be excellent predictors of bullying behavior. As to the characteristics of the victims, several middle school teachers point out in the interviews that the bullied are the ones who have "less teacher's attention and less welcomed among students". In teachers' eyes, these students are normally not confident, lack of communicative skills; sometimes even not realize that they are bullied. Also, even if get bullied, they usually keep silent rather than tell others. The teachers thus seemed to believe that the less popular students were more likely to get bullied, and more likely to stay silent about bullying. As a result this study found that from teachers' perspective , the reason that students are bullied was connected with their own character and individual weaknesses and failings. The victims' passiveness, lack of peer supports and independence probably make them become targeted; while the bullies' impulsion, emotionality, and superiority on a certain power or ability may lead them to bully others. Since bully behaviours have the feature of "long time", "repeated", the two opposite characters of the victims and the perpetrators are complementary and develop to be a fixed mode. Teachers thus believe that bullies and victims have characteristics that lead to their belonging to one of the two groups, and that they need to seek to educate people on both sides of the issue. Helping bullied students integrate socially may help protect them from bullying, teachers believe, along with educatin bullies to stop their behavior. 3.3 Teacher's gender, level of teaching experience and school factors Generally speaking, this research did not find any significant differences in teacher perceptions of bullying based on demographic factors such as gender or age. Thus, though bullying behavior largely depended on such characteristics, teacher’s ability to perceive and react to them does not seem to. 4. Family factors 4.1 The significance of parents' occupations Chinese teachers perceived that parents' occupation to affect their children's character and influence whether they will be bullied or not. According to the teachers, the parents of those bullies tend to be workers, farmers or unemployed, who have lower income and are considered to have a lower social status than other professionals like public servant or manager in China. Teachers believed that parents' career affects not only children's material life, but also their confidence and self-esteem. It is possible that these children gain a sense of superiority by bullying others to seek some psychological comfort. Besides, teachers also expressed that the family who has unstable income are prone to have children involved in bullying behaviors. In order to support their family, they have to put more energy in and concentrate on their work, which result in spending less time on their children. Therefore, their parenting type and attitudes to children will be influenced. 4.2 Parents' education background With regard to parents' education background, teachers have pointed out that bullies are greatly associated with parents' education background, as parent's education directly leads to their way of raising and educating their children. One teacher maintained: "Parents who receive higher education tend to be more democratic and understanding in dealing with their children's problems". 4.3 Links between bullying and parenting styles ?types The way parents treat and bring up their children has some effects on children's mental development and behaviors. As in wider Chinese culture the mother is believed by Chinese teachers as the most important person in the family and exercises an imperceptible influence on the child with her attitudes and behaviours (Le, 1997). Apart from setting an example for her children, the mother also creates the family environment where children are able to develop their own characteristics and behaviours, which can be observed from the children's interactions with his/her classmates at school. Chinese teachers seem to still hold traditional and probably inaccurate views of the parental causes of bullying in children. Chinese teachers argued that the bullies’ mothers, to some degree, are apt to indulge, bear with and dote on their children, which agrees with a study conducted by Lober and Stouhamer in 1956, which states that parents' indulgence and doting love, especially mothers', are not good to the development of children's sociality because they are likely to become selfish, willful and lacking in empathy in the interpersonal communication, which is called "cold cognition".(Lober & Stouhamer, 1956). Chinese teachers thus seem to hold relatively traditional assumptions regarding bullying that corresponds to outdated thinking and research. With regard to the victims, teachers think that their parents tend to be more critical, stricter more distant and show less emotional warmth and understanding towards their children in the family. Besides, one of the teachers has mentioned that "I think some mother of the bullied has a tendency to overprotect her child". Such a finding also complies with Olweus's results. The parents of the bullied, on the other hand, show little emotional attachment to their child. Moreover, the victims’ mother may show overprotected to their children. It reveals that inappropriate parenting approaches relate to children's bullying behaviours. The parents’ tight control on their child (e.g. yelling and hitting their child), low responsiveness (e.g. emotional estrangement from their child, reluctance to talk with their child, etc.) and ignorance of the child’s self-esteem (e.g. verbal humiliation to their child) are seen to hamper the proper mental growth of the child, increasing his or her possibility of being bullied. Therefore, teachers believe that the parents’ parenting have a particular impact upon the child’s characters and behavioral habits which in turn predispose them to become bullies or the recipients of bullying.. 5. Peer reactionsto Bullying Behaviors According to teachers, when bullying behaviors happen, the majority of students will not join the bullies. While few of them will watch it as fun, many will show indifference towards what is happing around them. Such a phenomenon is supposed to call for our attention. In the 1960s Social psychologists Latane and Darly found that indifference and apathy are more likely to show up when there are a lot of people around us. This is because people tend to have the sense of diffosiono-responsibility. In other words, when some bad behaviors happen, if he is the only person present and he takes no action against them, he will produce a strong sense of guilt and responsibility. But if there are some other people on the spot, he feels that they share responsibilities and opportunities to take actions. Thus, even if one does nothing, he will not feel guilty. Therefore, they tend to act after others. If others keep silent, they will not take actions either. As a consequence, no one wants to get involved. In this regard, almost all teachers have agreed that it is a responsibility for middle schools, teachers, as well as parents to cooperate and help those who are bullied and fighting against injustice. Teachers also confess that only a small portion of students ever told teachers that they have been bullied. Most of them never talked about it neither to teachers nor parents. 6. Intervention ?? of Teachers and Parents Though bullying behavior is common, it tends to go underreported and not face enough intervention. It indicates that both teachers and parents have not paid sufficient attention to this issue. Teachers focus their attention on how to improve students’ coursework and less care about the matter of bully. Similarly, parents attach more importance to their children’s studies. In Chinese society, where single-child families are normative, parents also seem less likely to intervene because their child is the only child they have to deal with: bullying behavior will not present significant issues in their day to day life, so it is easier to ascribe this behavior to simply being rambunctious or energetic, or else blaming the other child. Read More