Introduction
Bullying in schools is a complex and difficult topic, which, however, requires addressing as a sensitive issue affecting not only children but also adults. Bullying is targeted, first of all, at those who cannot fight back, who are physically weaker or who do not fit into the general system. These may be children from poorer families with different behaviors and appearances, closed and unsociable, too smart, or, conversely, students with lower intelligence. Bullying can start with psychological aggression and even develop into sexual or cyberbullying. The problem can also be expressed in physical aggression, offensive gestures, collective boycott, the extortion of money or things, material wrecking, or offensive and insulting statements addressed to a person or his or her relatives. This means that the topic of bullying affects not only children but also adults around them, primarily parents and teachers. Any aggression toward pupils can become a reason for the development of serious consequences for psychological development in the future. Addressing this issue requires the involvement of different stakeholders, and appropriate guidelines should be followed as a rule of thumb to keep bullying to a minimum in the school environment.
Recommendations for Teachers on Targeting and Preventing Bullying
When a teacher sees a child is being bullied by classmates, this is a good reason to take appropriate actions. Attentiveness in this issue plays an essential role because, even paying attention to the problem, it can be resolved for a while, which is not an effective result of the targeted work. It is crucial that the conflict between the students stops, and it is important to achieve this so that none of the parties feel hurt or humiliated (Ronksley-Pavia et al. 20). Otherwise, there remains the possibility of bullying moving to a new plane, for instance, to the Internet space, where controlling pupils’ communication is much more challenging.
Teachers and other school personnel, including senior management, should accept the possibility of bullying to combat this phenomenon. One of the initiatives at the initial stage is a simple conversation with children. The task of adults is to convey to students the unacceptability of corresponding behavioral forms, including the humiliation of the honor and dignity of peers (Curwin et al. 206). Therefore, at the class level, the teacher can discuss the problem with the pupils and explain that bullying for any of the signs is an unacceptable and low pattern of communication. Bullying initiators should fully understand the emotions and concerns experienced by those who become the object of their psychological or physical attacks. It is critical to maintain evaluative impartiality and, at the same time, answer all the questions that children may ask (Gaffney et al. e1143). Particular attention should be paid to the topic of third-party observation of bullying and a discussion of what actions bystanders can take, for instance, seeking advice from adults.
For teachers, parental involvement is a must if attempts to resolve an existing conflict at the classroom level have not been successful. In addition, due to natural secrecy and embarrassment, many children are not ready to share problems and experiences with their parents, fearing not only adults’ reactions but also the subsequent increase in bullying by offenders. Therefore, teachers should notify the parents of a child who has been the victim of psychological or physical abuse. Moreover, abusers’ parents should also be aware of the behavior of their son or daughter. Adults do not always have a complete understanding of how their children spend time outside the home. Sometimes, even in prosperous families, students demonstrate deviant behavior and aggression toward their peers, trying to compensate for individual complexes (LoBraico et al. 594). Thus, parental involvement may be mandatory for teachers to address the problem of bullying in schools and attract as much attention to the issue as possible.
Individual work with a child who is a victim of bullying is also a mandatory practice that teachers should follow. It is crucial for students who have experienced any form of abuse to understand that they do not have to deal with the problem alone. The school environment should stimulate the protection of students’ interests and not create conditions for harassment and humiliation of weaker ones (Gaffney et al. e1143). Among the mechanisms available to the teacher for interacting with the student, one can single out personal conversations, individual sessions with a psychologist, and even anonymous surveys. Becoming a friend for the child, the teacher can count on the sincerity and trust of the latter, thereby achieving the maximum pedagogical effect. Ensuring the safety of the student, including from bullying, which has different forms, is one of the primary tasks of the school staff (Curwin et al. 84). By expanding the opportunities for interaction and participating in pupils’ lives more deeply, teachers can reduce the likelihood of bullying and prevent the emergence of this problem in a children’s team timely.
Teachers themselves can identify bullying in the classroom by some signs. For instance, negative emotions when communicating with individual students can be an indicator that a particular child reacts sharply to specific topics and experiences difficulties with social adaptation (Ronksley-Pavia et al. 20). Problems with discipline in the classroom are also a potential consequence of bullying in the children’s team (Ferrara et al. 3). An unfriendly environment, disunity between pupils, a decrease in their motivation to learn, and distrust of the teacher’s authority are possible markers of bullying. All these factors are objective reasons to conduct targeted activities to address the problem.
Reducing School Bullying with Parents’ Help
Working with parents to identify and address bullying is an appropriate practice and a natural response of the school staff. The relevance of this interaction is complemented by the aforementioned markers of silence and isolation when some children are not ready to share their experiences at home. In turn, it is crucial for parents to take into account some obvious criteria that can be regarded as the criteria of bullying and take the necessary measures if they are detected.
As a reminder to parents, some recommendations can be made, which directly address the problem of bullying in their children. One of these markers is the student’s persistently depressed state after attending school. If a child refuses to go to school and mentions poor health conditions or other reasons without factual justification, this is a serious reason to check their interaction with peers at school (Hicks et al. 197). Another factor that psychologists advise considering is conversations about school life. In case that, when mentioning the school, the child does not talk about his or her classmates, this may indicate unhealthy communication in the class (Ronksley-Pavia et al. 21). Refusal to participate in extracurricular activities can also be a reason for assessing the student’s relationship with peers. Real physical manifestations of bullying are also possible, and parents should be the first to identify them. This includes sleep disturbances, signs of auto-aggression, nervousness, isolation, and some other symptoms associated with depressive states (Hasan et al. 1). All these factors are essential criteria to take into account.
A school bullying prevention program requires close cooperation between staff and parents if clear cases of the problem are identified. Inviting parents to talk is a natural practice, and the age of the child plays a big role. If bullying occurs in elementary school, it is critical to involve parents as early as possible, discuss with them the warning signs of bullying, as well as what response strategies should be (Malm et al. 412). However, despite parental involvement, key work must be done directly with children. School personnel are responsible for the well-being of the child during classes, and psychological services are required to respond promptly to any reasoned cases of any form of violence in the school environment. Otherwise, risks arise because the aggression of a vulnerable child can affect not only his or her psychological state but also others. Cases of school shootings with the use of weapons are often the result of ignoring long-term and continuous bullying (Raitanen et al. 96). Therefore, it is important to develop a program in the form of a system of recommendations for school staff on how to deal with bullying.
School Bullying Prevention Program
When developing a school bullying prevention program, a range of stakeholders should be identified. In addition to teachers as the main interaction facilitators, school psychologists, parents’ committee members, and school administrators should be involved. The predominant share of communication with children should be carried out by teachers since it is they who spend most of the time with pupils and see the problems and tasks to solve more clearly than others (Gaffney et al. e1143). Therefore, at the initial stage of work, their activity is key.
First of all, teachers should not ignore or downplay the aforementioned bullying criteria. If the school develops a strategy to deal with the issue and staff agree that the problem needs to be addressed, the potential effectiveness of targeted work is increased. This is explained by the fact that even if an adult or a child is not a direct participant in the conflict, the awareness of the problem increases the ability to respond adequately (Gaffney et al. e1143). If a teacher becomes aware of a case of bullying, he or she should take a clear and unambiguous position and try to change the situation. The minimum required task to implement, in this case, comes down to convincing the witnesses and, possibly, the offender oneself of the inadmissibility of such behavior and explaining the psychological consequences for the victim. Such an intervention will clearly indicate the position of an authoritative adult regarding the problem and create the necessary precedent.
Another step in the preventive program is the organization of patronage. The system of patronage with the engagement of older students creates a communicative space that contributes to faster detection of cases of bullying and involvement of older students in resolving such situations (Prysiazhniuk et al. 186). In addition, protection from older pupils may make younger children feel more secure and confident, which is also a positive result of the targeted work.
The methods of targeted work with children should vary depending on the age of the students. For instance, children of primary school age are more amenable to education, and the problem of bullying among them is easier to solve than among older students. At this age, schoolchildren have not yet formed moral principles, and they rely on the opinion of the teacher (Von Grundherr et al. 289). As a potentially effective intervention, it is enough to conduct conversations with all participants in the conflict, show the inadmissibility of the offender’s behavior, and express an authoritative negative attitude toward what is happening. After the age of 12, the child has already formed moral beliefs, and it is more difficult to change them. The personality and authority of an adult fade into the background, and the reference group of peers comes to the fore (Von Grundherr et al. 278). Therefore, for school staff, it is essential to act subtly, shaping public opinion through more flexible interaction strategies, for instance, through individual conversations. Thus, the age of children is a critical criterion that determines the mechanism of intervention to eliminate bullying at school.
Children in the school environment are largely dependent on adults’ opinions, and the task of the school is to convey to students the unacceptability of bullying by using the most convincing methods. One of the potentially viable solutions is to engage a reputable ally. The teacher or another adult who is able to convince pupils and whose opinion is important to them should speak to the class. Respect builds trust in many ways, and for children, the importance of authority plays an essential role (Curwin et al. 35). Therefore, the more persuasive the adult is, the more likely he or she can influence student behavior effectively.
Conversations with children must follow certain scripts to have the greatest impact. Directness is an important factor in communication between children and adults (Alba et al. 25). Another essential aspect factor is the flexibility of the argument, and role reversal can help. Adults should provide relevant examples in such a way that everyone can feel like they are being bullied. Moreover, this is relevant not only when interacting with children but also with other teachers because there are situations when adults do not take school bullying seriously (Ronksley-Pavia et al. 29). Introducing rules and accountability for gross misconduct may be part of a program to work with children, and initiators of psychological or physical abuse may be encouraged to follow innovations to develop normal communication skills. Both psychologists and teachers can conduct conversations, but the most important thing is that the inadmissibility of bullying is conveyed clearly and, at the same time, effectively (Curwin et al. 103). In this case, the risks of recurrence of conflict situations can be eliminated, and a healthy children’s team can be built.
Conclusion
Addressing bullying in schools requires the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders to effectively work with students. Teachers, parents, and pupils themselves should be aware of the inadmissibility of this phenomenon in the learning environment due to its detrimental effect on the child’s psyche. Teachers are the main communication mediators, and any work on the development of programs for interaction with students requires the direct participation of the teaching staff. Different communication strategies can be applied depending on the age of the pupils, the authority of adults, and some other factors. Ignoring the problem is fraught with serious consequences for school discipline and children’s normal mental development.
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