Complutense International Seminar. Antisocial behavior, violence and drugs in the school Madrid, October, 1999 "Teachers´attitudes toward bullying" Carmen Orte

1.- Introduction Although the topic of bullying has been the object of research on the part of different authors (among others, by Lam,1989; Johnson, 1992, 1995; Olweus, 1978, 1991, 1993; Olweus and Alsaker,1993; Sharp and Smith, 1994; Smith and Sharp 1994 ) for the last two decades, it has to be pointed out that in Spain it began to be an object of analysis and intervention a relatively short time ago (Ortega,1994). In this sense, it is significant, that both from the social media and the teaching and educational bodies, importance is given to the violence which is exercised against schools and against teachers, and the agression and violence which is exercised among pupils is ignored in a significant way. In our opinion this limited interest in the problem of bullying reveals a series of factors: 1)The alarmism that is being created by social media when it comes analysing these problems, which even though important, do not include all the issues of the violence which exists in the school and other educational institutions; 2)The role of the victim of teachers and other education professionals who observe and express according to these problems; 3)The depiction of violence as something external to the educational institutions, ignoring that, in any case, within any educational institution there always exists real or symbolic violence which is practised not only on the part of the education professionals but also amongst the students; 4)The verification that the bullying phenomenon has not stopped being considered anecdotal or insignificant and passing on the part of the different education professionals,with intervention being unneccesary as the own pupil dynamic and evolution will resolve these problems. But, we also have to add the important fact that bullying is mainly a hidden phenomenon, or hardly noticeable to the teachers, either through a

lack of knowledge of the topic, or because of a limited interest and motivation for the educational task or because of a biased vision of what education means. The correct analysis of the teacher training plans, both in primary and secondary education, shows up in the contents of both conceptual and methodological educational curricula the lack of integration of the phenonemon of intimidation. For this reason, our starting point was that the resolution of the bullying phenomenon not only needs a profound understanding on the part of the education professionals but fundamentally of its full understanding, as a condition sine qua non not only for intervention, but also fundamentally for prevention of those types of conduct which in the long term could have, and do in fact have, important negative consequences, both for the assaulted student and the student agressor as well as for the silent majority who observe which types of attitudes and conducts are those that help to triumph, at least in the short and medium term.In short we could assert that this type of behaviour is nothing more than the basis,from an adult perspective, of an apprenticeship for the professional, economic, sporting or relational competitiveness that our society encourages.

The research that we were carrying out and of which we are presenting a section concerns this approach. That is to say, starting from the knowledge and understanding that the education professionals of Mallorca, Spain have on the phenomenon of bullying, to constitute a specific training program which includes both, cognitive aspects and affective and behavioural aspects, such as the prevention of the aforementioned problems. In short, it deals with approaching the knowledge and intervention on bullying from the perspective of the research. Since it is a daily phenomenon it is necessary to act in a permanent way, where the problem is, and not outside the institution. In short, we hope to make the educator, the teacher a thoughtful professional, who acts in agreement with the thinking he has on this phenomenon. Effectively, the thinking that the educator has on the educational action, on his task, his responsibility and therefore on the distinct problems that may exist, is the base of a correct resolution of these phenomenons. We believe that this thinking of the educator has even more sense if it is contextualised within the new educational culture which, leaving aside competitveness and individualism, makes competition and

collaboration a basic core to its performance. That is to say, the erradication of bullying does not only have to do with the adequate training of the educator but also of a new educational culture that goes to the root of the problems that are generated within the educational institutions. 2.- Objectives and Methodology of Research The basic intention of the research was to know both the perception and the detection and intervention of bullying that distinct professional collectives working in different educational areas and institutions with minors aged between 3 and 16 years have. The specific objectives were the following: 1.- To know the most frequent conducts of bullying amongst minors aged between 3 and 16 years 2.- To know the forms of detection of bullying in the contexts in which they are produced 3.- To know the type of interventions that are realised in the different contexts analysed 4.- To know the general profile of the agressor and the victim 5.- To know the causes for which the subjects bully or are bullied In this way, in this investigation we were also aiming to: a)know the bullying accusations carried out through different persons, groups or institutions such as: Directors of Education Centres, Services of Educational Inspection, Student Parents Associations, Minors Courts, Adult and Children ´s Phone Calls, Ombudsman; b)know the resources existing in our community to give an answer to the problem; c)know the treatment that the mass media (mainly the local and national press) allocates to the same. And with all this realise a theoretical revision of this problem at a local, national and international level. For the realisation of the aforementioned work,- which was carried out with different teams of educational psychology students, with the intention that they not only understood the topic but became implicated in this phase of their training in the possible solutions. Different work teams were

structured in agreement with the proposed objectives. Concentrating on the specific objectives enumerated previously, a semistructured interview of 32 questions was designed whose general contents were the following: a)Professional and personal data; b)Data of the centre and the population centre concerned; c)Knowledge and perception of bullying within each analysed context; d) Characteristics of the attitudes and conducts observed; e) Typology and methodology of the intervention to be realised; f)Present training and the training necessary to tackle the problem. The characteristics of the population centre studied were the following: 1.-

161 teachers of infant, primary and secondary teaching from

public,state assisted and private school centres. 2.-

43 educators of childrens homes

3.14 professionals of the Services of School and Vocational Orientation from the Secondary Education Institutes. 4.-

113 leisure educators

This semistructured interview was applied, in an individualised manner, to a total of 331 professionals of education during the period from January to February in 1997. 3.- Analysis of Results The most important characteristics of the population centre studied was that the majority belong to the female sex, with ages mainly oscillating between 30 and 39 years old. From all of the collected data, and in agreement with the proposed objectives,we can highlight the following results: In the first place the conduct that the education professionals defined as bullying presents some differences. Thus, physical agression was the most important for the teaching professionals, while for the leisure professionals it was the psychological; for the orientation services professionals it was in equal measure the psychological and the physical. Finally for the childrens homes professionals, although physical aggressions was the most important

we have to point out that both indirect aggression and sexual aggression were considered important from the perspective of the definition of maltreatment. Therefore, from our perspective it is evident that from the different contexts analysed some differences of conceptualisation can be perceived, which is without doubt due to the characteristics of the educational area in which the educators were working. This, evidently should have its correlative at the moment of proposing a plan of training and intervention. In the second place and in relation to the detection of some behaviour of bullying we can highlight the following: a)In general, emotional maltreatment is the most important type of conduct detected; b)In school, in spite of the similarity of emotional and physical maltreatment, the second is the most important; c) Sexual abuse, being the least detected of all the cases, is the most detected in childrens homes and in leisure centres. From all of this we can deduce the two conclusions: 1)That a correlation exists between what is perceived as maltreatment amongst equals and the context in which it is worked; 2)That the organisational characteristics of each context make maltreatment possible. In the concrete case of physical aggressions, those mainly detected are kicks and pushes and in the case of psychological or emotional aggressions we have to point out that the most important are the insults, undervaluation and mockery. In the third place, referring to those who were involved in such behaviour, we have to point out that in all the cases- although mostly at school-, it was normally a specific group of children who were involved in all the described behaviour. In accordance with this, and always taking into account that we are talking about perception, it seems clear that the professionals have located the persons who are implicated in these types of conduct. This, at first, is important because it makes the design of intervention strategies, both of a personal, school and familiar type, possible. In the fourth place and in relation to the place where these types of conduct are produced, the data obtained refers to the school centres; where these types of behaviour have mainly been detected in the playgrounds. However, it is also frequent in the classrooms and in the corridors. In accordance with this, it seems evident that the playgrounds and other recreation areas are the places where the adult control is smallest, and therefore these types of behaviour are produced with greater freedom. This

evidently implies that any type of intervention should not only surpass a greater control of such behaviour in these areas, but also the organisation of types of activities opposed to it. In the fifth place, the detection of these types of conduct, in agreement with the obtained answers, have been realised by the same professional, starting from the hazardous observation in their daily practice. Sometimes, but with less frequency, it has been the minors who have informed of these acts. We also have to highlight that the parents hardly ever inform about these types of behaviour, as they are not usually informed by their children. An element of reflection that is important is, that for the children -whether they are the victim or the aggressor-, it is practically impossible to denounce this type of behaviour, not only for the consequences that they might have in relation to the aggressor or the victim, and the rest of their colleagues, but also -and specifically in what is referred to as the aggressed-, for the greater weakness that this public exposure means. This would aggravate their already great problems of defencelessness. In the sixth place, and in accordance with the data obtained, the aggressors are usually a boy or a group of boys,both in a broad and a specific way in the case of schools. In the case of childrens homes the participation of girls or mixed groups (boys-girls) becomes increasingly important. Finally highlighting the groups, both of boys and mixed, as the principal aggressors in the case of leisure centres. All this corroborates the previously mentioned idea that the context conditioned the problem of bullying in its distinct characteristics and manifestations, in the same way as the importance of the group as a aggressor -against the individual aggressor-, and also the presence of aggressive conduct in the female gender. This is important at the moment of tackling the processes of intervention from a knowledge of the group dynamics according to the distinct studied educational areas. On the other hand, and in relation to the victims, we have to highlight that those, for the most part, tend to be individual persons-both boys and girls-, although the presence of mixed groups of victims, is important in the leisure centres. Such data, in our opinion, facilitates the processes of intervention of the education professionals, although in the majority of cases it is precisely the individuality which goes against the intervetion on their own assaulted subject.

In the seventh place, and in relation to the characteristics both of the aggressors and the assaulted we have to point out that the education professionals indicate that the aggressors normally show family problems (fundamentally separation, divorce, and indifference towards the children) as well as by school problems (low performance, inadequate socialisation, bad behaviour and general disinterest). It is surprising that the problems in the aggressors are attributed to the family or the person involved, -without any attribution of responsibility to the educational institution and the related dynamic- and in no case to the education professional. This should be taken into account at the moment of tackling the solution of these problems, since, the role of the education professionals, by action or omission, is fundamental. Therefore, the conscience of the problem necessarily implies that the education professional reflect on their role in the development of these problems, and all this without diminishing the responsibility of the parents or of the person involved in the realisation of these conducts. In what is referred to as the assaulted, we have to indicate that the education professionals perceive that these also show family problems (separations and divorce, child overprotection and low economic status) as well as by school problems (low performance, difficulties in social relations and insecurity) and personal problems (weak personality and shyness, among others). In this specific case it is important to highlight that the most important attribution of the assaulted is defined in what the education professionals denominate “weak personality". Such a definition could induce those professionals to justify the aggression realised in some way,since, in an important number of cases, the aggressors are defined as “leaders”. Therefore, it is evident that from the understanding that the education professionals have of the bully and of the bullied an important training process needs to be carried out,since, in some way bullying is perceived as natural,and where the intervention of the school or the professional is not very important since the causes are either from the family or the person involved, or they are related with the social familiar context. Without refuting that there do exist causes of this nature -that could give a determined behaviour-, it is evident that, both the educational institution and the distinct education professionals have an important role, not only in the prevention of these types of conduct but also in their resolution. Otherwise, the educational act would mechanically reproduce the family, personal, and social problems

that the subject has. In the eighth place, and in relation to the type of actions that the education professionals are carrying out in relation to these problems, and in agreement with the results obtained. In general, those that are carried out consist in making a collective reflection on the problem itself, in talking to the parents, and in punishing the involved, even though, in some cases no measure is taken at all. From all this we can deduce the following: a) In fact, the type of intervention which is realised is none.This is not only deduced from the type of answers that the professionals gave to this question, but also by the training that the professionals say they possess on this topic, as we will see later; b) no type of reflection or action from the school point of view is carried out (centre organisation, classroom dynamic, educator preparation, etc.); c) the most specific measure refers to the topic of punishment, where it is specifically acted out on the person involved in line with the previously commented about the attributions of the causes of the aggressions. Therefore, it is evident that not only are effective measures to resolve the problem not carried out, but that no measure is proposed that will get to the root of the problem. In some answers to the questions it was even shown that no type of prevention is made. It also astounding to note that when talking about consequences for the teacher a great number of professionals alluded to a sensation of impotence that these type of acts have for them. All this constitutes a vicious circle from which it is difficult to escape, not only if an understanding of the problem on the part of the education professionals does not exist, but also if on the part of the Administration they do not put measures for the adequate resolutions. Finally we have to point out that the majority of the professionals from the different educational institutions analysed proclaimed that, their initial training did not prepare them to tackle this problem.In any case, and comparing this question on the part of the distinct professionals analysed, those in the services of school and vocational orientation demonstrated the best preparation and training to tackle this problem. This in theory is logical, since it is their function but, on the other hand, it was not reflected in practice, since, when we analysed the answers these professionals gave in respect to the measures carried out to prevent and or treat this problem, those they professed to use were the same as those commented on by the rest of the professionals interviewed. And so, this training- which the majority say they

have-, neither has its correlative practice in the understanding of the problem nor in the intervention of the same. Relying on the results of this first preliminary study on perceptions of bullying by educators of children and adolescents from 3 to 16 years old in different educational contexts, which we carried out during academic year 1997-1998, during academic year 1998-1999 we began the permanent training of part of the educators who were our subjects —kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers—, using the research-action methodology. Our basic objective was to furnish education professionals at these stages with the knowledge, skills and abilities to: a)detect the problem of bullying and establish a baseline and b)intervene from a participatory philosophy adapted to the students’ evolutionary stages. The training program was hence designed in accordance with these two objectives, always based on the idea that the best way to get a group involved with a problem is for them to learn to identify it and feel prepared to address it. The contents offered to the teachers we trained were thus of two types: 1) Theoretical, related to the concept and characteristics of and the latest thinking about bullying; and 2) Instrumental, related to knowledge and management of instruments for the detection of bullying in the different places in which it occurs in the school (fundamentally techniques of observation in different contexts, sociometric techniques, self-reporting questionnaires for students and teachers, semi-structured interviews of parents, scales of school and family environment, etc.). Once the teachers had received the training on how to use the measurement instruments, they performed a practical exercise collecting data (which the team returned in the form of results at the end of a week) in their own schools, in order to: a)become conscious of the problem in their own reality; b)adjust their intervention techniques to this reality. For this purpose, a group of tests was selected that was representative of the set of data necessary to construct a minimal baseline on bullying in the school. Basically, the tests used were the following:

A.- Sociometric evaluation

Students Teachers

1.- Student nomination method Bull-A (Adapted from F. Cerezo, 1994)

Students

2.- Teacher nomination method Bull-B (Adapted from F. Cerezo, 1994) B.- Large-scale questionnaires (bullying, discipline, environment, socialization)

Teachers Students Teachers

1.-Questionnaire on abuse among schoolmates (Orte, March, Ferrà and Ballester, 1998) 2.-Classroom Environment Scale (CES) (Moos, Moos and Trickett, 1984) 3.- Socialization battery BAS-3 ( Silva and Martorell, 1987)

Students

1.- Bullying questionnaire

Teachers

(Orte, March, Ballester and Ferrà, 1996,1998) C.-Evaluation through individual student writings

Students

1.- Writing a short narrative description in which different points of view appear

Students

("My life on the playground")

c) Intervention Techniques: Fundamentally from the implementation of contents based on intentional inclusion, within the school’s Curricular Project and the curricular programming of areas and the subjects related to Sociopersonal Development (education in values, social skills and conflict resolution). All of this is based on a) a methodology of cooperative learning and b) a methodology of conflict resolution based on the philosophy of mediation using different strategies such as: 1)peer assistance systems, the big brother, recess monitors; 2)the student counsellor; 3)peer mediation programs, student mediators in conflicts. Finally, other aspects addressed are the organizational aspects of the school, for example: participatory administration methods, creation of spaces and encounters, maintenance of the school, relations with external agents, etc.

The number of teachers trained during academic year 98-99 was approximately 200. The training lasted 30 hours, and the possibility of continuing the training in the school during academic year 1999-2000 was offered to the entire group of teachers. With respect to this last question, we are now designing a global training action directed to students, teachers, tutors, service personal, coordinators of extracurricular activities and families, for a school in an outlying area of Palma which has around 300 students enrolled, between 3 and 16 years old. 4.- Conclusions and Discussion From analysis of the results obtained we would like to highlight the following: 1.- The education professionals from the different contexts analysed have limited knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon, the significance and the consequences that bullying has, not only for the bully and the bullied but also for the very educational dynamic of the centres. Even in this context it is necessary to reflect on the great significance that the use of violence as a daily function without consequences or alternatives could have in the conduct of persons in the medium and long term. 2.- It is necessary to highlight the distinct manifestations and consequences that bullying has and could have according to the distinct contexts analysed. Here,we have to point out that, even though the studies on bullying have been centred on the school, it is necessary to study other educational contexts- each time more formalised and generalised-, such as the infant and youth leisure centres, and specifically all those areas and contexts where children and youths socialise. In this specific case,it would even be possible to talk about other formative,assistential and socialising contexts,(such as, adult education centres, old age homes, drug rehabilitation centres,battered wives refuge centres, penitentiary institutions,etc..) where this type of maltreatment takes place, although under different circumstances and contexts, but in those where the defencelessness of some subjects could be important as a favourable element of violence. 3.- The need to make up in the curricula of the distinct professionals- not only of education-contents on the knowledge, understanding, detection and intervention of this phenomenon in initial or basic training.

4.- In any case, and in agreement with that already shown up to now, we need to propose the need to carry out a permanent training amongst the different education. professionals. However, this permanent training should be proposed within the context of the research action, since knowledge, detection and acting should be carried out in a complementary and articulated way. That is to say, it deals with responding to four fundamental questions: •What is bullying? •How is it detected? • How and when do you intervene? •What, how and when is it evaluated? In any case, it is important that the education professionals keep involved in the problem from the very moment that they start to know about it; in this way, knowing and acting should be two simultaneous actions, since when it is known it is acted on and when it is acted on it is known. Finally and as elements for discussion and reflection, we would like to point out the following: 1.- The convenience of carrying out epidemiological studies on bullying from the specific indicators that let us know their characteristics and evolution. In this specific case we think that it would be important to reflect on what type of indicators should be used to know the range of the bullying phenomenon, adapting them to each studied context. 2.- The debilitation of the bullying phenomenon needs the participation of the parents on the daily dynamic of the distinct institutions; in any case, it is a question of not delegating all the responsibility of training the education and socialisation of its members with in these educational institutions. 3.- The disminution of the bullying phenomenon cannot be descontextualised from the exploitation that the present society is making from violence. In this sense, it seems evident that the parameters of the education for the tolerance, solidarity, social competence,altruism should be values that penetrate the entire society and its institutions in all its dimensions and manifestations

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