Children sometimes bully. This creates social insecurity at a school. Primary and secondary schools are obliged to draw up a safety plan. A bullying protocol can be part of such a safety plan. A bullying protocol states how bullying is identified at school and what the agreements are to prevent and tackle bullying behavior. The names of the confidential counselors are also mentioned, so that parents and children know who they can contact. Tackling bullying is the responsibility of everyone involved. As a teacher you also have a role in this.
Points of attention when tackling bullying
Most children know very well when they are being bullied. About 1 in 14 children are bullied several times a week. And yet as many as a third do not tell the teacher or parents anything (Final Report What Works Against Bullying, 2018). Even if they have been bullied for years. And yet bullying can have such a devastating effect on the life of the bullied child. This is all the more unfortunate because the same research shows that tackling bullying in primary education can already have an effect within a school year. What can you do as a teacher? Various studies, in addition to the above-mentioned research, including that of Isabel den Bokkel (2018), pay attention to this.
Three points of attention are distinguished:
- Consciously observe the bullying
- Create a group climate in which bullying has no place
- Make reporting easier
1. Consciously observe the bullying
Teachers often do not see that bullying is taking place (Oldenburg et al., 2016). And they don’t know how to find out either. If you know that a third of the students say nothing, waiting until they are told about the bullying is not an option. This means that teachers themselves have to take an active role. But then they must be given strategies to find out whether bullying is taking place in the classroom.
To be able to observe bullying , four things are important:
- a good definition of bullying
- a clear distinction between bullying roles
- recognize bullying situations
- be aware of the effects of bullying
A definition of bullying?
A generally accepted definition of bullying is that of Olweus (cited in Broersema et al, 2015): bullying is systematic physical, verbal, psychologically intimidating or overtly aggressive behavior by a person or more persons with the aim of frightening or intimidating the other person(s). This behavior can be physical, verbal or digital. In order to constitute bullying, there must be a power difference between the bully and the victim, the intention must be to injure the other person and it must not be a one-off. Precisely these criteria: power difference, intention and persistence/repetition determine whether there is bullying according to this definition. What this definition misses is the personal experience. Who decides on the basis of this definition when there is bullying. For a teacher, It is difficult to assess whether bullying has occurred based on this definition. How long has something been going on? You cannot always tell the other person’s intention from the action, so how do you determine this? And how do you assess whether there is a power difference and on what basis?
Plague trolls
Bullying does not only involve the bully and the bullied. Often many more children from the class or from a school are involved.
- Bully
- Helper
- Follower (Encourager)
- Victim/bullied
- Defender
- Outsider
If bullying occurs in the classroom, it is necessary to involve all children, in all roles, in solving the bullying.
Bullying situations
It is important that as a teacher you are aware of possible bullying situations. With the realization that you have very little insight into and therefore little insight into bullying. Not all bullying situations take place in the presence of the teacher. But some situations are more suitable for bullying than others. For example, digital bullying is difficult to monitor. However, agreements can be made about a group chat, for example, in which you as a teacher can also participate. And bullying situations can also depend on, for example, the layout or design of the school building or school grounds. It is therefore recommended to also identify possible bullying situations within the team and discuss them. Such a conversation can also take place with the children present. What is their experience? Where is bullying most prevalent? And when?
For example, if it turns out that bullying mainly takes place during lunchtime and there is a certain corner of the schoolyard that is hidden from the view of the lunchtime staff, it is worth doing something about it .
Effects of bullying
The signs of bullying are diverse, ranging from directly visible to indirect consequences. Consider, for example, red-rimmed eyes, fast, sneaky movements, children who keep losing something, changed behavior or mood and deteriorated school performance.
2. Create a group climate in which bullying has no place
According to social reference theory, students use the interactions between teacher and students to form their own image of a student. Large research among 1420 primary school students from group 7 from 56 schools by Hendrickx et al. (2019) confirms this theory. When teachers are openly negative towards students, students know that the teacher finds a student unkind. This affects their own image of the student: they also thought the student was unlikable. By taking this effect into account, teachers can actively promote students’ social acceptance.
Teachers’ attitudes against bullying are also important. Teachers who radiate that they are against bullying send a clear message to their students. The clearer you are in your condemnation of bullying, the more you can influence attitudes towards students. By standing up against bullying, you also give children the confidence that they can come to you for a solution. By creating a positive pedagogical classroom climate, you determine how you want each other to interact in your classroom.
Bro ersen et al. propose an alternative definition of bullying for practice: “a strategy in a group to meet basic needs (autonomy, relationship, competence) that repeatedly harms the basic needs of others (victims, witnesses).”. In this definition you emphasize the ever-changing interaction between children within the system. By emphasizing the system and the group, you are actually giving the teacher an assignment directly. By working with the students to find strategies to meet the basic needs of everyone within the group, you can mutually strengthen each other’s needs. You can do this by affirming students’ individual qualities and using them in the classroom to keep it positive and safe.
This prevents children from being labeled or limiting children to roles such as weak (victim) or strong (perpetrator). Instead, you speak to all children about their responsibility to maintain a good group atmosphere together according to shared goals. These goals can, for example, be derived from a program to improve social safety at a school.
3. Make reporting easier
Children often want to talk about bullying, but do not dare. If they are being bullied themselves, they may fear that reporting it will make the bullying worse. And if they aren’t bullied, they may become afraid that they will be next. As a teacher you can make it clear that you are willing to listen and will handle all information you hear discreetly. Whether it concerns bullying or behavior that does not improve the atmosphere in the classroom. Everything can be talked about. You can make agreements about this with the class. You can also indicate the difference between clicking and reporting, between nice secrets and secrets that are not good because they are harmful.
Bullying is tackled school-wide
As a teacher you are an important factor in preventing and tackling bullying behavior. But you can’t do it alone. All research shows that bullying should be tackled as broadly as possible. Hence the government’s obligation for a safety plan per school. This applies to primary education and secondary education. As a teacher in secondary education, it is sometimes even more difficult to keep an overview of bullying in the classroom. Especially when it comes to cyberbullying, which often takes place outside school hours. You often have less of a bond with the parents of the children in your class. This makes tackling bullying in secondary education even more difficult. In primary education there are often even more control options and you know more about your students. This also provides more starting points for tackling bullying.
Many schools use a particular program either to specifically tackle bullying or to promote social behavior in particular. From the final report What works against bullying? from May 2018 shows that various programs within one school year can be effective in tackling bullying behavior or reducing behavioral problems in the classroom. This positive effect could be even greater, the researchers suspect, if all parts of the programs are fully implemented. Due to work pressure or lack of motivation or time, this often does not happen. The recommendations made by the researchers are therefore in line with their hope that bullying can be tackled effectively.
The recommendations at a glance (Final report. What works against bullying, 2018):
- Bullying at school in primary education can be effectively combated through the correct and complete implementation of programs
- By monitoring how many students are bullied and what type of bullying behavior is involved, schools can discover trends and see whether their actions can reduce or prevent bullying.
- During teacher training, more attention should be paid to dealing effectively with bullying. Teachers should also be given more support in recognizing and tackling bullying. For example, by care coordinators or orthopedagogues. This automatically results in more coordination between care and education, which is also important in the context of appropriate education.
- Care for children who bully or are bullied a lot can be improved, including through better coordination between education, municipality and healthcare.
Both the development and research into effective approaches to bullying in special education and secondary education are urgent and deserve a lot of attention.
A teacher makes the difference
Not every school and not every class is bullied. Teachers play an important role in this, although not everything is clear yet when it comes to the influence of the teacher on students, the (other) factors that influence social safety and bullying at school and the effectiveness of programs to positively influence this. to influence. The individual skills, motivation, involvement, behavior, knowledge, attitudes and attitudes; everything has an impact on the relationship with students. And thus on the learning performance of the students and the mutual social relationships of these students and the atmosphere in the group. That is a major responsibility and that is why it is crucial that they are supported in this, in their training, in daily practice and with effective programs and approaches.