A Construction of Bullying in a Primary School in an Underprivileged Community: An Ecological Case Study

Abstract

This article is based on a master's dissertation completed through the University of Pretoria. Conversations around behavioural problems in three primary schools in Mamelodi, an underprivileged community in South Africa, explored contextually relevant ideas, in the form of discourse, focusing on the experience of bullying from the perspective of the participants (children identified by the school as engaging in bullying behaviour, school staff, and the children's families). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the principals (school gatekeepers), and with other participants identified by each other during the interview process. Two figures prominent in the media on the topic at the time of this study were also included to provide discourses on bullying from wider society. An ecological approach within a post-modern social constructionist theoretical framework was used. In this article one ecological case study from one of the three schools was used to explore the aims. Discourse analysis was used in the construction of the various discourses emerging from the conversations. The participants' ideas around bullying are described, focusing on the discourse themes of “community and bullying”, “profile of teachers in the community”, “bad child, good child”, “undefined problems” and “family discord”. The aim of this article is to provide an ecological description of bullying, through discourse, in the context of this case study by exploring the participants' ideas on and experience of bullying in a primary school situated in the township of Mamelodi. Implications for intervention are considered.

Keywords

bullying case study discourse analysis ecological schools South Africa violence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aboud

Miller

(2007). Promoting peer intervention in name-calling. South African Journal of Psychology, 37, 803–819.

Anderson

H. D.

Goolishian

H. A.

(1986). Human systems as linguistic systems: Preliminary and evolving ideas about the implications for clinical theory. Family Process, 27, 371–393.

Aponte

H. J.

(1990). “Too many bosses.” An eco-structural intervention with a family and its community. Journal of Strategic and Systemic Therapies, 9, 49–63.

Bakker

T. M.

(1999). A healer may yet emerge from behind the mask: Revisiting the tarnished image of psychology in Africa. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 9, 161–185.

Bakker

T. M.

Snyders

F. J. A.

(1999). The (hi)stories we live by: Power/knowledge and family therapy in Africa. Contemporary Family Therapy, 21, 133–154.

Brion-Meisels

Selman

R. L.

(1996). From fight or flight to collaboration: A framework for understanding individual and institutional development in the school. In Hoffman

A. M.

(Ed.), Schools, violence and society (pp. 163–184). Westport, CO: Praeger.

Burr

(1995). An introduction to social constructionism. London, UK: Routledge.

Cole

R. E.

(1991). Participant observer research: An activist's role. In Whyte

W. F.

(Ed.), Participatory action research (pp. 159–168). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Derksen

D. J.

Strasburger

V. C.

(1996). Media and television violence: Effects on violence, aggression and antisocial behaviours in children. In Hoffman

A. M.

(Ed.), Schools, violence and society (pp. 61–77). Westport, CO: Praeger.

10.

Eskell-Blokland

L. M.

(2005). Voice to the silent: An ecology of local knowledge in psychology. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

11.

Freedman

Combs

(1996). Narrative Therapy: The social construction of preferred realities. New York: Norton.

12.

Futrell

M. H.

(1996). Violence in the classroom: A teacher's perspective. In Hoffman

A. M.

(Ed.), Schools, violence and society (pp. 3–19). Westport, CO: Praeger.

13.

Gergen

K. J.

, (1985). The constructionist movement in modern psychology. American Psychologist, 40, 299–275.

14.

Haugaard

J. J.

Feerick

M. M.

(1996). The influence of child abuse and family violence on violence in the schools. In Hoffman

A. M.

(Ed.), Schools, violence and society (pp. 79–97). Westport, CO: Praeger.

15.

Heller

Price

R. H.

Reinharz

Riger Wandersman

(1984). Psychology and community change: Challenges of the future. Thousand Oaks, CA: Brooks/Cole.

16.

Hickson

Kriegler

(1991). Childstock: The effects of apartheid on the mental health of South African children. International Journal of the Advancement of Counselling, 14, 141–154.

17.

Howard

G. S.

(1991). Cultural tales: A narrative approach to thinking, cross-cultural psychology and psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 46, 187–197.

18.

Kvale

(1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

19.

Le Roux

(1992) Diversity and dialogue: The healing narrative. In Mason

Rubenstein

Shuda

(Eds.), From diversity to healing. Papers from the Fifth Biennial International Conference of the South African Institute of Marital and Family Therapy (pp. 36–48). Durban, South Africa: South African Institute of Marital and Family Therapy.

20.

Maree

(2005). Bending the neck to the yoke or getting up on one's hind legs: Getting to grips with bullying. Acta Criminologica, 18, 15–33.

21.

Neser

Ovens

Van der Merwe

Morodi

Ladikos

Prinsloo

(2004). The victims of bullying. Acta Criminologica, 17, 28–47.

22.

Noddings

(1996). Learning to care and to be cared for. In Hoffman

A. M.

(Ed.), Schools, violence and society (pp. 185–198). Westport, CO: Praeger.

23.

Pienaar

(2003). A different approach to classroom discipline problems. Educare, 32, 261–272.

24.

Polkinghorne

D. E.

(1992). Postmodern epistemology of practice. In Kvale

(Ed.), Psychology and postmodernism (pp. 17–31). London, UK: Sage.

25.

Potter

Wetherell

(1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London, UK: Sage.

26.

Rhodes

W. C.

(1996). From my either/or to my both/and world. In Heshusius

Ballard

(Eds.), From positivism to interpretivism and beyond: Tales of transformation in education and social research (the mind body connection) (pp. 70–77). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

27.

Rorty

(1979). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

28.

Shotter

(1993). Conversational realities. London, UK: Sage.

29.

Smit

M. E.

(2003). The bully/victim problem in schools. Acta Criminologica, 16, 88.

30.

Steier

(1991). Reflexivity and methodology: An ecological constructionism. In Steier

(Ed.), Research and reflexivity (pp. 163–185). London: Sage.

31.

Stewart

(2004). Learner discipline: An Australian perspective. Bulletin for Christian Fellowship, 69, 317–335.

32.

Blanche

Terre M.

Durrheim

Kelly

(2006). First steps in qualitative data analysis. In Blanche

Terre M.

Durrheim

Painter

(Eds.), Research in practice (2nd ed., pp. 321–344). Cape Town, South Africa: University of Cape Town Press.

33.

Timm

V. M.

(2007). Behaviour problems in primary schools in Mamelodi: An ecological construction. (Unpublished master's dissertation). University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

34.

Townsend

Fisher

A. J.

Chikobvu

Lombard

King

(2008). The relationship between bullying behaviours and high school dropout in Cape Town South Africa. South African Journal of Psychology, 38, 21–32.

35.

Wolhuter

C. C.

Steyn

S. C.

(2003). Learner discipline at school: A comparative educational perspective. Bulletin for Christian Fellowship, 68, 521–538.