School Bullying and Current Educational Practice: Re-Imagining Theories of Educational Transformation

Abstract

Background/Context

Bullying within schools continues despite thoughtful and well-researched anti-bullying strategies deployed against it. The bulk of research targeted toward understanding and eradicating bullying within schools is of an empirical nature. In other words, through data collection, questionnaires, interviews, ethnography, observation, case studies, etc., researchers have sought to carefully assess bully/victim characteristics as well as the social processes that fuel bullying within schools.

Purpose

This project considers educational transformation (i.e., how we might transform those we educate) through a variety of pertinent, yet diverse, lenses. Specifically this paper is situated in the conviction that in order to stop bullying we must affect desire. We ask, then, how philosophical theories of transformation, specifically those regarding changes in dispositions, might contribute to our understanding of school bullying and current strategies aimed at reducing it. In short, the driving question underlying this project simply asks: how can we help the bully to no longer desire to bully?

Research Design

In contrast to the traditional empirical methodology which has been directed toward bullying research, this project employs several alternative philosophical and theoretical lenses, seeking to view bullying and the strategies aimed against it from diverse perspectives, raising fresh insights into this ongoing educational dilemma. Three broad philosophical lenses are employed, seeking to understand the processes of rational change (i.e., how one's mind is changed), the desires that operate in relations of domination (i.e., bullying), and the social/cultural forces that may work to create characters such as bullies and victims.

Conclusions/Recommendations

As a result this project broadens current anti-bullying strategies, adding helpful insights regarding the “heart” change (i.e., transformations of desire) which may be necessary to effectively reduce bullying within schools. This interdisciplinary approach outlines future avenues of response not only aimed at transforming the bully/victim relationship after the fact, but also toward cultivating specific kinds of relationships within schools which may head off bullying before it develops.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Benjamin

(1988). The bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism, and the problem of domination. New York: Pantheon Books.

Bjorklund

D. F.

, and Pellegrini

A. D.

(2002). The origins of human nature: Evolutionary developmental psychology. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

Burkowski

W. M.

, and Sippola

L. K.

(2001). Groups, individuals, and victimization: A view of the peer system. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 355—377). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Dewey

(1997). Experience & education. New York: Touchstone Books. (Original work published 1938).

Duncan

R. D.

(2004). The impact of family relationships on school bullies and their victims. In Espelage

D.L.

, and Swearer

S.M.

(Eds.), Bullying in American school: A social-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention (pp. 227—244). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Espelage

D. L.

, and Swearer

S. M.

(Eds.) (2004). Bullying in American schools: A social-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Espelage

D. L.

, and Swearer

S. M.

(Eds.). (2003). Research on school bullying and victimization: What have we learned and where do we go from here? School Psychology Review, 32, 365—383.

Foucault

(1997). Subjectivity and truth. In and and Rabinow

(Ed.), The essential works of Foucault: Vol. 1: Ethics, subjectivity and truth. New York: New Press.

Foucault

(1995). Discipline & punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1977).

10.

Foucault

(1990). History of sexuality: An introduction (Vol. 1). New York: Random House, Inc.

11.

Foucault

(1988). The ethic of care for the self as a practice of freedom. In Bernauer

, and Rasmussen

(Eds.), The final Foucault. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

12.

Ghent

(1990). Masochism, submission, surrender. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 26, 108—136.

13.

Hanish

L. D.

, Kochenderfer-Ladd

, Fabes

R. A.

, Martin

C. L.

, and Deening

(2004). Bullying among young children: The influence of peers and teachers. In Espelage

D.L.

, and Swearer

S.M.

(Eds.), Bullying in American schools: A social-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention (pp. 141—160). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

14.

Hoover

J. H.

, and Oliver

(1996). The bullying prevention handbook. Bloomington, IN: National Education Service.

15.

Kaukiainen

, Bjorkqvist

, Lagerspetz

, Osterman

, Salmivalli

, Rothberg

, and Ahlbom

(1999). The relationships between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 81—89.

16.

Lakatos

(1970). Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes. In Lakatos

, and Musgrave

(Eds.), Criticism and the growth of knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

17.

Long

J. D.

, and Pellegrini

A. D.

(2003). Studying change in dominance and bullying with linear mixed models. School Psychology Review, 32(3), 401—417.

18.

Malecki

C. K.

, and Demaray

M. K.

(2002). Perceived social support by children with characteristics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. School Psychology Quarterly, 17, 123—241.

19.

McLaren

M. A.

(2002). Feminism, Foucault, and embodied subjectivity. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

20.

McNay

(1992). Foucault & feminism: Power, gender, and the self. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

21.

Olweus

(1993). Bullying at school. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

22.

Olweus

(2001). Peer harassment: A critical analysis and some important issues. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 3—20). New York: The Guilford Press.

23.

Paley

V. G.

(1992). You can't say you can't play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

24.

Pellegrini

A. D.

(2001). A longitudinal study of boys’ rough-and-tumble play and dominance during early adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (1995), 16, 77—93. Referenced in J. Juvonen & S. Graham (Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized. New York: The Guilford Press.

25.

Pellegrini

A. D.

(2001). Sampling instances of victimization in middle school: A methodological comparison. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 125—144). New York: The Guilford Press.

26.

Pellegrini

A. D.

, and Bartini

(2001). Dominance in early adolescent boys: Affiliative and aggressive dimensions and possible functions. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 47, 142—163.

27.

Pellegrini

A. D.

, and Long

J. D.

(2003). A sexual selection theory longitudinal analysis of sexual segregation and integration in early adolescence. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 257—278.

28.

Pellegrini

A. D.

, and Long

J. D.

(2004). During the transition from primary school through secondary school. In Espelage

D.L.

, and Swearer

S.M.

(Eds.), Bullying in American schools: A social-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention (pp. 107—118). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

29.

Perry

D.G.

, Hodges

E. V. E.

, and Egan

S. K.

(2001). Determinants of chronic victimization by peers: A review and a new model of family influence. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 73—104). New York: The Guilford Press.

30.

Prinstein

M. J.

, and Cohen

G. L.

(2001, April). Adolescent peer crowd affiliation and overt, relational, and social aggression: Using aggression to protect one's peer status. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.

31.

Rigby

(2001). Health consequences of bullying and its prevention in schools. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 310—331). New York: The Guilford Press.

32.

Salmivalli

(2001). Group view on victimization: Empirical findings and their implications. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 398—419). New York: The Guilford Press.

33.

Simmons

(2002). Odd girl out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls. New York: Harcourt.

34.

Smith

P. K.

, Shu

, and Madsen

(2001). Characteristics of victims of school bullying: Developmental changes in coping strategies and skills. In Juvonen

, and Graham

(Eds.), Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (pp. 332—351). New York: The Guilford Press.

35.

Strayer

F. F.

(1980). Social ecology of the preschool peer group. In and and Collins

W.A.

(Ed.), The Minnesota symposia on child psychology. Development of cognition, affect, and social relations (Vol. 13, pp. 165—196). Hilisdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

36.

Sutton

, Smith

P. K.

, and Swettenham

(1999). Socially undesirable need not be incompetent: A response to Crick and Dodge. Social Development, 8, 132—134.

37.

Whitaker

D. J.

, Rosenbluth

, Valle

L. A.

, and Sanchez

(2004). Expect respect: A school-based intervention to promote awareness and effective responses to bullying and sexual harassment. In Espelage

D.L.

, and Swearer

S.M.

(Eds.), Bullying in American schools: A social-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention (pp. 327—350). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.