Episode 47: Are Kids Still Being Bullied in School? - Part 1

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today. Foreign welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children and in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode I'll be discussing bullying in schools. This discussion will be in two parts and this will be the first part of the discussion. The topic will be of limited scope in that it will not include bullying in colleges and universities, nor address bullying on the Internet or cyberbullying. Bullying is one of the greatest health risks to children in the US Society today. Bullying prevention as well as school safety and is a top national priority and a key area of academic research. The research includes areas such as efforts and effects on academic performance, the role in school climate, and strategies and procedures for prevention. Do you have an Amazon Alexa enabled device? You can now listen to my podcast on that device. Just go to Alexa skills search for K12 education untangled. Click enable to enable that skill and voila. You're now able to listen to my podcast via your Alexa enabled device. Now back to the show. Bullying is a global concern. It's generally defined as an intentional repetitive behavior manifested in unbalanced power relations in order to cause harm. Some common characteristics of bullies seems to be the experience of growing up in a hostile or rejecting family environments, negative self denigrating beliefs, and negative attitudes and beliefs about others. A bully tends to act out either because of of insecure attachments, learned aggressiveness or weak social bonds. These factors have the potential to negatively impact their ability to communicate effectively with surrounding environments. Bullying can involve physical aggression, such as hitting and shoving, and verbal aggression such as name calling, but it can also include social, relational forms of bullying in which a victim is active, excluded by peers, or subjected to isolation. There are three levels of bullying mild, moderate, and severe. Traditionally in the research, bullying has been defined as unwanted, intentional aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance that is often repeated over time and verbal and physical actions that range from making threats and spreading rumors to isolating others to physical attacks causing injury. Researchers tend to define bullying through a different lens, usually looking at intentionality and power imbalances. Because of the differences in definitions, there's no consensus on the incidence of bullying, bullying or on trends over time. Bullying is pervasive in all grades and all schools nationwide, and it is observed across gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The percentages of students involved in bullying varies widely, but one nationally representative study found that approximately 28% of students 12 to 18 years old reported being bullied at school. At some point during the school year, bullied students experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, physical health problems, and social adjustment problems, and these problems can persist into adulthood. Bullied students tend to become less engaged in school and their grades and test scores decline. Students who engage in bullying are at an elevated risk for poor school adjustment and delinquency, and they are in increased risk for higher rates of criminal behavior and social maladjustment in adulthood. Research on bullying dynamics shows that bullying is often aimed at specific groups. The three groups that have become prominent in the research literature include children with disabilities, African American youth, and LGBTQ youth. Researchers have found that African American youth experience more physical assaults than their White and Latino counterparts, with the African American youth experiencing 31.5% of assaults compared to 20.7% for whites and 19.1% for Latino students, respectively. Victimization and harassment outcomes for African American youth related to poor social and emotional development, including depressive symptoms, greater difficulty making friends, poor relationships with classmates, peer rejection, negative self appraisals, substance abuse, loneliness, low average grades, and truancy. A large percentage of bullying among students involves the use of homophobic teasing and slurs. Bullying and homophobic victimization occur more frequently among among LGB youth in American schools than among students who identify as heterosexual. Some LGB youth report greater depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors, and truancy than their straight identity peers. Research is lacking bullying data on other potentially vulnerable groups, including Native American, Latina and Latino and or Hispanic, as well as the immigrant populations. When schools investigate potential bullying incidents, they should also assess whether such incidents constitute harassment, as certain form of bullying can constitute harassment and can carry significant legal implications. So it's important for schools to be vigilant about such behaviors, aware of the legal context, and transparent about their procedures for investigating and addressing such incidences. Schools need to ensure that students and parents know the specific procedures for reporting bullying and harassment as well as whom to contact if cases are not handled expediently. One of the ways to combat bullying in schools is to improve the school culture. School culture encompasses many factors, but substantial evidence indicates the that a positive school climate engages students in learning and promotes academic achievement and success. Schools with higher levels of bullying and teasing had dropout rates 29% above average compared with schools with a low level of bullying and teasing which had dropout rates at 28% below average. Research shows that high schools with an authoritative school climate characterized by high levels of both disciplinary structure and adult support for students typically have lower levels of bullying and other forms of student victimization. On the other hand, high schools with low structure and low support had higher levels of bullying and other forms of student victimization. There are research based steps that educators and administrators can take to improve school climate including one assessing the school's strengths and needs in a comprehensive, reliable and valid manner 2 teaching pro social skills in regular classes, advisory classes and other small group experiences with opportunities for practice 3 Engaging in prevention efforts that range from on the spot teaching with students who engage in teaching or bullying behaviors 22 formal school wide programs and 4 supporting partnerships among parents, educators and mental health professionals who seek to interrupt the bully victim bystander cycle and encourage bystanders to be upstanders who do not allow bullying to continue. School personnel and bystander students can make a significant difference in the rates of bullying. Social emotional learning can also help students become more respectful and considerate of others. While some bullying occurs in classrooms, most of the bullying incidents occur where there are large gatherings of students and few or no school staff members, for example in hallways, during transitions, on playgrounds and routes to and from schools and on buses in restrooms and cafeterias. Therefore, schools and communities need to consider a well coordinated approach to developing strong home school partnerships coupled with wider community level efforts to teach young people appropriate social emotional skills, concern for others and an appreciation for civility which are all essential to the well being of our society. Some of the ways that schools, parents and community stakeholders can work together to significantly lower rates of bullying and include one providing training for students, staff and parents on creating common norms and ways to deal with bullying incidents 2 creating a living and dynamic school policy on bullying that all embrace and support 3 creating and maintaining open lines of communication to report and respond to incidents 4 facilitating opportunities for staff, students and parents to discuss the topic and potential solutions across academic and social contexts 5 educating and involving parents and other community members in the identification of bullying behaviors and responses that should reduce such behaviors and six Establishing clear and developmentally appropriate consequences for peer groups that encourage or instigate bullying behaviors. Have you had a chance to check out my interactive expert on my website? There are some great conversations and questions going on there. You can check it out at Forward Slash Forward slash liberation through education.com forward/ask me anything Again check out the questions and conversations happening there at HTTPs://forward/liberation through education.com forward/ask Me Anything There are substantial negative effects of bullying in school, yet educators face significant barriers when trying to intervene. Some of these barriers or obstacles include ineffective intervention techniques and perceptual bias that often gets in the way of recognizing bullying. Certain strategies to overcome these barriers include using intervention methods that focus on facilitating empathy and problem solving, implementing regular awareness of certain activities and raising that awareness for educators and students about how to recognize bullying and how to intervene and employing a school team approach that informs and supports educators and administrators in their anti bullying efforts. The most commonly used intervention method for bullying is known as authoritarian punitive strategies or although these are not the most successful, these methods of punishing bullying behavior range in severity from scolding, warning, calling parents or assigning detention all the way to suspending and expelling. There may be some short term success associated with these methods because the fear of punishment temporarily curtails the bullying. But these techniques lack supportive elements that are crucial to long lasting success, elements such as encouraging empathy for the victim and encouraging the bullies to find solutions. What this highlights is that a major barrier to bullying intervention success involves educators choosing strategies that are commonly accepted but not the most effective. There still seems to be an awareness gap among educators of about the level of bullying in their schools. Subsequent research supports this finding. Some researchers even suggest that the lack of recognition and action on the part of educators may be rooted in their personal childhood experiences that have affected their perspectives and have led to different ideas about what constitutes bullying and what requires intervention. Jane Kliplath, the researcher in this 2021 study, indicated that strategic and perceptual barriers to anti bullying policies can be overcome by using empathy focusing intervention strategies. But first there needs to be school based teams who are responsible for implementing and maintaining anti bullying strategies in order to achieve long term success. The restorative model currently used in Nova Scotia seems to be an effective anti bullying intervention technique that fosters empathy and problem solving rather than prioritizing punishment. Using this method, when a bullying situation occurs and when those involved are viewed to be ready, both bullies and victims participate in a calm discussion circle where educators make sure each participant was able to talk about what happened and listen to the views and feelings of the other participants. The educator is the one who who determines whether the bullies and victims are ready to meet. After meeting individually with bullies and victims in order to determine what happened, decide whether they are ready to meet and explain the circle process. This model is not a panacea. However. There still will be times when the discussion circle doesn't work or consequences such as suspensions may be used. But the primary focus of this method is on fostering communication, empathy, connection and problem solving. Will it work in America? Potentially to overcome problems posed by perceptual bias that can lead educators to overlook instances of bullying? Regularly incorporating bullying awareness activities into staff meetings will help teachers understand what constitutes bullying and how it can be stopped. It is hoped that regularly participating in these activities will help educators recognize and intervene bullying incidents, but this takes time. It involves overcoming personal biases. Students should also participate in awareness raising activities in order to learn more about bullying and appropriate bystander behavior so that they can help respond to cases of bullying that educators might miss. This might be tough to implement because of the fear of retribution from the bully. Peer pressure is a real thing. By the same token, bullies tend to seek approval of their classmates, so student bystanders clearly have the power to make a change by speaking up and supporting the victim. Bullying is still an important and pressing concern in schools. It is definitely not on on the decline. Educators still need to step in and put an end to the behavior when it happens at school. Failure to do so effectively puts victims at higher risk for mental illness and diminished academic performance as well as dwindling attendance. Unfortunately, anti bullying interventions are quite often unsuccessful due to the problems with the types of intervention strategies that and perceptual barriers. Educators are much more effective at tackling bullying when they have the support of the school principal. In other words, the principal's attitudes, expertise, skills and leadership style are critical to successfully tackling bullying in schools. The principals and teachers should work together to create an anti bullying school climate and school culture by staying actively involved in the implementation of prevention programs. A 2020 study conducted with third and fourth grade students found that children were victims of bullying and had a bad teacher student relationship tended to have a higher risk of poor academic development in comparison with children that had a solid relationship with their teacher. Contrary to conventional conception, bullies do not have deficient social cognitive skills. Al bullying is significantly associated with lower grades. Students in schools with higher level of bullying have worse academic records, so the school environment is critical for maintaining academic achievement. Almost half the students in grades four through 12 reported being bullying at least once in the past month, as reported in Education Week in 2014. Is it possible that children learn bullying behaviors from adults? How can children be taught not to be bullies if the adults around them are unaware that the words they use and the actions they take divide and sometimes even bully? Perhaps it's time to just talk with one another. It's time for less name calling, less stereotyping, and more courageous conversations with respect and dignity. This would be good for the future of education, and it may be the best way to help lead children away from bullying. Here are this episode's takeaways. One of the reasons that bullying has gotten such national and global attention is because it has moved away from physical acts to psychological or technological acts where students as young as 12 years old are committing suicide. Some policymakers, healthcare administrators, doctors, etc. Are considering it a disease, even an epidemic. Different data points have been used to support this perspective. 1 Nearly a third of all young people ages 12 to 18 report being bullied, according to the National center for Education Statistics. 2 the gender gap in bullying is widening. In 2011, 31% of female students ages 12 to 18 were reported being bullied, as opposed to 25% of male students. The most common location for bullying in schools is in hallways and stairwells, with inside the classroom coming in second place. The authoritarian punitive strategy intervention for bullying is not the most successful. Research on bullying dynamics shows that bullying is often aimed at specific groups. Those three groups are typically children with disabilities, African American youth, and LGBTQ youth. There are three levels of mild, moderate, and severe Bullying can include physical aggression, such as hitting and shoving, and verbal aggression, such as name calling. But it can also include social, relational forms of bullying in which a victim is excluded by peers or subjected to isolation. One of the ways to combat bullying in schools is to improve the school climate. School climate encompasses many factors, but but substantial evidence indicates that a positive school climate engages students in learning and promotes academic achievement and success. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you're listening to this also I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment on Apple Stitcher or Pod Chaser. You can also rate my podcast@ratethispodcast.com if you like this podcast, the best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family, family and community about my podcast. I really appreciate if you'd recommend my podcast to a friend directly on Twitter and to mention my show in your tweet. Additionally, you can connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode. I'll be discussing Part two of the Bullying discussion in which I provide information on the role of emotions in bullying, state and anti bullying laws and actions that you can take to safeguard your children. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day. Love my show. Consider being a regular subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. 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