This book addresses, and seeks to harmonise, different paradigms for understanding school bullying. It sets out to examine two paradigms for conceptualising bullying, and the worldviews that underpin them. It uses a complex systems perspective to bring the two paradigms together in a holistic fashion. By doing so, it creates an integrated framework for conceptualising the many individual, relational and societal factors that are in dynamic interaction and play a part in promoting or reducing school bullying. This book draws upon a number of disciplines by way of background, including evolutionary, child development and social psychological theories of group behaviour and identity. It proposes that the human need for belonging is central to understanding bullying, and situates the topic within an understanding of gender and children’s human rights, bringing philosophical and moral perspectives to bear. It discusses practical ways forward, presents a systemic approach to bullying and application of complex adaptive systems methods to bullying research and evaluation. It serves as an introduction to such methods and suggests further creative ideas for policy, intervention practice, and teacher education about bullying.

This book examines the associated experiences of school bullying and violence among vulnerable and marginalized youth. It discusses the effects of diversity and disparities in youth’s experiences with bullying. Among these are socioeconomic and social status, family cohesion and interactions, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, race, ethnicity, immigration, religion, and disabilities and special health needs. The book describes the ways in which a social-ecological framework can inform the problem and address school bullying. It addresses not only individual, intrapersonal, and environmental factors of bullying, but also discusses distal level factors and conditions that are specifically relevant to youth (e.g., culture and law). In addition, this volume contextualizes relevant multilevel factors that foster or inhibit bullying victimization among vulnerable and historically marginalized children and adolescents who are faced with cumulative social stratification. Key areas of coverage include: The role of the family (parents and guardians, siblings) – its cohesion and interactions – in school bullying. Race, ethnicity, immigration, and religion and school bullying of marginalized and at-risk youth. Victimization of students with physical, emotional, and learning disorders. Bullying and victimization of vulnerable youth in the court systems. School Bullying is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians and other practitioners, graduate students, and policymakers across such disciplines as child and school psychology, social work and counseling, pediatrics and school nursing, educational policy and politics, and all interrelated disciplines.

This book addresses, and seeks to harmonise, different paradigms for understanding school bullying. It sets out to examine two paradigms for conceptualising bullying, and the worldviews that underpin them. It uses a complex systems perspective to bring the two paradigms together in a holistic fashion. By doing so, it creates an integrated framework for conceptualising the many individual, relational and societal factors that are in dynamic interaction and play a part in promoting or reducing school bullying. This book draws upon a number of disciplines by way of background, including evolutionary, child development and social psychological theories of group behaviour and identity. It proposes that the human need for belonging is central to understanding bullying, and situates the topic within an understanding of gender and children’s human rights, bringing philosophical and moral perspectives to bear. It discusses practical ways forward, presents a systemic approach to bullying and application of complex adaptive systems methods to bullying research and evaluation. It serves as an introduction to such methods and suggests further creative ideas for policy, intervention practice, and teacher education about bullying.

In this book, the author proposes the existence of a continuum of aggressive marginalisation phenomena, ranging from the unfortunately commonplace experiences of prejudice, discrimination and bullying behaviour, through to genocide. Attempts made by researchers and practitioners to understand, counter and prevent bullying behaviour are reviewed. A key finding has been that the success that has been accrued has been limited, especially when the case of those who belong to so-called ‘minority’ groups (who are often the target of prejudice outside of the school gates) is considered; it is suggested that future anti-bullying actions should meaningfully engage with prejudice as an underlying factor. After a critical consideration of the various psychological understandings of aggression, aggressive behaviour and marginalisation has been made, the author goes on to introduce and assess an eight-stage model of physical genocide, based primarily on insights from social cognitive psychology, and exemplified in the history of the Lakota-Cheyenne Campaign (1864–1890). This is followed by a consideration of the cultural genocide levelled against indigenous peoples (exemplified in the Sami people in Norway, and indigenous peoples of North America), as implemented through the actions of educational systems and educators. The book ends with some suggestions being made regarding our potential to address the ‘One’ and ‘Other’ mindset that is proposed as underlying the continuum of aggressive marginalisation phenomena – through the psychological understandings that we can offer, the educational practice that we can provide, and in the conscious acts of the affirmation of humanity we can make in our individual and collective choices. Stephen James Minton is a lecturer in the psychology of education at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has extensive experience in the fields of anti-bullying research and practice, and is interested in the histories and psychosocial situations, and especially the educational experiences, of marginalised people and groups.

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

This book is devoted to the relation between bullying at school and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. In examining the interactions between bullying and discrimination, the authors set out from the premise that the current practice of intercultural education does not systematically address the issue of bullying, as evidenced by the lack, within schools, of intercultural education projects. The starting point for the work is a survey conducted in ten European countries on a sample of about 9,000 students including immigrants and natives. The research provides important information on which factors deserve special attention when formulating interventions in the classroom with the aim of preventing or combating discriminatory bullying. If intercultural education is called upon to handle the fight against any form of discrimination, it cannot shirk from addressing the issue of bullying discrimination. The results represent a sound, stimulating basis for broad and realistic reflections on discriminatory bullying and intercultural education, and show that intercultural pedagogy needs to be appropriately equipped theoretically. This book will be an indispensable tool for those seeking a thorough understanding of the new challenges facing intercultural education and the means of overcoming them. On that basis, innovative education practices should be developed with the aim of spreading a culture of non-violence and intercultural dialogue.

Bullying is a socially and culturally complex phenomenon that until now has largely been understood in the context of the individual. This book challenges the dominance of this approach, examining the processes of extreme exclusion that are enacted in bullying - whether at school, through face-to-face meetings or virtual encounters - in the context of group dynamics. Contributors draw upon qualitative empirical studies, mixed methods and statistics, to analyse the elements that allow bullying to emerge - the processes that produce exclusion and contempt, and the relations between children, teachers and parents. Introducing a new definition of bullying, this book goes on to discuss directions for future research and action, including more informed intervention strategies and re-thinking methods of prevention. Exploring bullying in the light of the latest research from a wide variety of disciplines, this book paves the way for a new paradigm through which to understand the field.