HealthEnhancing Responses to Bullying

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Health-Enhancing Responses to Bullying

• Health and Physical Activity Institute
• James Madison University
• July 25, 2006

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• Judy H. Mullet, Ph. D.
• Eastern Mennonite University
• Professor of Psychology and Teacher Education
• Email mulletjh_at_emu.edu
• Sandy Brownscombe, Ed. D.
• Eastern Mennonite University
• Professor of Physical Education and Teacher
  Education
• Email brownscs_at_emu.edu

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Overview of the presentation (1000-1150)

• Walk, squawk, and talk
• Unlearning the familiar
• Principles supporting a restorative, healthy
  response to bullying
• Restorative conversation
• Quick scripts
• Teachers as bullies

• The bully within us
• Principled practice and feedback in physical
  education
• Definitions and research
• Why students bully
• Why students dont bully
• Why people recover
• Brainstorming

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The bully within us

• Hurting people hurt people
• Potential bullies and potential victims
• Schadenfreude taking joy in someones
  misfortune. Taking joy is one thing, but taking
  joy in actually, repeatedly CAUSING anothers
  pain makes you a bully

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The nature of the classroom environment

• Multidimensionality
• Choices for teachers are never simple. Classes
  have many people gathered in one space who have
  different needs and different agendas. When a
  teacher makes a decision to accommodate one need
  or teaching goal, other needs are affected.

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• Immediacy
• Events in a classroom happen at a rapid pace.
  Teachers must make decisions quickly and with
  little time to reflect on what should be done.
  Effective teachers can handle a wide variety of
  events occurring at the same time and still
  maintain the momentum and flow of lessons.

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• Unpredictability
• Classroom events take unexpected turns and are
  frequently interrupted. Because what happens is a
  joint venture among many people, events cannot be
  predicted.
• Publicness
• Classroom events are acted out in public. What
  the teacher decides to do affects an entire
  class.

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• History
• Classes have a history. How a group of students
  responds on any one day is likely to be a
  function of what they have done in the past, as
  well as a function of present conditions (e.g.
  holidays, rain).
• Rink, J. E., (2006). Teaching Physical Education
  for Learning (5th ed.). Boston McGraw-Hill. (p.
  42)

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Teacher feedback

• Specific or General
• Behavior Feedback
• Praise
• Scold

• Skill Feedback
• Positive
• Corrective
• Negative
• Congruent
• Incongruent

Graham, et. al. (2004) Children Moving (6th ed.)
Boston McGraw-Hill
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• Some real differences appear to occur in the
  frequency with which teachers give feedback on
  skill and other student behaviors at different
  age levels. Elementary teachers give more
  feedback, college teachers rank second, and
  secondary teachers provide the least feedback to
  their students.

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• Descriptive studies in physical education have
  shown that feedback in gymnasiums tends to be
  more negative than positive.
• Rink, J. E., (2006). Teaching Physical Education
  for Learning (5th ed.). Boston McGraw-Hill. (p.
  171)

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Facts about bullying behavior

• Bullying behavior
• is a pattern of intentional physical or emotional
  harm done by an individual or group
• involves unequal levels of power
• is frequently observed by a bystander (60-85 of
  the time)
• is growing rapidly in cyber-space
• which continues into high school can influence
  adulthood behaviors (mental illness, alcoholism,
  bulimia, and criminal convictions)

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Bullying common elements

• A person is being bullied or victimized when he
  or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to
  negative actions on the part of one or more
  persons. (Olweus, 1991)

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Forms of bullying

• Terrorizing use of fear to torment or manipulate
• Isolating cutting off from essential friendships
• Corrupting influencing another to learn ways
  which are unfit for healthy experiences
  (Garbarino deLara, 2003)

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Key elements of bullying

• Intentional hurt
• Repeated negative action
• Imbalance of power
• Unequal levels of affect (Olweus)

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Research on bullying

• Although reports vary, most experts report that
  bullying happens to approximately one out of
  seven students.
• In a 2003 study, 60 of 12-17 year olds reported
  that they see bullying every day.
• 160,000 students skip school every day because
  they fear bullying, according to NEA reports.

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Why some students bully

• They believe that bullying pays
• They are constitutionally inclined to be more
  aggressive and impulsive
• They like to have others submit to them
• They seek a macho or imposing image
• They find it fun and entertaining
• They evidence low levels of empathy
• They believe that some people deserve to be
  bullied

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Why some students bully

• They are generally hostile because of past
  experiences
• They had or have aggressive models in their lives
• They blame the victim for provoking the situation
• They are bored in school
• They focus on the end goal, rather than the whole
  process
• They do not question the authority of a bully
  boss
• They feel its their job to educate the victim
• (Adapted from Rigby, 2002)

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Why some students do not choose to bully

• They believe that bullying is wrong
• They are highly empathetic
• They have positive social skills
• They are highly engaged in other life giving
  tasks
• They are successful in school and do not displace
  frustration through bullying
• They see their role or calling as inconsistent
  with hurting others

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Why some students do not choose to bully

• They have positive role models
• They feel that bullying doesnt pay
• They have a positive home life and feel positive
  towards others
• They live by moral principles that arent
  compatible with bullying
• They think that they should follow school rules
• (Adapted from Rigby, 2002)

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Why people recover

• Because of the techniques of psychotherapy
• Because of the placebo effect
• Because of factors not related to therapy
• Because of the relationship with the therapist
• Norcross, J. C. Goldfried, M. (1993), as
  reported in Dan Baker (2003), What happy people
  know, p. 68.

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Principles to guide intervention planning

• We all abuse power, bully others, in some manner
  and at some point in our lives. Recognizing the
  bully within helps us understand why bullying
  happens in schools.
• Bully-free schools are created when the silent
  majority becomes a caring majority -when learners
  become peer-keepers.

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Principles to guide intervention planning

• Effective programs usually involve comprehensive
  plans that include school-wide, classroom, and
  individual approaches for creating bully-free,
  caring climates.
• Most acts of violence are made to relieve acts
  of perceived injustice (Garbarino, 2002).
  Therefore, quite often, hurting people hurt other
  people. Persons who are bullied are at risk for
  becoming bullies. When the cycle of bullying is
  stopped, the whole community becomes more healthy.

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Brainstorming bullying situations
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Power sculpture activity

• In 4s, you will create a body sculpture using
  three persons as the parts and one as the artist.
  The sculpture is to represent how you as a team
  see the power structure in bullying contexts
  among bullies, victims and bystanders. Hold your
  pose and then well discuss how it felt for
  each party to be part of the sculpture.

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Unlearning the familiar

• Examples using the following
• Current approach
• Restorative justice approach

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WALK, TALK, SQUAWK strategies

• Strategies for victims
• Strategies for perpetrators
• Strategies for bystanders

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Restorative discipline

• Restorative discipline is a community engagement
  process for developing self-discipline, so that a
  learner evidences the will, skill and action to
  devote mental and emotional energies towards just
  and compassionate living. Restorative discipline
  seeks to create, nurture, and amend
  relationships. (Mullet, 2004)

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Restorative justice goals

• Seek to recognize the purposes of the bullying
• Address the needs of the harmed
• Work to put right the harm
• Use collaborative processes
• Aim to improve the future
• Seek to heal

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Common errors of thinking and possible educator
responses

• Blames the victim
• Lacks empathy or concept of emotional injury
• Refusal to change (or takes on victim role)
• Irresponsible decision making
• Short-term vs. long-term thinking
• Inappropriate power tactics
• Mullet, 2002, Revised 2005

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Restorative conversation A sample script

• Name the harmful actions
• Create a plan
• Summarize the plan
• Promote reflection
• Explore future intentions
• Schedule a check-in time

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References

• Beane, A. (1999). The bully-free classroom.
  Minneapolis, MN Free Spirit.
• Bonds, M. Stoker, S. (2000). Bullyproofing your
  school A comprehensive approach to middle
  schools. Longmont, CO Sopris West.
• Garbarinio, J. deLara, E. (2003). Words can
  hurt forever. Educational Leadership, 60 (6),
  18-21.
• Garrity, C., Jens, K., Porter, W., Sager, N.
  Short-Camilli, C. (2000). Bullyproofing your
  school A comprehensive approach for elementary
  schools (2nd ed.). Longmont, CO Sopris West.
• Graham, G., Holt/Hale, S. A., Parker, M.
  (2004). Children moving (6th ed.). Boston
  McGraw-Hill.
• Plaford, G. R. (2006). Bullying and the brain.
  Lanham, MD Rowman Littlefield Education.
• Rink, J. E., (2006). Teaching physical education
  for learning (5th ed.). Boston McGraw-Hill.