How teachers handle cases of bullying in schools: a review and an

evaluation

CREd Seminar: University of South Australia, May25th, 2012

Ken Rigby

Defining a case of bullying

• A case of bullying is evident when a child has been repeatedly subjected to abusive behaviour from a more powerful individual or group.

• The abusive behaviour may be face-to-face as in direct verbal or physical bullying; alternatively – or additionally – the bullying may be indirect, as in deliberate and unfair exclusion, malicious rumour spreading or hurtful communications using cyber technology

Reported outcomes from interventions: according to schoolchildren

Country and study Age group Reported improvement

England 10-14 years 50%Smith and Shu, 2000) (N = 2,308) Australia 8-16 years 53%Rigby and Barnes (2002) (N = 33,236)

Holland 9-12 years 42%Fekkes et al (2005) (N = 2,766)

Reported outcomes from interventions: according to schools

Reported outcome Percentage of cases

Successful, the bullying stopped 67%

Partially successful, the bullying wasreduced, or stopped only temporarily 20%

Unsuccessful 13%

Source: Outcomes after interventions for 261 cases (Thompson and Smith, 2011)

A case of bullying in an on-line survey

A 12-year-old student is being repeatedly teased and called unpleasant

names by another, more powerful, student who has successfully persuaded

other students to avoid the targeted person as much as possible. As a result,

the victim of this behaviour is feeling angry, miserable, and often isolated.

From Bauman, Rigby and Hoppa (2008)

Responses to the on-line case of bullying from Australian(N=72) teachers

Item Definitely or probably

I would ignore it 1%I would let the students sort it out themselves 2%I would tell the victim to stand up to the bully 35%I would make sure the bully was suitably punished 69%

From Rigby and Bauman (2007)

The six major methods

• The traditional disciplinary method (the use of direct sanctions or punishment)

• Strengthening the victim• Mediation• Restorative Practices• The Support Group Method• The Method of Shared Concern

Published by the Australian Council for Educational Research, 2010

Direct sanctions: the modern way

There are consequences for students who bully at this school

Commonly employed sanctions today

Verbal reprimands; meetings with parents; temporary removals from class;

withdrawal of privileges; school community service; detentions and internal exclusion in a special room; short- term exclusion; and permanent exclusion

From Thompson and Smith, 2011

The use of direct sanctions in schools

• In a large scale survey in England (Thompson and Smith, 2011) some 92% of the schools in the study (N =1261) made use of this approach and applied it in about half the cases they handled.

• It was used more often with physical forms of bullying and in cases of sexual and racial harassment - and with secondary students

• The rationale is (i) the bully deserves to be punished (ii) the sanction will deter future offending.

Strengthening the victim

The aim here is to assist someone who is being bullied to develop qualities and skills to stop the bullying from continuing

• By becoming stronger physically, more able to fight, eg., through martial arts training

• By acquiring better social skills, especially greater assertiveness and techniques of verbal self-protection, such as ‘fogging.’

Fogging

Bully: You have great big ears.• Target: That’s true, I do have big ears. • Bully: They stick out so much they flap in the wind.• Target: It’s true they stick out.

• Bully: You are wearing pov shoes• Target: You are not wrong. • Bully: You are the most stupid person in the whole school.• Target: That might be true. • Bully: You must be really stupid to keep agreeing with me.• Target: That’s true. • Bully: You keep saying that’s true.• Target: That’s true.

The idea is to help the victim to think up ways of responding confidently but non-aggressively when verbally harassed. And non-plus the bully.  

Fogging continued Asking questions that can put the bully on the back foot. • Bully: Everybody hates you.• Target: That’s interesting. Why do you think that? • • Bully: You spend lunch time in the library.• Target: That’s true. Why does that bother you? • • Bully: Only nerds spend lunch time in the library.• Target: That’s your opinion.• • Bully: You have no friends• Target: That’s what you think

The strategy of strengthening the victim

• There is no evidence available regarding how often it is used by schools, but it is known to be a highly divisive issue among staff members (Bauman Rigby and Hoppa, 2008)

• It is generally thought to be more appropriate in cases of low level verbal bullying and for students who can acquire the requisite skills.

• Its appeal to some is because it seems likely, if successfully employed, to raise the self esteem of victimised children and dispense with the need for further work on the part of the school

Mediation

The use of mediation

• A minority of schools (28%) reported that they made use of peer mediation in the Thompson and Smith study

• A basic difficulty in its use is that it requires in its purest form that (i) the students in conflict freely opt to be mediated and (ii) the practitioner is able to adopt a neutral attitude.

• In practice, its use is limited to quite mild cases of bullying in which both parties want to see a dispute constructively resolved.

Restorative practices

• This approach aims at bringing about a positive change or restoration in the relationships of students involved in cases of bullying.

• At a meeting and in the presence of the victimised student, the ‘offender’ is required to reflect upon his or her unacceptable behaviour and encouraged to experience a sense of remorse; then to act to restore a damaged relationship with both the victim and the school community.

The process

Sometimes teachers are provided with little cards that may help them in deciding what to say, for example turning to the bully:

• What happened?What were you thinking about at the time?What have you thought about since?Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?What do you need to do to make things right?In addition, the victim may be asked to say how he or she was affected.

Jenny, you made me really miserable, everyday insulting me and calling me names

I didn’t realise that

What are you going to do about it now ?

Restorative practice example

Uses of restorative practice

• After the traditional disciplinary method this is most widely used strategy in addressing cases. Has tended to be used more often in secondary schools.

• Some 69% of schools in England reported that they sometimes employed this approach. Applications in approximately 20% of cases were reported (Thompson and Smith, 2011).

• Some of its practitioners may at times also make use of sanctions!

• Its effectiveness may depend very much on whether there is a ‘restorative ethos’ in the school well supported by staff.

The Support Group Method

• Originally known as the ‘No-blame approach’ when introduced by Maines and Robinson in the 1990s, this is a non-punitive approach that is applied in cases of group bullying.

• The first step is to interview the supposed victim

The Support Group Method

Interview the victim and find out how he/she has been affected by the bullying and obtain the names of the perpetrators. It is made clear that no-one will be punished.

Support Group Method continued

• 1. Convene a meeting to be attended by the ‘bullies’ and number of other students who are expected to be supportive of the victim

• The victim is not asked to attend

Support Group Method

S1 B1

B2 S3

S2 B2

Practitioner

B1,B2, B3 are students identified as involved in the bullying

S1,S2, S3 are students who have been selected as likely to be supportive of the target

Process steps

1 Thank the students for coming2. Share what has been learned about the target’s distress3. Emphasise that no-one will be punished4. Assert that all present have a responsibility to help5. Ask each what they are prepared to do6. Tell them that there will be a further meeting to check on progress7. Leave them to talk among themselves about what they will do8. Carefully monitor what ensues

The use of the Support Group Method

• Is used by approximately 10% of schools in England, more commonly primary schools

• It depends for its effectiveness largely on arousing empathy among the group of students

• Some pressure to act positively is generally provided by the invited other students

• Note that the absence of the victim in this method precludes any public reconciliation

The Method of Shared Concern (Pikas Method)

• This is also a non-punitive approach and is intended for working with groups of students who are suspected of bullying someone.

• First students who are suspected of the bullying are identified. They may constitute a quite heterogeneous group.

A group of ‘suspected bullies’

Each of them is invited to speak individually with the practitioner- teacher

The practitioner explains his role in the school and shares a concern about the bullied student

Once the suspected bully acknowledges Edward’s distress he is asked to suggest how he can and will help improve the situation

‘

‘It looks like Edward is having a hard time at school’`

After each suspected bully has been interviewed, the targeted student is seen

The student is offered support and told about the progress that is being made. Then the practitioner sensitively explores whether he could have provoked any of the bullying

‘Edward , I wonder if there is anything you might be doing to cause them to treat you badly’.

After there is evidence that progress has been made, a meeting with the suspected bullies is called

‘Thank you all for being so helpful. I would now like us to make a plan for when we meet with Edward’

At the ‘summit’ meeting the group is generally prepared to make an agreed statement and resolve the problem

‘Don’t worry mate. We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again’.

However, if the target has behaved provocatively, a mediated solution may become necessary

‘We are sorry Edwina but you haven’t been very nice to us, you know.’

The use of the Method of Shared Concern

• Although this method is used in some schools in a wide range of countries, including Sweden, Finland, Spain, England, Canada and Australia, it is used in a small minority of schools. In England around 5%.

• It is used more often secondary schools and is seen as especially relevant in cases of bullying that is provoked.

• More than other methods it requires some specialised training. (There is a training DVD for schools and a book. See www.kenrigby.net).

The philosophy of the Method of Shared Concern

‘All children between the ages of 1 and 100 years adopt an idea if they discover it as their own’.

From Anatol Pikas (above) originator of the Shared Concern Method

How successful are the intervention strategies?

• Attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of some of the strategies have included– Comparative ratings of their effectiveness by schools and

local education authorities in England– Reported outcomes from schools regarding applications of

the different methods

Ratings of intervention methods by schools and Local Education Authorities

Schools LEAs (N = 1,378) (N = 47)

Direct Sanctions 4.14 4.00Restorative Practice 4.18 4.40The Support Group Method 4.20 4.75The Method of Shared Concern 4.14 5.00

Ratings : 1 =very negative effect; 2= negative effect; 3= no effect; 4 = positive effect; 5 = very positive effect

Source: Thompson and Smith (2011)

Ratings of 4 Methods of Intervention by Schools and LEAS

Direct Sanctions Restorative practices Support Group Shared Concern0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Schools

LEAs

Reported effectiveness of intervention strategies in stopping cases of bullying from continuing

Cases %agesuccess

Direct sanctions 122 62%

Restorative practices 110 73%

Support Group approach 29 76%

Data from Thompson and Smith (2011)

Comparison of outcomes from three intervention methods

Direct sanction Restorative prac-tices

Support Group

Series1 62 73 76

5

15

25

35

45

55

65

75

Percentages of successful outcomes

Axis Title

Effectiveness of the Method of Shared Concern approaches

• The Shared Concern Approach has been strongly supported in several studies, including an Australian study in which 17 interventions were evaluated through post-intervention interviews conducted some weeks later with individual students, suspected bullies and victims, by a co-researcher, not the practitioner.

• Fifteen of the 17 were assessed as ‘successful’ in stopping the bullying (See Rigby and Griffiths, 2011).

• In most cases interviewed students made positive comments about what had happened.

Examples of comments by targets in the post-intervention interviews

• I was not bothered and their teasing stopped (Case Study 1)• They stopped talking nasty and started talking nice – treated

me like a friend (Case Study 2)• Great. They don’t do the big bullying any more. It makes me

feel better not putting up with the bullies (Case Study 9)• They stopped calling me names and picking on me (Case

Study 12)• Things are pretty good, better than I thought it would be

(Case Study 17).

Examples from interviews with suspected bullies

• I enjoyed the process, as I didn’t feel as though I was going to be punished for my actions (Case Study 8)

• The meetings helped me to stop and think (Case Study 6) • Looking back I felt bad about bullying (Case Study 2) • John looked happier because we all said nice stuff (Case Study 16) • We stopped giving him a hard time and apologised for our behaviour (Case Study

8) • I think because of these meetings it has improved the friendships Trevor has made

(Case Study 1).• It was good, because we are kinder to Jane and not teasing her any more (Case

Study 17)• We are going to be finishing Year 7 soon and when we look back on primary

school, we want to have happy memories and for Jane to feel OK and us to feel good about ourselves (Case Study 17).

• I’m happy for myself because I’ve been helping people and helping him to feel better about himself (Case Study 9)

Other Methods

• At this stage evaluations of the effectiveness of mediation in cases of bullying are lacking, although there is some evidence that peer mediators gain a improvement in self esteem (Houlston et al, 2009).

• There is currently no evidence indicating that bullying can be reduced by training students to fight. One attempt to reduce bullying by teaching all children in a school proficiency in martial arts was reported at unsuccessful (Tremlow et al, 2008)

• To date there has been no investigation regarding the effectiveness of ’fogging.’

Factors that may influence the choice and effectiveness of particular intervention methods

• Severity of the bullying• Persistence of the behaviour after repeated counselling• Single person or group bullying• Whether provoked or not • Readiness of both students to accept help from a mediator • The degree of remorse felt by the offender after bullying

someone • Support from students that can be mustered to help the target • Expertise in applying particular methods • Support by the school of a particular intervention approach

Six conclusions

1. We need to recognise that there is an urgent need to increase the effectiveness of intervention strategies – between half and a one third of cases are unsuccessfully addressed

2. Direct sanctions are by far the most commonly used strategies but are the least successful overall, though they may be justified in some cases.

3. Restorative practices, the Support Group Method and the Method of Shared Concern have been well supported by research into the effectiveness of strategies.

4. We do not know as yet how useful mediation and strengthening the victim can be as reactive strategies.

5. Much more research is need, especially to discover under what conditions particular methods are appropriate and most effective. Much may depend upon the proactive work also being undertaken by a school.

6. In the meantime teachers need to be much better informed and skilled about a range of methods they could employ.