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BULLYING IN SCOTISH AND SLOVAK SCHOOLSBULLYING IN SCOTISH AND SLOVAK SCHOOLSEvery individual has dignity. The principles of human rights were drawn up by human beings as a way of ensuring that the dignity of everyone is properly and equally respected, that is, to ensure that a human being will be able to fully develop and use human qualities such as intelligence, talent and conscience and satisfy his or her spiritual and other needs. Dignity gives an individual a sense of value and worth. The existence of human rights demonstrates that human beings are aware of each other’s worth. Human dignity is not an individual, exclusive and isolated sense. It is a part of our common humanity. Human rights enable us to respect each other and live with each other. The denial of human rights and fundamental freedoms not only is an individual and personal tragedy, but also created conditions of social and political unrest, sowing the seeds of violence and conflict within and between societies and nations. Human rights are set out as principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A declaration is not legally binding. It lays out principles and objectives and carries moral weight. Human rights apply to everyone. But because of a history of discrimination, some groups of people need special protection for their human rights. The rights of the child. 23486ove93ogj8l The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was founded in 1946 to promote the rights of children. On 20 November 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the historic Convention on the Rights of the Child. To date it has been ratified by 191 countries. This landmark treaty is the most complete statement of children’s rights ever and is the first to give these rights the force of international law. What is Bullying ?
One of the main problems in Scottish and Slovak Secondary Schools is bullying. It is all world problem. Therefor in 1987 a European teachers seminar on bullying in schools was held in Stavanger, Norway. It aimed to draw attention to Scandinavian research and to encourage similar work elsewhere. The Norwegian government had sponsored a nationwide campaign against bullying, an indication of the level of concern in that country. The seminar was successful in encouraging interest and research in the UK . The author (a practising teacher) approached the Scottish Education Department for a grant which allowed him to carry out the project. The project was exploratory. It set out to do two main things – to identify variations in the incidence of bullying in Scottish state secondary schools and to investigate and describe successful coping strategies. The sample chosen was intended to represent a cross-section of the school population stretching from the inner city to the agricultural periphery of the country. The study took place in two Regions: ten secondary schools agreed to take part and were visited in February and March. They were chosen to include a variety of schools and locations: rural, urban, large, small, nondenominational, Roman Catholic, prosperous and deprived. The questionnaires were all administered personally by the researcher so that there was as much consistency as possible in the pupils understanding of the terms used. 942 questionnaires were completed by pupil -approximately 25 from each of years Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 in each school . Information was collected in two ways: to get a general picture, pupils were asked whether they had ever been bullied at school. They were also asked whether they had been bullied “sometimes or more often” that term. Two teachers were interviewed in each school: one member of the management team and one guidance teacher. Other information was gathered by observation and from written material such as school handbooks and inspectors reports. How common is bullying? “We only see the tip of the iceberg” ( Headteacher )
General experience in Scottish Secondary Schools Of the total of 942 pupils, 50% said that they had been bullied at school at last once or twice during their school careers. Slightly fewer (44%) admitted that they had bullied someone else. Less than a third (32%) said that they had never been involved either as bully or victim. A quarter (25%) said that they had been involved “sometimes or more often”. A small number (3%) had been both bully and victim but most belonged to only one category. Table 1: Pupils involved in bullying ...during their school career
General experience in Slovak Secondary Schools O total 320 pupils, 60% said that they had been bullied at school more than 5 times during their school careers. 22% admitted that they had bullied someone else. Only 1% had been both bully and victim. The Victims “Sometimes you feel like dying because you can’t face up to it.” (15 year old Scottish boy) Scotland During their career as a whole, boys and girls were equally likely to be the victims of bullying. But when pupils were asked how often they had been bullied since Christmas there was seen to be an increasing gap between the number of boy and girl victims in the older age groups, as well as an overall decrease in the number of older victims. Table 2: Pupils bullied since Christmas Slovakia “Victims are usually loners. Children who appear to friendless can be magnets for bullies. They also might pick on children who are different – mental or physical handicaps. “ (16 years old Slovak girl) In attempt to determine the characteristics of victims and bullies, social and family information was collected. Although the children involved came from all backgrounds, there were some variations. The following statements must be regarded as tentative because of the relatively small sample. Two groups of children were more likely to be victims of all types of bullying that were measured:
In general Only children were slightly less likely, and children with two siblings were least likely, to be victims. Children from larger families were more likely to feel rejected by others. Social class did not seem to be an important factor, although children of parents with professional and managerial jobs were less likely to be bullied, while those whose parents had skilled manual jobs were more likely to be victims. “I would say that bullying usually happens to people who are different (e.g. colour, religion, or some disability). People who are shy or have a weak character are usually the ones who are bullied”. (15 years old Scottish girl) Children from ethnic minorities said that racism was a major cause of bullying. There were also suggestion that children who usually successfully avoided bullies could become victims at certain times, for example, when changing school so during a marriage break-up. “I was bullied by my so called best friend. She called me names and turned my other friends against me. I was having enough trouble at home with my mum and dad splitting up...” (15 year old Slovak gypsy girl) The bullies Scotland The difference between sexes was most marked amongst 15 years old. Bullies come from virtually all social classes and family backgrounds but children who had three or more siblings, or who lived with someone other than their parents were slightly more likely to bully others. Slovakia Children whose parents had professional and managerial jobs were less likely to be bullies while those whose parents had skilled manual jobs were more likely to be bullies. In general Many girls expressed regret for past bullying: “I didn’t really like bullying others. I thought it would make me feel proud of myself but it wasn’t like that at all”.(15 year Slovak girl) Boys tended to say it was all the victim’s fault: “Bullying is brought upon the person by himself...He might start acting smart and the group might keep on slagging him and hitting him...” (16 year old Scottish boy) What form did bullying take? Scotland The pupils were told that being deliberately excluded from a group and being forced to be alone was a kind of bullying. They were asked how often they had been rejected in this way since Christmas. Another question asked if they had been hit or kicked, picked on or called names, or had suffered from extortion. They were also invited to write about any other types of bullying that happened to them:
In terms of numbers, this means that of the 942 pupils questioned, 145 had been recently picked on or called names, 71 had been hit or kicked, 49 had been rejected and 15 had suffered from extortion. It was interesting that many children who, in answer to earlier questions, had said that they had not been bullied, did admit that they had suffered from specific types of bullying in response to those questions. Slovakia PhDr. Gajdošová Emília said that the forms of bullying are changed with age:
She said, that bullying is aggression that takes many forms including:
80% is direct bullying and 18% is indirect bullying. Physical aggression: punishing, shoving, spitting, kicking, hitting, defacing property or clothing, taking possessions (lunch, money, clothing,...),etc. Verbal aggression: mocking, ethnic slurs, name calling, teasing about clothing, appearance or economic status, etc. Psychological aggression: gossiping, embarrassing, threats to reveal personal information, excluding others, rejection, intimidation, harassing phone calls, playing dirty tricks, etc. Where does bullying take place? Scotland Children were asked: Where does bullying usually take place? Some wanted to make more than one response but were told to choose the place they thought it was most common. Table 3: Where does bullying usually take place? The most common location for bullying reported by the sample as a whole was the playground (48%). However, since half of these pupils have never been bullied, the views of recent victims were examined. 44% of them said that bullying usually takes place in the playground while 28% cited the classroom. 5% of the sample had been bullied on their way to or from school since Christmas. Table 4: Where does bullying usually take place? (Victims only) Bullying has been ignored for too long. Individuals are powerless before its insidiousness but school can adopt collective remedies which will not only help the victims but also strengthen the relationship between parents, teachers and pupils. There is no simple solution to bullying. It is a complex and variable problem so each school must develop its own policy. Of course this would be easier if there was a national climate of concern similar to that in Norway. Therefor will be good if our country will become part of Europe Union. I think that it will be a great help because than we will be able to take part in projects from the hole Europe. One of the biggest problem which prevent to fight against bullying is insufficient communication among schools and bully’s parents. Unfortunately some schools do not want to get involved outside of teaching the children. Many parents are confused about school’s/administrators who simply disregarded their bully incidents. Many parents are now seeking legal action. But on the other side some teachers or schools who contact the parents to address the problem, but the parents are in denial that their child could ever be a “bully” they do not believe it, and point a finger at the teacher accusing him/her of picking on their child. Everyone needs to work together on solving these problems. “If you are bullied tell someone. If you don’t you’ll be miserable. I did and I feel great now” (12 year old boy) |
