Bullying in schools: Dilemmas of practice
Item
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Title
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Bullying in schools: Dilemmas of practice
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:de158ba12b64:11488
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identifier
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11947
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Creator
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Weseen, Susan,
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Contributor
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Michelle Fine
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Elementary education | Social psychology | Bullying | Teachers | United States
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Abstract
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This study explores teachers' constructions of, and responses to, bullying in their classrooms and schools. Particular attention was paid to the contextual factors that affected the range of teachers' possible responses to bullying incidents, including their personal experience with, and understandings of, bullying. The research questions were explored in the context of archival research, responses to survey questions, and individual and group interviews with a small group of urban elementary school teachers in New York City. Results showed that teachers had not been informed of federal, state or local mandates related to bullying, nor had their pre-service training included this topic. Considering that the legal arena is currently the focal point of the American response to bullying, and that teachers are the adults who have the greatest contact with students during the school day, these are significant findings. In addition, teachers' responses in the interviews suggest that the current educational climate that relies on high-stakes tests to evaluate students', teachers' and schools' performance leaves them with little time and few resources to successfully address bullying. Rarely heard or heeded in policy discussions of bullying, teachers' stories point to the insidious power of deeply embedded dynamics operating well beyond the individual. Recommendations include a shift away from punitive strategies that blame both students and teachers toward a consideration of contextual factors, and the creation of spaces that allows for teachers' experiential knowledge to inform solutions to the bullying dilemma.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
