School bullying management : the constructs of teacher’s competence in timely handling school bullying

Worldwide, school bullying is challenging for teachers. Bullying has a pervasive impact on both victims and perpetrators and affects classroom and school communities. But it also questions the mastery of an underlying competence to deal timely with school bullying. In US and European literature, teacher professional development in view of dealing with critical competences is guided by clinical simulations. Face-to-face or online simulations require the definition of a clear “script” that can guide expert teacher competences. In this study, analysis of the international bullying literature helped defining a “script”, defining (1) steps to be considered and (2) general attitudes to be adopted by teachers. This “script” – mainly based on Western literature - was next validated by comparing it to the expert opinions of 16 experienced secondary school teachers from Taiwan to check ecological validity of the findings. Data analysis of interview data confirmed the identification of two constructs: (1) ‘Structuring prompt management of school bullying’ consisting of three interdependent intervention steps: (a) identifying school bullying, (b) stabilizing the incident, and (c) clarifying incidents while invoking accidental learning. (2) ‘Setting the appropriate atmosphere for bullying management’ that combines (a) constructing and maintaining a positive relationship with the students and (b) adopting a calm, serious, and fair attitude during the intervention. These constructs fit the model as derived from the literature. The “script” will be used as a base to design and implement professional development for teachers.

Jaar van publicatie:2019

Toegankelijkheid:Closed