Bullying in the Secondary Education Environment:

Creating a Classroom Community

Sarah Jones

Seungjun Kim

Oliver Pierce

SED 322

4/14/18
 Abstract

This paper details the problem of bullying in secondary education. It separates bullying

into three categories based on those involved in the act: student/student, teacher/student, and

teacher/colleague. Furthermore, this paper discusses the locations in which bullying takes place,

both in school and out of school, as well as through technology. Lastly, this paper proposes that

bullying can be prevented and addressed by developing the classroom as an involved

community, with guidance of transformational leadership displayed by the teacher.

 Power imbalances between people are intrinsic to the culture of humanity. The strong

versus the weak, the intelligent versus the unintelligent, the wealthy versus those in poverty.

Even from one’s earliest childhood, there exists imbalance: the helpless infant depends on its

competent parents. Bullying is defined as a repetitious exploitation of this power imbalance.

Although the act of bullying has existed throughout human existence, it has come to be most

strongly associated with the education. Beginning in the 1990’s (Fig. 1) the use of the word

“bullying” has experienced a sharp uptick in usage.

Fig. 1 : This image is a graph generated by Google’s Ngram Viewer that charts the
mentions of the word “bullying” over the last 200 years.
 Locating Bullying

In order to create a culture where bullying is non-existent in the classroom one must first

recognize where it occurs. Common places that bullying occurs in the school includes in the

cafeteria, on the bus, in the hallways, or during extracurricular activities like athletics and

academic clubs. Based off a study from stopbullying.gov, the following percentages of middle

school students had experienced bullying in these various places at school: classroom (29.3%);

hallway or lockers (29.0%); cafeteria (23.4%); gym or PE class (19.5%); bathroom (12.2%);

playground or recess (6.2%).

Additionally, bullying takes place when students are not under the supervision of the

school. It can happen at home between the student and members of their family as well as other

areas of the community. Bullying can also be identified through the use of technology and social

media, often referred to as cyber bullying. Cyber bullying does not have a physical location and

is expressed through multiple forms of communication. Examples include texting, email, twitter,

Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.

Because bullying can be located in various settings through multiple forms of

communication, creating a pervasive student culture that opposes bullying is the most effective

form of bully prevention. There are to simply too many ways for students to perform bullying

acts for educators to monitor.

As mentioned, bullying has become a major threat to the classroom. Of course, bullying

does not only happen in the classroom, but also happens anywhere and can be perpetrated by

anyone. Anyone can be a bully, or a target. However, when the cases in the classroom are

concerned, people assume that both the targets and bullies are students. This is always not true.
 Bully Teachers

It’s widely agreed that teachers are meant to prevent bullying. However, instead of

preventing it, some teacher ignore the bullying in their classroom. Because of this behavior,

students in the teacher’s classroom begin to take the issue of bullying lightly. According to the

researchers who studied the relationship between bullying and bystander effect, “the presence of

other bystanders may be assumed to reduce the chance of bystanders intervening.” (Song & Oh,

2017). Therefore, a teacher who purposefully ignores the situation adds to bullying in the

classroom.

Sometimes, teachers cause or lead the bullying in their classroom. However, the term

‘bullying’ is not normally used when the teachers lead the situation. For example, when a teacher

excessively makes fun of or points out specific characteristics such as religion, ethnicity, sex,

certain behavior, or academic progress, this is considered by government as harassment (Federal

Laws, 2014). The students in the classroom understand the teacher’s harassment as the

permission to target the victim because of the authority of the teacher. In addition, it harms the

student’s self esteem as well, and can result in the student blaming himself or herself.

In other case, teachers abuse their powers. For example, in Crossing the Line: Sexual

Harassment at School, the author mentions an example that a teacher threatens his or her student

with the grade or the position of the club activity (Hill & Kearl, 2011). Such a case is mainly

related to the sexual harassment, and for the students, it is difficult to say no at the time or fight

back later. The captive is important to the students, and the students feel guilty after they are

involved.
 Creating a Classroom Community

As has been demonstrated above, bullying happens in many locations, both on the school

campus and off the campus, as well as in person and through technology. The stakeholders in the

problem of bullying extends from the students and teachers in the classroom to the greater

community of the school personnel and all those that inhabit the social circles of the students. As

a result, preventing bullying is not only necessary for the wellbeing of the students, but also can

have a greater cascading effect into the students’ surrounding communities.

As teachers, we have the opportunity to impact our students lives. What we must first

admit is the importance of relationships in our students’ lives. Their well being can be positively

affected by supportive relationships or negatively affected by relationships that feature bullying

(Graham, Powell and Truscott 2016). For this reason, it is especially important to be aware of

how you interact with your students, as a teacher, it is not enough to avoid bullying your own

students, one must become a positive role model for them. Being conscious of one’s own actions

will give one the opportunity to see students reactions and how they change over time.The nature

of daily school attendance is a strength that can be taken advantage of; because we see our

students every day, we are in a position that enables us to create programs and classroom

cultures that help them form positive habits for interacting with their peers.

When looking to transform the culture of one’s classroom, Graham et al. cautioned that it

not be taught directly as a subject, but rather that it should be passed on to students through

practice embedded in their daily relationships. Although this would be the most natural way to

create a culture, this paper argues that at least some direct instruction, accompanied by student

input and discussion, is needed so that students learn how to establish purposeful cultural

boundaries and expectations for themselves.

 Stasio et al. found that classrooms where cooperation is prevalent over competition and

where social comparison exists in high levels tend to have more events of victimization and

bullying. Therefore, regardless of the fact that competitive activities are popular in schools to

engage students, they should not be the main focus of most classroom activities. Although as a

teacher, one would be tempted to follow this advice without talking about it with your students,

there is a level of respect that can be built when a teacher explains to students the reasonings

behind their decisions. According to Graham et al. being respected, along with being cared for

and valued are the three main components of the supportive relationships that foster well-being

in schools and, we argue, that prevent bullying.

 Strategies for Teachers in the Classroom

Be a Transformational Leader - By incorporating the values of a transformational

leader the teacher can become a good role model for the student to follow. Transformational

leaders are known to serve their followers and make sacrifice for the greater good. In this case

the teacher would become the leader and the students would be the followers. Transformational

leadership does not directly address bullying but it does promote a culture that aligns with a safe

and productive classroom.

Create Strong Communication - Proper communication is important when addressing

or preventing bullying because without communication a class cannot exist. However, the term

communication can be broad. More specifically useful strategies involving communication in

bully prevention in the classroom are as follows...

· Make sure class and school rules are visible.

· Create a forum for students to provide input on class work and activities.

· Respond positively when the class or individual students face adversity.

When the teacher and students are able to create effective communication in the

classroom the class will better function and follow rules. By making school rules, expectations,

or any other guideline for academic and behavioral issues like bullying visible, students will be

reminded that their role is to learn. Forums such as meetings or suggestion boards for the

students allow for the teacher to get to know what the students like and how they prefer to work.

Understanding your students is vital when addressing bullying because every individual responds
to authority differently. Lastly, a teacher must respond in a positive way to bullying or incidents

that create adversity. Consistent positivity is contagious to students.

Give The Students Roles - By giving vital roles to students as a teacher you are telling

your students that they are valued when it comes to the efficient functioning of the classroom.

Roles can be simple and adjusted to fit the skill of student. Specific jobs that can be given to the

student can be collecting homework, erasing the board, or turning on technology like smart

boards or computers. Jobs for students in the classroom can create a mindset of transformational

leadership where one is serving the greater good. The more servant leaders in the class the less

bullying will exist.

Stasio et al. states that negative harm-intended behavior, e. g. bullying, is positively

correlated with competitive behaviors and negatively correlated with cooperative behaviors. In

other words, the creation of roles, leading to a highly cooperative classroom will decrease

bullying. Additionally, involving students in the role creating process and allowing them to

choose their roles creates an atmosphere of responsibility. When students have given their word

to participate in class, they are held by their own personal honor to continue the cooperative

atmosphere of the classroom.

 Addressing Cyberbullying in The Classroom

Over the past decade the use of technology and in particular the use of the internet in the

classroom has allowed for teachers to present content in new and multiple variations. On the flip

side, the use of technology in the class has also had an effect on the way a student communicates

with classmates. Technology allows students to communicate outside of school with ease. In

addition to this, technology adds a degree of distance between those who are communicating.

This distance can make is easier for students to carry out bullying behavior.

Cyberbullying is difficult to address, because it does not always occur at school, or on

school computers. Not only that, but students have a right to privacy online that makes directly

dealing with cyberbullying difficult. We propose that the only effective way that a teacher can

help address cyberbullying is the same as one would address any other scenario. We must

identify the characteristics relating to bullying such as aggression, positive attitudes towards

violence, and the desire to attain some sort of power over their peers.

More specifically, online monitoring can be enforced by blocking students from certain

social media websites or the activation of accounts by teachers. Teachers creating accounts and

following students can be controversial but social media can used as a tool to connect to your

students. The optimal scenario would be for teachers to create an account that associates them

with the school. Meaning that posts are school related and resemble positive school related

messages. This account would simply be for monitoring their student’s behavior rather than

communicating with them socially. The account can serve as another platform for the teacher to

lead and provide positive content.

 Directly Addressing Ongoing Bullying Behavior

Running a classroom can be a difficult job, and at times, student’s behaviors get

overlooked. If actual bullying is occurring in the classroom, it must be immediately addressed.

When a teacher first realizes that bullying is taking place, it is expected that they should firmly

address the perpetrator, reminding them of school policy. Teachers should work with

administration to carry out the school policies on bullying. However, the teacher should

remember that the student is still a minor, and that they are not yet fully mentally developed. In

other words, they are still children. After de-escalating any in-class conflict, it is important for

someone, a counselor if possible, talk to the student who is behaving as a bully separate from the

class. One must give the student the opportunity to explain themselves and then help them to

realize the impacts that their actions have on their victims. If one is to truly change the behavior

of a bully, one must get to the root of the issue. It takes patience and effort to form any

relationship, especially one that can inspire and release a student from the trap of bullying

behaviors. The findings of Stasio et al. that high-rated teacher-student relationships were

correlated with fewer harm-intended behavior supports our emphasis on this method of

addressing bullying.
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