The following bullying stories from Ireland, put us in the shoes of some of the so called “at risk students”.

Bullying stories - Ireland

The Council of Europe's film ”Beat Bullying” demonstrates the harmful effects of bullying and highlights how citizenship education programmes can equip children with the necessary understanding, skills and confidence they need to help stop bullying and violence at school.
Bullying can happen either during or after school hours, in any place, context or location, and mainly in places where there is inadequate or no adult supervision. Playgrounds, toilets and corridors with hidden or obscured parts away from adult supervision and with high noise levels usually provide a conducive environment for bullying. However, bullying is also happening inside the classroom with the presence of the teacher with gestures, verbal attacks, note passing and other ways. Students also report bullying happening on the way to and from school.
But what happens in the virtual life? Often shielded by anonymity, students can now carry out harmful actions online, humiliate and harass their peers with more impactful ways. Cyberbullying, the digital version of bullying, is not only about some nasty comments that the kids are getting online. Children are being exposed to demeaning text messages, embarrassing photos and snide opinion polls, to name but a few. What makes this kind of bullying so disturbing, is that it is constant, pervasive and very public in this 24/7 digital world, and it often goes undetected.

The Council of Europe's film ”Beat Bullying” demonstrates the harmful effects of bullying and highlights how citizenship education programmes can equip children with the necessary understanding, skills and confidence they need to help stop bullying and violence at school.

Educating the students on preventing such a scenario is part of the e-safety education. Ensuring social media accounts are always logged off after using them on laptops and desktops, setting up ‘stand-by’ passwords on the devices to prevent access if the machine is left unattended, and knowing how to react if something like this has happened (for instance by visiting http://www.facebook.com/hacked, Facebook will secure your account by locking out all other locations except yours) are some main advices that should be provided to students.

If you want to see what this means in practice, have a look at the following video developed at Socialna Akademija during work practice of three high school graduates from Karlstad, Sweden and in the context of the project Joining Forces to Combat Cyberbullying in Schools (supported by the Daphne Programme of the European Union).

For more information, check out the different examples on this Sutori page, as well as this presentation:

To begin with, take a look at the video below, where Efi Saltidou, course coordinator, provides you with an overview of the module content and details on how the course is organised.

Students who bully others over many years are often characterized by decreased self-control capacity (Unnever & Cornell, 2003) and low empathy (Farrington & Baldry, 2010) and have been found to later have issues not only in educational outcomes, but also in mental health. They usually also tend to show criminal and anti-social behaviour as adults (Eriksen et al., 2012). In any case, persistent bullying is an important warning sign of ongoing problems.

For the students being bullied, the most obvious and immediate effect is reducing student’s participation and enjoyment of school. Feeling unsafe or being unable to focus on learning at school may lead victims to stay away from school to avoid being bullied. Cyberbullying can be just as or even more hurtful for students as bullying does not only happen at school, but it feels like being bullied 24 hours a day. The victim may never feel safe or protected from the bully – not at school or at home. Physical health complaints and fatigue, mental health impacts, such as depression and anxiety, or social implications including self-doubt and reluctance to participate in group activities, are some other considerable impacts of bullying on the life of the victim (Stavrinides et al., 2010).

As far as the bystanders are concerned, students who see bullying happening feel distress and anxiety about not knowing what to do. They may be concerned about their own safety as they may also be afraid of being bullied themselves (Rivers et al, 2009).

A safe environment is required for the learning and general well-being of students. The following video, developed as part of the Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassador programme, gives voice to the victims of bullying and helps understand its impact on student’s lives.

Have a look at the following video, where Efi Saltidou, course coordinator, explains what you will learn in this module.

Hurtful bystanders, for instance, are those who instigate the bullying by probing the bully to begin, or by cheering and making comments that further stimulate the bully. Bystanders of this category may even join in the bullying once it has begun. Other forms of hurtful bystander just passively accept bullying incidents by watching and doing nothing. This silent acceptance or this uncovered endorsement encourages bullies to continue their hurtful behaviour.

Helpful bystanders, on the other hand, take the decision to directly intervene by discouraging the bully, defending the victim or redirecting the situation away from bullying. Other helpful bystanders take action and get help by asking support from peers to stand up against bullying or by reporting the bullying to adults.

Adults can prepare children to become helpful bystanders by explaining the ways they can intervene and by encouraging them to make a difference in such situations. A “What If” activity could help you raise such discussions in your classroom and make students think of specific ways to change the bullying situation. Useful learning resources for teachers and students are also videos like this, where YouTube influencers underline the fact that no one can stop bullying on their own. They strengthen people to take action when they are witnesses.

For instance, Deepfakes, a new AI-based technology that is used for producing or altering video content so that it presents something that did not in fact occur, is becoming increasingly easy to reach and use for teenagers. This technology can be used by a bully to swap one porn performer’s face with that of a peer’s, or create convincing videos of students saying or doing things they did not say or do, just to ruin their reputation. While spreading rumours has always been a way for bullies to harass their victims, combined with convincing “evidence” such as a fake video, this method becomes especially harmful and traumatising for the victim.

How do we deal with such scenarios? A good start would surely entail teaching our students to critically evaluate all information they find online, not just in the context of recognising fake news but also for their own personal well-being. If you are unsure how to go about this, start out by taking a look at the resources and teaching materials developed by Webwise (the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre) which can help teachers to enable their students to be wiser and safer internet users.

One of the key characteristics about online learning is that how you learn is to a significant extent up to you. This means you need to reflect on how you learn best. For more information, check out this video.

Planning your learning is important, and it is advisable to set times in your calendar when you will be working on the course. Think about what works best for your learning and your current schedule. For more ideas, check out this video.

 It is important to put whatever you find in an online course into the context of your own situation. To do this, and to avoid getting lost in all the material and discussions, you can create a learning diary. For more information, check out the next section of the course introduction, as well as this tutorial.

 In most MOOCs, learning doesn’t just happen via the course content, but more importantly by connecting to and drawing from the library of experiences, views, and practices that the multitude of participants bring to the course. Ideally, through participation in the course, you will build or extend your personal learning network online. For more details on this, see this video.

 

The team behind each course is usually very small, making it difficult to respond to questions in a timely manner. Therefore, you will always be better off trying to find an answer yourself, then directing your question to your peers. Only if neither of these methods has yielded a solution should you go to the course team for support. For more details on how to find support, check out this video.

Students who bully others over many years are often characterized by decreased self-control capacity (Unnever & Cornell, 2003) and low empathy (Farrington & Baldry, 2010) and have been found to later have issues not only in educational outcomes, but also in mental health. They usually also tend to show criminal and anti-social behaviour as adults (Eriksen et al., 2012). In any case, persistent bullying is an important warning sign of ongoing problems.

For the students being bullied, the most obvious and immediate effect is reducing student’s participation and enjoyment of school. Feeling unsafe or being unable to focus on learning at school may lead victims to stay away from school to avoid being bullied. Cyberbullying can be just as or even more hurtful for students as bullying does not only happen at school, but it feels like being bullied 24 hours a day. The victim may never feel safe or protected from the bully – not at school or at home. Physical health complaints and fatigue, mental health impacts, such as depression and anxiety, or social implications including self-doubt and reluctance to participate in group activities, are some other considerable impacts of bullying on the life of the victim (Stavrinides et al., 2010).

As far as the bystanders are concerned, students who see bullying happening feel distress and anxiety about not knowing what to do. They may be concerned about their own safety as they may also be afraid of being bullied themselves (Rivers et al, 2009).

A safe environment is required for the learning and general well-being of students. The following video, developed as part of the Diana Award Anti-Bullying Ambassador programme, gives voice to the victims of bullying and helps understand its impact on student’s lives.

 Promoting a coordinated system of services that build social emotional competencies and positive relationship skills from birth through high school can prevent bullying from happening either at school, in the community or through technology. As society and as teachers in particular, it is our collective responsibility to foster good relations between people and mutual respect of each other’s uniqueness.

So how can we create safe learning environments that encourage students to embrace diversity? Many anti-bullying initiatives worldwide try to raise awareness, offer how to advice and leverage student empathy to prevent or combat bullying.

In this module you will explore ways of getting additional support as a teacher to create optimal learning environments, meaning environments that promote physical and emotional safety for all students, but also respond with effective forms of intervention when students or adults engage in disrespectful or hurtful behaviour. If you are curious to read how your colleagues would intervene in specific bullying scenarios, you can always come back to this forum category, where a new bullying scenario is waiting for your reaction now, and provide your feedback or submit your own bullying incident here.

Before starting, make sure to reflect on your goals for this third and final module and then identify relevant learning objectives for yourself. Some you can choose from are the following:

·         Identify ways of managing conflicts of your students

·         Identify the key ingredients of social emotional learning aiming at the development of social emotional well-being

·         Discover ways to collaborate with parents to develop a whole school approach to tackle bullying

·         Discuss learning activities and apps

·         Make connections to other course participants

·         Reflect about own practice and beliefs

·         Design activities that raise the mutual respect among students aiming at preventing and combating all types of bullying

 Please also don’t forget that there is a mandatory peer-review activity in this module and a LIVE event! A TeachMeet will take place on the 16th of April at 17:00 pm, and you are kindly invited to join it either as a presenter or as a participant.

 | If you want to present at the TeachMeet, you can fill in the form to register as a presenter here until Tuesday 9 April 2019 (end of the day).

 

Have a look at the following video, where Efi Saltidou, course coordinator, explains what you will learn in this module.

Start Modul3 Video:  https://youtu.be/IkyevFqiY2M

According to UNICEF, only 19% of adolescents feeling unsafe online said that they would tell a teacher. So, how can we realise our vision of bully-free schools when we are not aware?

Social and emotional learning (SEL) helps children and adolescents to manage their emotions, empathize with others, and develop positive relationships. Regarding bullying, SEL provides a significant framework for schools to use in supporting students acquire and strengthen social and emotional skills to prevent bullying behaviours and support inclusion and respect.

Goal-setting, problem-solving, resilience, optimistic thinking, character strength development, emotional intelligence, and self-confidence are all social and emotional competencies that help build the foundation for teaching and learning at schools and can be developed through SEL. A group of education advocates who research and develop SEL programming in a Chicago-based organization, CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning), focuses on five core SEL competencies that can be taught in many ways across many settings.

Symonds Elementary School in New Hampshire, USA, applies a school wide approach to SEL aiming at providing students with a safe, supportive space and ensuring that students are ready and available for deeper learning.

 

Do you want to learn more about how to develop social and emotional learning skills as a means of building resilience in young people so that they can better understand and become more responsible and effective in their on- and offline social interactions? There are a number or resources for you to explore if you want to implement SEL in your classroom.

Achieving such school wide approach is a challenging endeavour but there are excellent resources that can help you get started at your school. For example, the SELMA Toolkit, which will be available soon, will provide a set of principles, methods and activities that will enable educators and professionals to work on online hate speech with 11-to-16-year-old teenagers. It consists of a range of modules looking at the issue of online hate through different lenses: social and emotional learning (SEL), media literacy and citizenship. The Toolkit is currently under development and will be made available at hackinghate this spring. You can find some activities as a preview of the SELMA Toolkit here.

Have a look at this case of a school in Australia which introduced social and emotional learning in its curriculum and the school community explains what’s the benefits of doing so. The ENABLE (European Network Against Bullying in Learning and Leisure Environments) summary report can provide you an overview of the research and anti-bullying initiatives in Europe. The ENABLE resource gallery is also there for you if want to find and download the material you are looking for.

A young person's involvement in bully-victim situations is highly determined by the support received from within the family environment. Parenting style and family disharmonyconstitute two key aspects of family life that are particularly influential (Eysenck, 2013).

Encouraging parent participation in school activities and projects could bridge the gap between the school and the family environment. Parents and teachers should make a common commitment to creating a safe environment where children can socially and academically thrive without being afraid, and take relevant actions to this end.

Concerning the virtual life, parents and teachers need to make sure that the same guidelines they give them for real-world behaviour extends to their digital lives. “Think carefully before you post, email or text” should be part of parenting advice in the same way that parents teach their children to say “thank you” when being offered something.

Sometimes it is hard for parents to support their children if they do not understand the problems with cyberbullying or do not see it happen. The video below features six real life families, and their children telling their stories of being cyberbullied. The kids read some of the messages they have received on their phones, while their parents listen on the other side of the room. The responses of the parents to their child’s victimization could help us empathize and support us to understand better the level of parents’ awareness of bullying, aiming at helping us find effective ways to work collaboratively with them to prevent and intervene in bullying situations.

The following video, Park Yuhyun, co-founder of Infollution Zero, underlines the importance of communication between parents and children and shares tips for parents to spot and stop bullying. Teachers can use these tips as notes for their communication with parents when they try to engage them in the fight against bullying.

Evidence now shows that bullying is not a problem of individuals, but a systematic problem that occurs because of what happens in the wider social environment. This means that schools need to develop a whole school approach, which focus on a range of elements to prevent and respond to bullying. What do we actually mean by a whole-school approach? A whole-school approach covers all aspects of the school experience, including policies, culture and classroom practice. Effective bullying prevention strategies require a broad range of activities that promote a positive, inclusive learning environment and involves all staff, students, boards, parents and the wider community.

KiVa, the innovative research-based antibullying program developed in Finland, is operating at both universal and indicated prevention levels. The following video explains the key elements of the program.

Video: https://youtu.be/Rb6klcdFq1E

Acknowledging the value of diversity and developing mutual respect seems to be a key starting point for upgrading the safety level of a classroom and school. More things to be considered towards this direction are the following:

·         Setting your anti-bullying school policy: giving direction and guidance to the whole school community in preventing and tackling any type of bullying behaviour is a first step towards ensuring safety at your setting.

·         Training: making sure that students, school staff and parents are aware of this policy and are frequently updated on new risks and challenges related to the topic is required.

·         Ensuring a safe and secure school network: using a filtering/monitoring tool allow educators to be aware of what sites students visit when using school-issued devices and Internet services, and ensure access is used for educational-purposes only.

·         Create an inclusive classroom climate: the class syllabus should recognize the need for accommodations and the course content should consider that the perspectives of diverse groups are being represented.

·         Setting ground rules for class discussions: create an inclusive atmosphere and signal that you are open to the ideas of your students, that’s a key to their engagement in learning.

·         Violation of rules: consider the violation of rules as a teaching opportunity for all. Don’t ignore it, stay calm and model the behaviour you would like students to use.

·         Frequent audit of the school’s safety measures: the process of monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the school’s safety standards should happen systematically to ensure that the last version of the agreed policy covers all the needs of the school.

As we said before, safety concerns everything that happens in school. Since the interactions happening online affect the school life as well, grounding rules for users in the form of "Netiquette" seems to be essential. According to the Press Council of Luxembourg and BEE SECURE (the Luxembourgish Safer Internet Centre (SIC)) a netiquette is a collection of behavioral suggestions and/or rules to make online interaction more pleasant for everyone. The term contains the word "Net" (internet) and "etiquette" (Code of Conduct). You can view the entire Netiquette here.

For teachers, there is a big variety of different types of educational and awareness-raising resources available online related to the topic of cyberbullying. The resources section of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) portal, for instance, is a useful point to start finding resources and videos on many different topics across all EU languages.

Films can be a powerful tool for giving young people the confidence to speak about bullying and discuss strategies and ways of coping with bullies without having to talk about it on a personal level. Children can begin developing empathy but also the ability to adopt a viewpoint other than their own, and to look at a situation as an independent observer. Asking the right questions driven by the film and using a dialogic approach that raise discussions in a safe and open environment can be a key point for dealing with bullying in your classroom. This lesson plan, developed during the “Combat Bullying: A Whole School Program” (ComBuS) project, guides you on how to use movies in the classroom to tackle bullying issues.

There are also various types of apps that parents can use to filter out inappropriate content, track the online activity of their kids, identify and combat online threats. You can find some of them here.

As an additional resource for you, the Guidance by Childnet is designed to support schools in preventing and responding to cyberbullying. The NESET II report “How to prevent and Tackle Bullying and School Violence: Evidence and Practices for Strategies for Inclusive and Safe Schools” highlights some whole school programs in different European countries. The ComBuS Toolkit provides guidelines, resources and activities which help to raise awareness of bullying in schools and to help identify, report and tackle this issue.

Various anti-bullying practices can be considered at school level in the fight against bullying. Ysgol yr Hendy school in United Kingdom explains in the following video the anti-bullying policy the school has through the eyes of one of their students.

Video:  https://youtu.be/Unry3Eh66dk

At this point of the course, we want to hear your stories and experiences. Join this Teachmeet, share your expertise around the topic of bullying and cyberbullying and inspire your colleagues with your practices and methods.

A TeachMeet is a great opportunity to learn from peers, but also a nice way to practice public speaking skills, to reflect on the practices and tools from your own work environment, and to share your expertise. As a speaker, you can discuss any subject related to bullying including cyberbullying, whether it is an interesting tool or resource, helpful activity or relevant practice, method, insight or experience you want to share.

Presenting your experience, activity, tool or resource
Presenting doesn't take long: you will have up to five minutes to present anything that you think might be beneficial for your students or other colleagues, and you can present alone or with a friend. Presenters obviously must be available during the TeachMeet itself, but we also ask that presenters join the obligatory rehearsal on Friday 12 April 2019 at 17:00 CEST.

If you have something you might want to share but aren't sure yet, do get in touch and let us answer your questions and take away your doubts: email course coordinator Efi Saltidou and/or course moderator Ana Cristina Louro and we'll be happy to assist you.

 | If you already know you want to present and the topic you will cover, you can fill in the form to register as a presenter until Tuesday 9 April 2019 (end of the day).

 

Of course, if you do not want to present we warmly invite you to join the TeachMeet as a viewer. You will receive all relevant information and a link to the online TeachMeet space closer to the event.