School Bullying: Power Asymmetries in Bullying Prevention Efforts

Background: School bullying is a hydra-headed and complex phenomenon with ominous effects. To comprehensively understand the dynamics of school bullying, a sophisticated framework for examining the views and experiences of multiple stakeholders is required. Unfortunately, we tend to adopt reductive approaches that can result in the oversimplification of bullying.

Further, the determination of who is a stakeholder appears to be nebulous and contentious.  Not all apparent stakeholders are given adequate representation in bullying discourse and research. Moreover, bullying prevention efforts are sometimes structured in ways that can be alienating for certain stakeholders.

This paper contributes to the school bullying discourse and research by helping address these gaps. The paper uses a multi-method and critical framework to explore participants’ perceptions of school bullying, and bullying prevention efforts and processes.

Methods: Seven focus group discussions and structured interviews were conducted with 45 participants: school social workers (14), parents (4), bus drivers and attendants (18), and school principals (9). Overall, the participants were predominantly female (91%) and White (53%). All the bus drivers and attendants were black. There was one black social worker, one black parent, and one biracial principal. Participants were recruited through gatekeepers in the large urban school district. The focus group discussions centered on participants’ overall experiences with bullying in schools, and their engagements with each other and other role players in dealing with bullying incidents. The discussions and interviews were transcribed verbatim, and coded using MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software. The analysis of the data was based on a multi-method approach, consisting of two types of critical discourse analysis (CDA) – van Leeuwen’s social actors approach and Fairclough’s three dimensional framework; and latent thematic analysis.

Findings: Data analysis revealed that power asymmetries feature prominently in bullying prevention efforts in schools, a development which may further compound school bullying. Bullying prevention efforts were not very inclusive. Some participants downplayed the role of others in helping address bullying in schools. Further, those who were downplayed were desperate to have support and validation in their daily experiences with school bullying. Again, the findings indicate that bullying prevention efforts were sometimes hierarchical. The findings also suggest variations in the incidence of bullying, with each school or school district’s experience being distinct from others.

Bus drivers and attendants noted implicit biases and marginalization in how school officials often interacted with them. Social workers, and bus drivers and attendants suggested the need for greater inclusivity in bullying prevention efforts.

Conclusions and Implications: There are implications for the general school climate, social work practice, and effective bullying prevention. The findings highlight the need for inclusive and democratic collaborations in addressing school bullying. Bullying prevention frameworks and processes need to be reviewed. It is important to highlight and address issues of bias in how school officials treat complementary role players such as bus drivers and attendants. Also, social workers need to be trained to become more politically savvy for effective practice in host settings.