Final project proposal
Bullying
School bullying also referred to as peer victimization has increased at high rates and is becoming extremely harmful in schools. Bullying is defined as repeated aggressive behaviors that intend to harm and which involves an imbalance of power between the victim and the perpetrator (American Psychological Association. (2013). In most instances, bullying in schools does happen when there is no supervision. This discussion delineates on bullying in schools by describing various attributes of the district the school is located and the reasons why this contemporary issue (bullying) is selected.
The district is located in the urban area with some of the parts extending to rural areas. Therefore, the schools in the district are developed to some extent. Large number of the population in the district is middle-income earners as parents can afford to take their children in these schools as they have the capability to do so. The population in the district is high and this therefore transcends to the schools. Most of the schools have a high number of students that come from different backgrounds as some come from wealthy background while others from average families, and others especially from rural areas come from slightly below average families. Because of the high emphasis on education, the rate of graduation over the recent years has been high. The schools in the districts are mostly boarding implying that students spend their time at school and are only allowed to visit their parents during holidays. Therefore, most of the time is spent at school with their teachers.
As indicated above, bullying is one of the problems and challenges facing many schools in this district. The fact that students spend a large amount of time at school means that teachers have not put in place appropriate prevention measures to help reduce this behavior. There are various ways that bullying is perpetrated in schools. Firstly, bullying in schools affect the victims physically, emotionally and psychology impacting on their learning process. Recent data on student bullying indicate that an estimate of between 30 to 80 percent of students are targets of bullying (Morgan, 2012). Therefore, this problem requires immediate attention.
One of the reasons as to why I selected this issue is because it affects the learning of the students and deters them from achieving their goals. Students or victims are subjected to mental torture and even physical abuse by perpetrators and this makes them to develop low self-esteem that makes them to perform poorly. This is one of the challenges in schools that need to be given a lot of time and emphasis to ensure that it does not affect the smooth learning of the students. Most of the students that fall victims of being called abusive names and physically abused develop negative attitude about school and this affects the way they live and even their study behaviors.
Bullying also makes students not to enjoy school and will often perceive school as an unsafe place to be. Even though, students go to school to acquire knowledge, this becomes impossible, as they feel de-motivated and unsafe in such environments. The second reason for selecting this issue is to help in identification of the reasons why students bully others despite the rules and the regulations in schools. The problem of bullying has been increasing over the years without amicable solutions (Morgan, 2012). Researches have been done to try to find out why this is so and many reasons explain why this is so. Understanding these reasons is essential in helping to curb such behaviors because they have negative effects on the students. One of the reasons is peer pressure (Huang, Hong & Espelage, 2013). Perpetrators often learn such behaviors through observing what others do and therefore they engage in the same. Secondly is that they were also a victim and therefore they want to revenge what they went through. This is why in most instances senior students bully junior ones. The other reasons are to maintain status quo. The senior students want to demonstrate their seniority. Parental upbringing is also another reason for such behaviors apart from influences of drugs and alcohol.
The third reason for selecting this is to help in understanding ways of handling this problem within schools and alleviating it to ensure that the learning environment is conducive for all the students. The most important factor that determines the success of the students is where they have a good learning environment (Kids Health, 2013). Some of the strategies that can be adopted to prevent bullying in schools include; teachers need to come up with rules and sanctions related to bullying and ensure that they are adhered to. The environment created need to encourage warmth and respect to ensure that students respect each other (Kasetchai, 2013). Students should be allowed to discuss and talk about bullying to help them understand the negative effects of engaging in it. Parents should also be involved in cases that involve bullying to ensure that they also help to inculcate good morals to their children (Bradshaw et al. 2013). Bullying cases or incidences should be responded to quickly and non-hostile negative consequences need to be used for the instigators.
Therefore, as discussed above, bullying is one of the problems that face many students in schools. The problem needs to be addressed appropriately to ensure that all the students learn in a conducive environment.
References
American Psychological Association. (2013). Bullying. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/topics/bullying/
Bradshaw, C., et al. (2013). Teachers’ and Education Support Professionals’ Perspectives on Bullying and Prevention: Findings From a National Education Association Study, School Psychology Review, 42(3): 280-297.
Huang, H., Hong, J., & Espelage, D. (2013). Understanding Factors Associated with Bullying and Peer Victimization in Chinese Schools Within Ecological Contexts, Journal of Child & Family Studies, 22(7): 881-892.
Kasetchai, L. (2013). Guidelines for Solving Bullying Behaviors among Islamic Private School Students in Songkhla Province, Asian Social Science, 9(11): 83-89.
Kids Health. (2013). Dealing with bullying. Retrieved from: http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html
Morgan, H. (2012). What Teachers and Schools Can Do to Control the Growing Problem of School Bullying, Clearing House, 85(5): 174-178.
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