Introduction
Bullying is a serious phenomenon that has a fundamental negative impact and appears in most social spheres - in schools, workplaces, family relationships, prison environments, fields of interest and generally everywhere where hierarchy is common (Svobodová, 2008, Monks et al., 2009). The origin of the concept of bullying can be found in the French word chicane, which is translated as harming, persecuting, at all costs to adhere to rules and laws in relation to the subjugated (Říčan, 1995) and in practice it means repeatedly harming an individual (or several individuals) who does not or cannot defend or protect himself (Říčan and Janošová, 2010). In Czech schools, the incidence of bullying has been monitored for a long time, and research studies repeatedly demonstrate its high incidence (Kollerová et al. 2020; ČŠI, 2019). Kollerová et al. (2020) states that approximately 10 pupils out of 100 have personal experience with aggression and that every school currently has at least minimal experience with this negative phenomenon. An overview of occurrence is presented in table no. 1.
Table 1: Year-on-year comparison of identified cases of risky student behavior (in %)
MŠMT (2016a, p. 1) considers bullying as "aggressive behavior on the part of a pupil/s towards a pupil or a group of pupils or a teacher, which is repeated over time (not necessarily) and is based on a conscious, intentional, intentional and usually hidden attempt to harm physically, emotionally, socially and/or in the case of bullying the teacher, also professionally. Bullying is further characterized by a disparity of power, the helplessness of the victim, the unpleasantness of the attack for the victim and self-serving aggression."
Bullying in schools is a very serious type of aggression because it affects the achievement of goals and compliance with educational principles. Bullying is often kept secret for a long time and can seriously disrupt relationships, development, and an individual's education (MŠMT, 2016b). With regard to the overall seriousness of the phenomenon, in this study we decided to focus on the principals' point of view and their specific approaches to the prevention and solution of bullying in their schools. The aim of the study is, based on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, to describe the approach of selected kindergarten, primary and secondary school principals to school bullying, from prevention to solutions. With regard to the set goal, we chose a methodological approach based on qualitative description and thematic and content analysis of the obtained data (Granneheim et al., 2017). To achieve the goal, we defined a total of three basic research questions:
- What experience do school principals have with school bullying?
- What is the established prevention system at the school?
- How do they proceed when dealing with bullying?
We conducted a total of eight interviews, conducted by a member of the author's team (KČ), who also ensured informed consent to participate in the research. The interviews lasted about twenty minutes on average. In accordance with the established research questions, the axis of the interview was similar and all respondents were asked about their experiences, ways of preventing and solving school bullying. In the area of experience, we also focused on the current situation and experiences related to possible changes with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic. The interviews were recorded and subsequently analyzed using open coding. Individual codes were subsequently grouped into categories and inductively interpreted (Strauss and Corbinová, 1999, Švaříček and Šeďová, 2007). Seven interviews were conducted directly with school principals and one with the deputy principal together with the school psychologist due to the sudden absence of the school principal. Six interviews took place in person and two by telephone. The respondents were six men and two women with an average age of 51 years and an average length of experience of 13 years, and the interviews were conducted at four secondary schools, three primary schools and one kindergarten. To preserve anonymity, each respondent was assigned a pseudonym, which is used as a designation of the person in the evaluation. The pseudonyms are as follows: Tomáš, Jakub, Zdeněk, Antonín, Radek, Karel, Tereza and Monika.
The results part is structured according to the posed research questions, the statements of the respondents were left as authentic. In the final part, the relationships between the individual categories are presented and interpreted.
Experience with bullying
The interviews revealed that everyone has come into contact with bullying and that almost everyone deals with it in some form at school. Karel, for example, confirms his light experience: "It has appeared very rarely here in the past 30 years." Zdeněk, Jakub, Antonín, Tomáš and Radek all confirm the past or present occurrence of bullying at school and its regular solution. Jakub in particular confirms that he feels that he is bullied in all classes. Similarly, Radek: "Bullying has always been, is and always will be."
The respondents addressed the issue of bullying both from the position of the principal or school management, as well as from the position of the teacher, as Zdeněk stated, for example: "As a principal, of course yes, and now I don't think of it as physical or physical bullying of me, but with the fact that I solve the problems between the children, of course. In the position of a teacher, yes, and whoever says no is lying, and as far as the child or student is concerned, probably not on himself, but as I perceive that there were types in the class that we like targeted driving. Nowadays, I would call it bullying, but back then, nobody took it that way. The only question is whether we should call it bullying or not. Nowadays, the biggest problem is cyberbullying."
The respondents also mentioned that the actions that are now referred to as bullying were not previously addressed or were referred to differently. They also admit that in the past there was more physical bullying, which is more obvious, has more witnesses and is also easier to deal with. Today, it is psychological bullying, often hidden, which is difficult to find a successful solution to.
In the interviews, the respondents mentioned pathological phenomena which, in their opinion, can lead to bullying. These are psychological problems, self-harm, eating disorders, anxiety, isolation, medication use and stays in psychiatric hospitals, as Monika stated, for example: . "We solve individual problems of children when they have some psychological problems, we feel that here." Jakub confirms the phenomena at his school as well: "We deal with things like the fact that somewhere there is some suspicion at the second level of self-harm in that student or anorexia nervosa or various such psychological problems, that many of them are withdrawn, that it still has not been possible to activate them."
Karel: "We feel an increased incidence of pathological phenomena, it is related to covid, but if it is just covid, in my opinion, it is also paving the way for the slightest problem, and the child cannot solve it. Some are in a hospital or even some lie in Bohnice or are simply under the care of some educational and psychological counseling centers."
Directors perceive that once an individual suffers from individual difficulties, he may be more prone to bullying, both as a victim, because he may have trouble defending himself, or, on the contrary, he may become an aggressor, as he starts to solve his problems by attacking someone else.
Some directors think that the current situation with bullying is closely related to the education system and the incorrect approach of the pedagogical faculties.
Monika sees this problem: "The faculty of pedagogy is an absolutely fundamental problem. For me, it's absolutely incapable of teaching anything. Don't sit on the faculty, it won't help them, let the students go to schools and face reality hard. That's the only thing that will help them, find it out there and then learn to work with it in retrospect at the faculty, to analyze it and fairly tell them their options and assess their abilities, because not everyone can teach." Jakub adds: "Here, this support staff in schools, because actually teachers, basically, if I put it that way, they should mainly teach".
It is very interesting how the situation in schools has changed in connection with the emergence of the disease Covid-19. Sometimes it was an increase or, on the contrary, a decrease in aggressive behavior, the emergence or deepening of psychological difficulties and other pathological phenomena, a change in behavior, non-compliance with rules and discipline. These changes could lead to conflicts, aggressive behavior and also to bullying.
Karel sees the changes primarily in the changed approach to school attendance: "Nothing has changed in the way things are done, but what has gotten worse is, as I call it, the school physical therapist. That they went to school every day and were not tired, the way they wallowed at home during distance learning at home, he just turned it on and wasn't there, so after two months they were all tired. Yes, and the increase in pathological phenomena, it's related to covid, but it's also sweeping parents' paths, because it will come any problem, and that child can't solve it because someone did it for him, someone solved it for him. Covid contributed to that, for the mentally weaker ones."
Radek perceives the increase in problems and the deterioration of relationships: "After the covid, the incidence is significantly higher, basically I would generalize it, so where we solved a problem of behavior or relationships in the class in some class, after the covid the problem at least remained and in many cases it was even deeper."
Tomáš also observes a reduction in aggression and positive changes: "No aggression at all. I don't think it's anything dramatic with the rules, it's more like adolescent expressions within the team, so it seems to us that this year's ninth-graders have such expressions that are no longer worth standard ninth-graders. On the contrary, just after the covid, they are more receptive to each other, that they appreciate that they can be together, rather than harming each other."
Basically, all those interviewed perceive the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on school climate relations, but at the same time state that it does not always have to be for the worse.
The respondents unanimously stated that every principal must have experience with bullying, because "...if someone claims that there is no bullying at school, then either they are not informed or they are deliberately lying. (Antonín)"
Bullying prevention
The respondents stated that they are of course dedicated to prevention and every school and every director must have preventive methods in place, because this helps prevent the occurrence of bullying and its spread, these are mainly prevention methods, lectures, workshops, intervention of a school psychologist and a special pedagogue, sociometry, programs on an adaptation course, debates with pupils, external and internal prevention programs, functional rules, classroom lessons, etc. Each school chooses prevention according to what has proven itself and what works the most, as evidenced by the selected statements of the respondents: Tereza: "Like every school, by law, we have a prevention methodology, and that prevention solves everything possible. It is best to prevent every evil not as a learned lecture, but rather as a daily practice.... those prevention programs are basically made like some kind of prefabs, so we choose what we want for that year, including, of course, the intervention of a school psychologist or a school psychologist, so that I can be precise and from the first year on, the children behave somehow, do something like that sociometry, one looks at where the weak link is or where it could be. But right from the first year, the program takes place on the adaptation course." Monika also proves herself through numerous prevention measures: "We have prevention, a prevention methodologist, a member of the school's pedagogical department, takes care of it. Prevention is targeted at everything possible, it certainly tries to cover all possible topics, whether it's traffic, ..., bullying or cyberbullying. Sometimes we also try to offer some education to parents even during distance learning. Sometimes it's workshops, sometimes it's lectures, different things. Experts take turns here, we had even experts such as an etopedist, clearly worked with the class. Karel and Antonín describe prevention in a similar way, who states: "The school psychologist, who works part-time with us, is in charge of all this and basically has a methodical plan drawn up, both for detection and reaction, and we basically proceed according to that plan in order to stop any manifestation immediately. They are lectures, we start already at the introductory training session, where for a change we are helped by an external specialist who specializes in problems in the class in collectives and goes to the introductory training session, where he tries to set such an atmosphere so that the bullying is not perceived as something that is common, but in such a way that it is perceived as something that must be combated." Zdeněk focuses on the climate and equal relations: "The basis is a kind of atmosphere and climate in that school, that's the alpha and omega for me, even according to some educational plans we have, according to the vision we have here, so I just want it to be a safe environment for everyone. Well, it's one thing to declare it, and another thing is to make it really work here. So the fact that the approach of our teachers and pedagogues is not superior and subordinate and that there is some kind of partnership in the sense that we are not going to play with some representative here, who has the wisdom here and the children have to listen to them.
Bullying Solutions
If bullying occurs at school, it needs to be dealt with, and there were actually quite a number of ways that the interviewed respondents mentioned. It involved victim support, finding the context, working with a group, meeting actors and legal representatives with parents and the director, sociometry, school therapist/psychologist, external specialist, educational consultant, methodological procedures. school prevention methodology, school psychologist, involvement of a special team of people, supervision that is managed by class teachers, the police, immediate arrest, sitting with the class teacher and obtaining information from other teachers, visiting the classroom, helping parents, communicating with the victim and the aggressor, scaring the participants, dealing with the school management and OSPOD.
For example, Antonín comments on the solution to bullying at his school as follows: "We want to talk with both groups, that is, with the victims and with the aggressors, and after an agreement with the doctor, we usually invite the family and communicate with the family. So far, we have not had to go further and solve it, for example, with OSPODE." Karel is more radical in his solution: "I do it very simply, I hand it over to the police, let the police sort it out and then they return it, then I'll solve it by some kind of agreement or meet with the parents, we'll create some sort of agreement. Jakub makes it a point to communicate: "so it's about a conversation with the class teacher, then a visit to that class, the colleague then individually invited those who were supposed to be behind it, and actually there was some conversation with my parents, where I was also present." Tomáš follows the standard procedure: "Once the bullying is detected, we proceed according to the established standards.
A specific topic in the process of dealing with bullying is its difficulty, specifically what is considered the most difficult. In the interviews, the part devoted to the difficulty of solving bullying was the most different in terms of answers. Respondents mainly mentioned the following areas: correctly naming everything and rooting it out, convincing parents of the truth, preventing repeated attacks, distinguishing bullying from other forms, obtaining true information, finding out what is the cause, being fair and empathetic, solving the bullying to the end, not harming anyone and talking to the parents of the aggressors. Karel looks at the matter from the point of view of the solver: "The hardest thing is to be fair and not hurt anyone and to solve it in such a way that I can live with satisfaction, that I didn't hurt anyone and that I did it the way it should be done. Empathize with it and recognize whether it was a prank or bullying. Not to be an alibi, but at the same time not to hurt anyone." Zdeněk stated that: "In my opinion, the most difficult thing is to find out about her at all. In my opinion, the most difficult thing is that the children are willing to share the information and that the other children are able to notice it and help the children. So actually the very beginning of it, to reveal it."
Monika agrees again: "To call a spade a spade, parents are most surprised by what their children can do. Perhaps the hardest thing is to convince the parents that the problem is often on both sides, and not just on the other side, as the parent thinks. Parents often defend their children, even the problem children, so they often perceive him as a victim. However, to admit that the parent admits to himself that his child may not be as he perceives him, that is probably the most difficult.' According to Tereza, the most difficult thing is: "To get the testimony of the victim and the courage of the parents, because even from our little experience, the reality was that the boy always denied that he was afraid of them. Even the parents themselves."
Conclusion
The occurrence of bullying was proven in some way at every school and every principal described it in his own way. The experience of bullying is derived either from the position from which it was experienced or from the time when it was recorded. In terms of position, it can be a teacher, director or pupil, and in terms of time. For prevention, it depends on how often it is carried out and who can be involved in prevention, it can be internal (e.g. school psychologist) or external subjects (e.g. parents). Furthermore, methods of prevention are important, i.e. methods that can be either general (can also have an effect on bullying; eg positive climate) or specific, which are specifically focused on bullying (eg sociometry). Various parties may be involved in the solution, which are largely similar to prevention, and the methods of solution may also overlap with the preventive measures. When commenting on what is the most challenging to deal with bullying, three subordinate terms arose. The first is communication with certain parties (parents), the goal of communication (conviction) and obtaining information about the situation using communication channels. The second is choosing the right direction when dealing with it (name it correctly, recognize bullying, be fair, empathetic, etc.) and the third is avoiding it (repeating the situation or harming people). As such, bullying was also affected by the Covid-19 disease. There was a reduction or increase in aggression, the emergence or deepening of previously established pathological phenomena, and generally a change in behavior, compliance with discipline and rules, or even no change at all.
Directors mutually commented on the approach of other directors. They also stated that those who claim they are not bullied are either uninformed or lying. Bullying is also related to the overall education system, which some directors do not have a good opinion of, according to them, it has gaps and should be worked on. Especially on the approach of the pedagogical faculty and the approach to teachers, who may not always be well prepared for this role. At the same time, the teacher may not have the right personality for it. They also perceive a problem with non-pedagogical staff, who are in short supply and some of the work has to be done for them by ordinary teachers who do not have so much time available because they primarily teach. They stated that schools also often lack funds from which to pay for any necessary personnel.
Authors: Mgr. Zuzana Svobodová Ph.D. and Mgr. Kateřina Čížková
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