School Bullying: A factor that negatively effects on ESL prevention Dr. Maria Maheridou Project Coordinator Experimental School of the University of Macedonia Thessaloniki - Greece

Unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. Definition

Verbal bullying: saying or writing mean things (teasing, name-calling, taunting, threatening etc). Social/ relational bullying: involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships (leaving someone out on purpose, telling others not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors, embarrassing in public etc). Physical bullying: involves hurting a person’s body or possession (hitting/kicking, tripping/pushing, taking/breaking things etc). Basic Types of Bully Actions

Percentage of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years who reported bullying others at school at least once in the past couple of months TURKEY: 6.2% bully, 35.1% victim, 30.2% bully/victim (Piúkin, 2010)

Perceived as: “Different” from their peers (e.g. overweight/underweight, different clothing, new in school, not “cool” enough, poor/rich, other language etc). Weak or unable to defend themselves. Depressed, anxious, or having low self- esteem. Less popular (have few or no friends). Do not get along well with others, seen as annoying or provoking/competitive etc. Children “at risk” of Being Bullied

How many differences can we spot? Bullied student ESL student

A significant, negative factor! Apart from the fact that the bullied child suffers long-term physical or emotional damage… Victims of bullies feel safer in their home. They feel that the school bully could not reach them there. It is an issue of particular concern for teachers dealing with ESL. Bullying & ESL Rose, Espelage, Aragon & Elliot (2011)

WHEN BEING BULLIED 65.8 % of teens responded to the bully 15.4 % avoided school 3.5 % had a physical fight with the bully TRU Insights & McAfee (2012)

Background Bullying in the school setting has been associated with the socioeconomic position and psychiatric morbidity of the pupils. Aims Part of the study‘s aims was to investigate the association between bullying and these 2 factors in a large sample of Greek adolescents. Results 26.4% of the pupils were involved in bullying- related behaviors at least once monthly either as victims, perpetrators or both. More frequent involvement (at least once weekly) was reported by 4.1%. A Study in Greece Magklara, Skapinakis, Gkatsa, Bellos, Araya, Stylianidis & Mavreas (2012)

Psychiatric morbidity was associated with all types of bullying-related behaviors. Socioeconomic position… A lower school performance and unemployment of the father were the most significant among preceptors. Economic inactivity of the mother was more likely in pupils who were both victims and perpetrators. These results were largely confirmed when the focus was on high frequency behaviors. Magklara, Skapinakis, Gkatsa, Bellos, Araya, Stylianidis & Mavreas (2012) A Study in Greece

3 CHOOSEN GOOD PRACTICES

The Fourth R curriculum Encourages a comprehensive school-wide approach to preventing bullying and promoting healthy relationships. Takes into consideration the presence of new difficulties in the lives of adolescents. Emphasizes the importance of the right 'type' of intervention, as it is during adolescent, when different problems associated with bullying first appear (e.g. high risk sexual behaviors). The program has been implemented in a number of Ontario (Canada) schools since 2001

The baseline Consequently, effective intervention at this stage of life must consider the unique context and challenges that are present in adolescence. Therefore, this harm-reduction/health promotion model is more successful for adolescents than the traditional forms of intervention that require the complete absence of high risk behavior. Evaluation results indicate that students who had participated in it were more than twice as likely to use negotiation when faced with pressure tactics to engage in high risk behaviors, than students who had not participated in the program. These findings suggest that the program is effective in preventing and/or reducing bullying behavior by providing potential bullies and victims with the appropriate techniques to reduce their involvement in such high risk behaviors.

Success in Stages This project targets middle school students in an effort to provide individual guidance for bullies, victims and those who witness bullying. It is CD-based and is completed by students in three 30-minute sessions. Based on the 5 Stages of Change: Five stages that many people pass through as they adopt new behaviors - and grounded in the proven-effective Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change. Evaluation results, which included a comparison between program participants and a control group, concluded that Success in Stages was found to reduce bullying behavior by 30%.

The Australian anti-Bullying Network

Rather prevent than deal with it!  Establishing a sense of community is one of schools’ most important goals. Supportive interpersonal student-student & student-teacher relationships, through everyday actions (indirectly). At least one anti-bullying educational program each year (directly). Special Student Support Club (both indirectly & directly). Since 2013…active membership in the National School Violence and Bullying Prevention Watch (school network). Experimental School of the University of Macedonia

Thank you for your attention! Dear children, always remember…