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School Bullying and Social Relations, 15 credits
Mobbning och sociala processer, 15 hp
949A23
Main field of study
Pedagogical WorkCourse level
Second cycleCourse type
Programme courseExaminer
Paul HortonCourse coordinator
Paul HortonDirector of studies or equivalent
Margareta EngvallECV = Elective / Compulsory / Voluntary
Main field of study
Pedagogical WorkCourse level
Second cycleAdvancement level
A1XCourse offered for
- Master´s programme in Pedagogical Practices/Education with Emphasis in Outdoor Didactics/Special Education
- Master´s programme in Pedagogical Practices/Education with emphasis in Outdoor Didactics/Special Education
Intended learning outcomes
After completion of the course, the student should be able to:
- Account for the central concepts within school bullying research
- Discuss school bullying from different methodological and theoretical perspectives
- Explain the importance of power relations to school bullying
- Critically reflect over dominant bullying discourses
- Critically analyse school bullying interventions
Course content
The course introduces a number of different perspectives for understanding the problem of school bullying and for critically analysing the various interventions used to prevent and reduce its prevalence in schools. The course is structured around six themes related to aggressive behaviour, social relations, the school context, gender and sexuality, power relations, and anti-bullying interventions. The first theme focuses on early research into bullying and aggressive behaviour. The second theme introduces more social psychological perspectives on bullying and social relations in schools. The third theme deals with sociological and pedagogical research on bullying, violence and pedagogical practices. The fourth theme discusses bullying in relation to gender and sexuality. The fifth theme considers the power relations central to school bullying. The sixth theme considers the ways in which intervention programmes have approached the problem and their effectiveness.
Teaching and working methods
Teaching takes the form of lectures, seminars, group work and self-study.
Examination
The course consists of both oral and written examinations, both individually and in groups. Written assignments may be written in either English or Swedish.
Examination codes:
MRE1 – Group oral presentation with written documentation, 2.5 hp – Pass/Fail
MRE2 – Group oral presentation with written documentation, 2.5 hp – Pass/Fail
MRE3 – Group oral presentation with written documentation, 2.5 hp – Pass/Fail
SRE1 – Group written assignment, 2.5 hp – Pass/Fail
SRE2 – Individual written assignment, 5 hp – Pass with distinction/Pass/Fail
Applies to all courses regardless of grading scale.
- Students failing an exam covering either the entire course or part of the course two times are entitled to have a new examiner appointed for the reexamination.
If the course has a three-graded grading scale (U - VG), following applies:
- Students who have passed an examination may not retake it in order to improve their grades.
If the course is a VfU course, the following applies:
- Examination of applied social and didactic abilities is limited to three (3) occasions.
Grades
Three-grade scale, U, G, VGOther information
Planning and implementation of a course must take its starting point in the wording of the syllabus. The course evaluation included in each course must therefore take up the question how well the course agrees with the syllabus.
Planning and implementation of a course must take its starting point in the wording of the syllabus. The course evaluation included in each course must therefore take up the question how well the course agrees with the syllabus.
The course is carried out in such a way that both men´s and women´s experience and knowledge is made visible and developed.
Department
Institutionen för beteendevetenskap och lärandeNo examination details is to be found.
1. School bullying and aggressive behaviour
Allanson, Patricia Bolton, Robin Rawlings Lester, and Charles E. Notar (2015). A history of bullying. International Journal of Education and Science, 2 (12): 31-36.
Cullingford, Cedric and Jenny Morrison (1995). Bullying as a formative influence: the relationship between the experience of school and criminality. British Educational Research Journal, 21 (5): 547-560.
Lagerspetz, Kirsti, Kaj Björkqvist, Marianne Berts, and Elisabeth King (1982). Group aggression among school children in three schools. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 23: 45-52.
Olweus, Dan (1993). A profile of bullying at school. Educational Leadership, 60 (6): 12-17.
Olweus, Dan (1997). Bully/victim problems in school: facts and intervention. European Journal of Psychology of Education, XII (4): 495-510.
Rigby, Ken and Phillip T. Slee (1991). Bullying among Australian school children: Reported behavior and attitudes toward victims. The Journal of Social Psychology, 131 (5): 615-627.
Rivers, Ian and Peter K. Smith (1994). Types of bullying behavior and their correlates. Aggressive Behavior, 20: 359-368.
Smith, Peter K. and Paul Brain (2000). Bullying in schools: lessons from two decades of research. Aggressive Behavior, 26: 1-9.
2. School bullying and social relations
Espelage, Dorothy L. (2014). Ecological theory: preventing youth bullying, aggression, and victimization. Theory into Practice, 53 (4): 257-264.
Espelage, Dorothy L. and Susan M. Swearer (2003). Research on school bullying and victimization: what have we learned and where do we go from here? School Psychology Review, 32 (3): 365-383.
Forsberg, Camilla, Robert Thornberg, and Marcus Samuelsson (2014). Bystanders to bullying: fourth- to seventh-grade students’ perpsectives on their reactions. Research Papers in Education, 29 (5): 557-576.
Salmivalli, Christina, Kirsti Lagerspetz, Kaj Björkqvist, Karin Österman, and Ari Kaukiainen (1996). Bullying as a group process: participant roles and their relations to social status within the group. Aggressive Behavior, 22: 1-15.
Sutton, Jon and Peter K. Smith (1999). Bullying as a group process: an adaptation of the participant role approach. Aggressive Behavior, 25: 97-111.
Søndergaard, Dorte Marie (2012). Bullying and social exclusion anxiety in schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33 (3): 355-372.
Thornberg, Robert (2015). School bullying as a collective action: stigma processes and identity struggling. Children & Society, 29: 310-320.
Thornberg, Robert (2015). The social dynamics of school bullying: the necessary dialogue between the blind men around the elephant and the possible meeting point at the socialecological square. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 3 (2): 161-203.
3. School bullying and educational practices
Beilmann, Mai (2016). Dropping out because of the others: bullying among the students of Estonian vocational schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1251302
Duncan, Neil (2013). ’If you tolerate this, then your children will be next’. Compulsion, compression, control, and competition in secondary schooling. International Journal on School Disaffection, 10 (1): 29-45.
Harber, Clive (2002). Schooling as violence: an exploratory overview. Educational Review, 54 (1): 7-16.
Horton, Paul (2016). Unpacking the bullying doll: reflections from a fieldwork at the social-ecological square. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 4 (1): 71-95.
James, Deborah L., Maria Lawlor, Pat Courtney, Ann Flynn, Bernie Henry, and Niamh Murphy (2008). Bullying behavior in schools: what role do teachers play? Child Abuse Review, 17: 160-173.
Natvig, Ger Karin, Grethe Albrektsen, and Ulla Qvarnstrøm (2001). School-related stress experience as a risk factor for bullying behavior. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30 (5): 561-575.
Roland, Erling and David Galloway (2002). Classroom influences on bullying. Educational Research, 44 (3): 299-312.
Swearer, Susan M., Dorothy L. Espelage, Tracy Vaillancourt, and Shelley Hymel (2010). What can be done about school bullying?: Linking research to educational practice. Educational Researcher, 39 (1): 38-47.
Tanaka, Takeo (2001). The identity formation of the victim of ’shunning’. School Psychology International, 22: 463-476.
Yoneyama, Shoko and Asao Naito (2003). Problems with the paradigm: the school as a factor in understanding bullying (with special reference to Japan). British Journal of Sociology of Education, 24 (3): 315-330.
4. School bullying, gender and sexuality
Besag, Valerie E. (2006). Bullying among girls: friends or foes? School Psychology International, 27 (5): 535-551.
Björkqvist, Kaj (1994). Sex differences in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression: a review of recent research. Sex Roles, 30 (3): 177-188.
Carrera, María Victoria, Renée DePalma, and María Laeiras (2011). Toward a more comprehensive understanding of bullying in school settings. Educational Psychology Review, 23 (4): 479-499.
Connell, R. W. (1989). Cool guys, swots and wimps: the interplay of masculinity and education. Oxford Review of Education, 15 (3): 291-303.
Cowie, Helen (2000). Bystanding or standing by: gender issues in coping with bullying in English schools. Aggressive Behavior, 26 (1): 85-97.
Duncan, Neil (1998). Sexual bullying in secondary schools. Pastoral Care, June: 27-31.
Gini, Gianluca and Tiziana Pozzoli (2006). The role of masculinity in children’s bullying. Sex Roles, 54: 585-588.
Martino, Wayne (1999) ‘Cool Boys’, ‘Party Animals’, ‘Squids’ and ‘Poofters’: Interrogating the dynamics and politics of adolescent masculinities in school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20 (2): 239-263.
Owens, Laurence, Rosalyn Shute, and Phillip Slee (2000). “Guess what I just heard!”: Indirect aggression among teenage girls in Australia. Aggressive Behavior, 26 (1): 67-83.
Ringrose, Jessica (2008). ‘Just be friends’: exposing the limits of educational bully discourses for understanding teen girls’ heterosexualized friendships and conflicts. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29 (5): 509-522.
5. School bullying and power relations
Bansel, Peter, Brownwyn Davies, Cath Laws, and Sheridan Linnell (2009). Bullies, bullying and power in the contexts of schooling. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30 (1): 59-69.
Davies, Bronwyn (2011). Bullies as guardians of the moral order or an ethic of truths? Children & Society, 25 (4): 278-286.
Horton, Paul (2011). School bullying and social and moral orders. Children & Society, 25 (4): 268-277.
Horton, Paul (2016). Portraying monsters: framing school bullying through a macro lens. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37 (2): 204-214.
Vaillancourt, Tracy, Shelley Hymel, and Patricia McDougall (2003). Bullying is power. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 19 (2): 157-176.
Walton, Gerald (2005). ‘Bullying widespread’: a critical analysis of research and public discourse on bullying. Journal of School Violence, 4 (1): 91-118.
Walton, Gerald (2011). Spinning our wheels: reconceptualizing bullying beyond behavior-focused approaches. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32 (1): 131-144.
6. School bullying and interventions in schools
Beckman, Linda and Mikael Svensson (2015). The cost-effectiveness of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program: results from a modelling study. Journal of Adolescence, 45: 127-137.
Friends (2016). Friends Report 2016. Friends: Stockholm. https://friends-brandmanualswede.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Friends-Report-2016-web.pdf
Frisén, Ann, Anna-Karin Jonsson, and Camilla Persson (2007). Adolescents’ perception of bullying: who is the victim? Who is the bully? What can be done to stop bullying? Adolescence, 42 (168): 749-761.
Kimber, Birgitta, Rolf Sandell, and Sven Bremberg (2008). Social and emotional training in Swedish schools for the promotion of mental health: an effectiveness study of 5 years of intervention. Health Education Research, 23 (6): 931-940.
Olweus, Dan (1996). Bullying at school: knowledge base and an effective intervention program. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 794: 265-276.
Samara, Muthanna and Peter K. Smith (2008). How schools tackle bullying, and the use of whole school policies: changes over the last decade. Educational Psychology, 28 (6): 663-676.
Vreeman, Rachel C. and Aaron E. Carroll (2007). A systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent bullying. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 161: 78-88.
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