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Re: Keynote Speech 5 GENERAL REPLY TO THE COMMENTS:
Firstly, I am sorry I was not able to reply last week – I was away at a conference and had limited access to the internet. But thank you for the opportunity to participate in this forum.
Secondly, thank you for the comments. Thank you too for replying in English! I am pleased that in general you have found my contribution useful. I will reply individually to each contribution after one general remark.
A number of commentators remarked on cyberbullying. In my view this is a very serious recent development.It appears to be speading, as pupils become aware of new forms of cyberbullying – for example, using mobile phone cameras to film someone being bullied and pass this around the peer group; or posting nasty comments on webasites. Just as we are having some success in reducing traditional forms of bullying, this poses new challenges to us.Some existing methods will help of course – including fostering convivencia in schools, as in the programs in Seville and Andalucia. But we will need new methods nas well. It is a problem not just for schools, but for parents and for society generally. Best wishes for your anti-bullying work in the future.
de ROBERTO L´HOTELLERIE LÓPEZ - lunes, 22 de mayo de 2006, 20:13
Why is it easier to recruit girl rather than boy pupils as “peer supporters”?.
I totally agree with the idea that bullying can be caused partly by the school policies and sanctions against it, mainly when such measures have not got the formative and “recuperador” character that they should have.
About the types of school-based intervention, I think that the one referring to “restorative justice” should be deeply developed: ways of using it etc…
The method in getting data on school bullying by Pepler and Craig (1995): using radio microphones…may have high validity but I think that it is a bit questionable since one´s privacy can be violated.
Most schools seem to find it easier to recruit girl than boy peer supporters, especially in secondary schools. Girls generally are more empathic to victims. Boys seem to be especially concerned about their status in the peer group, and this is most noticeable in adolescence. They may feel it does not help their status to be seen to be associating with victims, who usually have low social status. However some schools do succeed in getting many boy peer supporters. It helps if a few key popular boys can be recruited, and if the peer support service gets a good, ‘cool’ image in the school. Enrolling a TV or sports personality (possibly an ex-pupil?) to help in this way, can be beneficial too.
Restorative justice: yes, I think it is a promising approach – we have to wait for fuller development and evaluation however. Radio microphones – Pepler and Craig are very aware of the ethical issues and have written about this – you could contact them for more information.
de Carlos HUE GARCÍA - lunes, 29 de mayo de 2006, 09:30
I agree with you with the idea that the best way is the school-based intervention and in this way we are working in Aragón. The Education's Department has just published a guide to intervene on school bullying using a method like this.
That is good. I wonder if each region of Spain is producing it’s own guide? Is there some national initiative? In England the government produced a pack ‘Don’t Suffer in Silence’ that assists school-based initiatives across England (available on the DfES website).
Cyberbullying is likely to need a coordinated response from schools, parents and the local and national community (see my general comment).
de ALFONSO PÉREZ MARQUÉS - jueves, 25 de mayo de 2006, 11:14
In this communication are very interesting the conclusions at which Peter K. Smith arrives, from the works in which surveys on great scale have been used. It emphasizes the high number of victims that has not denounced the bullying, the majority boys. The same it happens with the number of students who recognize that they would be able to bullying with his companions. It worries to me that they are so many and it would have to force to us to reflect and to make decisions to answer to this reality of the classroom and of the street.
I like and I have had left the approach of the author clear who locates the bullying in relation to the power and its imbalances, not only in the school but in the society. I agree in which the key is in as they see the children and the young people this background its position.
It interests the familiar causality, although I see a certain social determinism in expressions of the author like: "fathers who were bullies at school are likely to have sons who were bullying at school". Not always it is thus, luckily.
The last part is very interesting in which Peter K. Smith advances the future lines to us of investigation of this phenomenon and the incidence of cyber-bullying has surprised me. It did not know that so worrisome outside. It interests the proposal to work to turn the spectator on defender and I see possible to work this figure of the defender in the classroom.
Thanks to Peter K. Smith for the optimism that it has transmitted to me in his communication. We are not single, one is working much and we are going to improve from now on in the interventions on bullying.
l determinism: I did not mean to give this impression! There are risk factors for being involved in bullying, and risk factors for getting bullied. These are established statistically. But of course, it is not always the case and risk factors can be overcome.
That ties in with ‘optimism’ too. I do think we are making progress. There have been good outcomes from the SAVE and ANDAVE programs in Seville and Andalucia. In England, there is evidence that rates of being bullied are going down, even if slowly.
de Raúl Pinilla Ávila - jueves, 25 de mayo de 2006, 16:10
Remark to the report Nº 5 of Mr Peter K Smith, Manager of Family Unit Studies and of Goldsmith College , University of London , United Kingdom .
INTIMIDATION: A CHALLENGE TO THE SCHOOL COEXISTENCE
When the intimidation is going to develop, it means “Bullying”, we are quite sure, as you well say, that we’re obliged to take part in that kind of conflict in order to try to prevent it or eradicate it, but as you well remark it is necessary to pay attention seriously to the victim’s rights.
If, since the beginning, we destroy the truthfulness of the testimony of a harassed person in order to warn the morbidly attack of the press, to warn the good reputation of the school, to avoid derived public scandals, etc… we are disappointing. We need to create a clear jurisprudence which involves all the vertex of this vicious triangle in a total prevention and which eradicates this social curse in order to make effective the theory.
How can we get information about Bullying? The only way to evaluate this phenomenon would be doing annual studies in the centres after the suitable contingency plans. To be able to carry out an effective contingency plan and put it into practice in a consensus way in each country, the studies mustn’t be carried out every 5 or 6 years, and not even though changing the interviewed people and their schools, we should to unify the criterions regarding the studies about this issue.
Bullying characteristics. Most studies disclose that a large number of victims didn’t never report their harassment to their teachers or even their families. After doing an opinion poll, and from my point of view, most of them report their harassment to their teachers or their tutors but they don’t pay attention. The fact is that girls are more courageous than boys when they have to report an abuse, but they only get answers such as “it’s a silly thing”, “don’t worry about it, they will get tired and they will stop it”, “it’s only your imagination”, “leave me alone, we only come here in order to teach and not in order to solve your troubles”, etc.
In the participation at the school, there’s still so much to do, we attach more importance to any type of educations than to the essential education: the human values.
Why study and develop the pirates’ life? Why must we teach “El Quijote” to children who are five years old? It would be more useful if we started to introduce them the abuse from stories in order to get a mental balance before they grow. It also would be more reasonable to read books as Juul / Gregie de Maeyer, Loen Vanmechelen, and work on them. In 1998, this research was successful in Spain but it only reached to 20.000 children, why can’t it get reached to all teachers and educational centres? We always can emphasize reading the suitable literature.
Monks, Smith and Swettenham researches guess correctly when they inform that the main characteristics of a harasser person appear at 4 / 6 years old, however they are not “bullies” yet. If they are enough aggressive in order to ridicule and to frighten to someone who is the same age, they will be more aggressive with the passage of time. This fact is due to their abuser attribute progresses at the same way as they grow and make progress at the school (with the same schoolmates). So, few years later, this situation will aggravate and then there will be nothing to do.
I come to the conclusion that the only way to stop and eradicate the school abuse or “Bullying” in attacking directly to the basis, it means the child’s education. The institutions must start working from 3, 4 or 5 years old to get good results. Until now the institutions make researches of children from 9 or 12 years old but at this age the abuser roles are already fixed, they continue as at work as at home and it’s too late to change this roles. In consequence, the statistics of sick leaves at work and of deaths caused by domestic violence will increase, and this chain will never break, abusers will be models to follow for their children.
Best regards, Raúl Pinilla Ávila
(Working harassed and soon ASCEME founder, Association Against the General Harassment)
Victim’s testimony: I agree – a big change in schools in the U.K. through the 1990s was that most of them changed from denying that there was any bullying in their school (to ‘protect it’s good reputation’), to agreeing that bullying could happen in any school, including their own, and that the important thing was to recognise it when it happened and deal with it promptly. I think this kind of change has been happening across schools in most of Europe, no doubt at different rates in different places.
Regular surveys: I agree, again. We need standadised surveys, probably every year, to see what is happening. Is bullying getting worse – as the media often like to say – or is it getting better – as we might hope, after anti-bullying measures are put in place.
There is some propsect that this may happen in England in future years, as all local regions and schools will be required to provie some statistics on bullying as part of the Every Child Matters agenda. I and colleagues are working with the Anti-Bullying Alliance in England to see if such audits can be standardised, to maximise comparability in different areas.
Telling: yes, it is most important how teachers react when a pupil tells them of bullying. Our evidence in the U.K. is that telling usually helps make things better for the victim, but not always; an insensitive or casual response could make things worse.
de Raquel Aya Fernández - viernes, 26 de mayo de 2006, 21:13
There is very interesting similarity to me to know the different results from the projects made in other countries. In the first place to congratulate to the ponente by its clarity in its intervención. The Program that has called me the attention more is the interventions made in Norway. The application of the massive publicity is very interesting similarity to me. This publicity only was in center or through the average ones like television, radio…? In my opinion bullying not only affects the school, also as the ponentes affirm to the surroundings, the district, the park… would be interesting to make projects at level of all the society.
Publicity is very important in bringing about changes in societal response to bullying. This is via television, radio, books, articles, and now increasingly websites. Even though some publicity is ‘sensationalised’, overall it has helped immeasurably in galvanising public opinion and focussing concerns of parents, so that politicians and schools need to take notice.
Yes, bullying happens outside school too, and this has been a relatively neglected topic.
de Carlos HUE GARCÍA - lunes, 29 de mayo de 2006, 09:22
I think that bullying is caused by the society and the effects of it get back to the same society. If you want prevent bullying at school you must involve the whole school: families, teachers, pupils, and the society too.
I agree that one needs to involve the whole school. Indeed in England a key requirement is that schools develop a ‘whole school policy’ against bullying, with involvement from pupils, teachers, parents and others in the school. (Not all schools do this as thoroughly as ideally they should, but that is another issue).
The wider society is also very important, and especially too for cyberbullying. However I would not agree that it is ‘just’ caused by society. I believe it is part of human nature that some people will be tempted to abuse positions of power (and ‘bully’ others). There are significant individual differences in whether pupils get involved in bullying.
We need increase the emotional education to prevent bullying.
de Carlos HUE GARCÍA - viernes, 26 de mayo de 2006, 21:16
“We have made a lot of progress in 20 years, but we still have a lot to do”, says Peter K. Smith. This is true for many countries in Europe and also in Spain. I’ve found his paper very clear and interesting and I want remark specially two ideas. The first one is that we must recognize the victims when they develop low self-esteem, anxiety, psychosomatic complaints and depression. The second one is that we must focus on the victimisation process because it is easy to recognize the physical and the verbal bulling but indirect and social forms of bulling are less well recognised and less well targeted. So I propose to increase the emotional education in order to mobilise attitudes and behaviour of non-involved children and prevent the outcomes of bullying.
I think emotional education is very inportant, both for those who may be victims, and for those who may be aggressors or bullies – and this needs to start early.
In England there is a new Social and Emotional Learning syllabus (SEAL) for primnary schools, which is having good results so far.
Thank you for this text. It is very clear
de JOSÉ PEDRO AZNÁREZ LÓPEZ - viernes, 26 de mayo de 2006, 21:20
Thanks for this text. I´ve read it in spanish, because I speak very little English.
It´s very clear and very clever. Certainly, I had some knowledge about bullying, but this text has helped me to know it better
Thank you – I’m glad it was helpful.
The intimidation
de José Manuel Botía Nortes - viernes, 26 de mayo de 2006, 21:23 It simply wanted to say that I have liked the division that is done of the intimidation, between physically and verbally and this new type of bullying named "ciberbullying" As not, up to the most recondite forms of abuse between peers they are adapting to the modern age of the communications. And the fact that it happens out of the school in major magnitude that inside her it puts of manifest that the bullying does not limit himself to the school environment.
And it is a very suitable credit fallen in the account of the importance of this new modality of intimidation, since the possibilities of making come discriminatory, accusatory information and definitively help to defame of someone, with Internet, become almost unlimited.
Also he me has turned out to be an onlooker the fact that there has been stated that the boys victims of intimidation are less inclined to denounce the above mentioned situation. Demonstrating, to my judgment, that the roles of kind are implied.
The incorporation of the assertive training for victims and programs of support between equal for me is a wisdom in this type of problems. I am more of agreement in an approach of "reinstatement" and to leave for last any punitive approach.
With regard to the information that stemmed from the investigation of Norway, it wanted to say that for me, beside clarifying the efficiency of the above mentioned campaigns, it takes significance the fact that the pupils possibly believe that a differential functioning exists in the infantile or juvenile world that the major ones, teachers and included relatives, are unable to deal and act in consequence.
Once it explains correctly and there are taken the informative suitable measurements the phenomenon changes in his magnitude.
The fundamental thing is to continue possessing the teachers and pupils and to continue working up to achieving effective plans of action that could be adapted even to the type of institution and student body to which it goes.
A greeting
Thank you. Some of your points are taken up elsewhere.
Puinitive approaches: in England this remains quite a source of controversy. Many people, like you, prefer approaches like assertiveness training for victims, support group approaches, peer support schemes, restorative justice – ragther than approaches which emphasise punishment or sanctions – though most people recognise there must ultimately be sanctions and punishment for persistent bullying. However the current UK government attitude leans more towards punitive responses; in part I think because they fear accusations or publicity that they are ‘soft on bullying’. This has led to some tensions here in anti-bullying work.
de EVA ORTIZ CERMEÑO - viernes, 26 de mayo de 2006, 21:25
This presentation really is similar to the presentation number 4 of Jose Maria at the moment of approaching the term Bullying, in: (the definition, types, causes, roles, features and reasons), but Peter besides has approached in the types of intervention different in countries like: (Norway, United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Spain, etc), being very interesting these studies, from the practical point of view not only theoretical like in other presentations.
Only I differ in that the practical measures not only must be focused in to help to the teachers and to the school centers, also it is necessary to take measures out of the school area. I agree, we still have a lot to do!.
Congratulations Dº Peter K Smith. Best Wishes.
Yes, I agree that measures outside of school are necessary too – and especially with cyberbullying. I focussed on interventions in school in the target article, as that is where there has been a lot of progress and achievement in the last 15 years. That will always remain vital, but we do now need to turn our attention also to issues such as parenting skills; neighbourhoods; media violence; the wider society.
To differentiate bullying and convivencial conflict to work in the pacification of the citizens
de Teresa Lara Moreno - viernes, 26 de mayo de 2006, 21:28
Professor Smith analyzing the causes of bullying considers that he exists in all the human groups, that is to say, the own coexistence entails conflicting situations. Therefore the principle of G. Vattimo "pacification of the citizens" and the one "to learn to coexist" already exposed in other communications and forums of this Congress, is to be the angular stone of the investigation and the intervention. The works selected by the ponente, from my point of view, are centered excessively in the individuality of the subject and relegate to a second term the group dimension of the process. We do not have to forget that the coexistence is something that happens between more than two people and who the situations of bullying are few in comparison with the situations of educative coexistence which habitually they are solved of suitable form. It is for that reason that I propose that a clear differentiation between bullying settles down and convivencial conflict.
Probably the works would be due to center in the development of strategies and abilities for the pacific resolution of the conflicts of coexistence like a powerful tool of prevention of bullying. The question is based in which we took more than two centuries (from the Illustration) recognizing the necessity to take care of the affective-touching dimension of the person but forgetting it in the educative intervention. Unfortunately it continues worrying plus the transmission of knowledge without wanting to give account us that the scholastic climate (affective-emotional) influences decisively in that process reason why it requires more attention, time and effort in the scholastic cotidianidad.
It is perhaps true that much of the research on school bullying has come from psychologists, rather than sociologists. Has this led to a bias in approach? We could argue about whether I cited too many ‘individualistic’ studies – I cited Salmivalli’s work on group dynamics in bullying, and emphasised the role of family, school and society as well as the individual.
Taking up the later points, there is some ongoing debate about whether the most effective way of reducing bullying is to focus specifically on anti-bullying measures; or to work on improving school climate, and convivencia. Here we need more research and evaluation. However I suspect that both are important, so it is a question of balance between the two.
de Vicente José Hernando Ballano - sábado, 27 de mayo de 2006, 10:23
In my opinion, this text is very interesting.
I'd like to know more information about "cyber-bullying" because Internet ant telephone movil are more important ways of comunication. It's true the anonimatous of these ways and it's neccesary to understand these fonctions in the society.
I think this text could help me to know this item better than before. Sorry, but I don't speak English very fluently.
Thank you. The research and literature on cyberbullying is developing rapidly. A lot of material is available via websites, so a Google search will be informative. I can send a copy of our own survey if you email me.
de Pedro Martínez - domingo, 28 de mayo de 2006, 10:17
First of all, i'd like thank you for sharing with us your research. In order not to spent too much time i would appreciate you to permit me to ask you several questions.
Do you consider bullying like an aggressive behaviour only?
Which are the ultimate reasons for bullying (ringleader bullies point of view)?
Ethology explanations: is it an important question?
Thanks a lot for the speech
First question: I see bullying as a particular kind or subset of aggressive behaviour – that involves repetition and power imbalance.
Second question: if you are in a position of power, you can often get some advantage by abusing it. In the case of school bullying, the (ringleader) bully may get money or possessions; or they may get status in the peer group, in a school climate where such actions are admired (and in adolescence, we know that peer group attitudes to victims get rather negative). The bully may also support their own self esteem by showing they can bully others. So I do not see anything ‘unnatural’ or ‘pathological’ in most bullying. However it is clearly harmful, and it is the task of anti-bullying interventions to reduce the ‘rewards’ to bullying, whether these are internal (feelings of guilt about bullying), via the peer group (attitudes against bullying generally, peer support, assertiveness training), or through direct sanctions.
Third question: ethology – in other species, there are examples of ‘mobbing’ in birds, but rather different – smaller birds harass a potential predator. In chimpanzees, teasing or taunting (such as repeatedly throwing small stones at another) has been described. Aggression generally is widespread in animal species and has important functions that have been selected for in evolution. How human bullying fits in with this is a big question – see answer to your second question for the moment! I think the ethology/evolution angle may help us understand some motivations for bullying and ‘de-pathologise’ it, but it in no way lessens the moral case for needing to intervene to help victims and reduce bullying.
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Miguel Vaquero 
