Achievements in Mathematics and Science in an International Context

Starting from educational aims that emphasise tolerance and understanding, the focus of this article is to analyse how difference is constructed in students’ informal relations, by enactments of bullying and sex-based and racist harassment. The article also discusses how young people themselves and teachers reflect on these kinds of processes. These questions are explored using data obtained from different perspectives: 1) ethnographic observations in secondary school classes of 7th graders; 2) interviews of the students in these classes (about 13 years of age); 3) interviews of the teachers that taught these classes; and 4) follow-up interviews of the same young people at the age around 18. The findings suggest that students’ individual diversities are sometimes constructed to “different-ness” in everyday life at school. “Different-ness” might be used as a reason for bullying, racism, or sex-based harassment. In schools this is not effectively addressed by teachers.     

Misspoken in Arizona: Latina/o Students Document the Articulations of Racism

This article reports on racism expressed by school personnel (administrators and teachers) and experienced by Latina/o students at a high school located in Tucson, Arizona. Students in a specialized social science research program, called the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP), documented personal encounters with racist articulations at their school. After students conducted observations of their own interactions on campus, they would write (weekly) field notes as part of a research assignment to document racism in education. Most verbal exchanges influenced by racism can be categorized into direct racist statements or racial microaggressions. Both of these racist articulations are tantamount to derogatory comments or slurs that attempt to make an individual from a marginalized group feel inferior to or different (in a negative sense) from the dominant group. This article focuses on the SJEP, implemented at one particular Tucson high school, during the 2010–2011 school year. Excerpts from the students’ field notes pr esent evidence of racist articulations. The article concludes with recommendations on how to ameliorate the educational experiences of students of color with culturally relevant and responsive policies and practices that will move the discourse on marginalized groups in a positive direction.     

Bullying and School Liability—Implications for School Personnel

Bullying is a serious and escalating problem in public schools across America. Each day, thousands of students face taunts and humiliation stemming from bullies. Bullying victims experience emotional and psychological problems that may persist for a lifetime. Other victims commit suicide or retaliate against bullies out of fear for their own safety. Because the courts presume that schools are safe places, teachers and administrators have a leading responsibility to protect students from the harmful behavior exhibited by bullies. They are expected to foresee that bullying is a harmful activity and initiate appropriate steps to eliminate it.

This article discusses the magnitude of the problem of bullying in public schools and the threat of liability for school personnel who fail to respond to bullying incidents. It concludes with a set of guides that should assist teachers and administrators in protecting students from foreseeable harm while minimizing their legal exposure to law suits based on negligence.     

Teachers: A Critical But Overlooked Component of Bullying Prevention and Intervention

To complete this special issue on theoretical bases for antibullying efforts in schools, we focus in this article on the importance of teachers and other educators in the ecology of schools. First, we present evidence that teachers are not perceived to be effective at intervening when bullying occurs. Then, using a social motivational lens, we provide an overview of teachers' role as a socializing agent in the classroom and school with a particular emphasis on their influence on bullying behaviors among students. Then we present two theories, the theory of planned behaviors, and the transactional theory of emotions and coping. We believe these theories highlight the complexity of teacher responses and make the case that teachers need more than knowledge of bullying to be effective in their role. We discuss implications for teacher training and professional development.     

Knowing we are White: narrative as critical praxis

A critical concern in preparing teachers for urban schools is helping them make sense of race, identity and racism in schools. Teacher education programs struggle with how to address these issues in classes of primarily White students. Through a document analysis, the present study highlights?how teacher educators can use narrative – particularly autobiographies – to help understand the racial and cultural consciousness of White teachers. Narrative construction?provides a method to highlight how White teachers understand their identities and how Whiteness functions in society. Places of resistance, and stories yet untold, are also explored as a teacher educator looks to refine her own practice.     

School bullying and fitting into the peer landscape: a grounded theory field study

Research on school bullying has its roots in the field of developmental and educational psychology, and appeals to the need for a theoretical and methodological widening in order to grasp its ambiguity and complexity. The article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in which 144 pupils and seven teachers participated from seven school classes in three Swedish public primary schools. A constructivist grounded theory guided data gathering and analysis. This article offers an interpretative portrayal of school bullying. It paints a picture of the core process of misfitting and how this process involves the selective use of normativities from the macro, meso and micro levels. When bullying is conceptualized as simply caused by individual characteristics, teachers and others become blind to gender norms, heteronormativity, racism and a range of other oppressions taking place in bullying, and this will fail to offer an appropriate knowledge base on how to counteract and reduce bullying.     

Inter-Ethnic Relations among Children at School: the perspectives of young people in Scotland

In the UK, policies and academic writings about inter-ethnic relations have witnessed many changes in recent decades, with a growing focus on the effects of different forms of racism and anti-racism. Opinions have been diverse on the extent to which both the majority and minority populations should respect and adapt to each other's traditions. Relatively little research has been undertaken on the experiences and perceptions of children. This article reports on findings from three linked studies which highlight the viewpoints of white and minority ethnic children as they made the transition to secondary schools. With a few exceptions, the children felt that their schools respected their religious practices and other customs. Most children of minority backgrounds had mixed friendship groups and the range of achievements, experiences and attitudes in relation to school were largely unrelated to ethnic background. Hardly any young people saw teachers as overtly racist, though small numbers believed teachers discriminated in favour of other groups. Peer racism was endemic and reported to be more frequent in secondary school than primary school. Teacher responses were often seen as inadequate.     

‘What about us?’ Gypsies,Travellers and ‘White racism’ in secondary schools in England

This article examines the concept of ‘White racism’ in relation to the experiences of Gypsy and Traveller groups in England. It is based on ethnographic research conducted in two secondary schools during the years 2006–2009. Interviews were carried out with pupils attending the secondary schools, their mothers and members of the Traveller Education Service. The research reveals that racism experienced by White Gypsy and Traveller groups is understood differently to that experienced by non-White minority ethnic groups. This is further related to how Gypsy and Traveller groups are perceived inside and outside schools, as ‘others’ and ‘outsiders’. The article considers discourses around racism and discrimination and how they might work to disadvantage Gypsy and Traveller groups in schools.     

School-Contextual Paths to Student Bullying Behaviour: Teachers Under Time Pressure are Less Likely to Intervene and the Students Know It!

ABSTRACT

We assessed whether the level of time-pressure reported by a school’s teachers is predictive of student bullying perpetration. We combined data from two surveys conducted in 129 schools in 2016: the Stockholm School Survey performed among students in grades 9 and 11 (n?=?10,668), and the Stockholm Teacher Survey carried out among senior level (grades 7–9) and upper secondary school (grades 10–12) teachers (n?=?2259). Multilevel path analyses showed that teachers’ stress and time-pressure increased with declining school leadership functioning. Teachers’ level of time-pressure was, in turn, positively associated with student traditional and cyberbullying behaviour, through its effect on the school staff’s tendency (not) to intervene against bullying, but not through the teachers’ stress level. We conclude that schools with leadership that provides opportunities for the teachers to focus on their main mission can counteract bullying among the students and therefore indirectly also to promote student health.     

Peer teaching as a strategy for conflict management and student re-engagement in schools

This article reports on a major action research program that experimented with the use of cross-age peer teaching in schools to assist teachers to manage conflict issues in their classrooms, and to re-engage disaffected students in learning. The research, which was conducted in a range of elementary and secondary schools in Australia, was part of a larger international project using conflict resolution concepts and techniques combined with drama strategies to address cultural conflict in schools. The use of formal cross-age peer teaching emerged as a highly effective strategy in teaching students to manage a range of conflicts in schools, and especially in learning to deal with bullying. Operating as peer teachers also enabled a number of students in the study, with serious behaviour problems, to re-engage with their learning. The article therefore evaluates the effectiveness of peer teaching in both conflict management and student re-engagement.     

Bystander Behaviours Among Israeli Children Witnessing Bullying Behaviour In School Settings

As part of an international study that examined students' bystander behaviour when witnessing bullying in the school environment, we asked 216 junior high and 190 elementary Israeli school students to respond to a questionnaire addressing various issues related to bystander behaviours, following viewing a video showing various bullying incidents. Results showed that more than half of the students observed verbal and physical bullying and more than third of the students observed sexual coercion type of bullying on a weekly basis. Overall, most of the students reported that they would not support the bully when witnessing bullying and would support the victims and/or call a teacher. In other words, verbally they possess the right attitude towards bullying. Further analysis of students' responses, based on their status in relation to bullying, that is, reported being a victim, bully, bully/victim or neither, revealed that victims tend to report calling teachers more than students who reported being bullies and also bully/victims. Notably, bullies as bystanders were more likely to support bullies and not to get a teacher. Implications of these results for teachers who attempt to combat bullying in their schools are discussed.     

Why Diversity Matters in Rural America: Women Faculty of Color Challenging Whiteness

Using critical race theory as an analytical framework to examine White privilege and institutional racism, two teacher educators, in a rural predominantly White university tell counterstories about teaching for social justice in literacy and mathematics education courses. In sharing our counterstories in this paper, we, women faculty of color, challenge Whiteness and institutional racism with the hopes of: (1) promoting social justice teaching in order to globally prepare (pre-and-in-service) teachers and educational leaders to motivate and empower ALL students to learn; (2) dismantling racism to promote better wellbeing for women faculty of color; and (3) moving educational communities at large closer toward equitable education, which is a fundamental civil right. After analyzing the counterstories, we suggest that university leaders establish policies and practices to support (recruit, retain, and promote) faculty/leaders of color, not just mainstream academics. Working toward equity and justice, we strive to form alliances between Whites and Others.     

Recommendations of school students with autism spectrum disorder and their parents in regard to bullying and cyberbullying prevention and intervention

Accumulating evidence suggests that the prevalence of bullying is significantly higher for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) than for typically developing students. Additionally, the prominence and growth of social networking and resultant focus on cyberbullying in the last 10 years has added a new dimension to the traditional definitions, environments and experiences of bullying. This paper describes current anti-bullying strategies and the legal climate in regard to bullying in Australia. It then reports on interviews with 10 students with ASD and their parents, and discusses recommendations based on their perceptions for dealing with bullying in schools. Data analysis indicated that both students and parents made a range of recommendations to increase awareness of bullying; improve policies and procedures that can be more clearly communicated to students, teachers and parents; and support programmes that develop communication and relationship building within families and in schools to both prevent bullying and provide coping strategies to deal with bullying if it occurs. Parents also called for schools to give harsher penalties for offenders, particularly repeat offenders. These student and parent recommendations may contribute to the development of school and government policy and practice to help reduce the incidence of all forms of bullying in schools.     

Parental perspectives of the role of school factors in school refusal

The aim of this study was to explore parents’ perspectives on the role of school factors in school refusal (SR). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 parents who had experienced SR with their own child. They identified several school factors related to SR. Some of these findings suggest that students who are prone to SR need more predictability and more teachers’ support than they sometimes get in school. Their need for predictability seems to occur particularly during less structured activities and during transitions in school. Findings also imply that disruptive behavior among classmates and harsh management from teachers affects perceived predictability and support for SR-prone students. All parents expressed concern about bullying, and roughly a third of them reported that their child had been a victim of bullying. Insufficient adaptation of schoolwork was also mentioned relatively frequently. Parents emphasized that adaptation of schoolwork needs to be done in close cooperation with the student and parents to avoid negative differentiation from classmates or stigma. Finally, several parents commented that teachers and schools need more knowledge about SR and felt that schools needed a more coordinated approach to supporting students who are at risk of SR.     

Prospects of adolescent students collaborating with teachers in addressing issues of bullying and conflict in schools

Advice to schools on countering bullying has emphasised the need for a whole school approach. This implies close collaboration between students and teachers. Little attention, however, has been paid to how students view the prospects of such collaboration. Two student surveys (n=7091 and n=632) were conducted among Australian adolescent schoolchildren, average age 14 years. The results suggest that approximately 40% of the students believed that teachers were not usually interested in taking action to stop bullying and a similar proportion were either opposed or unsure whether they should collaborate. Multiple regression analysis indicated that students who were more involved in bully/victim encounters as either as bullies or as victims were more likely than others to disparage the conflict resolution skills of teachers. In addition, bullies were particularly inclined to judge teachers as unfair in their behaviour toward students. The implications of these findings for the implementation of whole school approaches to conflict and bullying and for teacher education are discussed.     

The role of popular girls in bullying and intimidating boys and other popular girls in secondary school

Despite a large amount of research focusing on bullying and exclusion in secondary schools, there is far less research focusing on cross‐gender bullying and ‘popular’ students who experience bullying. This research provides an analysis of interactions between male and female students (aged 13–14) in a school in England. The data provides multiple examples, both in the form of observations and group interviews, of girls teasing, intimidating and bullying boys and other popular girls. The analysis also considers teachers’ reactions to this behaviour, highlighting that it is often unnoticed. This paper raises this as an area for concern and suggests that future research should explore this further, both gaining more in‐depth knowledge of female bullying and intimidation of boys and popular girls, and exploring ways of working with teachers and schools to support students.     

Schools as racial spaces: understanding and resisting structural racism

Analyzing schools as racial spaces can help researchers examine the role of teachers in the perpetuation of structural racism in schools. Based on ethnographic and autoethnographic work, this article offers examples of schools as racial spaces, spaces where whiteness controlled access. It also highlights four teachers who pursued racial equity in their teaching, and how a structural understanding of race was key to their efforts. It makes the argument that racial spaces analysis can help researchers work with teachers to understand structural racism and to better counter it in school practices.     

Taking the risk to engage in race talk: professional development in elementary schools

Developing public education where every child has the right to learn requires that teachers pay attention to and engage in race talk – open discussion about race, social construction of race, and racism. While it is clear that children engage and reflect critically about these aspects of race even at a young age, teachers rarely engage in race talk with them. In this study, an African-American preservice teacher and a White teacher educator explore how African-American, Polynesian, and White in-service teachers, participating in Courageous Conversations professional development, address or avoid race talk in their elementary schools through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what risks they take when they do. Findings, through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, demonstrate that (1) racism was observed and/or experienced by all teachers in elementary schools; (2) lived racial experiences impacted teachers’ approach to conversations about race; (3) creating an open space was crucial for race conversations; (4) Courageous Conversations provided a ‘new language’ to talk about race; and (5) administrative support facilitated more attention to race. Findings indicate the road to greater equity in schools requires more professional development about race talk in elementary schools.