Contextualizing the Problem Paper

Our group decided to focus on a problem or issue that affects elementary aged children and their families in Canyons School District, specifically Midvale and Sandy Elementary; both are Title 1 schools located near Midvale, Utah. Midvale Elementary reports indicate a population with about 74% ethnic minorities, 51% English Language Learners, and 88% considered low income. (Midvale, 2013) Sandy Elementary reports, on the other hand, show a population with about 41% ethnic minorities, 22% English Language learners, and 69% considered low income. (Sandy, 2013) Based on this data alone, we could infer that while both schools serve elementary students from Kindergarten through fifth grade (ages five to eleven), their specific needs differ. Our first objective was to identify a common problem whose solution would prove beneficial to both communities.
In Canyons School District, parents, students and teachers participate in an annual survey called the Community and Youth Collaborative Institute (CAYCI). The CAYCI Survey was created by the Ohio State University Social Work Department to focus on the development of school-family-community partnerships that serve to enhance youth development (Data Services, 2014).  This survey has been used by Canyons School District to evaluate Title 1 schools since its implementation in 2012.  Using the results from the most recent surveys, we were able to identify a common issue: we noticed that over the past two years, while students and parents were reporting an increase in bullying, teachers were actually reporting a decrease.
In light of the conflicting data, we decided to focus on this issue.  We began with school wide meetings for teachers and staff to discuss this topic with us, and held focus groups where students identified bullying.  Based on these meetings and focus groups, we came to the conclusion that although many students had reported being bullied, this was not technically the case.  A majority of students we spoke with identified bullying as any instance when someone was mean to them; as a result, many students who simply experienced peer conflict had reported bullying instead.
While their confluence of these two concepts is understandable, peer conflict and bullying are quite distinct.  Specifically, there are “two components [that] separate bullying from normal peer aggression: repetition and a difference in power.” (Goldsmid, Howie, 2014) In addition to this, we also know that “bullying is one sided, intentional, and repeated.”  (Bowen, Ashcraft, Jenson, & Rhode, 2008)  The issue, then, was not that bullying was becoming more rampant.  Rather, the true problem was that bullying was being over reported.   We believe that students, not knowing the difference between bullying and peer conflict, report any situation where a student is unkind as bullying. Furthermore, we believe the likely cause of the recent increase in peer conflict to be the students’ lack of necessary problem-solving skills.
We do not mean to dismiss bullying, as bullying is a critical issue and needs to be taken seriously.   Bullying can cause internalizing problems in children, including insomnia, antisocial behavior, aggression, and psychological distress (Kubisvewski, Fontaine, Hure, Rusch, 2012).  We recognize that bullying is a prevalent problem, as “estimates of childhood bullying reveal that approximately 30% of students engage in overt or relational bullying or are victims of bullying during elementary school.” (Juvonen, Graham, & Schuster (2003) in Jenson, 2010) We also realize that some of the conflicts being reported in both Midvale and Sandy may be the result of previous bullying. For instance, Hanish et al. (2004) showed that young boys who are victimized early in the school year showed contemporaneous angry, aggressive behaviors, possibly reflecting their efforts to establish dominance in a new social group.” (Geisbreicht, 2011)
However, despite the fact that bullying is a real concern, we felt that addressing peer conflict would be more beneficial to the schools as a whole.  The idea that students may engage in peer conflict as a response to past victimization leads us to believe that it is important to address both issues. The need to address both issues is further illustrated by the teachers, who report that a majority of students who come in with complaints of bullying are actually having peer conflicts. Unfortunately, it is difficult for the teachers and administration to handle every conflict to determine if it is an isolated incident or the result of prior bullying.
 In working with this population, we spent a lot of our time talking with students about incidents in which they felt they were being bullied.  After talking with the students, one-on-one as well as in focus groups, we were able to determine that many of the cases of supposed bullying in the classroom and on the playground were actually instances of peer conflict. During the one-on-one sessions, we spent a great deal of time teaching the difference between bullying and conflict; it was a problem that the administration and teachers thought required immediate attention. We also worked on conflict resolution with those students who had the highest need for these skills, so as to improve any altercations either in the classroom or on the playground. We found that helping students to resolve normal peer conflict took a large portion of not only our time, but of the administrators and teachers as well.
 In talking with the administration, teachers, and the school psychologists it was identified that teaching conflict resolution would greatly benefit the schools. Helping our students identify the difference between bullying and conflict, as well as implementing an evidenced based curriculum that can be applied school wide to improve conflict resolution skills, is the challenge that has now been presented to us by the school. We hypothesize that helping students to identify the true definition of bullying may reduce reported incidences.  We also hypothesize that teaching students conflict resolution skills to use with their peers will help them to solve normal childhood disputes that do not need adult attention.  In addition to the benefit for the students, this will allow teachers and administration to focus on addressing actual cases of bullying and more serious cases of peer conflict that do occur.
Conflict resolution skills are important for any child or adult; conflict is something that will occur throughout a child’s life.  Conflict will inevitably happen when there is a large group of individuals, such as at an elementary school.   Teaching conflict resolution skills will not only help each individual child, but will help the schools and the district as a whole.   According to studies done in Turkish Elementary Schools, the implementing of conflict resolution training helped increase social competency skills of the children, and decreased reactive and proactive aggression levels at the schools. (Akgun, Araz, 2014). We hope to see this kind of improvement through the process of implementing conflict resolution skills for the students at Midvale and Sandy. If we do not address this problem, we believe that social competency skills will stay the same or may even decrease, and that aggression could possibly increase.
Of all those involved, the students are most affected by this issue, as can see by the fact that they are the ones reporting high levels of bullying. This is most likely due to the long-term consequences of bullying and the effect it has on the “period of rapid social, emotional, cognitive, and personality development during which intervention and prevention programs may have considerable impact.” (Giesbrecht, 2011) This, coupled with a lack of conflict resolution skills, will follow students into adulthood and continue to affect their lives if adequate measures are not taken while they are young. We have asked the professionals at our schools if they have been able to identify a particular group of their student population that seems to be most affected by bullying and conflict. Reports from school professionals claim that they most often deal with issues that involve students who are below level in their academic assessments, students with mental illnesses, students from single parent homes, and students from ethnic minorities.
In creating our curriculum for this assignment, we will ensure to make it applicable for all levels of academic performance and be sensitive to these target groups. We believe that this type of program, as it improves the social part of our students’ lives, will also improve their classroom behavior positively impact their ability to learn. Supporting research states that when “elementary school counselors recognize their contributions in supporting student academic achievement through comprehensive service delivery. Therefore, counselors must be prepared to advocate for this type of broad program focus.” (Barna, 2011) Considering these points, it is believed that the best method to implement for our target group is a school wide curriculum delivered to all students, defining the difference between bullying and conflict, how to resolve conflict with peers, and identifying safe adults in case bullying or more serious conflicts need to be addressed. This program should bolster the personal and social development of our students and, in turn, should improve their academic performance.
The teachers, administration, school psychologist, and school social work intern will be collaborating to find appropriate ways to implement this school wide curriculum. The belief and hope is that these preventative measures will not only improve the lives of our students, but will also allow for more time to focus on cases of bullying and more serious peer conflict. An additional hope of the teachers’ is that they will be able to spend more time doing what they do best, which is teach. If we cannot implement an effective curriculum, it is likely that teachers and other school professionals will continue to use an unnecessarily large portion of their time helping students to mediate problems. We recognize that this puts the school professionals as being the second population that will be most affected by this issue.
Another population that will be affected is the parents of our students. Thus far we only have information from parents from the CAYCI surveys. The school would like us to implement our curriculum into an effective discipline class that we will be offering to parents next semester. However, the administration at the district level has some misgivings. This is understandable, as the class that is offered is from a curriculum called 1-2-3 Magic and should not be altered. We are currently in the process of finding a solution that would include giving parents a handout of what we have taught their students in school about bullying and conflict resolution so that they can have access to this information as well.
We feel it is critical that we include parents in this process. We know that the parents have been a part of the CAYCI survey, but would like to keep in mind that they are an integral part of their students’ lives. As a parent they will have an impact on the reinforcement of the curriculum that we teach the students throughout the school year. We would like more parent involvement to keep our curriculum consistent throughout the year, and especially in the home. We will be finding ways to communicate effectively with parents to foster increased participation in this process. One concern we have in particular are the limitations we have due to a language barrier. We will be working with many families who speak other languages and we do not want them to feel excluded. We realize that all of our parents are stakeholders in this endeavor.
Stakeholders within the public school system include: students, parents, teachers, coaches, paraprofessionals, building-level administrators, and district-level administrators. (Upreti, 2010) In the two schools we are working with, stakeholders would also include school psychologists, school social workers, and community partners such as Boys & Girls Club, Utah Food Bank, and Sealants for Smiles. For this particular issue we will focus on the three stakeholders that are surveyed in the CAYCI survey: parents, students, and teachers.

References
Akgun, S., & Araz, A. (2014). The Effects of Conflict Resolution Education on Conflict Resolution Skills, Social Competence, and Aggression in Turkish Elementary School Students. Journal Of Peace Education, 11(1), 30-45.
Barna, J. E. (2011). How Important is Personal/ Social Development to Academic Achievement? The Elementary School Counselor's Perspective. Professional School Counseling, 14(3), 242-249.
Bowen, J., Ashcraft, P., Jenson, W., & Rhode, G. (2008). Learning About Bullying. In The tough kid bully blockers book: 15-minute lessons for preventing and reducing bullying (p. 108). Eugene, OR: Pacific Northwest.
Data Services. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2014, from http://www.cayci.osu.edu/data-services/

Giesbrecht, G., Leadbeater, B., & Macdonald, S. (2011). Child and context characteristics in trajectories of physical and relational victimization among early elementary school children. Development and Psychopathology, 23(1), 239-252.

Goldsmid, S., & Howie, P. (2014). Bullying by definition: an examination of definitional components of bullying. Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties, 19(2), 210-225. doi:10.1080/13632752.2013.844414
Jenson, J., Dieterich, W., Brisson, D., Bender, K., & Powell, A. (2010). Preventing Childhood Bullying: Findings and Lessons From the Denver Public Schools Trial. Research on Social Work Practice, 509-517.
Kubiszewski, V., Fontaine, R., Huré, K., & Rusch, E. (2013). [Cyber-bullying in adolescents: associated psychosocial problems and comparison with school bullying]. L'encéphale, 39(2), 77-84. doi:10.1016/j.encep.2012.01.008
Sandy School. (2013, October 3). Retrieved November 29, 2014, from http://www.canyonsdistrict.org/all-documents/assessment/results/elementary/sandy/3804-sandy-ele-school-ucas-report-2013/file
Midvale School. (2013, October 3). Retrieved November 29, 2014, from http://www.canyonsdistrict.org/all-documents/assessment/results/elementary/midvale/3796-midvale-ele-school-ucas-report-2013/file
Upreti, G., Liaupsin, C., & Koonce, D. (2010). Stakeholder Utility: Perspectives on School-wide Data for Measurement, Feedback, and Evaluation. Education and Treatment of Children, 33(4), 497-511.

Faculty Meeting!

We got a 15 minute spotlight at the faculty meeting for November! In this meeting we shared the results of our focus groups. A nice pat on the back for our teachers, since they are the people who suggested that the term "bully" might be overused within our schools. Very few teachers were surprised when we shared that a majority of the students thought that a bully was anyone who was being mean. We asked for feedback from the teachers of what information they would like to receive as we move forward. Teachers would like to see an outline of the steps we teach our students so that they can be consistent throughout the school. They also suggested that we implement a lesson where we talk about the difference between bullying and conflict. These lesson plans will be e-mailed to the school psychologist who will review them, make any necessary edits, forward them on to the administration to be approved, and then finally the teachers will receive this perfected copy. Looks like we are ready to do some more research and a lot of work!

Time for the Research

After viewing the results of the CAYCI surveys  and doing focus groups about bullying and conflict we have decided it is time to do the research.  We agree that bullying is not the problem at the schools and the children do not need any bullying interventions.  However, we do think that the children would benefit learning more about conflict resolution.  We have started to research different conflict resolution interventions that would teach the children what conflict is and how to resolve it if they are having issues with other children.  From the research we have gathered there is quite a bit of activities to do with children to teach them conflict resolution.  We are going to continue doing more research and then come up with a plan of action for our interventions.

How Do You Do a Pretest for Kindergarten?

We, the school psychologist and myself, wanted to find out what our students already know about conflict and bullying. However, we are working with Kindergarten - 5th graders, so how to do that? We decided the best plan of action would be to run some focus groups. We didn't want to take away from classroom education and after brainstorming some different ideas we went to the library to see if we could use some of the library time. The librarians were excited to be a part of our plan and gave us the first 10 - 15 minutes of library time. This allowed us to meet with each classroom and all the students! (Minus those that were absent of course.)


Here is what we found:
Kindergarten - Every class thought that we were asking what bowling was. (They sound similar don't they?) 1 or 2 students in each of the 4 classes were able to state that a bully is someone who is mean. The classes identified parents and teachers as someone you would tell if someone was being mean to you. They had no idea what conflict was or what to do about it.

1st Grade - Every class described a bully as someone who was mean to other kids. They stated that if someone was being mean that you should tell your teacher. They had no idea what conflict was or what to do about it.

2nd Grade - Every class described a bully as someone who is mean. They reported that you should tell a teacher or another adult if someone was being mean to you. One class was able to identify conflict as something that happens in a story. They were not sure what to do about conflict except maybe to keep reading the book. The rest of the classes were unsure of what conflict was or what they should do about it.

3rd Grade - This grade related that bullying was when someone was being mean to someone else. 2 of the 4 classes were able to identify conflict as a fight between people. They reported that for either situation you should tell a teacher or another adult.

4th Grade - This grade stated that bullying was when someone was being mean to someone else multiple times. All classes described conflict as a disagreement or fight between people. They also reported that in either situation they would tell a teacher or another adult.

5th Grade - This grade stated that bullying was when someone was being mean to someone else and the other individual was not being mean back. All classes described conflict as a fight or disagreement between groups or people. This grade also realized that they may be able to work it out on their own without an adult, but had difficulty describing a way in which to do so. One class identified rho sham bo (rock, paper, scissors) as a way to decide who might go first or get their way in a disagreement.

Intervention Brainstorming

Had a meeting at Midvale Elementary with the school psychologist, some teachers, the social worker, and the principal to discuss the best intervention options to help prevent bullying in the school, as well as, to help the students understand conflict versus bullying and to teach conflict resolution to the students.  Our next step is to put into effect some of our intervention ideas and evaluate to see if they work.

Second School Wide Meeting

I attended a school wide meeting attended by all of the faculty, staff, and administration of Midvale Elementary.  At this meeting we discussed the results of the CAYCI survey that was taken by the students, teachers, and parents of the Midvale Elementary district. One of the biggest concerns of the community, as reported by the survey, was bullying.  However, the teachers reported a decrease in bullying in their classrooms.  As a group we discussed that bullying wasn't necessarily a huge  problem in the community, but children reporting  bullying to parents was high.  We came to the conclusion that this is probably due to the fact that many of the children probably do not know the difference between bullying and conflict.  The next step we are going to take is to survey the children to see if they really do know the difference between bullying and conflict.

Schoolwide Meeting!

We are so lucky to have such great schools! I met with our principal and she said that we would be having a meeting with faculty and staff to discuss our most significant results on the CAYCI survey! I attended as well as Reading Interventionists, Teachers, Office Staff, Administration, and even one of our Lunch Ladies! According to our surveys for students, teachers, and parents we found that the most important thing our school needs to focus on is Bullying and Conflict Resolution. There were a large portion of our students who felt they had been bullied on the survey. The teachers and administration agreed that some of it was bullying but that some of it was simply conflict. At this point, my job is to design 6-8 lesson plans for bullying prevention and conflict resolution. Lesson #1 will be to define the difference so that our students can understand what each is and how to handle the different situations. Now on to some research!


Nicole Gordon

Initial Meeting

Meeting with Jenna McDonald LCSW, School Social Workers, and Michele Vogler from the Administration of Canyon's School District.  We discussed that we wanted to work with the Canyon's School District elementary students and their families for our community project.  We discussed what direction we wanted to go with our project and what some of the community needs are. Due to many needs in the community,  we decided that our next course of action is to meet with the principals of some of the elementary schools in the area to access parent, student and educator surveys that were done. This way we will be able to find common needs perceptions between the three groups and create goals for what we can address.

Gabi

And So It Begins!

This year, for the Masters of Social Work program at the University of Utah, we have a class about Social Justice and Macro Practice. We are so excited to start putting what we learn into action. Gabrielle and Nicole will be the dynamic duo bringing you Macro Practice in the Midvale area! Feel free to follow our journey and to make helpful suggestions. This is going to be AWESOME!

Gabrielle and Nicole