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.
