Page 9 - Mini-Module 6

Bullying, School Culture

and Dysfunctional Schools

Consider the following ways in which schools can become dysfunctional
because of bullying.

1. As a school’s culture is shaped by agreements, so a few intimidating
individuals (bullies) can dominate those agreements and in this way,
bullying can actually hurt the teaching and learning process without a
single disruptive student incident! Being able to manage conflict and
power imbalances in decision making during staff meetings, strategic
planning meetings, and curriculum meetings is an important skill of
school leaders. Similarly, teachers as classroom
leaders need to be able to manage ‘bullies’ who create power
imbalances in classroom decision making processes. It is dysfunctional
to

2. Teaching and learning can certainly be disrupted by bullying incidents,
students who are scared, miserable, anxious, or worried are not able to
learn to their best potential. But it is not only the ‘victims’ who cannot
learn, in a culture where "bad things happen" and are
tolerated (becomes a part of the ‘norm’), where victimisation and
bullying is accepted, learning can become a ‘nerdy’ thing to do.

3. Children who are doing the bullying in one time and place are often
victimized in other times and places. Bullying can be a wider
community issue. Children can be terrorised after school. Families can
be involved, with older siblings even parents, uncles, aunties, joining in
disputes. A parent may get ‘sick and tired’ of their child being bullied
and decide to take matters into their own hands. Such community
disputes (or even chaos) have a huge negative impact on learning.
School leadership is entwined with the wider learning community – it is
not bounded by the school fence or school bell.

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