A Comparative Study On Perceptions Of Bullying In Schools Among Public And Private Teachers

Abstract

Only a handful of studies have targeted teachers for assessing their point of view on bullying in educational institutions of Pakistan. This study was an attempt at understanding the differences in bullying perceptions of public and private school teachers. Teachers hold a special honorary status in our culture, it was an attempt to understand their stance on bullying. The teaching faculty are the mentors of the society and, given proper means, they have the power to lead a society to change. It is the teaching faculty who receive and resolve a complaint regarding bullying. So, it not possible to devise a strategy or a policy to countering bullying without a proper input of the teachers. It was very comforting to see teachers responding to the request and sparing a few minutes to participating in this study. The results of the study were quite surprising and contrary to predictions. The results obtained through analyses were also quite reliable (statistically). The results indicated that there was no significant difference among the perceptions of public and private teachers regarding bullying in schools. Keeping in mind the differences in budget and professional development it was hard to fathom these results but then again, the results gave other aspects to consider.

Keywords: bullying, public, private, teacher, fraterninty

Chapter I

Introduction

Bullying has undoubtedly become a sort of latent culture in the educational institutions of Pakistan. It is as visible as the grey hair on the head. One can try to turn blind eye to the reality but cannot negate the fact that bullying has (sort of) become a culture in educational institutions across Pakistan. This so-called culture exists and is spreading as we speak with no effective steps being taken to contain its spread. Here, in this study, we looked into the fact about what does teachers, educators and administrators think about bullying. This study focused on the input of the teachers’ about how they think of their role in prevention and tackling of a bullying situation. Do educators feel confident enough in terms of having been trained to resolve and handle a bullying situation, was also looked at in this study. Another aspect to be focused in this study was if the teachers’ and the educators’ think enough is being done to curtail, contain and limit bullying in educational institutions of Pakistan. This study was also suggestive to the aspect as to what the people who are an integral part of the teaching faculty and the administration think needs to be done to improve their management of bullying situation.

1.1 Background of the Project

This study took a perceptive look at thinking of the people (teachers and educators) about their role in countering and confronting the rising phenomenon of bullying in the educational institutions of Pakistan. This study also looked into the fact that if the teachers and administrators were satisfied with effectiveness and efficacy of the prevailing practices to confront bullying in the educational institutions of Pakistan. This study also comprised of a suggestive part. Those suggestions for improvement came to light when the participants answered the questions 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 & 8 of the questionnaire. We also briefly discussed some of the work already done in this sphere of subject such as the work of Bilal et al., (2022) and Abdulameer et al, (2022). etc. This study highlighted the point of view of the teaching department of the educational institutions of Pakistan with regards to bullying and their ability and capacity in managing and resolving such cases as and when presented with such a situation. Their opinion needs to be heard, if we want to tackle this menace of bullying in our citadels of education.

1.2 Variable (Employer)

Since there are many differences in the level of schooling in Pakistan, pertaining to public and private schools, it was quite an obvious variable to choose. The private schools get more operational budget and facilities to operate than their public counterparts. The private schools are keener to providing more conducive and comfortable studying environment in the schools so in order to do so they provide better training and arrange for further professional development of their teaching faculty. This is contrary to teaching cadre at the public schools, who only get basic training prior to being inducted and then groom all by themselves throughout their careers, without ever getting further professional training.

1.3 Role of Teachers and Administrators

Since teachers and institute administrators are present on the premises of an open and working educational institute, so by virtue of their position and status in the institute they are the most relevant persons to resolve a bullying situation. Various studies indicate that teachers themselves feel it as being their duty to deal with a bullying situation such as Shek et al, (2008). But observational studies point out that teachers often find it apt not to intervene in a bullying situation if they see any Craig et al, (2000).

In an institute, teachers and administrators are the people who have authority, are in a commanding position and hold moral high ground. If used in an effective manner, their position can have a significant impact on the frequency and severity of bullying cases.

1.4 Impact of Including Bullying in Curriculum

Studies such as Dorothy et al, (2001), have indicated that by sensitising students with bullying and encouraging them to come up against bullying provides a better chance at handling a bullying situation. The curriculum should be designed in a way which provides guidelines to students to deal with bullying and or the bully and feel safe enough to come up with a formal complaint against bullying. Various studies including Kennedy et al, (2012) and Elaheh et al, (2022), have also shown that educators are also in favour of making anti-bullying a permanent part of the syllabus.

1.5 Cultural Associates

In a country like Pakistan, which is rich in cultures and customs, teachers are given a higher social status. Here, a teacher’s mere remarks are taken as an injunction. So, a teacher can use his position in the society to spread awareness regarding bullying and help a bullying victim aesthetically. But in order to do so they need to be professionally capable to use their position effectively i.e., they need to be properly and adequately trained to carry out this daunting task.

Chapter II

Literature Review

Researchers have always had an interest in trying to understand the causes for the development of an individual’s irrational behaviour towards fellows, also known as bullying. Once the causes were thought to have been ascertained and understood to some extent, then the need arose to confront, contain, curtail, diffuse and dilute the effects and causes of bullying.

There have been a number of researches done by a number of educationists and scholars to develop methods that can help in capacity building to handle a bullying situation. For instance, Abdulameer et al. of The University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq, in their research titled ‘Strategies Of Confronting School Bullying’ (2022), found that it is necessary to have plans, strategies and guidelines at the school, community, government and family levels if any serious attempt is to be made at limiting the spread and depth of bullying. Their findings are similar to those of Nikolaou (2017), whose opinion was that anti-bullying policies can not only help to reduce or eliminate bullying in educational institutions but also help the victims cope with the situation. In some other studies Luca et al. (2019) and Patton et al. (2013) gave opinions that positive attitudes of teachers and administration and overall positive environment at school can significantly contain the culture of bullying.

A number of Pakistani scholars have also worked on this social issue and published their findings. Such as Bilal et al. (2022), as a result of their study found that nearly 30% of the bullying victims use avoidance technique to get out of the bullying situation. They also noted absence of anti-bullying programmes, guidelines and forums in a good percentage of the educational institutions. They recommended adoption, inclusion and implementation of anti-bullying strategies and guidelines in line with the international norms at the institute, government and mainstream media level.

2.1 Rationale of the Study

Bullying exists as a latent culture engrossed in the educational institutions and it is not going to fade away. One cannot make some things disappear just by waving their magic wand. There is no way to go around this tree trunk which has fallen in the middle of the highway. We have to face the facts and the fact is that bullying exists, it is happening as we speak and very little is being done in our country (Pakistan) to push brakes on this tumultuous issue. The purpose of this study is to bring to light the educators’ point of view as to how they think bullying can be handled in a better way as an incessant problem which is causing serious psychological and mental problems in aspiring students. It can be said, without the fear of contradiction, that there is a wild raging bull (in the form of bullying) in our institutions and it is the time that we grab this bull by its horns. The question is that, who is going to be the rodeo who grabs this raging bull (bullying) by its horns? And how he can calm that bull down?

2.2 Objectives of the Study

The primary objective of this study was to compare public and private teachers in their perception of bullying in schools.

2.3 Research Hypothesis

H 1: Public (government) and private school teachers are likely to differ in their perception of bullying in schools.

Chapter III

Method

3.1 Nature of Research

The contemporay research was quantitative in nature.

3.2 Research Design;

Cross-sectional research design was used. Since, there was no established or known direct relationship or causal effect relationship between the variables.

3.3 Research/Sampling Strategy

To conduct this research non-probability convenience sampling technique was used.

3.4 Sample

The sample for this research was planned to be consisting of 100 school teachers (50=public schools, 50=private schools). Upon initial analyses of the data collected from 100 participants, responses of 12 participants did not fulfil the criterion for participation and consequently their responses were discarded from the data sample. While attempting to complete the target sample size another 12 educators were requested to participate in the study. Out of the 12 contacted 10 educators responded in kind and submitted their responses.

Subsequently, the sample size for this study was capped at 98 participants.

3.5 Inclusion / Exclusion Criteria

For this study only serving teachers were included, retired educators of the educational institutions were not included. Teachers who had minimum 2 years job experience were included.

3.6 Demographics

Some questions which were pre-requisite to this study were also asked from the participants. As it was necessary to have their basic profile at hand. Those questions were participants’ gender, age, qualification, designation (i.e., primary / secondary / senior / junior school teacher), sector (i.e., public / private) and duty hours.

3.7 Bullying Perception Survey-10

Bullying Perception Survey-10 developed by Kevorkian, Kennedy and Russom (2008) was used to measure perception of bullying. The survey questionnaire contained 10 items that assess an individual’s perceptions of bullying across four factors: (a) role of educators, (b) bullying in school curriculum, (c) bullying prevention training / professional development, and (d) self-efficacy. Responses to items were given on a Likert scale from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree).

3.8 Procedure

Questionnaire was uploaded on the Google Forms platform and the link to the questionnaire was distributed to schools’ and teachers’ via email and WhatsApp. Participants were informed about the nature of the research and their due rights appropriately. Once the responses for this questionnaire were gathered in the desired numbers then simple statistical figures such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, extreme values and other percentiles were calculated. For a detailed analyses of the data Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used.

3.9 Ethical Considerations

o Consent was taken from the participants and they were informed of their due rights for participation in this study.

o Participants were informed that their participation in this study was voluntary and that they were not bound in any case.

o Permission to use the participant’s responses for the purpose of research was also obtained.

o The participants were also informed that neither their responses nor their personal information would be shared with any third party. And that their information would be kept securely.

3.10 Analysis

Independent Sample T-test was used to compare perceptions of public and private school teachers regarding bullying.

Chapter IV

Analysis

A number of schools were visited in person and requested and offered to participate in the study. Only the schools which were located in my city were visited in person. In total around 15 schools were visited in person. For a greater reach and to sublime the specific area factor a huge number of schools were requested and offered to participate in the study. Such requests were made via emails. For ease of participation and streamlined collection of data, all of the participants were provided with a link to the survey questionnaire, which was made available on the Google Forms. In total 110 educators responded to the request made, and submitted their responses for the study.

110 educators participated in this study and responses of 12 of the participants were discarded for various reasons. This implies that the sample for this study was reduced to 98 participants.

4.1 Demographic Distinctions

Of the 98 participants 60 were female and 38 (60 + 38 = 98) were male respondents.

The other most valuable variable to be collected in the demographics was knowing the employer of the participants’ i.e., public or private. Among the 98 participants 34 were employed in the public sector and the remaining 64 (34 + 64 = 98) were employed in the private education sector. The participating teachers were highly qualified as 68.4% or 57 teachers had educational qualification of at least Masters. Another quite remarkable demographic distinction was that 95.9% or 94 of the participating teachers quite young and in their early middle age with their age ranging from 21 – 40 years.

4.2 Results

The processed data revealed some very valuable aspects of the collective perceptions of the educators of Pakistan. For instance, the educators (both public and private) seem to agree that they should remain ‘neutral’ on the matter as to whether to include the bullying prevention in school curriculum. This finding is contrary to what was found by Kennedy et al, (2008), they found that male teachers were more eager to including bullying prevention in school prevention than their female counterparts. In a similar manner the educators (both public and private) depict to remain neutral with a slight inclination to disagreeing to the aspect of both having received adequate training for bullying prevention and showing willingness to receive more bullying prevention training. Interestingly, both the public and private respondents (teachers) agree to remain neutral when questioned regarding their level of confidence while engaging with parents of a bully and a victim of bullying.

When looking at the differences between bullying perceptions of the educators based on the fact of being employed in either public or private sector, no significant difference is observed. This analysis is in synchrony with the data analysed on the bases of gender difference. However, this analysis is not in line with what was found by Kennedy et al, (2008). They had found significant differences on bullying perceptions of male and female teachers. Here, (in this study) educators belonging to both public or private sector show tendency of remaining neutral with slight inclination towards disagreeing as to whether to include bullying prevention in the school curriculum or not. Strikingly, teachers belonging to both of the employers (public and private) do not feel confident while confronting the parents of a bully or victim of bullying.

For our hypothesis, we proposed that there was a relationship between the perceptions of public (government) and private school teachers. In our study, we put an effort to ascertain that relationship. An independent sample t-test was carried out with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software to analyze the data collected in the survey.

4.3 Interpretation / Discussion

An overall ‘neutrality’ is observed throughout the analysis of the data collected. This implies that the data is not spread all-over the graph and rather the data is very normally distributed.

The results indicate that the teaching faculty is not decisive as a community. They are not sure if they want to include the bullying prevention in into school curriculum at any level of the education ladder. The of cadre teaching professionals, which is the most educated community in any society or culture, is also somewhat undecided as to whether they want to receive more professional training for better handling of the bullying situations. In fact, they are not so sure if the training that they received was sufficient.

A very pique aspect is that the educators are also indecisive of their own level of self-confidence when interacting with the parents of a bully or a victim of bullying. This is something about which one should be clear enough in their minds to give an answer in decisive manner. Although the data obtained indicates an inclination towards not feeling confidence in but that is not enough to give a conclusive statement.

4.4 Implications

The results of the analysis of the data obtained in this study do not provide us with significant results needed to state whether the proposed hypothesis H1 is adopted or dropped. So consequently, the study remains inconclusive as far as the hypothesis is concerned.

It is evident that further and in-depth work is needed to grasp this subject matter. It is clear that the data analysed in this study does not enable us to reach a conclusion on the matter under discussion. But on the other hand, it is the most reassuring that this study is the first of its kind and the results obtained would lead to further refined research. Although, researchers in Pakistan have researched on the aspect of bullying but almost all of the acknowledged researches have been conducted keeping in view the students (as bully’s or victims), but this study is an attempt to ascertain the perception of teaching cadre towards bullying. This study highlights the need for further research on the bullying with respect to the point of view of educators, as they are the ones who deal with the bullying situations as mediators or judges.

4.5 Limitations

This study provides just a rare glimpse into the untapped research area. Some of the most notable deviations from the proposed study are liable to be put on record. For instance, the plan was to collect responses from 100 educators with a distinction of 50 public (government) and other 50 from the private sector, but at the end I ended up with 64 participants belonging to the private sector which were more than the planned number of 50 private sector teachers. Another factor in hesitation to participate is caused by the tight policies of the administrations of the educational institutions, which prevents teachers from participating in the surveys out of their freewill without seeking permission and informing their respective administrations.

Another kick in the stomach was the fact that most of our teachers never received formal training for bullying prevention, it means that they probably do not properly understand the phenomenon of bullying in its latent spirit. It also implies that it is not sufficient to provide the participating teachers with a definition of bullying and expect them to understand this concept thoroughly through a mere dictionary definition.

References

1. Kennedy, Thomas & Russom, Ashley & Kevorkian, Meline. (2012). Teacher and Administrator Perceptions of Bullying In Schools. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership. 7. 1-12. 10.22230/ijepl.2012v7n5a395.

2. Salman, F., Sharjeel, M., & Abdullah, M. (2021). PREVALENCE, ASSOCIATED FACTORS AND AWARENESS OF BULLYING AMONG STUDENTS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN. PAFMJ, 71(4), 1446-50. https://doi.org/10.51253/pafmj.v71i4.3989

3. Abdulameer, Prof. Dr. Salah (2022). Strategies Of Confronting School Bullying. Journal of Positive School Psychologyhttp://journalppw.com 2022, Vol. 6, No. 5, 2600-2608

4. Khawar, Rabia & Malik, Farah & Batool, Shahida. (2015). Validation of the Urdu Version of Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire. 12. 24-28.

5. Craig, Wendy & Pepler, Debra & Atlas, Rona. (2000). Observations of Bullying in the Playground and in the Classroom. School Psychology International - SCHOOL PSYCHOL INT. 21. 22-36. 10.1177/0143034300211002.

6. Shek, D. T., & Wai, C. L. (2008). Training workers implementing adolescent prevention and positive youth development programs: What have we learned from the literature. Adolescence, 43(172), 823-845.

Espelage, Dorothy & Asidao, Christine. (2001). Conversations with Middle School Students About Bullying and Victimization. Journal of Emotional Abuse. 2. 49-62. 10.1300/J135v02n02_04.