Participatory Methodologies for Addressing School Bullying: An Overview and Methodological Guidelines

TL;DR

Bullying is a group-based issue, not just between two people, and can be addressed through community-driven school plans that promote inclusion and challenge exclusionary norms.

Contribution

The paper introduces a participatory method for addressing bullying by involving the entire school community in co-creating a School Coexistence Plan.

Findings

Bullying involves multiple group roles, not just a victim and perpetrator.

Traditional methods focusing on individual traits fail to address bullying's social dynamics.

Participatory processes can effectively transform bullying dynamics by fostering inclusive norms.

Abstract

What are the main findings?
Bullying is a relational phenomenon that involves multiple group networks, rather than a simple dyadic interaction between victim and perpetrator; in bullying violence functions as a mechanism for constructing group identity, defining an “us” through the systematic non-recognition of certain others.Traditional approaches to bullying—centered on studying prevalence rates and identifying individual traits—do not adequately explain its causes or how the phenomenon unfolds in specific contexts.

Bullying is a relational phenomenon that involves multiple group networks, rather than a simple dyadic interaction between victim and perpetrator; in bullying violence functions as a mechanism for constructing group identity, defining an “us” through the systematic non-recognition of certain others.

Traditional approaches to bullying—centered on studying prevalence rates and identifying individual traits—do not adequately explain its causes or how the phenomenon unfolds in specific contexts.

What is the implication of the main finding?
Preventing bullying or stopping it once it has emerged requires undermining the social support base that sustains it and fostering a shared stance in favor of diversity and against heteronormative and exclusionary norms.A participatory process involving the entire educational community in the design and implementation of a School Coexistence Plan—guided by the Participatory Construction of Peaceful Coexistence method—offers an appropriate, efficient, and effective pathway for transforming these dynamics.

Preventing bullying or stopping it once it has emerged requires undermining the social support base that sustains it and fostering a shared stance in favor of diversity and against heteronormative and exclusionary norms.

A participatory process involving the entire educational community in the design and implementation of a School Coexistence Plan—guided by the Participatory Construction of Peaceful Coexistence method—offers an appropriate, efficient, and effective pathway for transforming these dynamics.

Bullying is not a dyadic interaction between victim and perpetrator, but a relational phenomenon involving multiple group networks: those who exercise physical, psychological, or symbolic violence; those who encourage it; those who suffer it; and those who, while aware of it, remain on the sidelines. Preventing bullying, or stopping it once it emerges, requires undermining the support base that sustains it: no one should play the role of cheerleader, and those who remain passive must become involved in defending those targeted. It is also necessary to foster in those who are bullied the strength and capacity to confront the situation. From a Freirean perspective, this implies weaving alliances between those who are kindred and those who are different, and even with outsiders, to oppose those who act antagonistically. Such a task demands debate, reflection, and the collective formulation of measures among the diverse group realities in schools, given that bullying is grounded in the refusal to recognize certain others as part of “us”, though we are all “others” to one another. This article sets out arguments for the need to address these diverse group realities and presents the phases and main contents of a participatory process for designing and implementing a School Coexistence Plan, drawing on the Participatory Construction of Peaceful Coexistence method as a framework for addressing bullying.

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