Research On Rural Middle School Bullying

The school is a place for children to learn and to be educated. It is also an important place forthem to be socialized. A safe and healthy campus is necessary if they are expected to grow into ahealthy generation. However, the phenomenon of school bullying has been long in existence oncampus, which, indicated by research not only affects the children's schooling, but also but alsobring harm to their body and mind. The victims of long-term bullying would very often experiencepsychological or mental health issues such as depressed mood, disliking school, and even doubtingthemselves and getting a wrong perspective on the equality of the world. Those who bully others,on the other hand, would very often form a bad habit of problem-solving-using violence, whichwould sometimes lead to commiting crimes. Thus, the phenomenon of school bullying has alwaysbeen the concern and attention.This paper presents a qualitative study on the phenomenone of school bullying on two ruralschool in northern part of China. A phenomenological approach has been employed for theresearcher concerns on both objective and subjective experience of the bullying and the bullied, andexpects to gain a deep understanding of the phenomenon through in-depth interviews andparticipatory observation. The description of the phenomenon is based on the words of16thebullyers and the bullied about their understanding of the phenonmenon. The causes for thephenomenon and the effects upon the participants would be explored.Based on the analysis of qualitative data collected, the research conclusions are as follows:School bullying is common, and most happens in hidden corners without regulation fromteachers before or after school. However, the participants simply conseder school bullying as a fightamong peers. Second, school bullying will not only bring negative impact on schooling,psychological health, etc to the victims, it also has negative impact to the bullyers. Third, theoccurrence of school bullying usually results from differences in the characteristics of the bulliedand bullyers, such as slapstick, loyalty to friends and the relevant. Fourth, all the bullied handle the"fight" themselves or turn to friends for help instead of reporting toparents or teachers for help.Fifth, teachers or parents lack of a reasonable approach to solve such "fights". Sixth, the schoolitself also lacks of effective measures to prevent and intervene school bullying.In this study, the ecological systems theory perspective is used to interpret the above findings.Ecosystem theory emphasizes the occurrence of school bullying is not simply caused by thestudents themselves or any other single factor, but a social and ecological phenomena. Its occurence,and termination is a result of the interaction between the individual and social-ecological systems. So the intervention for of school bulling requires attention to school, families and the society. Thethree aspects should be united together in order to eliminate school bulling and build a harmoniousschool for children to learn on a safe and supportive campus.