School bullying from a sociocultural perspective

School bullying is an important concern. Whilst there is growing knowledge about the nature, extent and effects of school bullying, areas of complexity in research findings remain. In this paper we develop our thinking on school bullying using a sociocultural theoretical framework. We review existing literature around three main themes: 1) The conceptualisation and interpretation of bullying; 2) The relational aspects of bullying 3) Bullying as part of someone’s life trajectory. For each theme, empirical findings are discussed to highlight key issues, and arguments presented from relevant sociocultural theories to provide insight in each case. During the paper, we show how varying strands of research into bullying can be integrated, and how areas of complexity can be explained. Adopting a sociocultural view of school bullying presents implications for both research and practice. Bullying is contextual, and attention should be given to the situated relationships and multiple settings surrounding the behaviour

Tyypin 2 diabeteksen ennaltaehkäisy elämäntapamuutoksen keinoin : Motivoiva opas tyypin 2 diabeteksen riskiryhmään kuuluville terveyskeskuksen asiakkaille

Opinnäytetyömme tarkoituksena oli tehdä motivoiva opas tyypin 2 diabeteksen ennaltaehkäisystä terveyskeskuksen vastaanoton asiakkaille. Tavoitteena oli saada opas jakeluun vastaanotolla ja kutsukirjeen mukana ennen ensikäyntiä. Opinnäytetyömme toimeksiantajana toimi Mikkelin seudun sosiaali- ja terveystoimen palvelutuotannon yksikön terveyspalveluiden vastaanotto. Yhteistyötä opinnäytetyöhön liittyen teimme Pankalammen pääterveysaseman osastonhoitajan kanssa. Tyypin 2 diabetes on aineenvaihduntasairaus, joka on yleistymässä Suomessa ja muualla maailmassa. Sairaus on ennaltaehkäistävissä elämäntapamuutoksella ja lääkehoidolla. Tämä opinnäytetyö keskittyy tyypin 2 diabeteksen ennaltaehkäisyyn elämäntapamuutoksen keinoin. Tyypin 2 diabeteksen ennaltaehkäisy on tärkeää, koska sairauteen liittyy riski sairastua erilaisiin liitännäissairauksiin, jotka tuovat yhteiskunnalle mittavia lisäkustannuksia sekä aiheuttavat inhimillistä kärsimystä ja ennenaikaisia kuolemia. Teoriaosuudessa käsittelemme tyypin 2 diabetesta sairautena, sen riskitekijöitä, liitännäissairauksia ja ennaltaehkäisyä sekä motivaatiota ja siihen vaikuttavia asioita. Teoriaosuudessa on tietoa sairaudesta yleisesti ja ennaltaehkäisystä yhteiskunnan, hoitohenkilökunnan ja yksilön näkökulmasta. Teoriaosuus on koottu aiemmin tuotetun ja tutkitun tiedon pohjalta. Opinnäytetyön teoriaosuus toimii oppaan asiasisällön pohjana. Oppaassa tuomme lyhyesti tietoa tyypin 2 diabeteksesta, sen riskitekijöistä ja liitännäissairauksista. Opas on motivoiva opas, jossa kerrotaan tyypin 2 diabeteksen ennaltaehkäisyn mahdollisuudesta ja rohkaistaan elämäntapamuutoksiin pienien tekojen kautta. Oppaan kohderyhmänä ovat Mikkelin terveyskeskuksen asiakkaat, jotka kuuluvat tyypin 2 diabeteksen riskiryhmään, ja oppaan tarkoituksena on antaa lukijalle tietoa sairaudesta ja motivoida elämäntapamuutokseen.The purpose of our thesis was to produce a motivational guide book for health care center’s customers about prevention of type 2 diabetes. Our goal was to make the guide book available to customers at health centre reception and have it enclosed in the invitation letter before the first patient appointment. The commissioner of our thesis was the admissions office of the health service unit within the department for social affairs and public health in the City of Mikkeli. We co-operated with the ward manager of Pankalampi Health Center during the process. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disease which is becoming more and more common in Finland and also globally. The disease is preventable by lifestyle change and medical care. This thesis focuses on lifestyle change as a method of prevention. Preventing type 2 diabetes is important because of the risk of its comordibities that cause huge expenses to society, human suffering and early deaths. In the theory part of our thesis we deal with type 2 diabetes, its risk factors, comordibities, prevention, motivation and issues that affect it. We give information about the disease and its prevention from the perspective of society, public health care and the individual. The theoretic framework is built on previous scientific articles and studies, and this information forms the basis for the contents of the guide book In the guide book we give brief information about type 2 diabetes, its risk factors and comordibities. The guide book has a motivating approach and it gives information about the possibility of preventing diabetes and encourages to lifestyle changes by little actions. The target group of the guide book is the customers of Health Center of Mikkeli who are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The purpose of the guide book is to give information about the disease and to motivate individuals to lifestyle change

Koulukiusaaminen ilmiönä : yläkoulun oppilaiden kokemuksia kiusaamisesta

Hamaruksen mukaan kiusaaminen perustuu usein kiusaajan tavoittelemalle valta-asemalle yhteisössä ja alkaa jonkun oppilaan erilaisuuden nimeämisestä. Tästä piirteestä luodaan nimityksiä ja kiusatulle rakennetaan maine, joka tarttuu ja leviää yhteisössä tarinoiden kertomisen välityksellä. Tarinoiden kertominen, hauskat jutut ja kiusaamiseen liittyvät rituaalit yhdistävät kiusaamiseen osallistuvia ja vahvistavat kiusaajan asemaa yhteisössä. Kiusaaminen jakaa yhteisön jäsenet ”meihin” ja ”heihin”.Kiusaaminen koostuu hetkellisistä vuorovaikutustilanteista, joiden havaitseminen ja tunnistaminen kiusaamiseksi voi olla ulkopuoliselle vaikeaa. Asiat, joista kiusataan, liittyvät oppilaskulttuurissa halveksittuihin seikkoihin. Niiden avulla luodaan ja muovataan koulun ja luokan oppilaskulttuuria, jolloin yhteisö pyrkii välttämään halveksittuja seikkoja. Kiusaavaa yhteisöä leimaa pelko. Yhteisössä, jossa ilmenee kiusaamista, oppilaat pelkäävät joutuvansa itse kiusatuksi. Tämä ”pakottaa” oppilaat olemaan mukana kiusaamisessa ja toisaalta takaa sen, että oppilaat myötäilevät kiusaamisella tuotettuja kulttuurisia arvostuksia. Kulttuuristen arvostusten vastustaminen merkitsisi riskiä joutua itse kiusatuksi. Näin kiusaaminen yhteisöllistää ja yhtenäistää pelon avulla.Kiusaamiseen liittyy myös syyllisyys ja häpeä. Yhteisössä, jossa on kiusaamista, oppilaat kokevat kollektiivista syyllisyyttä siitä, että he eivät puutu kiusaamiseen. Kiusaaja voi kokea syyllisyyttä omasta toiminnastaan ja kiusattu tuntee häpeää niistä seikoista, joista häntä kiusataan. Tämän vuoksi oppilaat kokevat ulkopuolisen kiusaamiseen puuttumisen helpottavana.Hamarus tarkasteli kiusaamista sosiaalisesta ja kulttuurisesta näkökulmasta, mitkä ovat aiemmissa tutkimuksissa jääneet vähälle tarkastelulle. Hamaruksen tavoitteena oli ymmärtää kiusaamista ilmiönä yhteisössä, sillä ilmiön syvällinen ymmärtäminen on kiusaamiseen puuttumisen ehto. Tulokset auttavat havainnoimaan kiusaamista eri silmin kuin aikaisemmin ja kehittämään kouluille uusia tapoja puuttua siihen. Oppilaan sosiaaliseen turvallisuuteen panostaminen on oleellinen keino luotaessa turvallista oppimisympäristöä, jossa ei kiusata.The purpose of the study is to explore school bullying as a phenomenon, and to attempt to understand how it emerges and develops at school. The exploration is done from the social and cultural viewpoint. The data comprises writings and interviews of seventh-to-ninth-form peer support students of various schools. The topic of the writing assignment was “School bullying”. The writings were analysed using a semantic analysis: meaning contents given by the pupils on the term “bullying” were elicited from their texts. The writings were also analysed on a timeline, which manifested the evolution of bullying as a process with various phases and forms. After the analysis, thematic interviews were conducted to obtain a more profound understanding of bullying as a phenomenon. The research methodology followed the hermeneutic principle. The study showed that bullying is a phenomenon intertwined with the social and cultural factors of the community where it appears. It is often rooted in the pursuit of power, status, or popularity of the pupil bullying others, with the purpose of using the person bullied to reinforce the status of the one engaged in bullying. Naming whatever is different in the person bullied is usually the first step. Being different, then, is connected with the opposites that have cultural value in the community. For instance, when someone is being bullied because of overweight, the cultural value in the community is leanness. Thus, bullying is a means of reinforcing the community’s cultural values and of creating such values by forcing the members to pursue the kinds of values that are produced through bullying. If a pupil is not willing to pursue these, s/he may become the object of bullying. Furthermore, bullying generates fear in the community, which in its turn perpetuates bullying. Bullying is also based on interaction, and understanding this interaction presupposes good knowledge and understanding of the social relationships within the community. Therefore, a teacher may, in fact, not understand the true meaning of some interaction intended as bullying, but be misled to interpret it as a sign of friendship. The unwritten norms of the community may also contribute to making bullying easy. The pupils in the study regarded the duration of bullying as more significant than its actual content. If bullying is defined on the basis of its length in time, it may lead to a situation when there is no intervention at all until that time period has passed. Bullying behaviours can be changed by influencing the community’s values, norms, social relationships, and fears. In the present study, bullying has been explored from the social and cultural viewpoint, which has not yet gained much attention in the existing research

2008).School bullying as a creator of pupil peer pressure

Background: Research into school bullying has a long tradition but a rather narrow scope. Many prevention programmes have been designed, but despite extensive investigation, most studies suggest that bullying is not decreasing. There is something paradoxical in this phenomenon. In order to have any real impact on some phenomena, thorough understanding is needed. What, then, is the essence of school bullying? How does it develop and how is it maintained in a community? In the present study written material and interviews concerning pupils´experiences of bullying were used to examine how the status of the bully is created among pupils and how cultural norms and values in the community are constructed via bullying. Bullying as a phenomenon is a hidden process, where teachers are often misled. The meanings given to bullying behaviour can often be understood only by the pupils in the community. This is why bullying is possible in the presence of the teacher and also during lessons. The study suggests the need to see bullying in a broader social and cultural framework, which also provides a new way of understanding pupils´social relationships. Purpose: This study attempts to understand school bullying as a phenomenon from a social and cultural viewpoint. Communication in and meanings given to bullying acts in the school community are in focus. Sample: The study sample comprised 85 lower secondary school pupils, aged 13-15, from various schools in central Finland. The data analysed consisted of 85 written accounts and 10 interviews. Design and methods: Pupils were asked to write about 'School bullying'. The interviews were open-ended thematic interviews or episodic interviews (cf. Friebertsha¨user). A hermeneutic method was used in analysing the meanings in the texts. The transcribed texts were analysed using categories and themes within which the meanings given to bullying were interpreted. Results: Our study suggested that bullying behaviour consists of short communicative situations which are often hidden from teachers. These separate situations account for the subjective experience of bullying. Bullying behaviour is a way of gaining power and status in a group or school class. The status is maintained by calling a pupil who is bullied different names. The 'difference' in the bullied pupil is interpreted as a culturally avoidable characteristic. In this way, bullying behaviour creates cultural norms and forces all pupils in the bullying community to follow them. Telling stories and calling the bullied pupil names increases the group's cohesion and the treatment of the bullied pupil creates fear in other pupils, who do not dare to fight bullying. In a community where bullying occurs, fear and guilt are obvious. Conclusions: Bullying is embedded in cultural norms, values and social status in the whole community. The hidden nature of the phenomenon emerges in short communicative situations that should be taken seriously. This research applies an approach from sociology and cultural studies to an area that has been dominated by *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Keywords: bullying; school; pupil culture; power; norms; communication Introduction School bullying is a global phenomenon with a rather long, but narrow, research tradition. Bullying research has been criticised for its homogeneity and for seeing problems through the individuals' perspective (Thelin 2004, 30-1; Ha¨gglund 2004, 82-4; The present study aimed at investigating bullying as a phenomenon in the school community and in its cultural environment. It is situated in the micro-cultural experiences of bullying and is primarily concerned with the phenomenon of bullying and its dynamics. The research focuses particularly on the perspective of pupils and how they understand bullying within their community. The study addresses different understandings of how to become aware of bullying in the school. By being aware of bullying as a phenomenon, schools can design more focused prevention programmes and intervention strategies to tackle the problem. For example, when we understand bullying as a way to create status in the community, we can help the bully find more positive ways to achieve status at the same time as intervening in the bullying. At present, we are developing an intervention programme based on our research findings

Shes Weird! - The Social Construction of Bullying in School: A Review of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research provides opportunities to study bullying and peer harassment as social processes, interactions and meaning-making in the everyday context of particular settings. It offers the possibility of developing a deep understanding of the culture and group processes of bullying and the participants perspectives on peer harassment as well. It gives participants opportunities to discuss their own understanding and experiences of bullying in their own words. This article reviews qualitative studies on bullying or peer harassment in school (including some studies in which qualitative and quantitative methods - so-called mixed methods - have been used)