Understanding and resolving children’s experiences of school bullying: from research to practice

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evidence-based interventions I developed to resolve children’s experiences of bullying and how this was disseminated to the key stakeholders who influence educational practice. My research challenged traditional positivistic approaches to school bullying by using a Foucauldian approach to investigate how power imbalances and systemic inequalities can contribute to bullying relationships between pupils. The anti-bullying interventions aimed to provide a practical guide for educational and psychological practitioners to address the complex nature of bullying. Observations, focus groups and interviews were used to investigate children’s experiences of bullying, and develop anti-bullying strategies. These interventions are published in my book ‘The Teacher’s Guide to Resolving School Bullying’ and include a new pupil-led approach which harnessed the voices of pupils and a mentoring programme. Interventions have significantly reduced reports of bullying as children have improved their skills in resolving conflict and formed more respectful relationships with their peers. In order to inform practice in education locally and nationally, these interventions were disseminated widely to key stakeholders such as school practitioners, local authorities and the government. These interventions have also featured in the national media and generated interest from the public. The impact of my evidence-based interventions will be discussed at a local, national and international level. How these interventions can provide a suitable alternative to traditional punitive methods often used to deal with unacceptable behaviour in secondary schools will be explained.