An Investigation into the Role of Teachers in the Identification and Reduction of Cyber Bullying in the Irish Education System.

An Investigation into the Attitudes of Teachers in the Identification and Reduction of Cyber Bullying in the Irish Education System"

Shane Fleming G00277980

Submitted for the B.Sc. (Hons) Design and Technology Education to Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterfrack

Research Supervisor: Readers: Programme:

Ann Foley Ann Foley & Dr Susan Rogers B.Sc. (Hons) Design & Technology Education

Module Title: Date Submitted:

Thesis 07/04/2014

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An Investigation into the Role of Teachers in the Identification and Reduction of Cyber Bullying in the Irish Education System. ________________________________________________________________

DECLARATION:

Student Name: SHANE FLEMING Student Number: G00277980 Programme: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN DESIGN AND EDUCATION Year: FOUR Module: THESIS Lecturer: ANN FOLEY Assignment Title: An Investigation into the Role of Teachers in the Identification and Reduction of Cyber Bullying in the Irish Education System. Due Date: 07/04/2014 Date Submitted: 07/04/2014 Additional Information: I understand that plagiarism is a serious academic offence, and that GMIT deals with it according to the GMIT Policy on Plagiarism. I have read and understand the GMIT Policy on Plagiarism and I agree to the requirements set out therein in relation to plagiarism and referencing. I confirm that I have referenced and acknowledged properly all sources used in preparation of this assignment. I understand that if I plagiarise, or if I assist others in doing so, that I will be subject to investigation as outlined in the GMIT Policy on Plagiarism. I understand and agree that plagiarism detection software may be used on my assignment. I declare that, except where appropriately referenced, this assignment is entirely my own work based on my personal study and/or research. I further declare that I have not engaged the services of another to either assist in, or complete this assignment. Signed: ______________ Date:___________

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Ann Foley who was outstandingly helpful in offering me guidance and assistance throughout the past term. Without her support and guidance the following academic Thesis would not be successful. I would also like to show my appreciation to my close friends who were there for me to offer me support and motivation to succeed with this essay, to my proof readers who read down through the thesis several times throughout the course of completion of the writing I would like to offer them my greatest gratitude for their patience and keen eye to detail. I would like to thank the staff and faculty of GMIT Letterfrack in their outstanding level of knowledge and equipment they provide in the rural campus in Connemara West. To my beloved family members who provided me with endless support and encouragement so I can achieve the best of my abilities with the highest standard.

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ABSTRACT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents
DECLARATION: ................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT........................................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................ v TABLE OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF SYMBOLS ........................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 2 CONTEXT ...................................................................................................................................... 2 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................ 3 SCOPE ............................................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 4 INTRODUCTION: ............................................................................................................................. 4 WHAT IS BULLYING? ................................................................................................................. 4 TYPES OF BULLYING: ................................................................................................................ 5 SOCIAL MEDIA .......................................................................................................................... 10 CASES OF BULLYING ............................................................................................................... 13 ANTI-BULLYING PROCEDURES ............................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 16 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 16 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................. 17 SECONDARY RESEARCH ........................................................................................................ 17 PRIMARY RESEARCH............................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH........................................................................................ 19 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 19 ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ....................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................... 20 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 20 CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................... 20 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................................................. 20 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 21

APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... 24

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TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 3 ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 4 ................................................................................................................................................. 11

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LIST OF SYMBOLS

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CONTEXT

Bullying is a topic that concerns all of us. Everyone has experienced bullying in one form or another, either being a bully, being bullied or the onlooker. Bullying occurs in many different forms i.e. Verbal (name calling, rumour spreading), Physical injury (damage to property), Cyber bullying, Racism, Religion and Culture, Bullying has always been with us, but there is clear evidence to establish that it is on the increase in homes, schools and in the workplace. (Byrne, Maguire, & Byrne, 2004, p. xi) Bullying has being happening in the home, in the work place and mostly documented in schools for many years. In this script the author wishes to explore the reasons why bullying takes place and how to identify and reduce bullying from happening in the school. In more recent years in Ireland as technology has moved into the education system, bullying has crept its way into technology. Cyber bullying is the new term being used around the issue of bullying. As students have access to the internet almost everywhere via mobile phones, Ipads etc, cyber bullying can take place anywhere at any time, either in school or outside of school. Cyber-bullying refers to bullying and harassment of others by means of new electronic technologies, primarily mobile phones and the internet. (IS0801, 2012, p. 2). Bullying within the school either physical or verbal, used to only take place between school times when students were in the one building. Ultimately, any location may be chosen by a bully in which a victim may be harassed, insulted, physically threatened or assaulted, taunted or tortured away from the observation of adults who might intervene (Murray & Keane, 1998, p. 21) Now, however, with this new cyber bullying, the bullying is being brought into the home place. Previously students who were being bullied in school, found attending and walking into school in the mornings to be a daunting task due to harassment of bullying being received from other students, but now that the bullying is being brought into the homes, the warmth and the safety of the four walls of the house are now being breached. With this, the author wishes to investigate not only how to identify but how to help reduce the level of cyber bullying in the Irish Education system.
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BACKGROUND

The idea of the thesis came about after the release of new anti-bullying procedures for all primary and post primary schools in September 2013 by the Minister for Education and Skills Ruair Quinn T.D. The publication was a review of the previous publication in January 2013 the new document included new prevention strategies to deal with bullying behaviour including; in particular, cyber bullying and identity based bullying such as homophobic and transphobic bullying. As cyber bullying is the new phrase associated with bullying, the author felt that this was an area in which he could dedicate his thesis to. In having researched the topic before ever typing a sentence the author got engrossed into the anti-bullying measures. The author was also motivated to research and help assist the prevention of bullying in schools and in home across the country. Children are not born to bully; its something they learn along the road to adulthood. (Sullivan K. , 2006, p. 15) The effects of bullying can be detrimental with the person feeling intimidated and afraid, losing self confidence and self esteem, getting stressed with work or school suffering and worst of all depression and loneliness. Bullying appears to be a trait that some adolescents learn as they grow up, the question is do they learn it in school or outside of school. Who is to blame school, society, or television and social media? The author wishes to explore these areas and hopefully identify the causes for adolescents carrying out bullying behaviour.
SCOPE

The area of cyber bullying is well documented in books, articles, and online. In Ireland, schools are managed by Boards of Management and incidents of bullying are reported and dealt with locally by each board. (Ryan, 2011, p. 19) This was the niche in the education system in which the author wanted to explore and document. The author aims to gain the research from a number of schools, from Principals, and parent associations involved in schools. As cyber bullying is not just associated on the school grounds anymore the author believes it will be beneficial to get the parents perspective on the matter. To gain the research the author wishes to carry out a number of interviews with a number of different schools. In the schools the author aims to carry out formal interviews with Principals and Boards of Management and also to submit questionnaires to the teaching staff of each school involved.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION:

In this chapter the author has carried out secondary research on the topic of bullying, in relation to types of bullying, and has broken down and defined the different types of cyber bullying. The author has researched and refined some of the key principals involved in cyber bullying in an Irish context.
WHAT IS BULLYING?

Bullying has a lot to do with having power, after all everybody likes to think they have power over something or someone. Power is seen in schools particularly in staff but also among the children in class. Older students in the school particularly students in the senior cycle act as if they are the king of the castle and the students in the junior cycle are seen as the servants and lower class citizens in the school. Power is seen in families of different class looking down on one another. The ethnic minority groups feel as if always being picked upon or blamed by dominant groups, with the dominant groups feeling power over them by giving negative or abusive behaviour towards their counterparts. The bully is taking steps to rob another person of their peace of mind and remove them from their physical comfort zone and replace it with emotional or even physical pain. Bullying is a multifaceted form of mistreatment that transcends all boundaries of socioeconomic status, age, gender, and a level of education. (Ryan, 2011, p. 1) Bullying in Irish schools has not increased in recent years but remains marginable high. There has been a slight decrease in the percentage of boys who report having been bullied (29.5% to 26.4%), which is most prominent among 10-11 year olds (36.2% to 26.8%). The percentage of girls reporting having been bullied has increased very slightly from 19.9% in 1998 to 21.0% in 2002. This increase is across all age groups. (Ireland, 2002) Bullying in Ireland is a behavioural problem which affects the lives of thousands of school children and their families. (Anti Bullying Centre, 2013) It is documented that bullying affects thousands of students and their parents in the country each year, this shows that
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bullying that happens in school is carried home by the student and the parents of the student get involved in the matter. According to the report from Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (HBSC) with National University Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) over a quarter of the children in Ireland are subject to bullying in the years they attend school. (Ireland, 2002) Every instance of bullying is unique in terms of how it affects its victims, the level of psychological pain causes, the situation in which it occurs and the level of aggression of the bully. (Byrne, Maguire, & Byrne, 2004, p. xii) Bullying affects different students in different ways, some students can cope with the strains of bullying and put it behind them as they get older, but some students arent as strong as others mentally. Bullying can increase the risk of vulnerable students committing self-harm or even suicide.
TYPES OF BULLYING:

Physical Bullying: ...is often written off as "horseplay", "pretend" or "just a game" when challenged. While children can and do play roughly, in the case of bullying be aware that these 'games' can be a precursor to vicious physical assaults. Both boys and girls indulge in physical bullying, boys perhaps more so as they have a greater tendency towards physical aggression. (Anti Bullying Centre, 2013) As described in the above passage, students will refer to what they believe to be acts of physical assault to be just messing or fun. But in turn can lead to a student being bullied in one of the worse kind of ways physical bullying both boys and girls can carry out the act, normally boys are at blame due to their tendency towards physical aggression. whereas one third of boys report that physical hurt is inflicted on them (Murray & Keane, 1998, p. 18) Boys who bully are physically stronger and have a need to dominate others. Girl bullies tend to be physically weaker than other girls in their class. (Sullivan K. , 2006, p. 16) Male adolescents are noted for picking on weaker adolescents in the school, as they see them as being more vulnerable and see themselves as the dominant male. The male tends to bully on the weaker as they believe they are the alpha male in the group. Female bullies are reported to bully adolescents that are stronger than them, but tend to bully in larger groups, out numbering the vulnerable adolescent. (Sullivan K. , 2006, p. 16)
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There are many types of negative physical interactions that can occur between young people, including fighting, practical jokes, stealing, and sexual harassment. These things are not considered physical bullying unless: The same victim is targeted repeatedly The bully or bullies intend to hurt, embarrass, or intimidate the victim The actions occur in a situation with a real or perceived imbalance of power, such as when the bully is stronger than the victim or has a higher social standing (Statistics, 2009)

Gesture Bullying The youth of today are so creative, they are coming up with new ways to implement bullying onto others, even unknowingly, a simple hand gesture can be taunting to students, no two students are the same mentally or physically, in which some students may take up gestures as fun and messing, others find them hurtful and feel threatened. ...there are many different forms of non-verbal threatening gestures which can convey intimidatory and frightening messages, i.e. The state or look which accompanies bullying behaviour. (Anti Bullying Centre, 2013) This could include the gesture of a gun being put to the head or a knife being slit across the throat. (Murray & Keane, 1998, p. 19) Exclusion Bullying Exclusion bullying is considered to be the most painful type of bullying, and has a dramatic long-term psychological effects as well as marked short-term behavioural effects. (Sullivan K. , 2006, p. 46) Nobody wants to be isolated and left out of their peer group, be it work, school or home. Everybody wants to be accepted in society, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the third step to Self-Actualisation is Love/Belonging. To belong and be accepted in a group, where you work, or live is a basic primal need. (Ryan, 2011, p. 2) Everybody in different societies wants to be accepted in their group or social circle. This is one of the reasons why students start to bully other students in their school, as they see this as a method of getting into a specific group. Deliberate exclusion is a type of relational bullying.

Relational bullying is a more subtle, insidious form of bullying and is, therefore, more difficult to detect. (Skills D. o., 2013, p. 19) The report from the Department of Education and Skills states that the most common type of exclusion bullying is to try to isolate other students and force them to carry out acts that they dont want to do. Do this or I wont be your friend anymore, (implied or stated explicitly), (Skills D. o., 2013, p. 19) This type of bullying can often see the vulnerable victim, getting a bad name for themselves and getting into trouble with teachers. Most of the time victims wont give the name(s) of the bullies as they are too afraid of the consequences if the inappropriate acts that they are demanded to do arent carried out. Unfortunately to say as a lot of victims of bullying are isolated and are left out of groups and circles the only connection they feel to their peers is to continue in the bullying acts and not report it to a higher authority in the school. As we live in a society that frowns upon ratting out telling, victims dont report bullying in schools. Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to the suffering of the poor, once said the biggest disease was not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the feeling of being unwanted (Ryan, 2011, p. 2)

Figure 1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

...is particularly hurtful because it isolates the child from his/her peer group and is very hard for the child to combat as it directly attacks their self confidence/self image. (Anti Bullying Centre, 2013) This type of bullying is very common in schools in Ireland, students being left out of groups and being left isolated from peers can happen in the classroom and on the play ground. Conversations stopping, people turning their backs or walking away when the
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victim approaches. (Murray & Keane, 1998, p. 19) A sufficient amount of exclusion bullying happens in the hallways and corridors of schools in Ireland for example a group chatting and discussing the happenings of the weekend amongst themselves stop midconversation as another student who was left out of the gathering at the weekend approaches the group. This type of bullying can have a lasting effect on students psychology. The need to be accepted starts off from being a baby/toddler and is carried on into adulthood. To want acceptance and respect is in our nature as children. In contrast to the child, adult belonging is never as natural and playful. It has to be chosen, received, renewed, and in the communal areas of schools, workplaces and community it often has to be regulated. (Ryan, 2011, p. 3)

Figure 2

Extortion Bullying ...young children are particularly vulnerable to extortion bullying. Demands for money, possessions or equipment, lunch vouchers or food may be made, often accompanied by threats. Children may also be dared or forced to steal from the school leaving them (at the mercy of the bully) open to further intimidation. (Anti Bullying Centre, 2013) Extortion bullying happens in most schools and out on the playground etc, this type of bullying is one of the most documented forms of bullying. Extortion bullying can be seen in most television programmes and cartoons. For example The Simpsons Bart gets his lunch money robbed out in the playground by older students. This imagery looks to be almost acceptable in society nowadays. We have to ask ourselves why we are showing bullying techniques to our adolescents on a popular cartoon show. Is society to blame or is it our adolescents for watching the show. Extortion entails the extraction of money or other possessions under threat, or being forced to commit antisocial or illegal acts such as theft or vandalism. (Porter, 2007, p. 151)
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Extortion bullying hits the very core of bullying and is one of the main causes of bullying due to jealousy and spite, this type of bullying is most common in schools and can be hard to identify as it can happen anywhere. Bullying may also occur in corridors, toilets, locker rooms and changing rooms, bicycle sheds, outbuildings and sports-grounds that are out of view of teachers. (Murray & Keane, 1998, p. 20) Cyber Bullying

With the youth of today being so lucky to be allowed access to the internet in schools and in homes, it wasnt long until bullying slowly followed suit and crept into the enjoyment of the World Wide Web. But cyber bullying doesnt just stop at the internet via social networks etc, it can be used on mobile phones and text messaging. Before the internet and mobile phones, most bullying among children took place face to face, with this new form of bullying, cyber bullying, it can reach deeper into a childs personal life. ...in an ever more technologically advanced world, a new strain of bullying has emerged amongst children, which utilises web pages, emails and text messaging to abuse, intimidate and attack others, either directly or indirectly i.e. rumour mongering. (Anti Bullying Centre, 2013) Sometimes bullying on a mobile phone is anonymous if the abusive calls or text messages come from a number a child does not recognize. In the modern world of technology today, school bullying can be made even worse, when it is extended into the social world of networking. (Ryan, 2011, p. 10) Bullies feel braver online as they dont have face to face interaction with the victim. Bullies use this technology to harass victims at all hours, in wide circles, at warp speed (Sullivan K. , 2006, p. 51)

Figure 3

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a new form of communicating with others, which has flourished in recent years. With the advancement of computers and hand held electronic devices people can stay in contact with others 24/7. Social media is software that allows people to interact with others and exchange details about their lives such as a brief biographical of themselves, professional information, photos and share up to the minute thoughts. Forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos) (www.merriam-webster.com, nd) Depending on their operator and handset, children can access social-networking websites through the mobile internet. Some operators allow customers simply to browse (view) the websites. Other operators allow customers to change information on their profile and communicate through selected social-networking websites. (Association, ND, p. 11)

Facebook Facebook is one of the most popular social networking websites online at the moment. The site allows the user to custom their profile, have a profile pictures have a brief description of the users, i.e. occupation, age, education. The site allows the user to write statuses, upload pictures and videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues across the globe. For an enjoyable social networking site bullying has followed suit. Bullying can happen on the site by posting embarrassing or hurtful pictures of others online and sharing it among friends, inappropriate comments to other users is also a common bullying tactic by bullies. Report the bullying content. When you see harassment, use the reporting buttons to let Facebook know. If you have questions about reporting, see this Help Center section. (Facebook, 2011) Facebook has set a number of ways to help prevent bullying on their site; Users can report any inappropriate content that they feel isnt appropriate for the site or if it poses any offence toward them or others the user can report the Post/Comment/Image and Facebook will remove the content.

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Use Facebooks Social Reporting Tool to bring others into the conversation : If you are reporting content that you don't like but that doesn't violate Facebooks Terms, use the report links to send a message to the person who posted it, instead of reporting it to us. For example, if you dont like a photo of yourself, you can easily message the person who posted it asking them to remove it. In most cases, they will quickly take the photo down. (Facebook, 2011)

Twitter Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read messages called "tweets". Registered users to the site can read and post tweets but unregistered users can only read them. The site allows the users to keep up to date with friends and celebrities, the users can follow and communicate with users across the world with short tweets. Twitter is known for its celebrities have a tweetwar between themselves. Twitter itself does not promote these actions and carefully outlines its recommendations of the usage of the site in its Terms of Service.
You are responsible for your use of the Services, for any Content you post to the Services, and for any consequences thereof. The Content you submit, post, or display will be able to be viewed by other users of the Services and through third party services and websites (go to the account settings page to control who sees your Content). You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others under these Terms. (TwitterInc, 2012)

Snapchat

Adolescents are now opting for this new app on their mobile phones that allow them to send images and short videos to each other for free. The adolescents are choosing the new app because of it unique feature that once the user sends an image or a video to another user the image will self delete after a few seconds.
Figure 4

Snapchat is an app that allows users to snap a picture or a video and add a caption. They can then send the picture and it can be viewed by the recipient for three to 10 seconds before it self-deletes or self-destructs. (Sullivan C. O., 2013) As the Irish Examiner reported, (Sullivan C. O., 2013). The app has a potential to cause harm to adolescents, the bullying can develop when inappropriate images and videos are sent to numerous recipients and will disappear without an identification trail and with recipients having the ability to screen grab the image. The image can be kept in the memory of the

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recipients phone. Even more alarming is that there is a number of websites/blogs that are emerging in recent times, that allows recipients to forward embarrassing snapchats, many of them naked and semi-naked. These images have the potential to go viral on the internet and cause serious harm to adolescents in Ireland. Cyber bullying can become illegal if someone makes inappropriate sexual suggestion. It is also illegal if or racist or homophobic remarks and incidents of that nature can be reported to the Gardai (Ryan, 2011, p. 19) Snapchat developers have spoken out and have tried to counteract this from happening by sending an alert that tells the sender that a screen grab has being taken, but a number of new apps are after being developed that secretly save the content before being opened in Snapchat. This causes major concern for parents and teachers across the country as with this new app it can be very hard to trace the bullying back to the culprit. Forensic psychologist Maureen Griffin warns that there is a need for adolescents to control their settings, so only trusted friends can send messages and users need to be advised that there is nothing private about this app. There is a great need for parents to talk to children about what pictures they are sending and who they are sending them to Dr Griffin (Sullivan C. O., 2013) Other Forms Texting Texting or Text messaging is the act of typing a short message and sending it from an electronic device to another device. Video recordings and pictures can be sent in the message between the two or more devices. Texting is the common way of communicating with others in the past number of years. With nearly every student in school having a mobile phone, this is the modern way students communicate with each other outside and inside of school. Texting is a useful but also a dangerous tool as bullying can develop between students. All the teenagers we spoke to were acutely aware of the dangers of Sexting [sending text messages of a sexual content] and sending nude photos over the internet, either by email or on their phone. (Fegan, 2013)

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CASES OF BULLYING

Regrettable bullying can lead to serious effects on adolescents emotional and physical health. It can have a short or a long-term effect on the physical and mental well-being of adolescents. Adolescents lose interest and engagement with school and school work. Bullying can affect self-confidence and the ability to pursue ambitions and goals. Bullying can lead to self-harm and suicide with adolescents, who are victims of bullying inside and outside of school. In many cases adolescents have taken their own lives due to bullying. In January 2010, the world became aware of the tragic events that lead to the death of Phoebe Prince who was bullied in school in Massachusetts USA, having moved to the States from Shannon Co. Clare Ireland. (Ryan, 2011, p. 21) In response to the world wide documented events America set up a state anti-bullying task force. Strict new anti-bullying legislation was signed in to law in March 2010 which tightened up the bullying legislation in Massachusetts.

Erin Gallagher of Ballybofey Co. Donegal committed suicide in her home after being subjected to online cyber bullying on the social media site Ask.fm in 2012.

Her death was the third high profile apparent suicide due to cyber bullying in the same year. Earlier in the year, A Canadian teen Amanda Todd committed suicide after enduring years of being bullied online and offline. Amanda posed a YouTube video in September of the same year, describing how she had being blackmailed, taunted and assaulted by online users and classmate.

Six weeks before the young Canadians death, another Irish teen, 15-year-old Ciara Pugsley from Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, took her own life after being bullied with hate messages on the social media site ask.fm.

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ANTI-BULLYING PROCEDURES Ireland Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn TD published new anti-bullying procedures in September 2013, outlining guidelines for primary and post-primary teachers to follow in order to combat bullying in Irish schools. The new legislation is to replace the 1993 guidelines. In the newly published legislation all the schools involved in the reform must have prevention of bullying in the schools anti-bullying policy. In the legislation there is a strong focus of strategies to deal with bullying behaviour including, cyber bullying and identity based bullying such as homophobic and transphobic bullying. School authorities and school personnel are required to adhere to these procedures in dealing with allegations and incidents of bullying. (Skills D. o., 2013, p. 4) Though the investigation of this thesis the author wishes to find out if schools adhering to the new policies. Finland

KiVa is a research-based antibullying program that has been developed in the University of Turku, Finland, The trial based program is being run in 117 intervention schools and 117 control schools. The trail program has been shown to reduce both self and peer-reported bullying considerably. The program deals with multiple forms of bullying, including verbal, physical, and cyber bullying. Positive effects have being reported on the school liking the trial, KiVa also reduces anxiety and depression and has a positive impact on students' perception of their peer climate4. A remarkable 98% of victims involved in discussions with the schools' KiVa teams felt that their situation improved5. (kiva, 2012)

The KiVa program has being a success and has been recognized across Europe,the program won the European Crime Prevention Award in 2009, Social Policy Award for Best Article in 2012 and four National Awards in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

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THE ROLE OF TEACHERS The role of a teacher involves a lot more than simply standing at the top of the classroom and lecturing information to the students. An effective teacher understands that teaching involves looking after the welfare of each student under their care during school hours, and insures that all students receive an excellence education. The role of the school is to provide an appropriate education for all its pupils. A stable, secure learning environment is an essential requirement to achieve this goal. (Skills D. o., 2013, p. 3) In the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers it states that teachers should take the reasonable steps in relation to the care of students under their supervision, so as to ensure their safety and welfare. (Council, 2012, p. 7) In contrast to that teachers are saying they are doing the level best to tackle bullying in Irish schools, but due to little funding and lack of recourses bullying is continuing. According to the INTO,
Teachers are committed to tackling bullying and do so to the best of their ability within the limits of the resources available to them. Most parents who have had to deal with this are well aware of the lengths to which teachers go to deal with bullying. Every year, thousands of school hours are spent investigating allegations, monitoring situations, following up on cases and meeting with parents and pupils, said Sheila Nunan, INTO general secretary. (Organisation, 2013)

With cut backs right across the sector of teaching none was so highlighted than the reduction of guidance counsellors in the schools. With the reduction of guidance counsellors hours in the school a 51.4% reduction in their time allocation for one to one has now taken place due to the Governments refusal to increase guidance counsellor numbers.
Cutting one-to-one counselling service in half in the current environment where we are every day witnessing the increasing challenges facing young people such as bullying and other serious personal crisis is unconscionable. Its hard to see how it can achieve anything other than leave more young people exposed to risk. said President of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, Gerry Flynn. (Journal.ie, 2013)

Guidance counsellors have spoken out and said it should be no surprise that the problem of cyber bullying is exploding when vulnerable children cannot access counselling sessions in school due to government cutbacks. (O'Sullivan, 2013)
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ANTI-BULLYING POLICIES IN SCHOOLS There is no such thing as a bully free school. Just because there are no reports of incidences in the school or if bullying hasnt been witnessed by a teacher, it does not mean it is not happening. The whole school community must address bullying if it is to be adequately tackled (Stones, 2013)

The Education Act (1998) emphasises that schools should promote the social and personal development of students and provide health education for them. The SPHE programme reflects the unique ethos of each school. The attitudes, skills and values
fostered in the SPHE classroom can only truly flourish in a school where all members of the school community are treated with respect and dignity. A school climate which encourages open communication, where conflict is handled constructively and which promotes high standards in all its endeavours is an environment in which the core principles of SPHE can thrive. School policies and procedures which are regularly reviewed and evaluated are the foundations on which a healthy school can be built. (Service, ND)

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
The research carried out for this thesis was a combination of both secondary research and primary research. Various sources of information were used in gathering the information required.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SECONDARY RESEARCH

For secondary research the author sourced information from: books, reports, journals, internet, and newspapers. Secondary research makes use of information previously researched for other purposes and publicly available. This is also known as 'desk research'. Secondary research includes published research reports in a library, surveys or the Internet. It can also include scientific reports produced by medical councils, universities or government. (100, 2013) The author sourced many books and journals from GMIT library, however not enough information could be gathered from the library alone so the internet proved to be a very useful source for obtaining additional information.

In Sept 2011, the state of New Jersey enforced the toughest anti-bullying laws in the country. Schools will now have to report cases of bullying to the state, and each school will be graded on bullying standards, policies and incidents. (Ryan, 2011, p. 21)

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Primary research is new research, carried out to answer specific issues or questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups. (100, 2013)
QUESTIONNAIRES

A questionnaire needs to be well designed in order to give the researcher the most accurate results. To reach this stage of designing the questionnaire, the researcher must have all the preliminary work on planning and must have decided what they need to find out. Only then can the researcher start formatting the structure of the questionnaire. When writing a professional questionnaire It requires discipline in selection of questions, in question writing, in the design, piloting, distribution and return of the question questionnaires. (Bell,
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2010, p. 140) Also before distributing the questionnaires to the participants the researcher must look at how the questionnaire is structured and laid out. The questions must be carefully writing and positioned in the text as not to lead the participant to answer the desired answers that the researcher is aiming for. The questions have to be neutral and not one sided. As such the researcher cannot have an impact on the results. Before completing a questionnaire the researcher must look at how he/she is going to analysis the information gained.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted Albert Einstein (Leary, 2010, p. 256) Qualitative research, for example, is often characterized as an objective positivist search for singular truths that relies on hypotheses, variables and statistics, is generally large scale, but without much depth. (Leary, 2010, p. 105)
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative research, on the other hand, rejects positivist rules and works at accepting multiple realities through the study of a small number of in-depth cases. (Leary, 2010, p. 105)

18

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION
ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH

19

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS
INTRODUCTION
CONCLUSIONS RECOMMENDATIONS

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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100, T. T. (2013, ND ND). businesscasestudies. Retrieved September 22, 2013, from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/food-standards-agency/marketresearch-and-consumer-protection/primary-and-secondary-research.html#axzz2ftxe1iNd Anti Bullying Centre, T. C. (2013). http://abc.tcd.ie/school.html. Retrieved 10 15, 2013, from www.abc.tcd.iel: http://abc.tcd.ie/school.html Association, I. C. (ND). Mobile phones:A parents guide to safe and sensible use. Dublin: Irish Cellular Industry Association is a business sector within IBEC. Bell, J. (2010). Doing Your Research Project. Berkshire: Open university Press. bully4u.ie. (2010). Retrieved November 25, 2013, from bully4u.ie: http://bully4u.ie/bullying-inschools/understanding/statistics-on-bullying-in-irish-schools/ Byrne, T., Maguire, K., & Byrne, B. (2004). Bullying in the Workplace, Home and School: Questions and answers. Dublin: Blackhall Publishing. CONFEDERATION, I. B. (NA). www.ispai.ie. Retrieved November 08, 2013, from www.ispai.ie: http://www.ispai.ie/docs/mobgd08.pdf Council, T. T. (2012). Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers. Dublin: The Teaching Council. Epstein, J. L., & Karweit, N. (1983). Friends in School. New York: Academic Press, Inc. Facebook. (2011, September 12). www.facebook.com. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from www.facebook.com: http://www.facebook.com/notes/stop-bullying-speak-up/how-to-preventbullying-on-facebook/175665995842996 Fegan, J. (2013, October 20). Teens in a Tech Minefield. Sunday Independent (living) , p. 14. Hart, C. (1998). Doing a Literature Review. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Ireland, H. (2002). www.nuigalway.ie. Retrieved November 25, 2013, from www.nuigalway.ie: http://www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc/documents/factsheet_8.pdf

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IS0801, C. A. (2012). Guidelines for preventing cyber bullying in the school environment: a review and recommendations. Guidelines for preventing cyber bullying in the school environment: a review and recommendations , 1-19. Journal.ie, T. (2013, January 14). The Journal.ie. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from The Journal.ie: http://www.thejournal.ie/cutbacks-reduce-one-to-one-guidance-counselling-by-50-study-753257Jan2013/ kiva. (2012, nd nd). www.kivaprogram.net. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from www.kivaprogram.net: http://www.kivaprogram.net/evidence-of-effectiveness Kumar, R. (1999). Research Methodology . London: Sage Publications Ltd. Louis Cohen, L. M. (2011). Research Methods in Education. Oxon: Routledge. McAfee. (2012). http://www.mcafee.com/. Retrieved November 06, 2013, from www.mcafee.com: http://www.mcafee.com/us/about/news/2012/q2/20120625-01.aspx Murray, M., & Keane, C. (1998). The abc of Bullying. Colorado: Irish American Book Company. Organisation, I. -I. (2013, September 13). www.into.ie. Retrieved December 18, 2013, from www.into.ie: http://www.into.ie/ O'Sullivan, C. (2013, January 19). Counselling cuts blamed for surge in bullying. Irish Examiner . Porter, L. (2007). STUDENT BEHAVIOUR theory and practice for teachers. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Radowitz, J. v. (2013, 10 31). Internet forums raise suide risk to teens: Study. Irish Examiner , p. 3. Ryan, T. (2011). Bullies Victims and Bystanders . Dublin: Irish Development & Information Guides. Service, S. S. (ND). www.sphe.ie. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from www.sphe.ie: http://www.sphe.ie/school.aspx Silverman, D. (2010). Doing Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications . Skills, D. o. (2013). Action plan on Bullying. Dublin: Department of Education and Skills. Skills, D. o. (2013). ANTI-BULLYING PROCEDURES FOR PRIMAR AND POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS. Dublin: Department of Education & Skills. Smyth, C., Machlan, M., & Clare, A. (2003). Cultivating Suicide? destruction of self iin a changing ireland. Dublin: The Liffey Press Ltd. Statistics, 2. B. (2009). Bullying Statistics. Retrieved 10 15, 2013, from Bullying Statistics: http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/physical-bullying.html Stones, S. &. (2013, nd nd). www.sticksandstones.ie. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from www.sticksandstones.ie: http://www.sticksandstones.ie/wp/ Sullivan, C. O. (2013, 11 05). Warning over risks to teenagers from message app Snapchat's bullying potential. Irish Examiner , p. 4. 22

Sullivan, K. (2006). Bullying how to spot it, how to stop it. London: Rodale International Ltd. TwitterInc. (2012, June 25). https://twitter.com/tos. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from https://twitter.com/tos: https://twitter.com/tos Willem E. Saris, I. N. (2007). Design, Evaluation, and Analysis of Questionsnaires for Survey Research. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. www.merriam-webster.com. (nd, nd 2013). Retrieved November 2013, 2013, from www.merriamwebster.com: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media

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APPENDICES

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25