Speakers
Description
Identifying social exclusion anxiety (Søndergaard 2009) and longing for belonging (Hansen 2011) as powerful driving forces in bullying, scholars from the Danish research project eXbus (2007-2013), have suggested that schools develop and practice community-building didactics in order to establish inclusive communities and social climate in classes and schools. A core insight is that schooling and class contexts with scarce access to meaning, dignity and belonging – academically and socially – produce social climates fertilizing the soil for bullying and excluding peer dynamics. The aim of didactics is generally to include pupils in curriculum and learning. The concept of community-building didactics directs attention to the integration of academic and social goals in teaching and learning activities – and to the production of social cohesion and inclusion through teacher practices. Hence, bullying prevention is included in the core task of education. More specifically, community-building didactics emphasize developing and choosing teaching and learning strategies strengthening community and relations in class – and actively utilizing the educational goals, content and methods to promote belonging (e.g. Hansen 2011, 2021; Plauborg 2011, 2016).
Since the seminal publications, the concept of community-building didactics has spurred further developments in research as well as practice. In this symposium we will present and discuss some of this work from Denmark and Norway. Together, the four presentations provide theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions to further developing community-building didactics as a strategy in bullying prevention.
Additional field for symposia
Presentation 1: Anti-bullying strategies: Methods external vs. internal to daily teaching
Stine Kaplan Jørgensen, Ph.d. og lektor Københavns Professionshøjskole
This presentation will focus both on the risks associated with external methods for addressing bullying and on presenting focal points based on eXbus research that can be used to plan teaching aimed at counteracting bullying. The presentation will highlight the risks associated with methods that are external to daily teaching. Examples of such methods include plenary discussions, girls' meetings, or "the good chair" exercises, which are often used in attempts to address bullying and improve well-being among children in schools. Although the intentions may be good, research shows that these methods risk reinforcing existing bullying patterns (Jørgensen, 2016). Such interventions can unintentionally expose the most vulnerable children further or create an environment where the negative social dynamics that underpin bullying are reinforced. Rather than focusing on external interventions, the presentation will argue for integrating bullying prevention as a natural part of the school's daily routine, its pedagogical work, and, most importantly, the teaching itself. Based on research and concepts from eXbus (Kofoed & Søndergaard, 2009; 2013; Jørgensen, 2019), four key signs of bullying will be presented, along with associated focal points that can be incorporated into the planning of community-building teaching. The presentation will also provide examples from practice, where teachers and educators have successfully "shifted the mechanisms" in desired directions as an integrated part of their teaching and pedagogical work. These examples stem from a qualitative study based on empirical data from fieldwork conducted as part of a completed follow-up research project (Hein and Jørgensen, 2023)
Presentation 2: Teaching as a community of practice and as a prevention in bullying
Helle Rabøl Hansen, Phd., Specialist Consultant in the Board of Education in Greenland
Theoretical background and objective of study
Inspired by social learning theories' focus on subjects in collective subjectivity (Lave & Wenger 1996) hand in hand with research findings showing bullying as a social dynamic (eXbus 2007-2013), researchers and practitioners developed a program with community-cased didactic in a Danish municipality over 2 years.
The starting point was increasing school absence - and based on a thesis that phenomena such as school absence, dissatisfaction and bullying occur in the same challenged school environments, we initiated a continuing education program for teachers and educators in community didactics. This paper zooms in on experiences from the project.
Methodology
The project was a form of action learning, where research and practice emerge along the way. More than 60 teachers and school educators completed the training program in 2021-2022, where they both shared knowledge about bullying, belonging and communities with the researchers, but also tested the newly acquired knowledge in practice by developing new teaching methods that excite more students and create stronger belonging in the classroom.
Results, findings and an example
In addition to the project significantly reducing absenteeism in some schools, the participating teachers also experienced other positive results such as an increase in active student participation, a reduction in bullying - but also increased engagement and enthusiasm among teachers. New concrete teaching methods were developed, for example: spelling narratives, where individual students discover their own spelling mistakes and then create stories about these mistakes - to share with their classmates. Based on the idea that mistakes are not a shame, but that mistakes are a part of learning. Furthermore, our findings also showed difficulties in the process, such as being too alone (the lone wolf) with the project in the teacher staffroom.
Conclusion with implications for practice
Conclusively, we will discuss implications of the research from this project, focusing on:
- ways to connect anti-bullying work to the core mission of the school
- the importance of belonging work in schools as ways to prevent bullying, school absenteeism, school unhappiness and school loneliness.
- the importance of experimental, qualitative research work.
Presentation 3: Revisiting “significant we” as a concept for bullying preventive community-building
Dr. Selma Therese Lyng, Oslo Metropolitan University
Research on bullying as a response to school and class climates with weak and fragmented sense of community and social cohesion, point to community-building as a vital strategy in schools’ anti-bullying work (e.g. Hansen 2011; Søndergaard 2012; Eriksen & Lyng 2018; Lyng 2018, 2020). The importance of schools and teachers to establish a safe and inclusive community is emphasized in legislative and policy documents for schools, school authorities and teacher educations. However, what this concept of community implies, and how teachers and schools may establish such communities in practice, has been less specific. While we often use the word community in ways suggesting a shared, taken-for-granted understanding, it is used in different ways by different actors in different contexts. Inspired by community-building didactics (eXbus 2007-2013), the concept of “significant we” was suggested in order to capture a form of class community, with real potential to produce social cohesion across social cliques and hierarchies in class (Eriksen & Lyng 2018; Lyng 2020). The concept “significant we” has been widely adopted in the Norwegian context, from municipal and school plans to competence development resources. Revisiting the concept in light of translations and applications in practice, and drawing on pedagogical, sociological and psychological theories, the aim of this paper is to further develop the concept of “significant we”: What core elements need to be added and specified in order to promote community-building practices preventive of bullying?
Presentation 4: Preventing bullying through subject teaching – how do they do it?
Dr. Frode Restad, Tonje Myrebøe, Siri Krogh Nordby, Christoffer Cabiao, Thomas Carlson.
Theory background and objective
Previous research has identified community-building didactics (Schott & Søndergaard, 2014; Plauborg, 2016; Rabøl Hansen 2014; 2023, Restad & Sandsmark 2022) as a promising approach to prevent bullying in schools. Research on how and why such strategies might work, is however lacking. In this paper we draw on data from an ongoing practice-research partnership involving two teachers in one lower secondary school, to investigate how new strategies of community-building and bullying prevention are integrated into the teaching of school subjects.
Methodology
We employ action research methodology (Efron & Ravid, 2019; Tiller, 2006; Tiller & Gedda, 2017), interviews (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015) and observation (Olsen & Wølner, 2017) to generate data on teachers’ development of new strategies. We use thematic analysis (Tjora, 2021) to analyze this data.
Results
The study identifies new strategies of bullying prevention in the subjects of religious education and mathematics, and discusses opportunities and challenges related to such practices. We also identify and discuss conditions for developing new knowledge and practices for bullying prevention in partnership between schools and teacher education institutions.
Conclusion and implications
The concept of community-building didactics has gained prominence in research and practice over the recent years. A critical examination of how teachers adopt and develop this concept into their teaching is vital to further develop our understanding of this concept, and how it can be leveraged as a sustainable strategy for bullying prevention in the classroom.
5. Discussant: Tori Snerte, teacher at Hemsedal skole, with extensive experience in community-building didactics
| Please also indicate what kind of contribution it is: | Scientific |
|---|---|
| Please indicate what type of scientific contribution it is | Mixed method study |
