An Investigation of Bullying of and with Primary School Girls: a Pupil Research Project
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AN INVESTIGATION OF BULLYING OF AND WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL GIRLS: A PUPIL RESEARCH PROJECT HELEN HEARN, BA, MSc, MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy JULY 2016 Abstract Bullying is a social phenomenon that impacts girls and boys inside and outside of school at both primary and secondary school age and is recognised as a social problem both by academic researchers and in the ‘real world’ by the media and by anti-bullying charities. Although bullying is a widely used concept there is no universal definition. Research on bullying has been conducted over the past four decades looking at various aspects from prevalence and severity to coping strategies and effectiveness of interventions. Studies have also considered specific types of bullying and sex differences but these studies do not consider the full variety of types of bullying boys and girls use or which ones are the most upsetting to experience. Most of the studies on girls’ bullying have been conducted in secondary schools; less attention has been given to tweenage girls. This research redressed this imbalance. It began from the position that it is important for adults to listen to tweenage girls’ views as they may have different understandings of bullying compared to adults and this may have policy implications. It assumed that girls were experts on bullying that happened to girls their age in their school. Weekly research lunch club sessions were used with 32 tweenage girl research advisers/assistants from three primary schools. Together we listened to tweenage girls’ views of bullying broadly through developing and administering questionnaires, conducting group interviews and designing anti-bullying resources to be used in their schools. In addition, I conducted one-off focus groups with 11 teenage girls as a comparison to consider age differences in girls’ views. I argue that this research revealed that both girls’ bullying and using pupil research to engage with tweenage girls’ views on this topic was messy and complex. While relational aggression between girls was reported to be most prevalent and severe, focusing on this alone does not reflect the full extent of the behaviours used in girls’ bullying. Both the tweenage and teenage girls’ views on bullying, coping strategies and anti-bullying interventions were similar and were only subtly different in the detail. The research decisions were influenced in an ongoing process by the wants and expectations of the girls, the schools and the researcher and changed through the prolonged interactions during the research. I also argue that ethical practice was an ongoing process and using pupil research created further ethical dilemmas. Although pupil research with tweenage girls on girls’ bullying was challenging and messy, this research gives an example of how it is a viable, successful way to engage with pupils on this sensitive topic. The use of girls’ free time at lunchtimes showed how pupil research positioned as an extra-curricular activity enabled marginalised voices to be heard and was beneficial for the girls, the schools and the researcher involved. This research suggests ways in which school based anti-bullying policies and practices might be more nuanced to take account of the variety of experiences, understandings and preferences for intervention that exist if they engaged in pupil research. There has been little discussion of the issues of the messiness of research and the ongoing nature of ethical practice in either the pupil research literature or methods texts generally for researchers to refer to. I suggest that it would be useful for others to share their messy experiences of pupil research and the ongoing ethical issues they encounter to enable future researchers to be somewhat prepared and confident in responding to the challenges they may face in their own research. Publications and papers presented Book chapters Hearn, H. and Thomson, P. (2014) Working with texts, images and artefacts. In Clark, A., Flewitt, R., Hammersley, M. and Robb, M. (Eds.) Understanding research with children and young people, pp. 154-168. London: SAGE. Hearn, H. (2015) Girls’ relationships with others at primary and secondary school: how they affect bullying and coping strategies used. In Damrow, M.K. and Hearn, H. (Eds.) Proceedings of 3rd Global Conference- Childhood: A Person’s Project. E-book. Hearn, H. (2012) Ethical dilemmas of using social networking sites to engage and recruit teenage participants. In Marques da Silva, S. and Landri, P. (Eds.) Rethinking educational ethnography researching online communities and interactions. E-book. Papers presented Hearn, H. (2014) Listening to primary school age girls’ voices on bullying: a pupil project. At 5th International Conference -Researching children’s everyday lives: socio-cultural contexts, 1st July-3rd July 2014, Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth, University of Sheffield, UK. Hearn, H. (2013) Listening to primary school girls’ and secondary school girls’ voices through participatory research and focus group discussions on bullying. At BERA Annual Conference, 3rd-5th September 2013, University of Sussex, UK. Hearn, H. (2013) Listening to girls’ voices on bullying through working with tweenage co- researchers and teenage focus groups. At Student Voice Conference, 25th-27th June 2013, University of Cambridge, UK. Hearn, H. (2013) Girls’ relationships with others at primary and secondary school: how they affect bullying and coping strategies used. At 3rd Global Conference - Childhood: A Person’s Project, 18th-20th July, Mansfield College, Oxford, UK. Acknowledgments Undertaking this ESRC funded project was a fascinating, rewarding and challenging experience for me. My Christian faith has helped me to stay motivated and focused on the completion of this thesis and in turn my experiences as a doctoral student has enabled me to grow spiritually closer to God. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13, NKJV) Many people have supported me throughout the research process and the writing of this thesis. I thank the ESRC for the funding to undertake this piece of doctoral research. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Professor Pat Thomson for all the support, guidance and help she has given throughout my PhD. She gave me the confidence to complete this research and introduced me to pupil research. I thank her also for kindly offering me the opportunity to write a book chapter with her. I am also grateful to Professor Mary-Jane Kehily and Dr Philip Hood for their constructive comments on improving my thesis. I thank my second supervisor Dr Edward Sellman for his support in the earlier stages of the research. I would also like to thank my family, friends and SBC for their continuous support. Mum, Dad, Sue, Rhydian and Debs, Jenny, Eileen, Louise, Sam, Sonia and Kieran thank you for listening to me and helping me to relax. Special thanks goes to my Dad and my sister Megan for their invaluable help transporting me to the research sites and my brother in law Ben for his guidance in IT matters. Finally I thank the schools, and particularly the girls who took part in this research. Thank you to my research advisers/assistants in the primary schools for their enthusiasm, hard work and patience during the research process. You were so welcoming and made the lunch club sessions an enjoyable and unforgettable experience. Without you and your commitment, this project would not have been possible. Declaration I declare that the thesis is the result of my own work, which has been mainly undertaken during my period of registration for this degree at The University of Nottingham. I have complied with the word limit for my degree. Contents Page Chapter 1 - Introduction 1 1.1 - Tweenage girls can give an insight into girls’ bullying 3 1.1.1 - Tweenage girls as experts on bullying 5 1.1.2 - Researcher-led methodology is more often used in studies on bullying 6 1.2 - The research aims 7 1.3 - My position in this research 9 1.4 - Key definitions used in this research 11 1.5 - The boundaries of this research 13 Chapter 2 - The marginalisation of tweenage girls in bullying research literature 15 2.1 - Background of bullying research 15 2.2 - There is no agreed bullying definition 18 2.2.1 - Different understandings of bullying 20 2.2.2 - Research on pupils’ and adults’ definitions of bullying 21 2.3 - Mixed views on the prevalence of bullying 23 2.3.1 - Age at which bullying is most prevalent 23 2.3.2 - Mixed views on the more prevalent sex of bullies 25 2.3.3 - Mixed views on the more prevalent sex victimised 26 2.3.4 - Ethnicity only influences racial bullying 27 2.3.5 - Mixed views on who girls are bullied by the most 28 2.4 - Limited research on the severity of bullying 29 2.5 - Bystanders’ reactions to bullying 30 2.6 - Reasons victims are targeted 31 2.6.1 - Motivations behind bullying vary 33 2.7 - Coping strategies 35 2.7.1 - Seeking social support 35 2.7.2 - Pupils are reluctant to report bullying to teachers 36 2.7.3 - Coping by themselves 39 2.8 - Anti-bullying interventions in schools 41 2.8.1 - Pupils’ favoured anti-bullying interventions 42 2.9 - Limited views of behaviours involved in girls’ bullying 46 2.10 - Pupil research methodology rarely used in bullying studies 48 2.11 - The key studies that contributed to the framing of this research 49 Chapter 3 - Methods 52 3.1 - Ontological and epistemological underpinnings of my research 52 3.1.1 - Relationship between ontology, epistemology