A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Needs at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2016 / The present study examines the intervention strategies used by educators to reduce bullying behaviour in high schools in KwaDlangezwa. The objectives of the study include the following: • To determine educators’ intervention strategies to reduce bullying behaviour in high schools in KwaDlangezwa. • To determine educators’ perceptions concerning bullying behaviour in high schools in KwaDlangezwa • To determine learners’ perceptions of educators’ intervention strategies to reduce bullying behaviour in high schools in KwaDlangezwa. The study involved both quantitative and qualitative approach (mixed method approach). Data was collected using purposive sampling in selecting educators and learners. The study contained seventeen educators and twenty learners. To collect data, semi-structured interview schedule were formulated. Interview questions of both educators and learners consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions. A descriptive and exploratory design was used in this research. Qualitative data analysis was utilised and quantitative frequency distribution. The findings of the study indicated that educators are doing enough to minimise bullying behaviour in schools and different strategies are being utilised to reduce the issue. Some of the positive strategies used include the following: reporting procedures, discipline, advocacy and supervision of learners. However, obstacles have been reported in the process of intervening such as gender related problem, un-reported bullying behaviour and outside school bullying. Ideal strategies which could be used in future to improve the interventions of educators in the issue of bullying behaviour suggested by learners include role playing, segregation of learners and strict security. The study concluded with suggestions on the avenue for further research and recommendations with regards to bullies and victim assistance when bullying behaviour occurs.

School communities are supposed to be safe places for children where they can build healthy and positive relationships; protected places where children not only gain knowledge, but also learn about themselves. However, research indicates an increase in violent behaviour within school communities. The serious nature of violence in South African schools is evident in reports of physical and sexual abuse, gang-related activities and children bringing and using weapons at schools. The violence is not limited to violence between children but also involves interschool rivalries where gang conflicts have become part of the problem. Despite the measures taken by the DoE, violence in schools is still escalating and educators in some schools can spend more time on solving issues relating to violence than being involved in the process of effective teaching. Consequently violence in schools might become a threat to the provision of effective education for children. Current South African research on bullying behaviour tends to follow a linear, individualistic approach as a means to understanding the phenomenon of bullying. Research conducted within the South African context tends to focus on the individual behaviour of children involved in bullying incidents with the need to address the aggressive behaviour of the bully, the need to protect the victim and describing concerns for the bystanders. The concern of such a linear approach is that research does not place enough emphasis on the relationships of members in school communities and the contexts in which bullying behaviour occurs. To address this gap in the knowledge regarding our understanding of bullying behaviour from a relational perspective, the researcher explored the relational experiences of secondary school children who were involved in bullying incidents in three secondary school communities in South Africa. A systemic developmental approach developed by Cairns and Cairns (1991) and adopted by Atlas and Pepler (1998) as well as a complex interactive dynamics systems approach informed this study. The purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts to find solutions to the escalation of bullying behaviour by exploring the relational experiences of children who were involved in bullying incidents in the context of secondary school communities in South Africa. It is anticipated that an exploration of the relational experiences of these children might facilitate a deeper understanding of the dynamics that emerge in the interactions between the various members in school communities and an understanding of how these interactions contribute toward the escalation in bullying behaviour. In order to obtain a deeper understanding regarding the phenomenon of bullying, a qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to explore the relational experiences of children involved in bullying incidents within three secondary school communities. Within the first phase of data collection thirty three participants (between grade 8-11), who were purposely selected, completed a written assignment. The written assignment included a short essay based on their experience of a bullying incident and twenty incomplete sentences that were open-ended in nature. In the second phase of data collection the researcher conducted semi- structured interviews with six of the participants who participated in the first phase of data collection. The semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to ask further questions to obtain a deeper understanding regarding their relational experiences of bullying incidents in their school community. Based on the responses of the participants, three themes were identified: (1) Relational experiences of interactions between teachers and children based on the experiences of children where they spoke about interactions that suggested reciprocal disrespect between children and teachers, incongruence between teachers and learners, teachers attempting to control the behaviour of children and lack of interest displayed in children by their teachers; (2) Relational experiences of interactions between children that included subthemes of assertion of power to obtain status amongst peers, exclusion based on group membership, competiveness amongst groups and violating the trust of friends; (3) Relational experiences of interactions in conflict situations where participants described their bullying experiences and suggested that teachers display apathy in these forms of conflict situations. The participants also reported that children tend to instigate and reinforce conflict. Learners also often choose to remain silent out of fear for retaliation and that teacher-parent disputes exist regarding the managing of conflict situations between children. The relational experiences of the children assisted to inform our understanding of the interactive dynamics that underpin bullying behaviour. In view of the findings of the study, recommendations are made for practice, policy development and suggestions for future research are also offered. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

School communities are supposed to be safe places for children where they can build healthy and positive relationships; protected places where children not only gain knowledge, but also learn about themselves. However, research indicates an increase in violent behaviour within school communities. The serious nature of violence in South African schools is evident in reports of physical and sexual abuse, gang-related activities and children bringing and using weapons at schools. The violence is not limited to violence between children but also involves interschool rivalries where gang conflicts have become part of the problem. Despite the measures taken by the DoE, violence in schools is still escalating and educators in some schools can spend more time on solving issues relating to violence than being involved in the process of effective teaching. Consequently violence in schools might become a threat to the provision of effective education for children. Current South African research on bullying behaviour tends to follow a linear, individualistic approach as a means to understanding the phenomenon of bullying. Research conducted within the South African context tends to focus on the individual behaviour of children involved in bullying incidents with the need to address the aggressive behaviour of the bully, the need to protect the victim and describing concerns for the bystanders. The concern of such a linear approach is that research does not place enough emphasis on the relationships of members in school communities and the contexts in which bullying behaviour occurs. To address this gap in the knowledge regarding our understanding of bullying behaviour from a relational perspective, the researcher explored the relational experiences of secondary school children who were involved in bullying incidents in three secondary school communities in South Africa. A systemic developmental approach developed by Cairns and Cairns (1991) and adopted by Atlas and Pepler (1998) as well as a complex interactive dynamics systems approach informed this study. The purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts to find solutions to the escalation of bullying behaviour by exploring the relational experiences of children who were involved in bullying incidents in the context of secondary school communities in South Africa. It is anticipated that an exploration of the relational experiences of these children might facilitate a deeper understanding of the dynamics that emerge in the interactions between the various members in school communities and an understanding of how these interactions contribute toward the escalation in bullying behaviour. In order to obtain a deeper understanding regarding the phenomenon of bullying, a qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to explore the relational experiences of children involved in bullying incidents within three secondary school communities. Within the first phase of data collection thirty three participants (between grade 8-11), who were purposely selected, completed a written assignment. The written assignment included a short essay based on their experience of a bullying incident and twenty incomplete sentences that were open-ended in nature. In the second phase of data collection the researcher conducted semi- structured interviews with six of the participants who participated in the first phase of data collection. The semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to ask further questions to obtain a deeper understanding regarding their relational experiences of bullying incidents in their school community. Based on the responses of the participants, three themes were identified: (1) Relational experiences of interactions between teachers and children based on the experiences of children where they spoke about interactions that suggested reciprocal disrespect between children and teachers, incongruence between teachers and learners, teachers attempting to control the behaviour of children and lack of interest displayed in children by their teachers; (2) Relational experiences of interactions between children that included subthemes of assertion of power to obtain status amongst peers, exclusion based on group membership, competiveness amongst groups and violating the trust of friends; (3) Relational experiences of interactions in conflict situations where participants described their bullying experiences and suggested that teachers display apathy in these forms of conflict situations. The participants also reported that children tend to instigate and reinforce conflict. Learners also often choose to remain silent out of fear for retaliation and that teacher-parent disputes exist regarding the managing of conflict situations between children. The relational experiences of the children assisted to inform our understanding of the interactive dynamics that underpin bullying behaviour. In view of the findings of the study, recommendations are made for practice, policy development and suggestions for future research are also offered. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Bullying is a common phenomenon among all social groups, whether that be within the school, at work or among other social spheres. It can have serious consequences for the target and can arise in many visible and not so visible forms. Within the school environment bullying often occurs out of sight and undetected. If schools are to effectively overcome the negative effects of this complex social behaviour teachers, pupils and their parents need to take steps to develop and unify their perception of this common form of abuse in schools. Thus the aim of this essay was to examine teachers, pupils and parents’ perceptions of bullying behaviours in correlation with researchers understanding of this complex social behaviour. A quantitative approach was used in this essay to investigate upper-secondary school teachers, pupils and parents’ perception of the term bullying? Having gathered the results of the empirical data, many of the extracts from the subjects open responses could be categorised, and have been for the purpose of analysis under the appropriate headings pertaining physical and psychological forms of bullying behaviour. The results of this research illustrated a diverse and on occasion inadequate understanding of bullying behaviours among the respondents, despite the implementation of an anti-bullying programme (Likabehandlingsplan), required by Swedish law. Furthermore, many respondents illustrated the tendency to define bullying behaviour solely from the actions of the perpetrator. Are then the schools included within the scope of this essay at fault and failing to inform respondents of the complexity of bullying behaviour? Schools need to listen carefully to what adolescents are reporting as well as help teachers, pupils and parents develop a more inclusive, objective and balanced definition of bullying behaviours. This will not only have a positive effect for the individual (target) but may also help in identifying, reporting and combating incidents of direct and indirect forms of abuse, regardless of how insignificant one first perceives the act of bullying to be.

This research study deals with the widespread concern that exists amongst parents, educators and healthcare professionals working with children about issues regarding bullying in childhood and adolescence. By using the Transactional Analysis (TA) theory, this research project aimed to describe possible social transactions that occur between bully perpetrators and bully victims, and to examine these social transactions from the perspective of potentially predisposed personality profiles. The link between the personality profile and social transactions lie within the notion that our personality profiles could possibly influence the way we interact with or behave towards other individuals. The motivation behind this research study was therefore to analyse and examine the social transactions that occur between bully perpetrators and bully victims, which exemplifies the unique relationship that defines a bully perpetrator and bully victim in order to better explain (by way of TA) the ‘games’ they play. This was done by identifying the psychological profile tendencies that prompt bully perpetrators and bully victims to engage in repetitive transactions in order to uncover the games they tend to play, as well as to foster an understanding of why bully victims struggle to ‘unhook’ from these dysfunctional transactions. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lk2014 / Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

Thesis (MEd(Psych) --Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Bullying seems to be a pervasive problem in most secondary schools and teachers have the daily task of dealing with it. Not only do teachers have to unravel the complex dynamics of bullying, they also often have to navigate a school climate and culture that is not conducive to addressing bullying. In South Africa, there are many unique contextual factors which impact on teachers’ management of bullying, such as community violence overflowing into the school, increased administrative load and limited support from school management, parents and education authorities. Therefore, teachers’ abilities to conceptualise bullying, recognise and respond to incidents of bullying, and their knowledge of the nature and extent of bullying behaviour impact greatly on anti-bullying strategies. The theoretical framework which informed this study is the social context perspective which drew on views from both social constructionism and the bio-ecological framework. The social context perspective emphasises the interactions between individuals and the systems as delineated in the bio-ecological model. Furthermore, this study did not aim to reveal the “truth” about school bullying. The intention has rather been to provide a comprehensive picture as was portrayed by the participants in this study. This picture included the nature and extent of bullying in their secondary school, the teachers’ perspectives and experiences of bullying, and proposed prevention and intervention strategies which they aim to implement at their school. In keeping with the constructionist nature of the process of inquiry, a qualitative, interpretivist research approach was used. Purposive sampling was used to identify potential participants who were then asked to volunteer to be part of the study. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews with individuals and focus groups. Furthermore, the constant comparative method was used to analyse the data. The research findings indicated that the teachers experience and perceive a wide variety of bullying behaviours which take place at various sites, both within and outside the school grounds and that involve a diverse range of individuals within the school community. Furthermore, the teachers conveyed several factors which they experienced as maintaining bullying and highlighted their perceived effects thereof. In addition to this, the participants shared knowledge about their teaching practices and suggested a few strategies on how to deal with bullying more effectively in their school community. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Afknouery word beskou as ‘n deurlopende probleem in hoërskole en onderwysers moet die gevolge daarvan daagliks hanteer. Onderwysers moet nie net die komplekse dinamiek van afknouery ontrafel nie, maar worstel ook met ‘n skoolklimaat en -kultuur wat nie toepaslik is om afknouery te bekamp nie. In Suid-Afrika is daar unieke kontekstuele faktore wat ‘n invloed het op hoe onderwysers afknouery hanteer. Dit sluit onder andere in die geweld wat oorvloei vanuit die gemeenskap na die skool, verhoogde administratiewe werklading asook beperkte ondersteuning van die skool se bestuurspan, ouers en die onderwysowerhede. Daarom speel onderwysers se vermoëns om afknouery te konseptualiseer, insidente van afknouery te herken en daarop te reageer, asook hulle kennis van afknougedrag ‘n groot impak op anti-afknouery strategieë. Hierdie studie word gekonseptualiseer vanuit ‘n sosiaal-konstruktiwistiese en bioekologiese perspektief. ‘n sosiale konteksperspektief beklemtoon die interaksies tussen individue en die sisteme wat uiteengesit is in die bio-ekologiese model. Die doel van hierdie studie was nie om die “waarheid” oor afknouery in die skool te openbaar nie. Dit was eerder om die deelnemers se perspektief in diepte te analiseer en beskryf. ‘n Kwalitatiewe, interpretivistiese navorsingsbenadering is daarom gevolg. ‘n Doelgerigte steekproef is gebruik om potensiële deelnemers te identifiseer en hulle is gevra om vrywillig deel te neem aan die studie. Data is gegenereer deur semi-gestruktureerde individuele en fokusgroeponderhoude. Verder is die konstante vergelykende metode gebruik om die data te analiseer. Die navorsingsbevindinge het aangedui dat die onderwysers ‘n wye verskeidenheid afknougedrag van diverse groepe en individue binne en buite die skoolterrein ervaar. Die onderwysers het verskeie faktore identifiseer wat afknouery moontlik instandhou en het die moontlike gevolge van afknouery uitgelig. Laastens het die deelnemers kennis oor hulle onderwyspraktyke gedeel en voorstelle gemaak oor hoe om afknouery meer effektief in hul skoolgemeenskap te hanteer.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the frequency and type of bullying behaviours experienced in a Pretoria private high school in the past six months. The aim was to determine how factors such as gender, age and ethnicity influenced the frequency and type of bullying experienced. The different types of bullying behaviours were categorised into physical, indirect, verbal and cyber-bullying. A quantitative method was applied and a self-report questionnaire was administered to 367 learners ranging from ages 12 – 18 (Grade 8 to Grade 12). The results of the study indicated that indirect bullying (such as malicious gossip) was the highest form of bullying reported in the study and occurred equally throughout the grades. However a high amount of bullying in all categories was found in the grade 9 group. Females reported higher frequencies of indirect bullying than males but no differences were found with regards to gender and the other types of bullying. No differences were found between the ethnic groups and physical violence as well as cyber-bullying. Caucasians seem to experience higher frequencies in bullying behaviours when it came to indirect bullying compared to African and Asian learners. Indian learners were also more prone to experience indirect bullying than Asians. Caucasians were also more likely to experience verbal bullying than Asian learners. It was found that racial bullying might occur in the school but that it does so at a minimal level. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

The purpose of this research study was to explore the effectiveness of the KiVa anti-bullying programme with Grade 4 learners in a primary school, located in the Eden Central Karoo District of the Western Cape. Since bullying is a worldwide phenomenon, it is important to explore to what extent it is an issue in South Africa. International anti-bullying programmes, which are well researched and highly recommended, are described with an overview of the integration of systems theory with the practicalities of this research project. A mixed methods intervention design was used to collect data. Grade four learners completed questionnaires prior to and after implementation of the intervention programme, which comprised the quantitative data. The experiment schools Grade 4 Life Skills teachers led the implementation of the programme. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the Grade 4 teachers and the principal of the experiment school. The findings demonstrate that the implementation process over less than a year, did raise awareness and certain skills were developed and practised by learners. The effectiveness of the KiVa anti-bullying programme during a short period of six months, did establish consciousness and a change in attitude and behaviour. A statistically significant difference for two of the three categories, experiences at school (bullying) and about your life (well-being), of the questionnaire from before the implementation to after the implementation of the intervention programme was indicated at the experiment school. Thus, implications for future research regarding the implementation of the KiVa school-based programme are suggested. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)