Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study aimed to pilot-test the effectiveness of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Intervention Programme (OBPP) at two selected primary schools in the Western Cape; and to compare the differences in reported incidents of bullying between the control schools (CSs) and intervention schools (ISs), after the OBPP intervention. On the basis of these aims, the stated objectives were to measure bullying behaviour for pre-test and post-test comparisons with the CSs after the implementation of the OBPP at the ISs; and to investigate the effectiveness of the OBPP by comparing the ISs and CSs for programme targets. Three main hypotheses were formulated and tested, including: (1) There is no statistically significant difference in the mean rank of learners’ exposure to various types of bullying, characteristics (grade level and gender) of the perpetrator, locations of where the bullying occurred, disclosure of the bullying incident, participants’ and peers’ feelings of support, reactions and attitudes when experiencing or witnessing a bullying incident, parents’ and teachers’ reactions and efforts to support and protect victims and participants’ reports of satisfactory schooling environments at the ISs and CSs before and after intervention; (2) There is no statistically significant difference in mean rank of learners’ exposure to various types of bullying, characteristics (grade level and gender) of the perpetrator, locations of where the bullying occurred , disclosure of the bullying incident, participants’ and peers’ feelings of support, reactions and attitudes when experiencing or witnessing a bullying incident, parents’ and teachers’ reactions and efforts to support and protect victims and participants’ reports of satisfactory schooling environments between females’ and males’ reports before and after intervention; (3)There is no statistically significant difference in mean rank of learners’ exposure to various types of bullying, characteristics (grade level and gender) of the perpetrator, locations of where the bullying occurred , disclosure of the bullying incident, participants’ and peers’ feelings of support, reactions and attitudes when experiencing or witnessing a bullying incident, parents’ and teachers’ reactions and efforts to support and protect victims and participants’ reports of satisfactory schooling environments between females’ and males’ at the ISs and CSs before and after intervention. In order to provide the relevant theoretical orientations to the study, the Olweus Approach, served as a framework for investigating the prevalence and extent of bullying in the selected schools, while Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theoretical framework was used to inform the study. In order to reach these objectives, a quantitative method using a questionnaire to collect data and a quasi-experimental design with intervention (ISs) and control (CSs) groups was used. The following are the main findings in terms of tested hypotheses: Firstly, there is a positive statistically significant difference concerning the CSs variables that include peer support toward bullying (school 2 and 4) where females represented higher mean ranks than males at school 2 and males were represented by higher mean ranks compared to females for school 4. Furthermore, for the variables peer attitudes toward bullying (school 4) and reported satisfactory schooling environments (school 4), more females than males attested for both. This suggests a favourable effect without the intervention. Furthermore, there is a statistically significant difference concerning the ISs variables that include characteristics (grade level and gender) of the perpetrator (school 1), disclosure of the bullying incident (school 1), peer reaction and attitudes toward bullying (school 1), parents’ and teachers’ reactions and efforts to support and protect victims against bullying (school 1 & 3), class teacher efforts to support and protect victims of bullying (school 1) as well as reported satisfactory schooling environments ( school 1). Secondly, it is noteworthy that for all the variables that presented statistically significant differences between females and males at baseline and follow up for the ISs – on average more females compared to males attested to this. Finally, statistically significant differences in terms of overall positive improvements i.e. N=200 that reported been bullied at baseline, was highlighted at only one of the ISs (school 1). Variables in this regard, included exposure to various types of bullying, characteristics (grade and level) of the perpetrator, disclosure of the bullying and reports of having a satisfactory schooling environment and noteworthy is that more males than females attested to be exposed to various types of bullying. These findings confirmed that the implementation of the OBPP has shown to be an effective programme at instilling an anti-bullying culture in terms of the named variables. The study therefore recommends, among others, that schools address existing bullying behaviour and prevent further bullying by building and enhancing existing connections between itself and the community which it serves; that the staff as a whole sets the standards of advocating an anti-bullying culture; and that teacher training colleges and universities offer the guidelines of the OBPP as a part of the students’ curriculum requirements. / National Development Agency (NDA) and the University of the Western Cape

The aim of this study was to examine how the school counselors experience their role in the school when it comes to working against bullying. We also wanted to examine how the cooperation works between school counselors and the rest of the school personnel. To obtain useful data for our analysis we used a qualitative method which includes six interviews with six school counselors from municipal and independent primary schools in Helsingborg. To deepen our knowledge even further we have included three theories which are the theory of profession, role theory and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.Since this study is based on interviews with school counselors that works in both municipal and independent primary schools, their experience of the preventive work has also been different. The school counselors that works in the municipal schools focus their preventive work through the anti-bullying program Olweus were they for example use surveys to measure the students wellbeing. The independent schools does not work after a specific program and thus has a larger action space to work with. The result of this study shows that the work against bullying varies from the different schools.The school counselors experience of their role in the work against bullying also varies where some of them felt that they have a significant role in the preventive work where others meant that the responsibility lays on the students mentors and teachers. Through this study cooperation has been a consistent theme where the informants believe that the cooperation between them, teachers and the students families is necessary to be able to do a good preventive work in the schools. The cooperation seems to work well in the school but there is parts of the work against bullying that needs clarification when it comes to accountability.

The purpose of this study was to highlight cyber-bullying and its place in today’s schools. Our aim was to research how schools with bullying prevention programs are equipped to handle and take action against cyber-bullying. Furthermore this study focuses on whether or not schools are responsible for cases of cyber-bullying. We also aimed to present teachers’ general views and knowledge regarding this phenomenon. In order to emphasize these issues we have asked the following questions: How do teachers’ perceive the existence of cyber-bullying in school? What do schools do to prevent and take action against cyber-bullying? Who is responsible for taking action against cyber-bullying? As a method to obtain answers to these questions we have used five qualitative interviews. Our informants were various educators involved with bullying prevention programs in their respective schools. Socio cultural, organisational and judicial perspectives support our theoretical framework. Our results show that although the schools in our study may be capable of dealing with traditional bullying, they are not suitably equipped to deal with cyber-bullying. In general the educators are in agreement that they are inadequately informed about cyber-bullying. All informants were prepared to further educate themselves in order to prevent and combat this new phenomenon. Finally in order for our schools to be able to act effectively on cyber-bullying there must be clear laws put in place.