Chapter 4: Findings
4.4 Generative Themes
4.4.1 Power
When asked why people bully in the questionnaire, one of the most frequent themes that emerged was that of power. One respondent stated that, learners bullied because they could “use your powers on someone
because he or she is afraid of you.” Another stated that it would mean that the bully could “use strength or power to hurt or to frighten a weaker person.” As revealed in the pie chart above, (figure 1) 6 of the learners indicated that bullying involved the use of power. Even the drawings, presented below, describing the face of the bully, depicted a powerful looking person.
Figure 2 – Learner drawings showing powerful looking bullies
Walter (2008) states that bullying was a result of power plays in the school environment. Learners were seen as either those who had it or those who did not. The strong and empowered were favoured by educators and students alike, while the weak and disempowered were taken advantage of. Marano (1995) found that bullies felt that the best way to resolve any conflict was with the use of aggression, or with a display of power. Roberts (2006) endorses this view by stating that “Society often supports the creation and maintenance of the power bully particularly if the individual is one of the „sanctified‟ in-groups „officially sanctioned by adults within the school setting” (Roberts, 2006, p.49).
Freire (2006, p.44) argues that people oppressed others “by virtue of their power” and that the concept of power was central to the issues of humanisation and dehumanisation. One would use the power that one had over another to affirm or deny a person their place in society. Thus in the case of bullying, the bully would be seen as the one with the power to either affirm or negate the position of another learner in the school society.
Butler (1990) believes that conferring or with-holding recognition was a source of power. Those that had the power had the means of qualifying who is recognisable and who is not. Butler also argues that “Power seemed to be more than an exchange between subjects or a relation of constant inversion between subject and other” (Butler, 1990, p.xxviii).
Later in the study, when asked to write a paragraph on what bullying is, the same theme emerged, but with more clarity and detail. One respondent stated that bullying is “when somebody over-powers you. They take advantage of you”. Unlike data from the initial data collection process when learners acknowledged that bullying involved the use of power but were unable to explain the use of power fully, the data collected and analysed from the paragraphs showed that learners were now more aware of the power dynamics at play with incidents of bullying. They were better able to explain how power was used to bully. For example another learner felt that bullying occurred:
Because people sometimes think they are better than others. They want to show off so that people can look at he/she as a hero. They want to be scared/respected. Is to take control of everything so that no-one will mess around with them.
Participants felt that the reason people bullied was that they either wanted more power over the victims and others or that they were, in the eyes of
the victims or observers, stronger and more powerful. This is clearly seen in the descriptions that have been given by participants when asked to describe the characteristics of a bully. Bullies were described as being stronger and more powerful. Even the drawings depicted powerful strong looking persons with big muscles who were seen to be threatening people who were smaller than they were. (Refer to the drawing below)
Figure 3 – Learner drawing showing a bigger bully and a smaller victim
Olweus, (cited in Houndoumadi, 2001) stated that “in order to use the term bullying there should be an imbalance in strength, where the student who receives the negative actions is unable to defend him/herself and is helpless against the bully” (Houndoumadi, 2001, p.19). This is clearly seen in the posters which learners drew to depict the face of the bully later on in the project (Refer to posters above). Houndoumadi (2001) also stated that the strong and empowered were favoured by both learners and educators while the weak and disempowered were taken advantage of.
Learners tended to idolise and gravitate towards learners who they felt were stronger and more empowered. This was noted in my observations
which documented that while certain learners may not necessarily be the best candidates, in terms of behaviour, for various positions in the school, they were often the ones chosen for these positions. An example of this was the election of the RCL Chairperson. It was often noted that the person elected for this position was not the most suitable person for the job. Rather, it was often the person who was more outspoken, popular and empowered in terms of the ability to voice opinions and display behaviour which, at times, radiated a don‟t-care attitude. Thus the data gathered seem to corroborate Houndoumadi‟s (2001) findings that learners gravitated to those they viewed as more empowered and stronger.