The purpose of the study was to catch up on the problems with bullying by examining both male and female students' experiences with bullying in a school context. Ways to deal with bullying were explored, enabling the study to make recommendations for eliminating bullying in schools.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
Due to the high levels of poverty in this informal settlement in Nanda, most learners in the school under study are exempt from paying school fees which amount to only R70-00 per year. An equal number of male learners and female learners were represented in the study (see chapter 3 for more details).
THE SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION POLICIES ON SCHOOL BULLYING
The Rationale for the Study
According to De wet (2005), victims of bullying may have impaired concentration and poorer academic performance. This made me realize the importance of researching students' experiences of bullying and the effects of these experiences on them.
The Objectives of the Study
This means that new technological developments bring with them new ways of bullying which emphasize the need for research to find ways to curb bullying in schools. What are students' experiences of bullying in a co-educational primary school in Durban in KwaZulu Natal.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION
The purpose of the study was also to find strategies that could be used to counter bullying in a school context. The study found that both boys and girls engage in bullying in many different ways.
INTRODUCTION
Page | Eleven factors that influence bullying in schools, how social identities influence bullying, how spaces within schools influence bullying, the effects of bullying on students and the strategies for combating bullying in schools.
UNDERSTANDING BULLYING IN SCHOOLS
According to De Wet (2005), examples of indirect forms of bullying are threats, spreading rumors or writing hurtful graffiti. Whitted and Dupper (2005) mention that there are other types of bullying which are racial bullying and sexual bullying.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT BULLYING IN SCHOOLS
Gender
Sharp & Smith (1994) explain that boys are more likely than girls to report being bullied by one or more boys. Girls are more likely than boys to report being bullied by one or more girls, or by both boys and girls.
Economic Status
Research has shown that suicide attempts are more common among homosexual youth than among heterosexual youth. Page | 23 feel they were bullied at school, felt they were a victim because they had a posh or lower accent, or wore the wrong kind of clothes.
EFFECTS OF BULLYING ON LEARNERS
Social Life
According to (Sullivan, 2000), if students are excluded or isolated, they are denied the opportunity to make friends and experience the normal interaction of the school years. Shariff (2008), Craig and Pepler (1997) are of the idea that when bullying occurs on the playground, peers can reinforce bullies' aggression through their attention.
Academic Life
Page | 25 intelligence, which can also mean that they are denied access to full cognitive development. They are distracted from their educational goals, mainly because they are overwhelmed by how miserable they feel about being victimized, thinking about when and where the next abusive event might happen and how they can avoid it.
Psychological Effects
Nansel (2000) claims that both young people who bully and who are bullied show the worst psychological functioning. Those who are bullied see this treatment as proof that they are inadequate and worthless and internalize this perception.
STRATEGIES FOR COMBATING BULLYING IN SCHOOLS
Teachers and parents should be aware of the problem and come up with strategies to stop the problem. 2000) also point out that awareness of school bullying needs to be increased so that stakeholders are more alert to its harmful effects. This means that all groups should be represented in the development of anti-bullying strategies. It is important that all stakeholders are engaged and committed to eliminating incidents of bullying in schools.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Victims are depressed after discovering that they are controlled by the bullies and are powerless. When victims discover they are being bullied, they often withdraw from school to distance themselves from powerful bullies. I believe that once the effects of this were identified, it would be easier to develop strategies to address the problem and reduce or even eradicate it from schools.
CONCLUSION
A qualitative approach helps the researcher to find out and understand how people interpret a phenomenon in order to get a deeper essence of the phenomenon (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). The researcher chose the case study design because bullying is a case that needs to be studied in schools. The researcher also planned to find out the factors that perpetuate bullying incidents in school.
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
Individual Semi-Structured Interviews
This made it suitable for my study as this should help reveal what students hide and experience in schools. As a researcher, I was very careful to maintain control and steer the discussion, as it was easy for the interview to get sidetracked. According to Nieuwenhuis (2007), a researcher needs to pay attention to participants' responses in order to identify new new lines of inquiry that are directly related to the phenomenon under investigation and to explore and investigate these.
Focus Group Interviews
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
I also wrote letters to the parents to request permission for their children's participation in the study, as well as permission from the school principal, the school management and also from the children. Letters to parents, governing body and to students requesting permission were translated into isiZulu to help understand the content of the letter. This information will only be used for the purpose of the study and anonymity will be maintained through the use of pseudonyms.
VALIDITY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS
Page | 46 a clear description of the research design so that the findings of the study can be transferred to other situations. Data triangulation was ensured using different data collection methods, such as semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews, to help the qualitative study check for reliability and validity. According to Marshall & Rossman (1989), the use of different data collection methods in a study helps to increase the validity of the study because they reinforce each other.
DATA ANALYSIS
Triangulation is the use of multiple data sources, time periods, and different data collection methods to improve validity and reliability (McMillan, 2002). Grinnell & Williams (1990) mention that the main purpose of data analysis is to sift and organize the data collected during the data collection period. 2000) state that another major reason for data analysis is to observe patterns in individual data sources and to make connections between multiple data sources. My main goal in analyzing the data was to identify the forms of bullying and the type of trauma students experience.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The selection of data is also based on my research questions, conceptual framework, theories and the literature I have studied. This chapter dealt with research design and the methods of data collection that address the issue of learners' experience of bullying in their school. The ethical issues considered in the study were demonstrated, as well as the measures taken by the researcher to ensure honesty and trustworthiness, reliability and validity of the study.
INTRODUCTION
LEARNERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF BULLYING
One girl said she had sores on her legs and other students didn't want to play with her. He was called by the teacher, but he ran away and did not return to the school until he was brought to. He was called by the teacher, but he ran away and did not return to the school until he was brought to the headmaster by his brother.
PLACES AND SPACES OF BULLYING WITHIN THE SCHOOL
It seems that the absence of adults or teachers was one factor for the occurrence of bullying in the school. Most learners believe that bullies want to show their friends that they are more powerful than others. Learners further said that learners think that if they are bullies they become stars in school.
SOCIAL IDENTITIES AND BULLYING
- Gender and Bullying Experiences
- Age and Bullying Experiences
- Children’s Economic Status and Bullying Experiences
- Children’s Sexual Orientation and Bullying Experiences
- Effects on Children’s Academic and Social Lives
- Supporting Victims of Bullying
- Supporting Perpetrators of Bullying
Buhle (girl, 12 years old): If you are older than the other students in the class, they ask you why you haven't finished school in a long time. They say it means you are "skhoteni", which means you skipped school without knowing what delayed you, whether you had a certain illness or didn't have anyone to take you to school. The feeling is so painful and you even blame your parents and ask yourself many questions like “Why don't they have enough money to support us. Buhle (girl, age 12): If your house is built of mud and their houses are built of bricks, they always say that your house leaks and falls. They don't know how you feel about it and know your parents' situation.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Page | 72 Thus, the participants suggested different actors that could be involved by the school to educate the perpetrators about the effects of bullying. Perpetrators are unaware of the effects of bullying on victims and on them as perpetrators. Students also pointed out that violence in the community also contributes to the development of bullies in schools.
INTRODUCTION
In the study it became clear that both boys and girls sometimes encounter some form of bullying. The study also clarifies that the common point of occurrence of bullying is the school playground. The study found that there are other factors that promote bullying at school.
IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE
Pupils feel unsafe at school and their self-confidence and self-esteem are destroyed by bullying. Motivational speakers need to be invited to address bullying issues with students at school because some students believe there is nothing that can be done about this problem. Social workers must be invited to the school to address students about forms of bullying and its impact on their lives.
IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Experts such as people from Love Life and the South African Police Services can also be invited to the school to talk to both perpetrators and victims of bullying about the dangers of the phenomenon. A larger scale is recommended for future research to check whether this problem is widely encountered in the school and in other schools. It may help to bring on board the National Department of Education of South Africa to attend to the problem.
CONCLUSION
An investigation into learners' experiences of bullying at Layman Village Primary School in KwaZulu Natal. The purpose of my study is to investigate how learners understand and make sense of bullying. I also want to investigate strategies that can be used to eliminate bullying in schools and the effects of bullying on learners' academic and social lives as well as factors that perpetuate bullying in schools.
The aim of my study is to investigate how learners understand bullying; the effects of bullying on learners' academic and social lives and the strategies that can be used to address bullying in schools as well as factors that perpetuate bullying in schools. The aim of my study is to investigate how learners understand bullying; the effects of bullying on learners' academic and social lives and the strategies that can be used to address bullying in schools as well as factors that perpetuate bullying in school.
Kulemibuzo engenhla unombolo 14 no 15 chaza ukuthi obani abanganikeza lolusizo, kanjani futhi ngobani?
