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One of the most important institutions which affects the development and education of individuals in society is the school. The territory of schools needs to be safe from any form of violence, including bullying. Bullying in itself is a phenomenon that is defined as a behavior which occurs when an individual or a certain group of individuals, taking advantage of their power or authority, seek to impose, persecute, abuse, or intimidate the weaker ones repeatedly (Dema, 2007). Given that various studies consider bullying to be quite widespread (Haka & Pervizi, 2007 and Boyle, 2003), central and local institutions in Albania but also school leaders, are committed to prevent and fight this phenomenon. The main purpose of this study is to identify the most typical cases and to give suggestions on how to cope with and avoid bullying at school. The selected research method is the qualitative one, using data triangulation, such as literature review, interviews with the directors and focus groups with schools in Tirana district which has about 40 percent of the population at the national level, with a total of 997,380 inhabitants (General Directorate of Status Civil, Ministry of Interior, March 2011). In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 directors from 81 schools in the region of Tirana, including public and private schools, as well as a focus group with 5 directors and 5 security officers from schools with the highest number of students in the district of Tirana. The results of the study show that bullying is widespread in 80 percent of schools and the most present form of bullying is verbal and social, but the physical and cyber forms cannot be neglected. Bullying occurs in the form of student to student in 87 percent of cases, student to teacher in 47 percent of cases and teacher to student in 33 percent of cases. One of the most frequent variables of bullying is the educational level of parents with 33 percent and the family economic situation which accounts for 40 percent. The given results were generated from the analysis of data where 6 of the respondents answered that the family and its economic situation are both considered as determining factor in the emergence of bullying. How can such a phenomenon be prevented? The given study suggests: teachers training should be conducted, open hours with students, parents should be involved in these issues as part of the solution, building a close partnership with the school, meetings and awareness campaigns should be carried out between teachers, parents and students, also including other actors such as the psychologist and the security officer of the school.

The social sciences have inherited a not so clear relationship with the social politics throughout the history. At the first moment the concept of social sciences came into use in the 19th century the first organizations that were promoting them were not located in the universities. They were located in the Public Sector. They brought into the scenery not only professional of the area, but also politicians, clerics and businessmen. The main objective was the promoting of the reforms that consider the social politics able to improve the so defined social problems. These associations thought that by collecting different kind of data regarding these problems they would reach a clear insight on the directions the state should follow in the framework of different politics and reforms. As a result, the national research capacity is of the highest importance to the ability of a state to invent and implement successfully its politics based on evidences that concern and come as a reaction to the concerns and issues of the social problems as a whole. In this article I will be presenting first of all an overview of the scientific research in Albania in the area of the social sciences by pointing out the main areas that deserve to be the prior ones in the contest of developing activities that aim the implementation of the research in Social Sciences. Also, a great number of Institutions has been contacted with the aim of receiving official information and data on the functioning and on the potential problems that can be faced during the research processes. These institutions have been selected based on their involvement at the area of the scientific research of the social sciences. At first this will involve the policy makers at the central level, like the Ministry of Education and Sciences and the main research actors in the public and in the private sector. The criteria of the geographical and the subjects coverage has been also used in order to be able to present a public institutions of the higher education and research but even the enterprises that act in the research area are mainly focusing to the integration of these two systems which have been working separately for a long period of time and that must become efficient in order to adapt to the conditions of a country that has limited financial resources. This article is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the scientific research in Albania, focusing in defining the priority areas for the research in social sciences. The information about the higher education and the potential problems that it faces, is based on a big number of research institutions, selected based on their involvement in scientific research in social sciences. This article brings into evidence the fact that in order to establish a stable and effective infrastructure in scientific research in Albania, is important to work in different directions. A successful way to increase the efficasity through the elements of the “innovative system” is by working with organizations that work in specifi...

In today’s modern world, emotional intelligence (EI) has a strong connection in the work environment and it is considered to be one of the key factors in the well-functioning of institutions, especially of educational ones. The main aim of this study is to identify, whether the directors of the schools of the pre-high educational system in Albania are aware of the concept of emotional intelligence, are trained and if they implement it in their leading style, in order to achieve an overall success in schools. The study also aims to identify the differences between new and senior principals in using EI. The research methodology is quantitative, 183 questionnaires were filled in by teachers in 11 different schools of the pre high educational institutions in Tirana. The instrument used consists of 40 standard statements that cover all five characteristics of the emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-control, motivation, empathy and social skills, by analyzing the level of agreement in a 1-5 Likert scale. The study has shown that principals and teachers of the pre high educational system in Albania have no knowledge on emotional intelligence and as a result they do not implement it. The principals do possess some elements of emotional intelligence as a part of their soft skills, but they are not aware of them and do not use them in increasing the teachers’ work satisfaction. Also, there is no difference in the usage of emotional intelligence between young and senior principals, apart from the fact that the seniors have better developed soft skills. This would help them to come closer to the characteristics of emotional intelligence. The results of the study imply some recommendations for policy makers, school’s principals and mentor teachers in increasing the use of emotional intelligence in the pre high educational system in Albania. The results confirm the necessity to train the principals about the latest news in the field of education, ethics, communication and leadership with a focus on raising leadership within the focus of Emotional Intelligence. The ministry of Education, Sport and Youth should design policies for the professional development of leaders and teachers in accordance with new management strategies such as emotional intelligence.

A qualitative study was carried out to portray the work orientations of 30 low-qualified working young adults in two contrasted economies: Albania and Switzerland. The analysis of their answers to the “lottery question” showed that most participants would continue to work, either to be busy, feed a passion, feel useful, or grow. In contrast to participants from Switzerland, Albanian participants would more easily modify some aspects of their work. Globally, findings reveal that participants’ current situations tend to differ from what they expect from work, which impacts the quality of their work integration and has critical implications for career counseling.