Bullying Phenomenon in Schools: Teachers Training Needs and the Romanian New Legislative Provisions

Abstract

The professional development of teachers in pre-university education is a priority for political decision-makers in Romania. The new legislative provisions regarding the implementation of programs for professional development bring a plus in the field of increasing the quality of education by including a distinct thematic area, which is violence/bullying. In this context, this article aims to examine those legislative changes regarding the continuing professional training of teachers that can serve the work of teachers from the perspective of prevention and intervention in bullying incidents. To achieve this objective, we resorted, on the one hand, to the analysis of the provisions of the new methodology that regulates the quality of continuing professional training programs and of the methodological norms aimed at the application of some provisions of the National Education Law regarding psychological violence-bullying, and on the other hand, we encountered a descriptive reading of the literature and scientific studies related to bullying with the aim of carrying out an interpretive study of the trends in the field of professional upgrading of teaching staff aimed at ensuring an appropriate legislative framework for the training of skills appropriate to the particularities of this type of violence. Our conclusions converge towards the appreciation that the effectiveness of the teaching staff in preventing and combating bullying largely depends on the transposition/operationalization of normative prescriptions in accordance with the scientific literature, in order for the professionals in education to better understand this phenomenon and its prevention.