Disablist bullying in schools: giving a voice to student teachers

Abstract

This paper reports in detail on the qualitative findings from a study which aimed to critically examine the experiences and confidence of student teachers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in relation to disablist bullying. This paper focuses in particular on the voice of student teachers from six focus group interviews (n = 29) carried out among final year teacher education students in both jurisdictions. Students were asked about their experiences of dealing with bullying incidents during school placement, and in particular incidents involving children with special educational needs and disabilities. The study highlights the lack of preparation of the student teachers as a result of the absence of any focus on disablist bullying in initial teacher education courses, and a subsequent lack of confidence in dealing with such incidents which were found to be often challenging and complex. Students reported that they often resorted to ad hoc, instinct‐led responses or overlooked incidents entirely, with few basing their responses on prior learning in initial teacher education. Implications are discussed and a policy and practice update is provided since the completion of the study in 2011.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Intervention in School Bullying Episodes with Special Education Needs Students: A Research in Italian and Greek Samples

“…For the Italian sample, we used the Italian version of the questionnaire, which was already used in an investigation on bullying involving teachers [ 21 ]. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS, version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).…”

“…To build an inclusive classroom and to take care of students (to respond to their emotional and psychosocial needs), teachers undoubtedly play a central role [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]: in the classroom, the teacher could create a context to enable students with and without SEN to learn and develop social competence, learning from each other. Moreover, because the highest victimization rate is in students with SEN, the teacher should pay particular attention to bullying [ 21 ]. Nevertheless, an analysis of the literature indicates that teachers tend to underestimate bullying episodes (particularly covert bullying) when reported by students with SEN, thus ignoring the victimization [ 10 ].…”

“…Therefore, because students will ask for help from adults, teachers must be ready to intervene in bullying episodes, suggesting more effective coping strategies. In particular, when students involved in bullying episodes have SEN [ 21 ], a strategy that worsens the situation could isolate them even more. The teacher’s ability to intervene effectively in bullying cases was associated with the confidence that she/he has the capability to address problems at school [ 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Previous research showed that PSTs perceive themselves as capable of effective intervention in bullying episodes (e.g., by encouraging viewers to be more pro-active) [ 27 ] when there was an overt episode [ 51 ]. However, Purdy and Mc Guckin [ 21 ] underlined that PSTs were not trained and sensitized to properly address the problem, particularly when the student involved in the bullying episode had SEN. In their investigation, the authors asked PSTs to describe their experience of dealing with bullying incidents (including incidents involving children with SEN) during school placement.…”

“…In their investigation, the authors asked PSTs to describe their experience of dealing with bullying incidents (including incidents involving children with SEN) during school placement. The findings showed a lack of preparation of PSTs as a result of the lack of training on disablist bullying and “a subsequent lack of confidence in dealing with such incidents which were found to be often challenging and complex” [ 21 ] (p. 202). A European study on bullying found that in Italy, in a sample of 5042 students in secondary school, 15% declared themselves to be victims of bullying.…”