Prevention of Bullying in Schools, Colleges, and Universities
Research Report and Recommendations
Description:... The epicenter for bullying is schools, colleges, and universities, where vast numbers of children, youth, and young adults spend much of their time. Bullying--a form of harassment and violence--needs to be understood from a developmental, social, and educational perspective. The educational settings in which it occurs, and where prevention and intervention are possible, need to be studied and understood as potential contexts for positive change. Yet many administrators, teachers, and related personnel lack training to address bullying, and do not know how to intervene to reduce it. These circumstances drove the decision by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to undertake this report with the intention of providing an overview of the knowledge that can be relied on, and to signal to those in policy and practice this association's commitment to working with knowledge users and producers in the prevention of bullying in schools, colleges, and universities. This report--a series of 11 briefs--addresses legislative, policy, and procedural matters with pragmatic and practical strategies for the prevention of bullying. The briefs in this report include: (1) Looking Beyond the Traditional Definition of Bullying (Dorothy L. Espelage and Ron Avi Astor); (2) Bullying as a Pervasive Problem (Dewey Cornell, Dorothy L. Espelage, Matthew J. Mayer, Brendesha Tynes, and Ron Avi Astor); (3) Bullying and Peer Victimization Among Vulnerable Populations (Dorothy L. Espelage and Brendesha Tynes); (4) Gender-Related Bullying and Harassment: A Growing Trend (Elizabeth J. Meyer and V. Paul Poteat); (5) Legal Rights Related to Bullying and Discriminatory Harassment (V. Paul Poteat and Elizabeth J. Meyer); (6) Improving School Climate: A Critical Tool in Combating Bullying (Dewey Cornell and Dorothy L. Espelage); (7) Students, Teachers, Support Staff, Administrators, and Parents Working Together to Prevent and Reduce Bullying (Ron Avi Astor and Matthew J. Mayer); (8) Bullying and Harassment on College Campuses: Misunderstood and Underaddressed (Jaime Lester and Elizabeth J. Meyer); (9) Using Evidence-Based Programs in Schools to Take on Bullying (Ron Avi Astor and Dewey Cornell); (10) Putting School Safety Education at the Core of Professional Preparation Programs (Jaime Lester and Matthew J. Mayer); and (11) Reinvigorated Data Collection and Analysis: A Charge for National and Federal Stakeholders (Matthew J. Mayer and V. Paul Poteat). Individual briefs contain references. Bibliographical sketches of AERA Task Force members are also included.
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