New series of international meetings on school bullying rolled out for 2021

School bullying is in the spotlight more than ever before, with evidence showing that one in three teens are bullied globally. There are significant negative impacts on education including academic achievement and physical and mental health.

Joining forces to help put a stop to school bullying, UNESCO and the World Anti-Bullying Forum launched a new series of international meetings. The series brings together researchers and practitioners to help design and deliver evidence-based responses to bullying in and around schools. It will build towards and contribute to the World Anti-Bullying Forum 2021, to be held in Stockholm in November.

The first in the series of international meetings was held on Tuesday 23 March, on the whole-education approach to bullying prevention. The whole-education approach ensures that local school initiatives recognize the importance of the interconnectedness of the school with the wider community, including education, technological and societal systems, values and pressures.

Why a series of meetings on school bullying?

Director of the Division of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, Vibeke Jensen, opened the meeting, explaining that preventing and addressing school bullying, and more broadly all forms of school violence, is at the core of the mandate of the education sector at UNESCO.

“School violence in all its forms, including bullying, is a serious infringement of children’s and adolescents’ right to education. It is an obstacle to their right to learn in safe and inclusive environments, a right that all countries have committed to secure by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Ms Jensen said.

Professor James O’Higgins Norman, UNESCO Chair on Tackling Bullying in Schools and Cyberspace and Director of Irish National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre of Dublin City University, Ireland, said there was a need to broaden the conversation beyond the walls of the schools and to focus on holistic responses to bullying.

“If we can understand bullying within this wider context then we can move towards a learner centered approach that deals not just with the child who bullies and their target, but also their families, relations, their place in society, and many structural issues such as racism and homophobia,” Mr O’Higgins said. “Everyone agrees that schools are key to tackling bullying but the whole-education approach recognizes that the entire education sector has a key role to play in the response.”

The whole-education approach to bullying prevention

Using a whole-education approach to bullying prevention formed part of the recommendations by the Scientific Committee on preventing and addressing school bullying and cyberbullying. This Committee was set up in advance of the International Conference on School Bullying, hosted by UNESCO and the French Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; and held on the new International Day against violence and bullying at school including cyberbullying, on the first Thursday of November in 2020.

The recommendations outline the whole-education approach as having nine components, including strong political leadership and legal and policy frameworks; curriculum and teaching resources; and reporting mechanisms. It should involve learner empowerment and participation; training and support for teachers and other school staff; and good evidence and monitoring. These recommendations also emphasize the importance of creating a safe school and classroom environment; the involvement of all stakeholders; and collaboration between the education sector and other sectors and partners.

How would the whole-education approach work?

Professor Donna Cross, Professor within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Western Australia, Australia, said all measures to prevent bullying must be interconnected and should support both a health-promoting school environment and a health-promoting community.

“The whole-education approach is about children and young people being centrally involved; schools being supported by education authorities; positive, respectful and caring interactions; and resources and efforts being implemented in all schools and are not just being one-off measures,” Ms Cross said. “Each of these components work together, they interact and will lead to outcomes that we expect will result in quality implementation.”